Get the Summary of Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "Zen in the Art of Archery" by Eugen Herrigel explores the spiritual discipline of Japanese archery, or Kyudo, which transcends mere physical skill and becomes a path to self-mastery and enlightenment. Herrigel recounts his six-year apprenticeship in Japan, where he learns that the essence of archery is an internal struggle, aiming at oneself, and becoming one with the bow, the arrow, and the target. The book delves into the importance of breathing, relaxation, and the right mental state for archery, which are deeply rooted in Zen Buddhism...

‘Both knowledge and truth are beautiful things, but the Good is other and more beautiful than they.’ — Plato, Republic, 508e. This book traces the multiple meanings of art back to their historical roots, and equips the reader to choose between them. Art with a capital A turns out to be an invention of German Romantic philosophers, who endowed their creation with the attributes of genius, originality, rule breaking, and self-expression, directed by the spirit of the age. Recovering the problems that these attributes were devised to solve dispels many of the obscurities and contradictions that accompany them. What artists have always sought is excellence, and they become artists in so far as they achieve it. Quality was the supreme value in Renaissance Italy, and in early Greece it offered mortals glimpses of the divine. Today art historians avoid references to beauty or Quality, since neither is objective or definable, the boundaries beyond which scholars dare not roam. In reality subject and object are united and dissolved in the Quality event, which forms the bow wave of culture, leaving patterns of value and meaning in its wake.

Discusses the principles of Zen Buddhism involved in the practice of archery and shares the author's experiences studying both in Japan.

The story of Jesus is well-known worldwide. But have you ever wondered if it is the true and complete story of the Savior? Could there be more to the Son of God? Author Audrey Carr addresses those questions in The Greatest Story Never Told: An Advanced Understanding of Christianity. She not only presents the real story of Jesus, in which he did not die on the cross, but also includes his unitary gospel of oneness with God that traditional Christianity has missed. Quoting from highly documented, scholarly works, this story of Jesus incorporates Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. With details and maps of his many years in India, Carr provides a photograph of his real tomb in Kashmir. Carr also offers information about meditation techniques he practiced, for Jesus was not a Christian but a Hindu-Buddha! The Kingdom of Heaven was his term for Enlightened Consciousness. Unlike other scholarly books, The Greatest Story Never Told is intended for the everyday person. Readers will come away with a new, meaningful, life-changing understanding of Jesus and his teachings. Carr seeks to destroy what is false and resuscitate the real truth, beyond all myths, and she reveals the connections between major religions. Spiritually uplifting and challenging, The Greatest Story Never Told is for anyone who is ready for an advanced understanding of Jesus and all the other God-men of the ages who have realized their divine identity.

In May 1956, in his eighty-second year, Jung first discussed with Gerhard Adler the question of the publication of his letters. Over many years, Jung had often used the medium of letters to communicate his ideas to others and to clarify the interpretation of his work, quite apart from answering people who approached him with genuine problems of their own and simply corresponding with friends and colleagues. Many of his letters thus contain new creative ideas and provide a running commentary on his work. From some 1,600 letters written by Jung between the years 1906-1961, the editors have selected over 1,000. Volume 2 contains 460 letters written between 1951 and 1961, during the last years of Jung's life, when he was in contact with many people whose names are familiar to the English reader. These include Mircea Eliade, R.F.C. Hull, Ernest Jones, Herbert Read, J.B. Rhine, Upton Sinclair and Fr. Victor White. Volume 2 also contains an addenda with sixteen letters from the period 1915-1946 and a subject index to both volumes. The annotation throughout is detailed and authoritative.

The Encyclopedia of the Piano was selected in its first edition as a Choice Outstanding Book and remains a fascinating and unparalleled reference work. The instrument has been at the center of music history with even composers of large symphonic work asserting that they do not write anything without sketching it out first on a piano; its limitations and expressive capacity have done much to shape the contours of the western musical idiom. Within the scope of this user-friendly guide is everything from the acoustics and construction of the piano to the history of the companies that have built them. The piano-lover might also be surprised to find an entry for Thomas Jefferson, and will no doubt read intently the passages about the changing history of the piano's place in the home. Uniformly well-written and authoritative, this guide will channel anyone's love for the instrument, through social, intellectual, art history and beyond into the electronic age.

An entertaining and insightful history of martial arts and the role of the warrior, drawing on pop culture, philosophy, mythology, religion, and spirituality The urge to forge one’s character by fighting, in daily life as well as on the mat, appeals to something deep within us. More than a collection of fighting techniques, martial arts constitute a path to developing body, spirit, and awareness. On the Warrior’s Path connects the martial arts with this larger perspective, merging subtle philosophies with no-holds-barred competition, Nietzsche with Bruce Lee, radical Taoism and Buddhism with the Star Wars Trilogy, traditional martial arts with basketball and American Indian culture. At the center of all these phenomena is the warrior. Though this archetype seems to manifest contradictory values, author Daniele Bolelli describes the heart of this tension: how the training of martial technique leads to a renunciation of violence, and how overcoming fear leads to a unique freedom. Aimed at students at any level or tradition of martial arts but also accessible to the armchair warrior, On the Warrior’s Path brings fresh insights to why martial arts remains an enduring and widespread art and discipline. Two new chapters in this second edition focus on spirituality in the martial arts and the author’s personal journey in the field.

Marxism and Art is a collection of basic readings in Marxist criticism and aesthetics.

Buddhism or Buddhisms? By the time they move on to Buddhism in Japan, many students who have studied its origins in India ask whether this is in fact the same religion, so different can they appear. In Buddhisms: An Introduction, Professor John S. Strong provides an overview of the Buddhist tradition in all its different forms around the world. Beginning at the modern day temples of Lumbini, where the Buddha was born, Strong takes us through the life of the Buddha and a study of Buddhist Doctrine, revealing how Buddhism has changed just as it has stayed the same. Finally, Strong examines the nature of Buddhist community life and its development today in the very different environments of Thailand, Japan, and Tibet. Enriched by the author’s own insights gathered over forty years, Buddhisms never loses sight of the personal experience amidst the wide-scope of its subject. Clear in its explanations, replete with tables and suggestions for further reading, this is an essential new work that makes original contributions to the study of this 2,500 year-old religion.

If you're good at finding the one right answer to life's multiple-choice questions, you're "smart." But "intelligence" is what you need when contemplating the leftovers in the refrigerator, trying to figure out what might go with them; or if you're trying to speak a sentence that you've never spoken before. As Jean Piaget said, intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do, when all the standard answers are inadequate. This book tries to fathom how our inner life evolves from one topic to another, as we create and reject alternatives. Ever since Darwin, we've known that elegant things can emerge (indeed, self-organize) from "simpler" beginnings. And, says theoretical neurophysiologist William H. Calvin, the bootstrapping of new ideas works much like the immune response or the evolution of a new animal species -- except that the brain can turn the Darwinian crank a lot faster, on the time scale of thought and action. Drawing on anthropology, evolutionary biology, linguistics, and the neurosciences, Calvin also considers how a more intelligent brain developed using slow biological improvements over the last few million years. Long ago, evolving jack-of-all trades versatility was encouraged by abrupt climate changes. Now, evolving intelligence uses a nonbiological track: augmenting human intelligence and building intelligent machines.