Download or read book Effort and Grace written by Simone Kotva and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy and theology have long harboured contradictory views on spiritual practice. While philosophy advocates the therapeutic benefits of daily meditation, the theology of grace promotes an ideal of happiness bestowed with little effort. As such, the historical juxtaposition of effort and grace grounding modern spiritual exercise can be seen as the essential tension between the secular and sacred. In Effort and Grace, Simone Kotva explores an exciting new theory of spiritual endeavour from the tradition of French spiritualist philosophy. Spiritual exercise has largely been studied in relation to ancient philosophy and the Ignatian tradition, yet Kotva's new engagement with its more recent forms has alerted her to an understanding of contemplative practice as rife with critical potential. Here, she offers an interdisciplinary text tracing the narrative of spiritual exertion through the work of seminal French thinkers such as Maine de Biran, Félix Ravaisson, Henri Bergson, Alain (Émile Chartier), Simone Weil and Gilles Deleuze. Her findings allow both secular philosophers and theologians to understand how the spiritual life can participate in the contemporary philosophical conversation.
Download or read book Zen and the Spiritual Exercises written by Ruben Habito and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2014-04-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The practices of the East meet those of the West in this intriguing book on the relationship between Zen meditation and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Ruben Habito, a Zen Master as well as an expert in Ignatian spirituality, brings these two hallowed paths to enlightenment together in this intriguing book designed not only for believers in either tradition, but for seekers and beginners as well. Both comparing and contrasting Zen traditions of meditation and enlightenment with St. Ignatius' famous Exercises for attaining Divine Love, Habito offers suggestions on how the two traditions share the same goals and how each might benefit from the other or from their shared practice. As the reader follows Habito through the stages of purgation of false desires, illumination of one's true path, and the generous desire to give back what one has been given through the Divine, Habito shares illuminating and instructive stories, literary and spiritual reflections, and thought-provoking ways on how to update Zen and Ignatian spirituality to meet the needs and desires of a contemporary seeker.
Download or read book A World On Fire written by Erin M. Cline and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2018-02-09 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why should Ignatian spirituality be shared with other religions? -- How should Ignatian spiritual exercises be adapted for members of other religions? -- Hindu adaptations of the spiritual exercises -- Buddhist adaptations of the spiritual exercises -- Confucianism, East Asian cultures, and the spiritual exercises
Download or read book Healing Breath written by Ruben L. F. Habito and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-09-22 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Healing Breath shows us how we can heal our lives and thereby heal our wounded world. Ruben Habito reveals Zen's potential for positive transformation in the personal, social, and ecological realms. Habito's presentation is deeply resonant with Christ's teachings, and offers a powerful way to draw those teachings more deeply into our day-to-day living. Book jacket.
Download or read book Start Now written by Rudolf Steiner and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 2004 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Start Now! offers an extensive and representative sample of Steiner's spiritual instructions and meditative practices, including meditation instructions; mantric verses; daily, weekly and monthly practices for the development of soul qualities; karmic exercises and meditations for working with the dead, the angelic hierarchies and our guardian angel.
Download or read book Fasting the Mind written by Jason Gregory and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-05-25 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combines cognitive psychology with Zen, Taoist, and Vedic practices to empty the mind • Explains how eliminating external stimulation can alleviate stress and anxiety for a calmer state of mind • Details meditation practices, such as open-awareness meditation, contemplation of Zen koans, and Vipassana meditation, and explores methods of digital detox • Draws on classical yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism as well as cognitive science to explain how and why to fast the mind Stop planning, stop comparing, stop competing, stop thinking, and just breathe deeply for a minute . . . Our undivided attention is something we are rarely able to give for reasons ranging from digital overload to the cultural conditioning of equating busyness with purpose. Just as you might choose a fast from eating to detoxify the body, the best way to overcome this modern mental overload is to periodically fast the mind. Drawing on the spiritual philosophies and meditative practices of classical yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, Jason Gregory explains how fasting the mind directly impacts your habits and way of being in the world to create peace and calmness in your life as well as allow you to build a firm psychological defense against the increasing bombardment of distractions in our world. Applying psychology and cognitive science to samsara--the cycle of suffering created by our attachment to the impermanent--he explains how overreliance on the rational mind causes imbalances in the autonomic nervous system and suppresses our natural spontaneity, feelings, and intuition. When we are unable to relax the mind deeply, we enter a destabilizing state of stress and anxiety and are unable to liberate the true Self from the impermanence and limitations of the material world. Sharing Zen, Taoist, and Vedic practices to help you empty your mind and gradually restore your natural rhythms, the author shows how to give the mind time to truly relax from stimulation so it can repair itself and come back into equilibrium. He details simple meditation practices that are easy to implement in daily life, such as open-awareness meditation and contemplation of Zen koans, as well as the advanced techniques of Vipassana, a Theravadic Buddhist discipline centered on seclusion from all worldly stimuli. He also offers methods for digital detox and ensuring a good night’s sleep, a major support for healing cognitive impairment and restoring a state of equanimity. By fasting the mind we strip away the distractions and stresses of modern life and return to our original nature as it exists deep within. We become more consciously awake in every moment, allowing us to feel the real beauty of the world and, in turn, to live life more fully, authentically, and peacefully.
