Mystical Languages of Unsaying

Mystical Languages of Unsaying PDF Author: Michael A. Sells
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226747875
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
The subject of Mystical Languages of Unsaying is an important but neglected mode of mystical discourse, apophasis. which literally means "speaking away." Sometimes translated as "negative theology," apophatic discourse embraces the impossibility of naming something that is ineffable by continually turning back upon its own propositions and names. In this close study of apophasis in Greek, Christian, and Islamic texts, Michael Sells offers a sustained, critical account of how apophatic language works, the conventions, logic, and paradoxes it employs, and the dilemmas encountered in any attempt to analyze it. This book includes readings of the most rigorously apophatic texts of Plotinus, John the Scot Eriugena, Ibn Arabi, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart, with comparative reference to important apophatic writers in the Jewish tradition, such as Abraham Abulafia and Moses de Leon. Sells reveals essential common features in the writings of these authors, despite their wide-ranging differences in era, tradition, and theology. By showing how apophasis works as a mode of discourse rather than as a negative theology, this work opens a rich heritage to reevaluation. Sells demonstrates that the more radical claims of apophatic writers—claims that critics have often dismissed as hyperbolic or condemned as pantheistic or nihilistic—are vital to an adequate account of the mystical languages of unsaying. This work also has important implications for the relationship of classical apophasis to contemporary languages of the unsayable. Sells challenges many widely circulated characterizations of apophasis among deconstructionists as well as a number of common notions about medieval thought and gender relations in medieval mysticism.

Polishing the Mirror

Polishing the Mirror PDF Author: Ram Dass
Publisher: Sounds True
ISBN: 1622031679
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Sometimes illumination occurs spontaneously or, as Ram Dass experienced, in a heart-wrenching moment of opening. More commonly, it happens when we polish the mirror of the heart with daily practice—and see beyond the illusion of our transient thoughts and emotions to the vast and luminous landscape of our true nature. For five decades, Ram Dass has explored the depths of consciousness and love and brought them to life as service to others. With Polishing the Mirror, he gathers together his essential teachings for living in the eternal present, here and now. Readers will find within these pages a rich combination of perennial wisdom, humor, teaching stories, and detailed guidance on Ram Dass' own spiritual practices, including: Bhakti Yoga—opening our hearts to unconditional lovePractices for living, aging, dying, and embracing the natural flow of lifeKarma Yoga—how selfless service can profoundly transform usWorking with fear and suffering as a path to grace and freedomStep-by-step guidance in devotional chant, meditation and mantra practice, and much more For those new to Ram Dass' teachings, and for those to whom they are old friends, here is this vanguard spiritual explorer's complete guide to discovering who we are and why we are here, and how to become beacons of unconditional love.

The Book of Mirrors

The Book of Mirrors PDF Author: E. O. Chirovici
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501141546
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Famous professor Joseph Wieder was brutally murdered, and the crime was never solved. Years later when literary agent Peter Katz receives an incomplete memoir written by a student of the murdered professor, he becomes obsessed with solving the crime.

Mystical Languages of Unsaying

Mystical Languages of Unsaying PDF Author: Michael A. Sells
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226747875
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
The subject of Mystical Languages of Unsaying is an important but neglected mode of mystical discourse, apophasis. which literally means "speaking away." Sometimes translated as "negative theology," apophatic discourse embraces the impossibility of naming something that is ineffable by continually turning back upon its own propositions and names. In this close study of apophasis in Greek, Christian, and Islamic texts, Michael Sells offers a sustained, critical account of how apophatic language works, the conventions, logic, and paradoxes it employs, and the dilemmas encountered in any attempt to analyze it. This book includes readings of the most rigorously apophatic texts of Plotinus, John the Scot Eriugena, Ibn Arabi, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart, with comparative reference to important apophatic writers in the Jewish tradition, such as Abraham Abulafia and Moses de Leon. Sells reveals essential common features in the writings of these authors, despite their wide-ranging differences in era, tradition, and theology. By showing how apophasis works as a mode of discourse rather than as a negative theology, this work opens a rich heritage to reevaluation. Sells demonstrates that the more radical claims of apophatic writers—claims that critics have often dismissed as hyperbolic or condemned as pantheistic or nihilistic—are vital to an adequate account of the mystical languages of unsaying. This work also has important implications for the relationship of classical apophasis to contemporary languages of the unsayable. Sells challenges many widely circulated characterizations of apophasis among deconstructionists as well as a number of common notions about medieval thought and gender relations in medieval mysticism.

