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Emptiness and Becomi...
Emptiness and Becoming
Integrating Madhyamika Buddhism and Process Philosophy by: Peter Paul KakolThe book presents a detailed comparison of process philosophy and Màdhyamika Buddhism, analysing the similarities and differences between the two. It attempts a creative integration between the two and introduces a new philosophy, Process Buddhism.
₹855.00
ISBN: 9788124605196
Year Of Publication: 2009
Edition: 1st
Pages : xxiv, 423
Bibliographic Details : Bibliography; Index
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Size: 23
Weight: 800
The book presents a detailed comparison of process philosophy and Madhyamika Buddhism, analysing the similarities and differences between the two. It attempts a creative integration between the two and introduces a new philosophy, Process Buddhism. Process thought underscores the view that reality is a cumulative process of perspectival and experiential events. Peter Kakols work, in a remarkable foray into this area of philosophy, shows that the Madhyamika teaching, which essentially stresses the emptiness of emptiness, and process theory of worldviews are not incompatible with each other but are rather complementary aspects of the same theory.
In this meticulous work where the analysis involves careful exposition of both sides, Kakol notes that the fundamental compatibility between them is that both views become contradictory if seen as independent and so must be constantly transcended in a process of gradual purification and de-reification (or nominalisation). Kakol reveals an ability to situate process philosophy and Madhyamika Buddhism in the context of larger movements, both in their times of origin and now. He examines the views of not just Buddhist scholars and process philosophers but a range of social and political thought too.
The work will fascinate scholars and students of Process Philosophy and Madhyamika Buddhism.
Foreword
— Robert C. Neville
Preamble: Process Philosophy to Process Buddhism
— Purushottama Bilimoria
Acknowledgments
— Peter Paul Kakol
1. Introduction
2. Survey and Discussion
Review of Relevant
Literature Discussion
3. Process Philosophy
A Brief History of Categories
Hartshornes Creative Synthesis of the Categories
The Dual Transcendence of the Divine
Process Thought and Post-modernism
4. Madhyamika Philosophy
Introductory Exposition of Madhyamika Philosophy
Eastern and Western Interpretations of Madhyamika
Some Comparisons of Madhyamika with Western Philosophies
5. The Process Critique of Madhyamika
Non-process Critiques of Madhyamika
Process Philosophys Response to Madhyamika
Analysis and Response to These Critiques
6. The Madhyamika Critique of Process Philosophy
Eternal Objects, Metaphysics, and God
Deconstruction of the Categories
Actual Occasions and Dharmas
The two Becomings
Some Remaining Issues
7. Creative Emptiness and the Empty God
Creativity in Process Philosophy
Emptiness in Madhyamika
A Theory of Creative Emptiness
God and Creative Emptiness: Same or Different?
The Status of God
8. Integrating Madhyamika and Process Thought
The two Ultimates and the two Truths
The Trinity and Beyond
Deconstruction and Diagonalization
The two Immanent Transcendentals
A Logical Framework Integrating Process Semantics and Negative Dialectics
9. Practical Applications: Dialogue and World-views
Madhyamika-process Dialogue and a General Theory of Dialogue
A General Theory of World-views Based on Process Buddhism
10. Practical Applications: Ethics and Social Engagement
Liberating Praxis or Ideology?
A Process Buddhist Ethics
A Socially Engaged Process Buddhism
11. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
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Sale!Sleeping to Dream and Dreaming to Wake Up ₹1,440.00
“Dreams play a significant role in our life, meaningfully affecting us in the development of our personality and our spiritual journey. They are an everyday experience for any human being. Dreams have always been of great interest to poets and philosophers alike since ancient times and examples are aplenty in Indian and Western scriptures. However, it is an uphill task for an ordinary person to fully appreciate the intricacies and significance of dreams in the day-to-day life. It is here that this book proves as an invaluable guide providing deep understanding on the nature of dream and sleep.
This book is a repertoire of human wisdom – gathered for centuries and attested by the modern science – offering enormous insights into our dream and deep-sleep states. It asks, from a common man’s point of view, many a question that perturb us and provides answers to them from the scientific and spiritual perspectives in a captivating way. Some such questions include:
• Do we see dreams in black and white or in colour?
• What does a visually-challenged person see in his dreams?
• Why are some of our dreams extraordinarily vivid with electric colours, the clarity and brilliance of which, we may never encounter in our ordinary waking lives?
• Why are we non-reflective, irrational in our dreams?
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• How does our memory work in dream state? Why do we forget our dreams and is it possible to improve dream recall and cultivate awareness in dreams?
• Why do we fail to distinguish a dream object from the physical world object while we are dreaming?
• If the dream experience exactly feels like the real world and we fail to distinguish it from the waking world while we are dreaming, how can we be certain that we are not dreaming now?