Download or read book Be Still and Know written by Habito, Ruben and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2017-04-20 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Younger Next Year The Exercise Program written by Chris Crowley and published by Workman Publishing Company. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive exercise book that the one-million-plus readers of the Younger Next Year® series have been waiting for—and the exercise book that takes the intimidation out of starting a workout routine. Based on the science that shows how we can turn back our biological clocks by a combination of aerobics and strength fitness, it’s a guide that will show every reader how to live with newfound vibrancy, strength, endurance, confidence, and joy—and it goes deep enough to be your exercise companion for life, even if you eventually take it to Masters levels. Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program combines the best information from the New York Times bestselling Younger Next Year with the cutting-edge knowledge and workouts from Thinner This Year. Here is the revolutionary 10-minute warm-up (critical for maintaining ankle, shoulder, and hip mobility). The five amazing things aerobic exercise will do for your body, and finding the method that works for you. How to get fit better and quicker with intervals. The importance of “whole-body” strength training and “rebooting the core.” Plus, the Twenty-Five Sacred Exercises that will be the foundation for your strength-training routine for life.
Download or read book Zen Meditation in Plain English written by John Daishin Buksbazen and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excellent, practical introduction to Zen meditation. Written in a warm and easily accessible style, the book appeals to anyone with an interest in meditation, Zen, or, as is often the case today, a combination of the two. The book emphasizes the importance of receiving good instruction and of finding groups to practice with, yet it lays out the necessary steps to practice Zen meditation on your own. The book includes easily followed exercises to help the reader along. For anyone looking to uncover a clear and insightful path into the philosophy and practice of Zen meditation, this book represents the culmination of that search
Download or read book The Spirit of Zen written by Alan Watts and published by Pomona Press. This book was released on 2008-11 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is something quite unfamiliar to the West, something which will appeal strongly to all who are trying to find deeper reality in life than philosophy and conventional religion can express. Historically, Zen is an aspect of Buddhism, but in itself it is so vital and elusive that it escapes definition. To be understood it must be lived. As a way of life it is the highest achievement of the Chinese spirit and the inspiration of its greatest art. Through Zen, Chinese culture reinforms our own with new meaning and offers us altogether new possibilities in a world of change. Contents Include: The Origins of Zen The Secret of Zen The Technique of Zen Life in a Zen Community Zen and the Civilization of the Far East
Download or read book Zen and the Bible written by J.K. Kadowaki and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brought up within a Zen Buddhist tradition and later becoming a Jesuit priest and professor of philosophy, Kakichi Kadowaki's spiritual path bridges the gap between Eastern and Western approaches to religion. In Zen and the Bible he offers an enlightening personal analysis of some central aspects of Christianity, based on his experience of Ignatian spirituality and on the ways of Zen monastic life. Western Christian readers interested in Eastern philosophy will fred their own faith refreshed and strengthened from the insights and illuminations in this classic book, now back in print with a new Introduction by William A. Johnston.
