Challenging the triumphalist narrative of Enlightenment secularism. According to most scholars, the Enlightenment was a rational awakening, a radical break from a past dominated by religion and superstition. But in Let There Be Enlightenment, Anton M. Matytsin, Dan Edelstein, and the contributors they have assembled deftly undermine this simplistic narrative. Emphasizing the ways in which religious beliefs and motivations shaped philosophical perspectives, essays in this book highlight figures and topics often overlooked in standard genealogies of the Enlightenment. The volume underscores the prominent role that religious discourses continued to play in major aspects of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thought. The essays probe a wide range of subjects, from reformer Jan Amos Comenius’s quest for universal enlightenment to the changing meanings of the light metaphor, Quaker influences on Baruch Spinoza’s theology, and the unexpected persistence of Aristotle in the Enlightenment. Exploring the emergence of historical consciousness among Enlightenment thinkers while examining their repeated insistence on living in an enlightened age, the collection also investigates the origins and the long-term dynamics of the relationship between faith and reason. Providing an overview of the rich spectrum of eighteenth-century culture, the authors demonstrate that religion was central to Enlightenment thought. The term “enlightenment” itself had a deeply religious connotation. Rather than revisiting the celebrated breaks between the eighteenth century and the period that preceded it, Let There Be Enlightenment reveals the unacknowledged continuities that connect the Enlightenment to its various antecedents. Contributors: Philippe Buc, William J. Bulman, Jeffrey D. Burson, Charly Coleman, Dan Edelstein, Matthew T. Gaetano, Howard Hotson, Anton M. Matytsin, Darrin M. McMahon, James Schmidt, Céline Spector, Jo Van Cauter

Matytsin, Darrin M. McMahon, James Schmidt, Céline Spector, Jo Van Cauter

Celebrating 25 Years as a New York Times Bestseller — Over 16 Million Copies Sold It’s no wonder that The Power of Now has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light. In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being, “the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.” Featuring a new preface by the author, this paperback shows that only after regaining awareness of Being, liberated from Mind and intensely in the Now, is there Enlightenment.

Enlightenment has fascinated people for millenia. *Let Your Soul Sing* overturns the commonly held belief that enlightenment is a state of consciousness possible only for a few rare individuals living in a forest or monastery. It points out that enlightenment is in fact the most natural state of life, available to everyone through simple, effortless meditation techniques that expand human awareness and perception of the truly unified reality of life. This book follows the author s journey on the path of enlightenment and also gives accounts of athletes, artists, musicians, and people from all walks of life who have had spontaneous experiences of higher states of consciousness at some point. Many never had a framework to understand their experiences or to systematically develop them. *Let Your Soul Sing* lays out the systematic knowledge of seven states of consciousness and how they can be easily unfolded through the experience of transcendence. It highlights extensive scientific research that confirms the development of health and brain functioning gained through meditation, and also explains how individuals experiencing inner peace simultaneously contribute to the creation of world peace. The style is easy reading, with anecdotes, quotes, short poems, and analysis of recent world events woven throughout. For more information and to download 2 free chapters, visit: http: //www.enlightenmentforeveryone.com/ "A beautiful synthesis of heart and mind, this book is written from the personal and truthful perspective of an individual who has absorbed the depth and breadth of Maharishi's extraordinarily profound and practical knowledge. It reveals how growth toward enlightenment is expressed through tender, subjective experiences of the transcendent. It also shows how enlightenment may be understood from a completely objective scientific point of view as the progressive refinement and development of total neurophysiological functioning." Dr. Keith Wallace Founding President and Trustee of Maharishi University of Management, Dean of the College of Perfect Health and Professor of Physiology, and author of The Neurophysiology of Enlightenment. "This book is a profound gift. Beautifully written, it gently opens our eyes to who we truly are and guides us in accessing the divine wisdom, peace and bliss within each one of us. Ann Purcell weaves the teachings of Maharishi with her personal journey to provide the keys to transformation." Amy Hatkoff Child and family advocate, parenting educator, filmmaker, and author of The Inner World of Farm Animals; You are My World: How a Parent's Love Shapes a Baby's Mind; and How To Save The Children. "Let Your Soul Sing is a brilliant and simply written reflection on how to live a life of joy, balance, and wholeness. As such, it is a roadmap to personal fulfillment, creative expression, and a gentler, kinder, more balanced world. While Let Your Soul Sing is for everyone, women in particular will find their own essential, divine, nourishing nature reflected back to them through this book." Candace Badgett Chairman of the Global Mother Divine Organization, President of the Global Health Foundation for Women, and Director of The Raj Ayurveda Health Center and Spa"

