This book intermingles stories of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Buddhist monks in old Siam with experiences recorded by their Western contemporaries. It presents a vivid picture of Buddhism as it was lived and practiced in its natural environments. The book offers a unique blend of history, travelogue, and spiritual teachings.
In 'More than Real', David Shulman delves into the history of imagination in South India, highlighting how imagination became a central aspect of human identity from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The book explores various literary and religious texts to illustrate the unique role of imagination in Indian philosophy and culture, contrasting it with Western notions of reality.
In 'Esoteric Theravada', Kate Crosby delves into the history of borān kammaṭṭhāna, an ancient meditation tradition that was once widespread in Southeast Asia but has largely been forgotten. The book reveals how this tradition, which combines elements of samatha and vipassanā meditation, was marginalized by modernist reforms and colonial influences. Crosby's work provides a nuanced understanding of the complex spiritual practices and philosophical underpinnings of this esoteric tradition.
In *Buddhist Magic*, Sam van Schaik delves into the often-overlooked aspects of Buddhist practice, highlighting the significance of magic, divination, healing, and enchantment in the tradition. The book examines historical texts, including a key Tibetan book of spells from the Silk Road site of Dunhuang, to provide a nuanced understanding of Buddhist magic across different cultures and historical periods.
In 'Mingled Waters,' Pir Zia Inayat Khan delves into the deep ecumenism of Sufism, examining the inner teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The book draws on the Qur'an, prophetic traditions, classical Sufi sayings, traditional stories, and verses from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu divans to illustrate the common spiritual currents across these religions.
Conceived at the crossroads of Buddhism and indigenous earth-based practice, The Shamanic Bones of Zen delves into the deep human traditions of transformation through meditation, ceremony, ritual, dreams, and spiritual connection to one’s ancestry. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel draws on her personal journey with the black church, African, Caribbean, and Native American ceremonial practices, and with Nichiren and Zen Buddhism to build a compelling case for discovering and cultivating the shamanic elements in Buddhism. The book guides readers in Zen practice, including ritual, preparing sanctuaries, engaging in chanting practices, and deepening embodiment with ceremony.
The Silmarillion is a comprehensive narrative that details the creation of Tolkien's universe, Eä, and the history of the First Age. It includes the legend of the Silmarils, jewels crafted by Fëanor that contain the essence of the Two Trees of Valinor. The book covers the creation of the world, the history of the Elves and Men, the wars against Morgoth, and the legendary love story of Beren and Lúthien. Edited and published posthumously by Christopher Tolkien with the assistance of Guy Gavriel Kay, it is a foundational work that underpins the stories of 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings'[3][4][5].
In 'Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr', John Crowley crafts a rich narrative through the voice of Dar Oakley, the first crow to have a name. Spanning millennia, Dar Oakley's story intertwines with human history, from ancient Europe to a post-apocalyptic world. The novel delves into themes of immortality, the power of stories, and the intersection of human and animal worlds. Through Dar Oakley's journeys, Crowley explores the complexities of time, death, and the enduring impact of narratives.
In this major work of ecological philosophy, David Abram draws on diverse sources including the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as a magician to reveal the intricate relationship between human perception and the natural world. The book delves into the character of perception and the sensual foundations of language, highlighting how even abstract language echoes the natural world. Abram argues that humans have severed their ancient reciprocity with nature and explores what it would take to recover a sustaining relation with the earth.
In recent years, the practice of 'mindfulness' has become ubiquitous. Mindfulness has outgrown its traditional Buddhist roots and now permeates modern wellness and optimization culture, finding its way into corporate boardrooms, therapist's toolkits, and an ever-increasing number of calmness apps. Yet modern iterations of mindfulness practice often live removed from their original context. The forest ecology from which mindfulness grew was animate and alive, and what we call mindfulness practices formed only a part of a rich tapestry that included rituals of ancestor worship, enacted connection to ecology, spirit mediumship, healing, and esoteric somatic practices. Modern adoptions of mindfulness tend to view the solitary meditative aspects of practice to be the 'essential' part, whereas the ritual and animist elements are seen as expendable. The reasons for this are deeply tied in with colonial history, and with the western legacy of body-mind divide. For it turns out that the animate, ritual context is profoundly important for shaping and architecting relational minds, and post-modern minds — free of context, already fractured from relational connectivity, left to simply 'sit with what is' or left to focus on individual optimization at the expense of relationality — may not benefit or be able to assimilate the power of such practices. Extracted from context, freed from ethics and the heart connection to other beings, mindfulness can exacerbate isolated individualism. In an age of fracture, is being mindful of an already fractured mind enough? Or is a more robust vision necessary? As science increasingly comes to recognize the importance of the context that traditional cultures have understood for thousands of years, we come to understand that minds need a contextual body. Mind needs fire and water, breath and movement, it needs story and song... it needs to establish a living relationship with those that came before and those yet to come, to offer in devotion and to repeatedly enact its place in the larger cosmos. Such realizations return us to the sacredness of... form. We find that all of the supposedly 'non-essential', ritual, form-based aspects of tradition actually architect a mind that has true fullness to it, and perhaps we can't find true fullness of mind without ritually placing the mind in living context.
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