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Talking Zen
by Alan WattsInsightful and entertaining essays spanning 40 years of lectures by Alan Watts on Zen, Taoism, psychedelics, and comparative philosophy.Alan Watts's essays and talks range widely through psychology, art, religion, and politics, but always come home to the Zen core. For those familiar with Alan Watts&’s style of presentation, the wonderful, memorable, and prophetic style of his voice is captured in this volume. Talking Zen puts on display Watts&’s ability to explore the very subtle philosophies, those common across traditions and those unique to Zen, in ordinary and accessible language. These lectures paved the way for the rise of Zen in the West.
Talks with American Students
by J. KrishnamurtiIn 1968—a time when young Americans were intensely questioning the values of their society—Krishnamurti gave a series of talks to college students in the United States and Puerto Rico, exploring the true meaning of freedom and rebellion. Collected in this book, these lectures are perhaps even more compelling today, when both adults and young people are searching for the key to genuine change in our world.
Talmud and Philosophy: Conjunctions, Disjunctions, Continuities (New Jewish Philosophy and Thought)
by Sergey Dolgopolski Lynn Kaye Agata Bielik-Robson Karma Ben-Johanan Elad Lapidot Yonatan Y. Brafman Alexander Weisberg Sophia Avants James Adam RedfieldWide-ranging and astutely argued, Talmud and Philosophy examines the intersections, partitions, and mutual illuminations and problematizations of Western philosophy and the Talmud. Among many philosophers, the Talmud has been at best an idealized and remote object and, at worst, if noticed at all, an object of curiosity. The contributors to this volume collectively ignite and probe a new mode of inquiry by approaching the very question of partitions, conjunctions, and disjunctions between the Talmud and philosophy as the guiding question of their inquiry. Rather than using the Talmud and its modes of argumentation to develop existing philosophical themes, these essays probe the question of how the Talmud as an intellectual discipline sheds new light on the unfolding of philosophy in the history of thought.
The Taming of Chance
by Ian HackingIn this important new study Ian Hacking continues the enquiry into the origins and development of certain characteristic modes of contemporary thought undertaken in such previous works as his best selling Emergence of Probability. Professor Hacking shows how by the late nineteenth century it became possible to think of statistical patterns as explanatory in themselves, and to regard the world as not necessarily deterministic in character. Combining detailed scientific historical research with characteristic philosophic breath and verve, The Taming of Chance brings out the relations among philosophy, the physical sciences, mathematics and the development of social institutions, and provides a unique and authoritative analysis of the "probabilization" of the Western world.
Taming the Imperial Imagination
by Martin J. BaylyTaming the Imperial Imagination marks a novel intervention into the debate on empire and international relations, and offers a new perspective on nineteenth-century Anglo-Afghan relations. Martin J. Bayly shows how, throughout the nineteenth century, the British Empire in India sought to understand and control its peripheries through the use of colonial knowledge. Addressing the fundamental question of what Afghanistan itself meant to the British at the time, he draws on extensive archival research to show how knowledge of Afghanistan was built, refined and warped by an evolving colonial state. This knowledge informed policy choices and cast Afghanistan in a separate legal and normative universe. Beginning with the disorganised exploits of nineteenth-century explorers and ending with the cold strategic logic of the militarised 'scientific frontier', this book tracks the nineteenth-century origins of contemporary policy 'expertise' and the forms of knowledge that inform interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere today.
Taming the Infinite
by Ian StewartFrom ancient Babylon to the last great unsolved problems, Ian Stewart brings us his definitive history of mathematics. In his famous straightforward style, Professor Stewart explains each major development--from the first number systems to chaos theory--and considers how each affected society and changed everyday life forever.Maintaining a personal touch, he introduces all of the outstanding mathematicians of history, from the key Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians, via Newton and Descartes, to Fermat, Babbage and Godel, and demystifies math's key concepts without recourse to complicated formulae. Written to provide a captivating historic narrative for the non-mathematician, Taming the Infinite is packed with fascinating nuggets and quirky asides, and contains 100 illustrations and diagrams to illuminate and aid understanding of a subject many dread, but which has made our world what it is today.