The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism

The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism PDF Author: David Edward Shaner
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780887060618
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
In a pioneering study, David Shaner uses the resources of phenomenology to penetrate Buddhist philosophy in terms of Kūkai and Dōgen. In addition to this original and rigorous methodology, his work offers insights into some fundamental difficulties intrinsic to comparative studies. The problem of the relation between body and mind is a prime example. Shaner's observations shed a brilliant light on these traditional antinomies as they may be resolved or, more accurately, dissolved when seen in their appropriate contexts. In addressing these issues, the study also contributes to the understanding of common features that underlie the various doctrines of Japanese Buddhism. This work will appeal to both East and West phenomenologists, philosophers interested in the mind-body problem, scholars of comparative philosophy, and students of Japanese philosophy and religion.

Your Dog Is Your Mirror

Your Dog Is Your Mirror PDF Author: Kevin Behan
Publisher: New World Library
ISBN: 1608680886
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Describes a model for understanding canine behavior based on the premise that dog and owner form a group mind and that when a dog behaves in a certain manner it is reacting to the emotions the owner is feeling.

Painting Heaven

Painting Heaven PDF Author: Demi Hunt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781941610138
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
This illustrated tale introduces children to the wondrous teachings from the Muslim theologian and mystic al-Ghazali (1058–1111CE) This enchanting tale illustrates how that the human heart is like a rusty mirror which, when polished through beautiful doings, is able to reflect the real essence of all things. In addition to this story is a poem by the renowned poet, Coleman Barks. Both draw on the same account found in Ghazali's The Marvels of the Heart, Book XXI, of his magnum opus,The Revival of Religious Sciences.

Mirrors and Mirroring from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period

Mirrors and Mirroring from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period PDF Author: Maria Gerolemou
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135010129X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
This volume examines mirrors and mirroring through a series of multidisciplinary essays, especially focusing on the intersection between technological and cultural dynamics of mirrors. The international scholars brought together here explore critical questions around the mirror as artefact and the phenomenon of mirroring. Beside the common visual registration of an action or inaction, in a two dimensional and reversed form, various types of mirrors often possess special abilities which can produce a distorted picture of reality, serving in this way illusion and falsehood. Part I looks at a selection of theory from ancient writers, demonstrating the concern to explore these same questions in antiquity. Part II considers the role reflections can play in forming ideas of gender and identity. Beyond the everyday, we see in Part III how oracular mirrors and magical mirrors reveal the invisible divine – prosthetics that allow us to look where the eye cannot reach. Finally, Part IV considers mirrors' roles in displaying the visible and invisible in antiquity and since.

Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism

Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism PDF Author: Dale S. Wright
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521789844
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This book is the first to engage Zen Buddhism philosophically on crucial issues from a perspective that is informed by the traditions of western philosophy and religion. It focuses on one renowned Zen master, Huang Po, whose recorded sayings exemplify the spirit of the 'golden age' of Zen in medieval China, and on the transmission of these writings to the West. The author makes a bold attempt to articulate a post-romantic understanding of Zen applicable to contemporary world culture. While deeply sympathetic to the Zen tradition, he raises serious questions about the kinds of claims that can be made on its behalf.

Elementary Treatise on Physics

Elementary Treatise on Physics PDF Author: Adolphe Ganot
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Physics
Languages : en
Pages : 972

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Book Description


The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, Part 1, Revised Edition

The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, Part 1, Revised Edition PDF Author: Daisaku Ikeda
Publisher: Middleway Press
ISBN: 1946635685
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Gleaned from more than sixty years of Daisaku Ikeda's works, thisrevised edition adds new selections that further provide a windowinto the SGI president's thought and philosophy. His words are aboundless source of inspiration, hope, and courage for a worldincreasingly beset with sorrow and suffering.Chapters in this volume:“What Is True Happiness?”“Developing a Life State of Happiness”“The Practice for Transforming Our State of Life”“&‘It Is the Heart That Is Important'”“Transforming Suffering Into Joy”“The Principle of Cherry, Plum, Peach, and Damson”“Happiness for Both Ourselves and Others”“Facing Illness”“Creating a Brilliant Final Chapter in Life”“Joy in Both Life and Death”