Showing results by publisher "----RM Alexander" in Consciousness & Thought

Daniel C. Dennett, philosopher and cognitive scientist, has spent his career considering consciousness. I've Been Thinking traces the development of Dennett's own intellect and instructs us how we too can become good thinkers. Dennett's restless curiosity leads him from his childhood in Beirut to Harvard, and from Parisian jazz clubs to 'tillosophy' on his tractor in Maine. Along the way, he encounters and debates with a host of legendary thinkers, and reveals the breakthroughs and misjudgments that shaped his paradigm-shifting philosophies.

What is love? Aside from being the title of many a popular love song, this is one of life's perennial questions. In What Love Is, philosopher Carrie Jenkins offers a bold new theory on the nature of romantic love that reconciles its humanistic and scientific components.

"It takes an entire lifetime to learn how to die", wrote the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca (c. 4 BC-65 AD). He counseled readers to "study death always", and took his own advice, returning to the subject again and again in all his writings, yet he never treated it in a complete work. How to Die gathers in one volume, for the first time, Seneca's remarkable meditations on death and dying. Edited and translated by James S. Romm, How to Die reveals a provocative thinker who speaks with a startling frankness about the need to accept death or even, under certain conditions, to seek it out.

Revised and updated, Teaching Yoga by yoga expert Mark Stephens is one of the most popular resources for new and experienced teachers, and has been a trusted guide since its publication in 2010. This classic resource covers fundamental topics of yoga history and philosophy, as well as each of the 11 major styles of contemporary yoga. There is also practical advice for every stage of the teaching process, including tools for teaching 108 yoga poses (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation.

Occultism is not magic. It is comparatively easy to learn the trick of spells and the methods of using the subtler, but still material, forces of physical nature; the powers of the animal soul in man are soon awakened; the forces that his love, his hate, his passion, can call into operation are readily developed. But this is Black Magic–Sorcery. For it is the motive, and the motive alone, that makes any exercise of power become black, malignant, or white, beneficent Magic.

Humanly Possible is a wide-ranging, personal, thought-provoking and entertaining journey through the battle of ideas over some 700 years of history—mostly, but not exclusively, in Europe. Through a mixture of biography and philosophy, Bakewell seeks to understand what humanism is, why it has continued to flourish despite opposition from fanatics, mystics, tyrants and cultural pessimists of all kinds, and exactly why we should value and defend it in the 21st century.

In this lively and entertaining introduction to the philosophy of mind, Edward Feser explores the questions central to the discipline, and relates them not only to the human brain and its capacity for thought, but also to the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence. This in-depth primer is an account of all the most important and significant attempts that have been made to answer the riddles of consciousness and thought.

Written in clear, accessible language, this book seeks to free listeners from their suffering by drawing attention to the direct experience of self as abiding, loving, boundless awareness. Using practical exercises and meditations, the author guides listeners through a process of spiritual awakening, deconstructing self-delusions and integrating a new concept of existence that is free from the suffering of individual selfhood, but which acknowledges the attachments, traumatic experiences, and emotional pain of being human.

One of Ernest Holmes’s cornerstone works, This Thing Called You is an intimate guide through which listeners learn the important lesson of how they are an immutable part of the flow of life, and how they may fulfill the longing, within all of us, to live more fully. The book details methods of meditation used for healing, improving mind and body, and reaching one’s divine self.

Ubuntu is a Xhosa word originating from a South African philosophy that encapsulates all our aspirations about how to live life well, together. It is the belief in a universal human bond: I am only because you are. And it means that if you are able to see everyone as fully human, connected to you by their humanity, you will never be able to treat others as disposable or without worth. By embracing the philosophy of Ubuntu and living it out in daily life it's possible to overcome division and be stronger together in a world where the wise build bridges, not walls.

Como alcanzar el conocimiento los mundos superiores (Un camino de iniciación) ofrece una guía detallada para el autodesarrollo espiritual, describiendo métodos para desarrollar habilidades perceptivas y cultivar una conexión consciente con el "mundo espiritual" o dimensiones de realidad más allá de lo físico. Este libro se ha convertido en uno de los textos más influyentes y accesibles de Steiner sobre la antroposofía, proponiendo que cualquiera puede alcanzar estados superiores de conciencia y percepción mediante el autoconocimiento y la disciplina.

Silence is habitually overlooked—after all, throughout our lives, it has to compete with the cacophony of the outside world and our near-constant interior dialogue that judges, analyzes, compares, and questions. But, if we can get past this barrage, there lies a quiet place that’s well worth discovering.

Do you know anyone who's truly living The Good Life? Traditionally, philosophers and psychologists have thought of the Good Life in terms of happiness or meaning, or some combination of both. But, if it’s really that simple, if all you need is more happiness or meaning to get to the Good Life, why aren’t more of us achieving that truly “good” life? You’ve hit all the traditional markers, jumped on the happiness train, committed to a gratitude practice, sought purpose in your work, and yet The Good Life you’re seeking, is still out of reach.

In Brainwashing, Kathleen Taylor brings the worlds of neuroscience and social psychology together for the first time. In elegant and accessible prose, and with abundant use of anecdotes and case-studies, she examines the ethical problems involved in carrying out the required experiments on humans, the limitations of animal models, and the frightening implications of such research. She also explores the history of thought-control and reveals how it persists all around us, from marketing and television to politics and education.

Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Kissinger. She weaves these into her discussion with an eloquence, humanity, and insight that recall the writings of Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre.

On those long nights when your mind is racing and the clock slowly ticks its way to dawn, sleep seems unattainable and precious. The three sessions on this audiobook offer time-honoured skills from the yoga tradition that will help you to enjoy a natural, nourishing night’s sleep. In the first session you learn to calm your mind and relax your body using a deep breathing technique with visualisations. The second session is a deep relaxation practice known as yoga nidra, or psychic sleep. It is used here as a self-hypnosis strategy for inducing sleep.

The transgender movement has hit breakneck speed. In the space of a year, it’s gone from something that most Americans had never heard of to a cause claiming the mantle of civil rights. But can a boy truly be “trapped” in a girl’s body? Can modern medicine really “reassign” sex? Is sex something “assigned” in the first place? What’s the loving response to a friend or child experiencing a gender-identity conflict? What should our law say on these issues? When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment provides thoughtful answers to all of these questions.

With historical adherents as various as Mark Twain, Einstein, Freud, Philip Pullman, and Frank Zappa, Humanism’s central quest is to live with meaning with no need for the supernatural. Showing how humanists make sense of the world using reason, experience, and sensitivity, Cave emphasises that we can, and should, flourish without God. Lively, provocative, and refreshingly rant-free, this audiobook is essential listening for all - whether atheist, agnostic, believer, or of no view - who wish better to understand what it means to be human.

Written more than 25 centuries ago, the Diamond Sutra is the first text to record the Buddha's own teachings, and it remains one of the most popular. Osho comments in a series of talks on these sutras and brings Buddha's teachings into the 21st century. One day, after the Buddha finishes his daily walk to collect alms, a senior monk steps forth to ask how he can best help humanity. Buddha responds, and thus begins a dialogue regarding the nature of perception.

The three relaxation practices available here complement each other. Used in sequence, they are designed to gradually awaken the relaxation response in even the most anxious and highly stressed people. Using breath awareness techniques from the yogic tradition, visualisations of light, and with the help of soothing music, Gillian gently guides you into a deep connection with your body. You begin to experience yourself as a harmonious whole. This is a profoundly healing state of being.