Taming the Leviathan
by Jon ParkinThomas Hobbes is widely acknowledged as the most important political philosopher to have written in English. Originally published in 2007, Taming the Leviathan is a wide-ranging study of the English reception of Hobbes's ideas. In the first book-length treatment of the topic for over forty years, Jon Parkin follows the fate of Hobbes's texts (particularly Leviathan) and the development of his controversial reputation during the seventeenth century, revealing the stakes in the critical discussion of the philosopher and his ideas. Revising the traditional view that Hobbes was simply rejected by his contemporaries, Parkin demonstrates that Hobbes's work was too useful for them to ignore, but too radical to leave unchallenged. His texts therefore had to be controlled, their lessons absorbed and their author discredited. In other words the Leviathan had to be tamed. Taming the Leviathan significantly revised our understanding of the role of Hobbes and Hobbism in seventeenth-century England.
Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities (The William G. Bowen Series #51)
by Camille Z. Charles Mary J. Fischer Margarita A. Mooney Douglas S. MasseyBuilding on their important findings in The Source of the River, the authors now probe even more deeply into minority underachievement at the college level. Taming the River examines the academic and social dynamics of different ethnic groups during the first two years of college. Focusing on racial differences in academic performance, the book identifies the causes of students' divergent grades and levels of personal satisfaction with their institutions. Using survey data collected from twenty-eight selective colleges and universities, Taming the River considers all facets of student life, including who students date, what fields they major in, which sports they play, and how they perceive their own social and economic backgrounds. The book explores how black and Latino students experience pressures stemming from campus racial climate and "stereotype threat"--when students underperform because of anxieties tied to existing negative stereotypes. Describing the relationship between grade performance and stereotype threat, the book shows how this link is reinforced by institutional practices of affirmative action. The authors also indicate that when certain variables are controlled, minority students earn the same grades, express the same college satisfaction, and remain in school at the same rates as white students. A powerful look at how educational policies unfold in America's universities, Taming the River sheds light on the social and racial factors influencing student success.
Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century
by Victor J. Katz Karen Hunger ParshallWhat is algebra? For some, it is an abstract language of x's and y’s. For mathematics majors and professional mathematicians, it is a world of axiomatically defined constructs like groups, rings, and fields. Taming the Unknown considers how these two seemingly different types of algebra evolved and how they relate. Victor Katz and Karen Parshall explore the history of algebra, from its roots in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, China, and India, through its development in the medieval Islamic world and medieval and early modern Europe, to its modern form in the early twentieth century.Defining algebra originally as a collection of techniques for determining unknowns, the authors trace the development of these techniques from geometric beginnings in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and classical Greece. They show how similar problems were tackled in Alexandrian Greece, in China, and in India, then look at how medieval Islamic scholars shifted to an algorithmic stage, which was further developed by medieval and early modern European mathematicians. With the introduction of a flexible and operative symbolism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, algebra entered into a dynamic period characterized by the analytic geometry that could evaluate curves represented by equations in two variables, thereby solving problems in the physics of motion. This new symbolism freed mathematicians to study equations of degrees higher than two and three, ultimately leading to the present abstract era.Taming the Unknown follows algebra’s remarkable growth through different epochs around the globe.
Taming the Wild Horse: An Annotated Translation and Study of the Daoist Horse Taming Pictures
by Louis KomjathyIn thirteenth-century China, a Daoist monk named Gao Daokuan (1195-1277) composed a series of illustrated poems and accompanying verse commentary known as the Daoist Horse Taming Pictures. In this annotated translation and study, Louis Komjathy argues that this virtually unknown text offers unique insights into the transformative effects of Daoist contemplative practice. Taming the Wild Horse examines Gao's illustrated poems in terms of monasticism and contemplative practice, as well as the multivalent meaning of the "horse" in traditional Chinese culture and the consequences for both human and nonhuman animals.The Horse Taming Pictures consist of twelve poems, ten of which are equine-centered. They develop the metaphor of a "wild" or "untamed" horse to represent ordinary consciousness, which must be reined in and harnessed through sustained self-cultivation, especially meditation. The compositions describe stages on the Daoist contemplative path. Komjathy provides opportunities for reflection on contemplative practice in general and Daoist meditation in particular, which may lead to a transpersonal way of perceiving and being.
Taming Uncertainty
by Ralph Hertwig Timothy J. Pleskac Thorsten PachurAn examination of the cognitive tools that the mind uses to grapple with uncertainty in the real world. How do humans navigate uncertainty, continuously making near-effortless decisions and predictions even under conditions of imperfect knowledge, high complexity, and extreme time pressure? Taming Uncertainty argues that the human mind has developed tools to grapple with uncertainty. Unlike much previous scholarship in psychology and economics, this approach is rooted in what is known about what real minds can do. Rather than reducing the human response to uncertainty to an act of juggling probabilities, the authors propose that the human cognitive system has specific tools for dealing with different forms of uncertainty. They identify three types of tools: simple heuristics, tools for information search, and tools for harnessing the wisdom of others. This set of strategies for making predictions, inferences, and decisions constitute the mind's adaptive toolbox. The authors show how these three dimensions of human decision making are integrated and they argue that the toolbox, its cognitive foundation, and the environment are in constant flux and subject to developmental change. They demonstrate that each cognitive tool can be analyzed through the concept of ecological rationality—that is, the fit between specific tools and specific environments. Chapters deal with such specific instances of decision making as food choice architecture, intertemporal choice, financial uncertainty, pedestrian navigation, and adolescent behavior.
