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Neo-Advaita Teachers
Neo-Advaita, also called the Satsang-movement, is a new religious movement, emphasizing the direct recognition of the non-existence of the "I" or "ego," without the need of preparatory practice. Its teachings are derived from, but not authorised by, the teachings of the 20th century sage Ramana Maharshi, as interpreted and popularized by H. W. L. Poonja and several of his western students. It is part of a larger religious current called ''Immediatism (spirituality), immediatism'' by Arthur Versluis, which has its roots in both western and eastern spirituality. Western influences are western esoteric traditions like Transcendentalism, and "New Age, New Age millennialism, self-empowerment and self-therapy". Neo-Advaita makes little use of the "traditional language or cultural frames of Advaita Vedanta", and some have criticised it for its lack of preparatory training, and regard enlightenment-experiences induced by Neo-Advaita as superficial. Teachings The basic practice of neo-A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Religious Movement
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or Spirituality, spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing Religious denomination, denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges that the modernizing world poses to them by embracing individualism, while other NRMs deal with them by embracing tightly knit collective means. Scholars have estimated that NRMs number in the tens of thousands worldwide. Most NRMs only have a few members, some of them have thousands of members, and a few of them have more than a million members.Eileen Barker, 1999, "New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance", ''New Religious Movements: challenge and response'', Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell editors, Routledge There is no single, agreed-upon criterion for defining a "new religi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda () (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindus, Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was a major figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world, and is credited with raising Interfaith dialogue, interfaith awareness and elevating Hinduism to the status of a major world religion. Born into an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Vivekananda showed an early inclination towards religion and spirituality. At the age of 18, he met Ramakrishna and became his devoted disciple, and later took up the vows of a ''sannyasin'' (renunciate). Following Ramakrishna’s death, Vivekananda travelled extensively across the Indian subcontinent as a wandering monk, gaining first-hand knowledge of the often harsh living conditions endured by the Indian masses under then British India, he sought a way to alleviat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle ( ; ; born Ulrich Leonard Tölle, 16 February 1948) is a German-born spiritual teacher and self-help author. His books include ''The Power of Now, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment'' (1997), ''A New Earth, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose'' (2005) and the picture book ''Guardians of Being'' (2009). While working toward his doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 1977, Tolle abandoned his studies after a claimed Enlightenment in Buddhism, spiritual awakening and later began working as a spiritual teacher. He came to prominence as a self-help author beginning in the 2000s, aided through promotion by Oprah Winfrey. His teachings draw from traditions such as Zen Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, and Hinduism, although he remains unaffiliated with any religion. Early life Ulrich Leonard Tölle was born in Lünen, a small town north of Dortmund in the Ruhr region of Germany in 1948. In 1961 he moved to Spain to live with his father, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Modernism
Buddhist modernism (also referred to as modern Buddhism, modernist Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism, and Protestant Buddhism) are new movements based on modern era reinterpretations of Buddhism. David McMahan states that modernism in Buddhism is similar to those found in other religions. The sources of influences have variously been an engagement of Buddhist communities and teachers with the new cultures and methodologies such as "Western monotheism; rationalism and scientific naturalism; and Romantic expressivism". The influence of monotheism has been the internalization of Buddhist gods to make it acceptable in modern Western society, while scientific naturalism and romanticism has influenced the emphasis on current life, empirical defense, reason, psychological and health benefits. The Neo-Buddhism movements differ in their doctrines and practices from the historical, mainstream Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions. A co-creation of Western Orientalists and reform-mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vipassana Movement
The Vipassanā movement refers to a branch of modern Burmese Theravāda Buddhism that promotes "bare insight" (''sukha-Vipassana'') meditation practice to develop insight into the three marks of existence and attain stream entry. It gained widespread popularity since the 1950s, including through its western derivatives which have been popularised since the 1970s, giving rise to the more dhyana-oriented mindfulness movement. The Burmese Vipassana movement has its roots in the 19th century, when Theravada Buddhism came to be influenced by western modernism, and some monks tried to restore the Buddhist practice of meditation. Based on the commentaries, Ledi Sayadaw popularized ''Vipassana meditation'' for lay people, teaching '' samatha'' and stressing the practice of '' satipatthana'' to acquire '' Vipassana'' (insight) into the three marks of existence as the main means to attain the beginning of awakening and become a stream-enterer. It was greatly popularized in the 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orientalism
