The Rope And The Snake Is One Of The Popular Metaphors Employed In The Pedagogical And Didactic Expositions Of Advaita Vedanta. This Sustained And Extended Study Argues That The Metaphor Is Only A Good Starting Point In Explaining Advaita Vedanta. It Further Explores The Utility, Versatility And Occasional Inapplicability Of The Metaphor In The Study Of Advaita.

While there are many psychological monographs on Hinduism, no work has surveyed the history of that tradition in a sustained way. Thus, The Snake and the Rope: A Jungian View of Hinduism breaks new ground both for religious studies and for psychology. Trained on both sides of the argument, the author of this work is uniquely qualified to elucidate what, for example, the Vedic hymns meant to the people who composed them and what they might mean for us today. He shows us what karma means for Hindus and what Jung says it canmean for us. We learn how Jungians use the term "Self" that Jung borrowed from the Upanishads and how it is the same and different in its new, modern context. The reader will witness a red thread of "goddess worship" from earliest India to Classical Hinduism. Jung says the modern equivalent is devotion to the collective unconscious deep within ourselves. Having served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a Thai village in the late 1960's, George R. Elder returned to the States to earn a Ph. D. in Buddhist Studies from Columbia University. He subsequently taught Comparative Religions at Hunter College (City University of New York) and would co-chair the Religion Program for several years. In 1989, Dr. Elder and his family relocated to Florida. He trained to become a Jungian analyst and maintains a professional relationship with the C.G. Jung Study Center of Southern California. His works include The Body: An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism in collaboration with ARAS (Shambhala, 1996). He recently co-edited An American Jungian: In Honor of Edward F. Edinger(Inner City, 2009).

"Skipping home is a piece of cake, when you've got your very own skipping-rope snake!"--Back cover.

Robert Twigger goes to the Far East in search of the world's longest snake - 'echoes of Gerald Durrell's trips crossed with Redmond O'Hanlon's foray into the heart of Borneo . . . a fantastic book' DAILY MAIL About to be married, Robert Twigger decides on his last great adventure as a bachelor. Surfing the net, he discovers the Roosevelt Prize - worth $50,000 - for the capture of a live 30 foot python. Armed only with a tin of High Toast Snuff (deadly if sniffed by a snake), Twigger sets off into the remote jungles of Indonesia in search of his prey. Along the way, he investigates the legendarily beautiful women of Sulawesi, treads in Nabokov's footsteps, looks for giant snakes beneath the sewers of Kuala Lumpur, and spends time with a variety of snake catchers and cults. After being caught up in anti-Chinese riots and surviving on greasy civet cat in the jungle, Twigger finally comes face to face with the big one; but the final capture is not quite what he had in mind.

This volume summarizes what we know of early Advaita Vedanta upto the Samkara's pupils, Suresvara, Padmapada, Totaka and Hanstamalaka. An analytical introduction by the editor introduces the reader to the concepts utilized by Gaudapada, Samkaracarya and mandana Misra in expounding and defending the Advaita view. This is followed by summaries of all the authentic Advaita works of these authors, together with those of Suresvara and Padmapada as well as a number of other works which have been attributed to samkara, Totaka and Hastamalaka. This volume is divided into two parts and is enriched with an elaborate introduction discussing briefly the history of the school, its theories of value, language and relations and its metaphysics and epistemology. Contents Preface, Part one: Introduction to the philosophy of advaita vedanta, PART Two: Summaries of Works, Notes, Index.

This complete guide to enlightenment presents the wisdom of the ancient science of self-inquiry, a time-tested means for achieving spiritual freedom. The author convincingly refutes the popular view that enlightenment is a unique state of consciousness and debunks a host of other myths. In his straightforward style he reveals proven methods for purifying the mind, and takes the reader from the beginning to the end of the spiritual path, patiently unfolding the logic of self-inquiry.

On Indic philosophy.