• How does a dream contain various persons exhibiting opposite emotions at the same time when all the dream characters including the witnessing dreamer are produced out of single mind of the dreaming person?
• Can we intentionally transform the dream scenarios? If so, what would be the philosophical implications of it?
• Can dreams and sleeps be utilized for spiritual elevation?
… and many more questions we always wondered about the daily eight hours of our bed time, but never got the right answers to! We find new meanings and ways in dealing with our dreams in this volume, therefore, it is a must read for every dream enthusiast as well as any serious spiritual seeker.
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Towards a New Age of Nonviolence is a compilation of scholarly articles on Gandhi – his philosophy of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonviolent action (satyagraha) – are the themes encompassing the volume. In a materialistic world of today, people hold guns and grudges, and for the slightest glitch, they pronounce wars that do not end. The fearful consequence of this would lead to human extinction very soon. In such a detrimental and precarious scenario, the only way out is to embrace the Gandhian way of living.
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Sale!First Five Brahmasūtras (विज्ञानभिक्षोः ब्रह्मसूत्रपञ्चचसूत्रीभाष्यम्) ₹990.00
This is an annotated English translation of Vijñānabhikṣu’s commentaries on the first five Brahmasūtra (BS) of Bādarāyaṇa called the Vijñānāmṛtabhāṣya (VijBh). This is a pioneering work as no translation of the VijBh has been done so far. Bhikṣu is perhaps the only known Vedānta scholar who has argued for Brahman along with his prakṛti-śakti being the cause of the world. He calls his Advaita philosophy as Avibhāga-Advaita and sets himself against Śaṅkara’s Advaita which argues for Brahman alone being the material and efficient cause of the world. Bhikṣu is also an unique Advaita scholar as he interprets Vedānta using Sāṁkhya/Yoga principles. One of the reasons for choosing to comment on only the first five sūtras was because the VijBh is a huge work and also because Bhikṣu’s Avibhāga-Advaita can easily be understood from his commentaries on these first five sūtras of the BS. Even though the real reason for Bhikṣu’s commentary on the fifth sūtra (BS I.1.5) should be clear to anyone familiar with Vedānta’s objection to prakṛti being the cause of the world, it needed to be seen as to how Bhikṣu, as a committed Sāṁkhya-Yoga-Vedāntācārya, defends prakṛti’s role in being the cause. Just as writing commentaries on the first four sūtras of Śaṅkara’s BSBh done by some eminent scholars present the main features of Śaṅkara’s Advaita, the commentaries on the first five sūtras of the BS by Bhikṣu could adequately present Bhikṣu’s Avibhāga-Advaita Vedānta.
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Sale!Brahman and the World ₹450.00
“The Vedānta has been rightly called the Finest Fruit of Indian Thought and the Upaniṣads as the Finer Flowers. Vedānta grows out of the teachings of the Upaniṣads and passes into the various systems in the writings of Śaṅkara, Bhāskara, Rāmānuja, Madhva and Vallabha, the great founders of Advaita, Bhedābheda, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaitādvaita and Śuddhādvaita, respectively. However, there is a perception among Orientalists that while the Upaniṣads favour the Monistic doctrine, Bādarāyaṇa’s Brahmasūtra fundamentally opposes it on some of the most crucial points.
The book thus delves deep into the philosophies of both Bādarāyaṇa and Śaṅkara in enunciating the essential features of Brahman and Its association with the world. It thus discusses topics such as what sort of cause Brahman is?, and what sort of material causality is to be ascribed to It? It also addresses the conflicting views on the nature of Brahman like that of Vivarttavāda and of Rāmānuja’s Saguṇa-Brahman.
This book proposes to take up the question of Universal Causation to examine thoroughly as how far it is right to regard Brahman as the Universal Cause and how far sūtrakāra himself lent his support to each of the inter-conflicting schools of Vedānta. This book should, therefore, benefit all who are devoted to the philosophic teachings of Advaita Vedānta and its preceptors.” -
Sale!Seven Weeks In ‘Little Tibet’: Philosophic Travelling in Ladakh ₹225.00
A German lady, a veteran Yoga practitioner, travels to Ladakh, also known as ‘Little Tibet’. There she dives as much into life in its bustling capital Leh as into moonlike landscapes and Buddhist locales. She spends a week in a solitary meditation cabin, goes on a trek and meets not just Ladakhis but also interesting fellow travellers from all over the globe.
So is this a travelogue? Or are these musings in a journal? Yes, but also much more. Charmed by her chatty narration, spiced with irony and humour, you are gently led to contemplations on life and living, changes wrought by globalization, man-woman relationships, cultural differences, loss of identities, fear as an inherent part of the human psyche and the burgeoning objects of enjoyment versus the diminishing capacity to enjoy.
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