Tan Tien Chi Kung: Foundational Exercises for Empty Force and Perineum Power
by Mantak ChiaA fundamental Taoist practice for enhancing and utilizing chi• Includes breathing and movement exercises to promote vitality and healing through the cultivation of chi in the tan tien and perineum areas• Presents the foundational exercises that are essential for more advanced practices such as Iron Shirt Chi Kung and Cosmic HealingTan Tien Chi Kung is the art of cultivating and condensing chi in the lower abdomen--the tan tien--the fundamental power storehouse of the body. Known as the Ocean of Chi to the ancient Taoists, this lower abdominal area holds the key to opening the body and the mind for the free and continuous movement of chi. Tan Tien Chi Kung contains specific breathing and movement exercises that develop the power of the chi stored in the body to increase vitality, strengthen organs, and promote self-healing. Mantak Chia explains how these exercises also provide a safe and effective method for receiving earth energy, which allows the practitioner to achieve balance physically, mentally, and spiritually--all of which are essential for the more advanced practices of Iron Shirt Chi Kung and Cosmic Healing.It is our mind that directs and guides our chi, but if the mind and body are out of balance or under stress, the mind cannot perform this function. The tan tien actually contains a large quantity of neurotransmitters, making it a key source of body intelligence. It is for this reason the Taoists also referred to Tan Tien Chi Kung as Second Brain Chi Kung and created exercises that would allow practitioners to gain awareness of the tan tien’s function to restore the mind-body balance that is essential for spiritual growth and optimal well-being.
Tangled Transformations: Unifying Germany and Integrating Europe, 1985–1995 (German and European Studies #54)
by Kiran Klaus PatelTangled Transformations presents a historical analysis of the interplay between German unification and European integration from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Building on freshly released documents, the book’s sixteen chapters explore constellations in which the two processes accelerated and informed one another. The book highlights the role of Germany’s neighbours to the east, with chapters discussing the cotransformation between East and West as well as chapters dedicated to Poland, Romania, and Hungary. It sheds new light on the two interrelated processes by examining the role of Germany’s most important Western neighbours and partners: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. The book pays particular attention to the role of the European Commission as well as to monetary and industrial policy. It also moves beyond the economic sphere by discussing foreign and security policy issues, justice and home affairs, German debates about European integration at the time, and the significance of the German federal states. Ultimately, Tangled Transformations demonstrates the strong interlinkages between German unification and European integration.
Tangled Up in School: Politics, Space, Bodies, and Signs in the Educational Process (Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education)
by Jan NesporBased on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in an urban elementary school, this volume is an examination of how school division politics, regional economic policies, parental concerns, urban development efforts, popular cultures, gender ideologies, racial politics, and university and corporate agendas come together to produce educational effects. Unlike conventional school ethnographies, the focus of this work is less on classrooms than on the webs of social relations that embed schools in neighborhoods, cities, states, and regions. Utilizing a variety of narratives and analytical styles, this volume: * explores how curriculum innovations are simultaneously made possible by and undermined by school district politics, neighborhood histories, and the spatial and temporal organizations of teachers' and parents' lives; * situates the educational discourse of administrators and teachers in the changing economic and political climates of the city; * analyzes the motivations behind an effort by school and business proponents to refashion classrooms within the school into business enterprises, and of children's efforts to make sense of the scheme; * examines the role of the school as a neighborhood institution, situating it at the intersections of city planners' efforts to regulate city space and children's efforts to carve out live spaces through out-of-school routines; * contemplates the meaning of school as a site for bodily experience, and looks at how patterns of space and control in the school shaped children's bodies, and at how they continued to use body-based languages to construct maturity, gender, and race; and * investigates the school as a space for the deployment of symbolic resources where children learned and constructed identities through their engagements with television, comic books, movies, and sports. Tangled Up In School raises questions about how we draw the boundaries of the school, about how schools fit into the lives of children and cities, and about what we mean when we talk about "school."