Download or read book The Zen of Creativity written by John Daido Loori and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many of us, the return of Zen conjures up images of rock gardens and gently flowing waterfalls. We think of mindfulness and meditation, immersion in a state of being where meaning is found through simplicity. Zen lore has been absorbed by Western practitioners and pop culture alike, yet there is a specific area of this ancient tradition that hasn’t been fully explored in the West. Now, in The Zen of Creativity, American Zen master John Daido Loori presents a book that taps the principles of the Zen arts and aesthetic as a means to unlock creativity and find freedom in the various dimensions of our existence. Loori dissolves the barriers between art and spirituality, opening up the possibility of meeting life with spontaneity, grace, and peace. Zen Buddhism is steeped in the arts. In spiritual ways, calligraphy, poetry, painting, the tea ceremony, and flower arranging can point us toward our essential, boundless nature. Brilliantly interpreting the teachings of the artless arts, Loori illuminates various elements that awaken our creativity, among them still point, the center of each moment that focuses on the tranquility within; simplicity, in which the creative process is uncluttered and unlimited, like a cloudless sky; spontaneity, a way to navigate through life without preconceptions, with a freshness in which everything becomes new; mystery, a sense of trust in the unknown; creative feedback, the systematic use of an audience to receive noncritical input about our art; art koans, exercises based on paradoxical questions that can be resolved only through artistic expression. Loori shows how these elements interpenetrate and function not only in art, but in all our endeavors. Beautifully illustrated and punctuated with poems and reflections from Loori’s own spiritual journey, The Zen of Creativity presents a multilayered, bottomless source of insight into our creativity. Appealing equally to spiritual seekers, artists, and veteran Buddhist practitioners, this book is perfect for those wishing to discover new means of self-awareness and expression—and to restore equanimity and freedom amid the vicissitudes of our lives.
Download or read book Christian Zen written by William Johnston and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Christian Zen was first published in the early 1970's, it was reviewed enthusiastically in many parts of the world. A subsequent edition added new material from the author's experience. This latest edition, from Fordham University Press, includes a new Preface by the author and a letter to the author from the Christian mystic Thomas Merton, written shortly before Merton's untimely death. William Johnston presents a study of Zen meditation in the light of Christian mysticism.
Download or read book Sadhana written by Anthony De Mello and published by Image. This book was released on 1984-09-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christian Exercises in Eastern Form Truly a one-of-a-kind, how-to-do-it book, this small volume responds to a very real hunger for self-awareness and holistic living. It consists of a series of spiritual exercises for entering the contemplative state -- blending psychology, spiritual therapy, and practices from both Eastern and Western traditions. Anthony de Mello offers here an unparalleled approach to inner peace that brings the whole person to prayer -- body and soul, heart and mind, memory and imagination. In forty-seven exercises that teach things such as awareness of physical sensations, stillness, healing of hurtful memories, and consciousness of self and world, de Mello succeeds in helping all who have ever experienced prayer as difficult, dull, or frustrating. The essential key, he notes, is to journey beyond mere thought-forms and discover satisfying new depths in prayer from the heart. This allows for a greater sense of awareness amid silence, and disposes the one who prays to untold riches, spiritual fulfillment, and ultimately, a mystical experience of God-centeredness. Drawing on Scripture, as well as insights from Eastern and Western spiritual masters, the author has a unique appeal that transcends time, culture, and religious background. For many years a bestseller in the English language, Sadhana has now been translated into more than two dozen foreign languages. Readers the world over have eagerly received this sincere spiritual leader, who has led many toward the wealth of insight and spirit that dwells within them.
Download or read book Untrain Your Parrot written by Elizabeth Hamilton and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers exercises, instructions, jokes, stories, pithy quotes, and—most of all—encouragement to anyone interested in exploring Zen but who may find traditional presentations severe or intimidating. Hamilton writes with an easygoing, friendly style that invites readers of all backgrounds to sit down and give meditation a try. But don’t be fooled by her puns and checklists—this is serious Zen. Drawing on three decades of experience as a Zen practitioner and teacher, Hamilton explains how to meditate and how to maintain an ongoing practice. From there, in her clear, lighthearted, and humorous style, she moves right to the heart of Zen, showing us how we could move beyond our concepts, expectations, and emotional reactivity to touch the reality of our lived experience with openness and simplicity, thereby finding freedom. Untrain Your Parrot includes simple instructions to clarify and elucidate the basics: • how to establish a beginning meditation practice • how to develop physical, mental, and emotional awareness • how to experience "open" awareness—observing one's practice while allowing for a sense of spaciousness with whatever occurs For more information on the author, Elizabeth Hamilton, go to www.zencentersandiego.org.
Download or read book Zen Yoga written by Aaron Hoopes and published by Kodansha USA Incorporated. This book was released on 2007-06-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zen Yoga is a Kodansha International publication.
Download or read book The Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola in the Western Tradition written by Javier Melloni and published by Gracewing Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Exercises of St. Ignatius" draws on rediscovered materials, as well as on extensive familiarity with the Western spiritual tradition, to explore Ignatian spirituality's indebtedness to the tradition as well as its departure from it.
