Gathering and interpreting material that is not readily available elsewhere, this book discusses the thought of the Japanese Buddhist philosophers Dogen, Hisamatsu, and Nishitani. Stambaugh develops ideas about the self culminating in the concept of the Formless Self as formulated by Hisamarsu in his book The Fullness of Nothingness and the essay "The Characteristics of Oriental Nothingness," and further explicated by Nishitani in his book Religion and Nothingness. These works show that Oriental nothingness has nothing to do with the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western concept of nihilism. Instead, it is a positive phenomenon, enabling things to be.

Bringing together the depth insights of eastern & western traditions, this book places the topic of the self in a new context.

This book is meant to be used as a guide to help you realize what already exists within. It will shed Light where darkness may reside. It will assist you in revealing and awakening the wisdom and knowledge that you already possess in your soul. After all, wisdom cannot be taught; it can only be attained through the medium of knowledge and experience if transmuted correctly. You cannot learn wisdom; you may only reveal it. The following ideas and concepts are not meant to give you conclusions and answers about how the universe works; rather, they are meant to simply open your doors of thought for you to explore further and perceive the world in your own unique way. What will follow is a life in which you have complete control, a higher level of consciousness, and a stronger connection to your inner true self. Take your time and read each sentence carefully. Consider reading some chapters more than once, perhaps even multiple times. Allow your soul to digest the information it is receiving and the wisdom it is revealing. Where you take it is up to you!

To Be Formless means to become something without a form. It's to live a life without limits, without validation from others, and become fearless. Too often, we lived in a world where we're boxed in and blocked off. We block ourselves of our full potential because of fear within, and fear of what others may think about us. We live in a world where people are too afraid to step out of their comfort zones and become the person they're designed to be. We instead, live life through illusions and filters to block the true essence of who we are. We rather live life seeking validation and acceptance of others to feel self-fulfilled. In the end, we're all human, we have flaws, we suffer, we strive, and we live. You matter through it all. Don't change who you are because you don't know who you can become until you stretch out and reach the sky.

Many beings have revelations of our true Self and yet few come to live and move in the world as the Sage does. We must deeply assimilate what it means to be formless and allow that knowledge to pervade our entire consciousness. Questions such as “How can I come to know that I cannot die?” and “How do I live from this place of Truth?” begin to become very important to us. In this book we will look at specific points of contemplation that are designed to help come to know beyond doubt that to be formless means we cannot die, we cannot suffer and we are infinite. This book embodies the process that every awakened being has gone through and will allow you to let go of all doubt and fear. Think of this book as a road map to the awakened state of Being. It is the essence of every Sage’s journey and it will allow you to bring forth the Sage that is in you right now. This book is the answer to every student’s question of “How do I live as this?”

We're used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain - an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is ''a virtual self in a virtual reality.'' But if the self is not ''real,'' why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel provides a stunningly original take on the mystery of the mind.

This volume is woven around the idea that wholeness (the firm) and fragmentation (risking formlessness) alternate in human affairs. This theme is applied to the history and the present condition of Australian Aboriginals. Their religion is seen as a way to bolster a precarious identity and to affirm order in an existence which would otherwise become formless. It deals with totemism as a form of ordering a variety of often conflicting identities. The author describes the modern predicament of Aborigines in Australian society and concludes that their revitalization will occur only when they manage to make economic self-sufficiency subordinate to a viable and firm view of existence. He critically integrates into his analyses and interpretations the positions of such well-known scholars as Frazer, Durkheim, Freud, Lévi-Strauss, Radcliffe-Brown, Eliade, and Stanner. The volume will be of interest to students of sociology, anthropology, and religion.

Written by one of Japan's foremost contemporary thinkers and scholars, Zen and Modern Society is the third in a series of essay collections on Zen Buddhism as seen in the context of Western thought. Throughout his career, Masao Abe has articulated the meaning of Zen thought in a uniquely compelling way - at once, true to the original tradition and appropriately relevant to a variety of comparative standpoints, ranging from Biblical Judeo-Christianity to modern existentialism, phenomenology, and postmodernism. As a leading representative of the Kyoto School, which has sought a critical, comparative linking of Eastern and Western thought, Abe has based his approach on constructive, mutually respectful yet critical intellectual interaction and dialogue with some of the leading figures in the West (including Paul Tillich, Hans Kung, and Eugene Borowitz) as well as dozens of colleagues, students, and disciples. Together with the previous volumes, this work examines and exemplifies some key features of Kyoto School thought. While the essays presented here should be read in light of the socio-political criticism that has since been lodged against the Kyoto School and, more particularly, i

This translation of a 1982 volume published in Bern (Paul Haupt Verlag) by a Swiss theologian with a longstanding interest in dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity features an examination of the Kyoto school of Japanese philosophers who attempted to engage with both Christianity and secular Wes