Tantra
by Geshe Tashi Tsering Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche Gordon McdougallIn this sixth and final volume in the Foundation of Buddhist Thought series, Geshe Tashi Tsering brings his familiar, helpful approach to the esoteric practices of Buddhist tantra. Anticipating the many questions Westerners have upon first encountering tantra's colorful imagery and veiled language, Tantra uses straight talk to explain deities, initiations, mandalas, and the body's subtle physiology of channels and chakras. Tantric Buddhism provides a quick avenue to buddhahood by means of dissolving the body's wind energies into the central channel at the heart, mimicking the transformations of consciousness that occur at the time of death. Guiding readers systematically from tantra's generation stage through to the full enlightenment of the completion stage, Geshe Tashi Tsering even unpacks a simple compassion practice composed by the Dalai Lama, using it to illustrate the building blocks common to all such visualization techniques. Tantra is a fitting conclusion to this accessible and practical series.
Tantra of the Yoga Sutras: Essential Wisdom for Living with Awareness and Grace
by Alan Finger Wendy NewtonA readable, accessible version of the ancient classic primer on the practice of yoga--interpreted by a contemporary Tantric yoga master.The Yoga Sutras is Patanjali’s classic text on how to experience oneness (samadhi) within yoga practice. Serious yoga students want to bring the wisdom of the Sutras to their practice but often find the text impenetrable and difficult to relate to. Here, yogi and Tantric master Alan Finger offers an interpretation of the Sutras that is clear and immediately relevant—and he shows contemporary practitioners that samadhi is something that they can experience here and now. Yoga is a process of spiritual evolution, and samadhi is as natural as breathing and available to all, because it is our true nature. Viewed through a Tantric framework, Finger shows us how the Sutras describe the yogic process that both leads us to the experience of samadhi and allows us to weave the wisdom and grace of that experience back into our everyday life.
The Tantric Distinction
by Anne C Klein Jeffrey Hopkins"The ideas, concepts, and methods of various religions must be tried on for size, must be lifted above museum displays, must be confronted and allowed to resonate with one's own character. It is in this spirit that I present here a personalized account of central Buddhist practices."--from the author's preface. Widely recognized as one of the West's leading scholars of Tibetan Buddhism, Professor Jeffrey Hopkins is renowned for his textual translations and original scholarship. For ten years he served as the principal English translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The Tantric Distinction is his effort to make accessible the complexities of this highly sophisticated philosophy by sharing his personal, individual experience with Buddhist thought and practice. It lays out the entire Buddhist path as a living experience.
Tantric Ethics: An Explanation of the Precepts for Buddhist Vajrayana Practice
by Jeffrey Hopkins Je Tsongkhapa Gareth SparhamTantra, or Vajrayana, Buddhism is a set of esoteric practices that involve mantra recitation and complex visualizations. Tantra constitutes the fabric of a Tibetan Buddhist's daily practice, but no practice of tantra can be successful without adherence to the tantric precepts, the highest of three complementary sets of vows. Tsongkhapa is perhaps the greatest philosopher ever produced by Tibet's Buddhist culture, and this book is a translation of his explanation of the tantric precepts.
Tantric Psychophysics: A Structural Map of Altered States and the Dynamics of Consciousness
by Shelli Renée Joye• Explores how esoteric teachings from India and Tibet offer specific methods for tuning and directing consciousness to reach higher stages of awareness • Presents a wide-ranging collection of practical techniques, as well as numerous figures and diagrams, to facilitate navigation of altered states of consciousness and heightened mystical states • Develops an integrated structural map of higher consciousness by viewing Tibetan and Indian Tantra through the work of Steiner, Gurdjieff, Teilhard de Chardin, Aurobindo Ghose, and quantum physicists Planck and Bohm Throughout the millennia shamans, saints, and yogis have discovered how the brain-mind can be reprogrammed to become a powerful instrument facilitating access to higher states of consciousness. In particular, the written Tantric texts of India and Tibet describe, in extraordinarily precise detail, interior transformations of conscious energy along with numerous techniques for stimulating, modulating, and transforming consciousness to reach increasingly higher states and stages of awareness. In this in-depth examination of esoteric Tantric practices, Shelli Renée Joye, Ph.D., presents a wide-ranging collection of psychophysical techniques integrating Tibetan Vajrayana and Patanjali&’s Yoga to induce altered states of consciousness for the exploration of heightened mystical states. Sharing numerous figures and diagrams, she shows how these theories and techniques are not only fully supported by modern biophysics, brain science, and quantum physics but are also in line with the work of Rudolf Steiner, G. I. Gurdjieff, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Aurobindo Ghose, Max Planck, and David Bohm. The author also shares insights from her own personal practices for consciousness exploration, which include prayer, mantra, emptying the mind, psychedelics, yoga, and visualization of interior physiology. Offering a structural map of the dynamics of consciousness, Joye reveals that one can develop new ways of tuning and directing consciousness to reach extraordinary modes of being and intense levels of lucid awareness, the requisites for the direct exploration of supersensible dimensions and sailing in the ocean of consciousness.
