by Reece Harris ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2011
A great read for the patient but thirsty philosopher and soul searcher.
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Our dreams may be more valuable than we know, says one visionary scholar.
It has been said that our dreams are simply the result of the subconscious mind trying to open a locked doorway to knowledge, and a pathway to memories that sometimes feel as tangible as reality. According to Jung, the father of analytical psychology, dreams come from the amount of an individual’s psychic energy and help determine whether they’re an extrovert or an introvert in waking life. This idea of dreams and manifested memories is at the crux of the debut work by philosophy scholar and professor Harris (St. John’s College, Univ. of Maryland). The author is not just a teacher, but a student of Jungian dream examination and how this idea crosses over to other philosophies, evolutionary linguistics and great works of literature and art. This all leads the spiritual traveler to a better understanding of what their dreams and memories mean and what our hearts truly desire. Through careful examination of concepts from titans like Aristotle, Plato, Jung, Nietzsche, Hegel, Asian philosophy mentor Roshi Zenkei Shibayama, Native American and Buddhist influences, Harris presents powerful intersecting ideas to the reader. He also draws parallels between literary works by Sophocles, Plato, Dante, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, Lady Murasaki, Ezra Pound and others. Works of art included in the book—from the collage on the front cover to the familiar sight of the eternal Ouroboros at the end—make an impact on the reader, and mathematics and poetics also play a role in defining the author’s desire to “shatter” common ways of thought. Like most philosophers espousing new ideas, Harris tends to speak at length to make his point at times, but the book is ultimately rewarding.
A great read for the patient but thirsty philosopher and soul searcher.Pub Date: May 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-1432776220
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Outskirts
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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