In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle East, was one of the many specialties of 19th-century academic art, and Western literature was influenced by a similar interest in Oriental themes. Since the publication of Edward Said's ''Orientalism (book), Orientalism'' in 1978, much academic discourse has begun to use the term 'Orientalism' to refer to a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies. In Said's analysis, 'the West' Essentialism, essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced in the service of Imperialism, imperial power. Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said, is the idea that Western society is developed, rational, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Structuralism
Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. Alternatively, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, structuralism is: Blackburn, Simon, ed. 2008. "Structuralism." In '' Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy'' (2nd rev. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. . p. 353."The belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract structure." History and background The term ''structuralism'' is ambiguous, referring to different schools of thought in different contexts. As such, the movement in humanities and social sciences called structuralism r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transpersonal Psychology
Transpersonal psychology, or spiritual psychology, is an area of psychology that seeks to integrate the spiritual and transcendent human experiences within the framework of modern psychology. Evolving from the humanistic psychology movement, transpersonal psychology emerged in the late 1960s, integrating spirituality and consciousness studies into psychological theory, as a response to perceived limitations of mainstream psychological approaches. The empirical validity and recognition of transpersonal psychology remains contentious in modern psychology. Early critics such as Ernest Hilgard have viewed it as a fringe movement that attracted extreme followers of humanistic psychology, while scholars such as Eugene Taylor have acknowledged the field's interdisciplinary approach, at the same time noting its epistemological and practical challenges. The field's connections to psychedelic substances, religious ideas, and the new age movement have also further fueled controver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Wilber
Kenneth Earl Wilber II (born January 31, 1949) is an American theorist and writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a four-quadrant grid which purports to encompass all human knowledge and experience. Starting publishing in the 1970s, his works were popular among a section of readers in the 1980s, but have lost popularity since the 1990s, retaining some popularity at dedicated web forums. Life and career Wilber was born in 1949 in Oklahoma City. In 1967 he enrolled as a pre-med student at Duke University. He became interested in psychology and Eastern spirituality. He left Duke and enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln studying biochemistry, but after a few years dropped out of university and began studying his own curriculum and writing. In 1973 Wilber completed his first book, ''The Spectrum of Consciousness'', in which he sought to integrate knowledge from disparate fields. After rejections by more than 20 publishers it was accepted in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Doors Of Perception
''The Doors of Perception'' is an autobiographical book written by Aldous Huxley. Published in 1954, it elaborates on his psychedelic experience under the influence of mescaline in May 1953. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, ranging from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision", and reflects on their philosophical and psychological implications. In 1956, he published '' Heaven and Hell'', another essay which elaborates these reflections further. The two works have since often been published together as one book; the title of both comes from William Blake's 1793 book '' The Marriage of Heaven and Hell''. ''The Doors of Perception'' provoked strong reactions for its evaluation of psychedelic drugs as facilitators of mystical insight with great potential benefits for science, art, and religion. While many found the argument compelling, others including German writer Thomas Mann, Vedantic monk Swami Prabhavananda, Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, and Orientalist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Perennial Philosophy
''The Perennial Philosophy'' is a comparative study of mysticism by the British writer and novelist Aldous Huxley. Its title derives from the theological tradition of ''perennial philosophy''. Context ''The Perennial Philosophy'' was published in 1945 immediately after the Second World War by Harper & Brothers in the United States (1946 by Chatto & Windus in the United Kingdom). The jacket text of the British first edition explains: The book offers readers, who are assumed to be familiar with the Christian religion and the Bible, a fresh approach employing Eastern and Western mysticism: The final paragraph of the jacket text states: Scope In the words of poet and anthologist John Robert Colombo: Style Huxley chose less well-known quotations because "familiarity with traditionally hallowed writings tends to breed, not indeed contempt, but ... a kind of reverential insensibility, ... an inward deafness to the meaning of the sacred words." So, for example, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine ''Oxford Poetry'', before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962. Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