The Tao
by Mark ForstaterThe Tao Te Ching is one of the most influential philosophies in the Eastern world. As relevant now as it was 2,300 years ago, the ageless wisdom of the Tao offers profound guidance and shows readers how to seek contentment. In The Tao, Mark Forstater reinterprets and illuminates these mysterious ancient writings to create a blueprint for daily life. Through its gentle insights and focus on the eternal harmony of life, The Tao can help readers: • Unite mind, body, and spirit • Establish a better way of living • Reverse destructive habits • Enjoy a long and healthy life A contemporary look at a timeless practice that has influenced everything from Feng Shui to acupuncture, The Tao is the essential guide to achieving balance and serenity and experiencing personal transformation. .
The Tao and Mother Goose
by Robert CarterCompare nursery rhymes with Chinese aphorisms. Illustrated.
The Tao and Mother Goose
by Robert CarterArt instrutor Rober Carter's illustrated book is both enjoyable and informative, written in an engaging style. Rhymes of Mother Goose he suggests, frequently are spiritual parables. He compares many of the famous aphorisms from Lao Tsu's Tao The Ching, noting simitarities of viewpoints. Carter feels that teaching of the Chinese philosopher and even Mother Goose nursery rhymes are addresses to some deeper level within each one of us. Consequently, a simple word, phrase, or idea in this meditative picture book might spark something deep within the reader.
The Tao and the Bard: A Conversation
by Phillip DepoyThe Tao Te Ching or Book of the Way of Virtue is a touchstone of Eastern philosophy and mysticism. It has been called the wisest book ever written, and its author, Lao Tzu, is known as the Great Archivist. Shakespeare, the Bard, was the West's greatest writer and even invented human nature, according to some. The Tao and the Bard is the delightful conversation between these two unlikely spokesmen, who take part in a free exchange of views in its pages. Here, in his own words, Lao Tzu offers the eighty-one verses that comprise the Tao, and, responding to each verse, the Bard answers with quotations from his plays and poems. In sometimes surprising ways, Shakespeare's words speak to Lao Tzu's, as the two trade observations on good and evil, love and virtue, wise fools and foolish wisdom, and being and the "nothing from which all things are born." Here is a new take on an old dialogue between East and West, with the reader invited to take part--whether to parse the meanings closely or sit back and enjoy the entertainment.Lao Tzu: Is the world unkind?/Nature burns up life like a straw dog.Skakespeare: Allow not nature more than nature needs,/Man's life is as cheap as beasts . . . (Lear, King Lear)Lao Tzu: Tao is elusive./Looking you never see,/listening you never hear,/grasping you never hold.Shakespeare: The eye sees not itself/But by reflection, by some other things. (Brutus, Julius Caesar)
Tao Classic of Longevity and Immortality: Sacred Wisdom and Practical Techniques
by Zhi Gang ShaWe all want long, healthy, happy, and productive lives. What are the spiritual principles and ancient wisdoms needed to achieve this? A Tao Grandmaster distills the essential knowledge from thousands of years of sages and introduces powerful new insights and accessible practices to help you achieve longevity and even move in the direction of immortality, while never losing sight of the true purpose of our existence. How can longevity be best attained? Is immortality possible? What is the true reason we should want longevity, and even to strive for immortality? How can we do it? The spiritual principles and practical techniques from thousands of years of ancient wisdom, together with powerful new insights and a "how to" practice that will actually yield results, are distilled into this book. Very few will actually attain immortality, but in following the principles and practices in this book, every aspect of life will benefit.
Tao For Babies
by Chris RiddellLao Tzu's ancient text, the Tao Teh Ching, has much to offer the new infant. With their instinctive grasp of its principles, babies everywhere will find the wisdom contained in this new interpretation both a revelation and a confirmation of their own world vision. Targeted specifically at their needs, the charmingly illustrated aphorisms will enable them to enhance their understanding of the subject and share these great lessons with their family and carers. Essential reading for all those who wish to make an early start in their search for wisdom and enlightenment.