As critical voices question the quality, authenticity, and value of people, goods, and words in post-Mao China, accusations of emptiness render things open to new investments of meaning, substance, and value. Exploring the production of lack and desire through fine-grained ethnography, this volume examines how diagnoses of emptiness operate in a range of very different domains in contemporary China: In the ostensibly meritocratic exam system and the rhetoric of officials, in underground churches, housing bubbles, and nationalist fantasies, in bodies possessed by spirits and evaluations of jade, there is a pervasive concern with states of lack and emptiness and the contributions suggest that this play of emptiness and fullness is crucial to ongoing constructions of quality, value, and subjectivity in China.

Conflict is an inevitable part of life, according to this ancient Chinese classic of strategy, but everything necessary to deal with conflict wisely, honorably, victoriously, is already present within us. Compiled more than two thousand years ago by a mysterious warrior-philosopher, The Art of War is still perhaps the most prestigious and influential book of strategy in the world, as eagerly studied in Asia by modern politicians and executives as it has been by military leaders since ancient times. As a study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict, The Art of War applies to competition and conflict in general, on every level from the interpersonal to the international. Its aim is invincibility, victory without battle, and unassailable strength through understanding the physics, politics, and psychology of conflict.

Fullness of an Empty Life is the autobiography of Ivars S. Oberfelds, in which he chronicles his multiple sexual exploits, a string of failed relationships and discarded families, as he searches for an exclusive answer to the question, "Who am I?" Amid the dead ends, broken promises, and narcissism that permeate the pages of this manuscript, the author finally comes to peace with God and embraces a second chance at life.

The author challenges the breach between the secular and the religious, rendering that breach ambiguous. Such ambiguity, the author affirms, is relevant to a time when rigid and simplistic notions of religion and secularity are used to justify thoughtlessness and even violence. All too often the secular is thought of either as a triumph in "overcoming" the presumed irrationality and oppression of religion, or as lament in "losing" the meaning religion is thought once to have offered. Atchley suggests a view of the secular as an opportunity to experience an immanent value that is neither controlled by the human self nor conferred by a divine entity.

In premodern China, painters used imagery not to mirror the world, but to evoke unfathomable experience. Considering this art alongside the philosophical traditions that inform it, this book explores the 'nonobject', a notion exemplified by paintings that do not seek to represent observable surroundings.

It is 1985. Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, cosmologist, author, and teacher, living in the Palani hills of South India, begins a correspondence with a new student residing in New York City. Some years prior, after 18 years as a Catholic nun, the student left the religious life. She went on to become a psychotherapist, and explored many of the ‘New Age’ spiritual teachings gaining popularity in the West. Patrizia asks the student why none of these pursuits has provided the answers she was seeking. Why has she turned to Patrizia for answers? These letters reveal an entirely New Way of approaching the desire for inner peace, the pursuit of Truth, as well as the limits of 'personal enlightenment'. Heeding her teacher’s advice that she make a big leap into the unknown, the new student begins her studies. She finds that our mental race is ‘in transition’ to a Supramental consciousness now descending to earth: a new species is being born. Her old spiritual path and psychotherapy cannot ‘fill the void’ because humankind is moving up the evolutionary ladder. It is Sri Aurobindo’s yoga that offers a way to transform human nature; Patrizia’s contribution to his new vision is The Gnostic Circle. This diagram displaces the old astrology by offering a cosmology to help the student get the correct balance. No longer will her individual development be the central focus, Patrizia informs (25 August letter); rather all three aspects of the Divine reality become synthesised in the spiritual quest: God, cosmos and her own soul. ‘Mind you, this has never been done before’, she exclaims, ‘it has always been one or the other.’

Poverty, inequality, violent conflicts, climate change, migration, racism, burn-out are just a few of the symptoms showing how living life to the fullest is out of reach for so many people in our world. Is, then, seeking 'fullness of life and justice for all' not a too ambitious project? For nothing less than the wellbeing of humanity - and in extension, the whole of creation - is at stake. On the other hand, we see people responding, acting and struggling for justice, liberation and a more sustainable world. How to make sense of the ideas of fullness of life and justice for all, in light of the many crises humanity currently faces but also the glimpses of positive and hopeful responses? Even more so, how to make sense theologically? In this volume twenty authors reflect on how the notions of fullness of life and justice for all are theoretically conceived and have practically taken form from within Dominican theology and spirituality. The contributions on youth spirituality, contemplation, art as a means to community building, gender, pluralization, populism and management discuss the fullness of life in both its material and spiritual dimensions. The question on justice for all is raised in confrontation with issues such as poverty, migration, ecological threats and the role of virtues in society. In this way, the book aims to uncover a variety of Dominican perspectives as valuable contributions to a broader dialogue on the fullness of life and justice for all.

An inviting guide to nondual awakening that is fully embodied, deeply connected, and available in every moment The Fullness of the Ground distills Dr. Judith Blackstone’s decades of teaching into the essentials of the nondual spiritual path. Embodied nondual realization can have a profound effect on your senses, your experience of your own authentic existence, and your relationships and ability to love. The first part of this guide introduces the lived experience of nondual awakening as the uncovering of a subtle, fundamental consciousness that pervades your body and environment—the ground of your individual wholeness, the fullness of your embodied being, and unity with everything around you. The second part shares Dr. Blackstone’s signature path to nondual awakening, the Realization Process®, with effective practices for recognizing, embodying, and stabilizing nondual realization. And the third part describes ways to bring this awareness into your daily life and relationships. In practicing this work, you will learn how to: • Deepen your connection with your body, your breath, and your environment • Attune to fundamental consciousness at any time, in any setting • Awaken to a stable realization of nonduality • Cultivate happiness, authenticity, and presence This guide offers a powerful yet accessible invitation to experience the essential oneness that underlies all life.