Let There Be Light celebrates the splendor of radiant Light that has been known, embodied and taught by mystics, saints and sages over the millennia. Readers at every level will enjoy this book for its insights and message of hope: Light is available to all who seek it with humility and grace. Within the world's sacred scriptures, many significant passages involve light-be it the "burning bush" experience of the lawgiver Moses on Mount Sinai, the "light brighter than a thousand suns" of which the Bhagavad Gita speaks, or the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be filled with light" (Matthew 6:22, KJV). We seek to highlight in this book those who have experienced this divine light. Numerous esoteric references to Inner Light appear not only in the scriptures of the distant past, but also within the personal experiential accounts by Masters, sages, and seers across the centuries. Also we draw upon wisdom stories and tales from many cultural and ethnic traditions. We draw attention to a number of significant related references and accounts by teachers and practitioners of the closely related phenomenon of Inner Sound, which is also known within various teachings or mystic lineages as "audible sound current," Naam, Word, "celestial music," or other descriptions. Testimonies are provided by persons who have experienced aspects of Inner Light and Sound in a variety of circumstances outside of formal religious or spiritual contexts. These may be precipitated, for example, by being profoundly moved by uplifting music, sudden personal epiphanies, near-death experiences (NDEs), and during the dying process itself. One common thread among great teachers, sages and practitioners of spiritual traditions have emphasized throughout the ages is that Inner Light and enlightenment can be most directly accessed by utilizing meditation, prayer and other contemplative practices. Today humankind collectively is faced with a host of great challenges: political, socio-economic, and ecological-which ultimately at their roots are primarily spiritual in nature. Fortunately, possibilities for transformational changes are also accessible. Increasing numbers of people of all ages around the planet, both individuals and collectively, are seeking to tap into resources that will enhance self-understanding and recognition of a "deeper" shared level of Self and consciousness, within themselves and in the world. Simply put, can enough persons of goodwill find sufficient common ground to pull together and live into being a unifying ethos for humanity? What will it take to build a nonviolent, sustainable world upon foundations of lovingkindness, compassion, cooperation and social justice? It has becoming increasingly clear that there can be no real peace in the world until there is peace within and between religions. It is encouraging in this regard to witness increased participation among the faith traditions in interfaith dialogue. Harbingers of positive change include the "new" interspiritual movement, which attracts people from a wide range of perspectives and highlights a growing awareness that the basic core of spiritual experience emerges from the same wellspring(s). We sincerity hope that Let There Be Light can help contribute to thoughtful questioning, appreciative listening, and openhearted dialogue as people with diverse origins come together to share their spiritual journeys with each other.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR "My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. By the author of the new book, Rationality. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

A MASTERPIECE of illuminative writing, Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing is mandatory reading for anyone following a spiritual path. Part exposé and part how-to manual, this is the first book to explain why failure seems to be the rule in the search for enlightenment, and how the rule can be broken. :: Book One of Jed McKenna's Enlightenment Trilogy. Contains Bonus Material.

In this concise, bold, and innovative book, Dan Edelstein offers us an original account of the Enlightenment. It convincingly argues that the Enlightenment is above all a narrative about social and cultural changes and that its origins can be found in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. Therefore, by reconsidering the importance of the French esprit philosophique in the Euroean Enlightenment, this book will be of considerable importance for every scholar and student interested in this period.