Eastern category: 10105 books

A new collection of essays by the great traditionalist/perennialist Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. This collection has been edited by his son, Rama Coomaraswamy, who is well known for his writings on the Christian tradition. The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy contains 21 essays on topics reflecting the...

This book gives essential insights on Indian philosophy and religion and offers twelve lessons on what you need to understand when diving into this topic. Contents: The First Lesson - The Land Of The Ganges. The Second Lesson - The Inner Teachings. The Third Lesson - The Sankhya System. The Fourth...

A journey through the diverse landscape of American Buddhism, written with a “blessedly down-to-earth sense of humor” (Rodger Kamenetz, author of The Jew in the Lotus). In an era when many of us yearn for an escape from a culture of noise and narcissism, this book takes us into the physical...

Kakuzo Okakura, who was known in America as a scholar, art critic, and Curator of Chinese and Japanese Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, directed almost his entire adult life toward the preservation and reawakening of the Japanese national heritage — in art, ethics, social customs, and other...

J. Krishnamurti was renowned for the penetrating insight and immediacy of his spiritual teaching. Radical in his day for seeking truth beyond the boundaries of religion, ideology, or tradition, he declared that "Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever."...

In Idries Shah's Wisdom of the Idiots, the 'idiots' are Sufis, called this because their wisdom penetrates to a depth which renders it inaccessible to the merely intelligent or academically-knowledgeable. The exercise-stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose.On this level the movements...

The award-winning new translation of the ancient Chinese oracle and book of wisdom, by the acclaimed translator of the Tao Te Ching and The Art of War Pose a question, then toss three coins (or cast your yarrow stalks) to access the time-honored wisdom of the I Ching. The I Ching,...

In a darkened room a group of men once sought to examine an elephant.Taking hold of a different part - an ear, a leg, the tail - each one mistook his particular part for the whole. In the darkness, each of the men became convinced that the elephant was the object he himself had felt - a fan, a rope,...

Many have considered Buddhism to be the religion closest in spirit to J. Krishnamurti's spiritual teaching—even though the great teacher was famous for urging students to seek truth outside organized religion. This record of a historic encounter between Krishnamurti and a group of Buddhist scholars...

That which every one of us is looking for in this world is exactly the same thing. Every Being, even the animal, is looking for it. And what is it that we are all looking for? Happiness with no sorrow! A continuous state of happiness with no taint whatsoever of sorrow. Now, if this be the Goal, why...

Sufi Thought and ActionPreviously published only as separate essays, Sufi Thought and Action - assembled and introduced by Idries Shah - covers an extraordinary diversity of Sufi ideas and activities in many countries and cultures. Included in the volume are papers on Sufi Principles and Learning Methods;...

The Bhakti Sūtra attributed to Nārada is a collection of 84 aphoristic statements in Sanskrit, dating to the tenth to eleventh centuries in India, on the nature of love for Divinity, which the text describes as the highest, most exquisite form of love. Translating, explaining and interpreting 21...

Special Illumination is a term used by the great poet and mystic Jalaluddin Rumi to stress the importance of humor in metaphysical experience. Of it, Idries Shah says, 'Rumi directly contradicts such numerous sour-faced religionists as, in all persuasions, find that humor disturbs the indoctrination which is all that they usually have to offer.'

A revolutionary reexamination of trauma’s role in the life journey, opening the door to growth and healing Trauma does not just happen to a few unlucky people; it is the bedrock of our psychology. Death and illness touch us all, but even the everyday sufferings of loneliness and fear are...