Author: Lama Anagarika Govinda
Translator(s)/ Edito: Maurice Walshe
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 248
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788120830950
Description
Lama Anagarika Govinda provides an exciting overview of contemporary Buddhist philosophy for the modern student. He shares his insights into Indian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions concerning the nature of reality, the development of consciousness, death and rebirth, faith and tolerance, and the significance of meditative and ritual practices.
In depicting the Tantric Buddhist approach that utilizes ancient mantras and mandalas to produce meditative absorption in a unified experience of sound, color and form, Lame Govinda pay homage to a spiritual edifice of great beauty and complexity.
Lama Govinda invokes a multidimensional vision of Buddhist understanding that includes the rational perspectives of modern science and psychology, but goes far beyond them. In building a conceptual bridge between Eastern mysticism and western philosophy, he discusses the work of Assagioli, Teilhard de Charding and von Durkheim, among others. There are also chapters of concern to Western society, such as the expansion of consciousness through drugs and the nature of attachment and suffering in love relationships. The material presented here was gathered from lectures and articles written by Lame Govinda shortly before his death in 1985, providing readers a close look at his warmth and lovingness.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Translator’s Note
Preface
Introduction
THE WORLD AND ITS INTERPRETATION:
The World and Reality
The Development of Consciousness
And the Goal of the Path
Religion and Truth
Faith and Tolerance in Buddhism
Science and the Doctrine of Rebirth
Potentiality and Reality in Hinduism and Buddhism
THE INWARD PATH:
Buddhist Meditation
The Importance of Ritual
The Act of Will and the Practice of Meditation
Love and Attachment
Back Doors to Enlightenment? Thoughts on the Expansion
Of Consciousness Through Drugs
Masters of the Mystical Path
The Mystery of Life and Rebirth
According to The Tibetan Book of the Dead
ART AS CREATIVE MEDITATION:
The Ancient Culture of Tibet
The Seven Treasures of a World Ruler
Rainbow - Halo - Aura
Vajrayana for Beginners
THE MEETING OF East AND WEST:
Teilhard de Charding’s Worldview
In the light of Eastern Thought
Breakthrough to Transcendence
About the Author