'Parables of the Middle Way' combines fiction and commentary to provide various imaginative ways into the core themes of Middle Way Philosophy already developed in Robert M Ellis's other books. The stories are either original, or adapted from a range of sources: philosophical, Buddhist and Christian. They include the story of a ship caught in a strait between two intractably opposed ports, an inside-out version of Plato's cave, a set of variations of the Good Samaritan suggesting all the other ways of doing good, and the early life of the Buddha transposed to eighteenth century England. Robert M. Ellis is the founder of the Middle Way Society, author of 'Migglism' and of the 'Middle Way Philosophy' series. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy as well as a long-standing interest in fiction, and is devoted to developing new and more adequate ways of thinking that can be applied in practice.
"A departure at right angles to thinking in the modern Western world. An important, original work, that should get the widest possible hearing" (Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and his Emissary) Middle Way Philosophy is not about compromise, but about the avoidance of dogma and the integration of conflicting assumptions. To rely on experience as our guide, we need to avoid the interpretation of experience through unnecessary dogmas. Drawing on a range of influences in Buddhist practice, Western philosophy and psychology, Middle Way Philosophy questions alike the assumptions of scientific naturalism, religious revelation and political absolutism, trying to separate what addresses experience in these doctrines from what is merely assumed. This Omnibus edition of Middle Way Philosophy includes all four of the volumes previously published separately: 1. The Path of Objectivity, 2. The Integration of Desire, 3. The Integration of Meaning, and 4. The Integration of Belief.
The Middle Way is the practical principle of avoiding both positive and negative absolutes, so as to develop provisional beliefs accessible to experience. Although inspired initially by the Buddha’s Middle Way, in Middle Way Philosophy Robert M. Ellis has developed it as a critical universalism: a way of separating the helpful from the unhelpful elements of any tradition. In this book, the Middle Way is applied to the Christian tradition in order to argue for a meaningful and positive interpretation of it, without the absolute beliefs that many assume to be essential to Christianity. Faith as an embodied, provisional confidence is distinguished from dogmatic belief. Recent developments in embodied meaning, brain lateralization from neuroscience, Jungian archetypes and the Jungian model of psychological integration are drawn on to support an account of how Christian faith is not only possible without ‘belief’ in God or Christ, but indeed puts us in a better position to access inspiration, moral purpose, responsibility and the basis of peace.
The human world is wobbly wildly off balance. Everywhere you look -- from the halls of Congress to the deserts of the Middle East -- institutions and societies are riven by discord. To his crisis-laden situation -- one that globalization cannot correct by economic means alone -- philosopher Lou Marinoff brings a much-needed antidote to extremism, offfering hope and guidance to everyone who feels powerless, frustrated, or frightened in a world that flirts daily with disaster. Drawing inspiration from three of humankind's greatest philosophers -- Aristotle, Buddha, and Confucius -- Marinoff maps a route from chaos to order, a path whose signposts can be read in the perennial wisdom of these "ABCs." Marinoff offers us a way to travel into a less violent, more cooperative, and most fulfilling future: "The Middle Way". -- From publisher's description.
The Middle Way is the first teaching offered by the Buddha in his first address, and the basis of his practical method in meditation, ethics, and wisdom. It is often mentioned in connection with Buddhist teachings, yet the full case for its importance has not yet been made. This book aims to make that case.
Does Buddhism require faith? Can an atheist or agnostic follow the Buddha’s teachings without believing in reincarnation or organized religion? This is one man’s confession. In his classic Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor offered a profound, secular approach to the teachings of the Buddha that struck an emotional chord with Western readers. Now, with the same brilliance and boldness of thought, he paints a groundbreaking portrait of the historical Buddha—told from the author’s unique perspective as a former Buddhist monk and modern seeker. Drawing from the original Pali Canon, the seminal collection of Buddhist discourses compiled after the Buddha’s death by his followers, Batchelor shows us the Buddha as a flesh-and-blood man who looked at life in a radically new way. Batchelor also reveals the everyday challenges and doubts of his own devotional journey—from meeting the Dalai Lama in India, to training as a Zen monk in Korea, to finding his path as a lay teacher of Buddhism living in France. Both controversial and deeply personal, Stephen Batchelor’s refreshingly doctrine-free, life-informed account is essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhism.
From the most ancient indicators of intellect, to the most modern of all discoveries, has come an amalgamation of this endless quest for knowledge into the never-ending story of everything. Within this book is contained answers to questions such as, but not limited to: When, and from where, has come the first intuitive ability to inquire into the nature of the physical environment that has surrounded mankind from the very beginning? One of the first and most enduring indications that it had come into existence seems to have been "written" into and onto the stones of antiquity. The much earlier sharpening of that ability seems to have turned into the mental process called "wondering;" that intuitive "inquiring" into the "how they came to be," of the things that drew Man's attention. The "flowering" of that ability eventually turned into the complicated choreograph defined as "thinking," both purposeful and abstract. And that, evolved into "systems of belief." (The acceptance of a proposition with less proof than would grant positive knowledge; a "surmise" into the nature of that which appeared to work toward the benefit of Man, long before any knowledge of why could even be contemplated.) Those "systems of belief" that delved into the dimly perceived spirit-side of Man's natural world, became known as "Religion." Many of these developed within pockets of isolation, the byproducts of Man's radiation over the face of the earth. Eventually, within that expansion, overlaps occurred. Confrontations became inevitable and "debates" over whose postulations represented the "real" Truths took on a kind of "life-and-death seriousness that has complicated all of our past as well as current history. Into this miasma of contention has intruded the newest "gatherer" of information called "Science" with the declaration that their "Facts" are superior to all previous understandings. This has bred a new and far more deadly "Battle of intellects." Now onto that scene appears a new "Voice" pleading for an understanding of the "commonality" that seems inherent within all knowledge gathering systems. Will it be heard within the thunder and lightening of the latest contenders for primacy? Only time will tell, as this Author makes his "best of all efforts" to intervene on behalf of this new attempt at a rationality that appears to rise above the mere insistence of prideful prerogatives. The reader is also given options to choose among, concerning where we may have come from; where we have been, both physically, culturally; and spiritually; where we may actually be in the greater scheme of things; and where we just might be going.This book is the end-result of that effort as illustrated in a previous paragraph. The six relatively short stories are a gift of entertainment meant as breaks in the contemplation of the serious investigation that this work represents. They are also illustrations depicting how one might have lived through the real-world events that the Bible seems to be a parable of.
This radical new assessment of Christian ethics offers a unique perspective on the relationship between Christianity and moral decision-making in an increasingly secular world.
Some twenty-five centuries after the Buddha started teaching, his message continues to inspire people across the globe, including those living in predominantly secular societies. What does it mean to adapt religious practices to secular contexts? Stephen Batchelor, an internationally known author and teacher, is committed to a secularized version of the Buddha’s teachings. The time has come, he feels, to articulate a coherent ethical, contemplative, and philosophical vision of Buddhism for our age. After Buddhism, the culmination of four decades of study and practice in the Tibetan, Zen, and Theravada traditions, is his attempt to set the record straight about who the Buddha was and what he was trying to teach. Combining critical readings of the earliest canonical texts with narrative accounts of five members of the Buddha’s inner circle, Batchelor depicts the Buddha as a pragmatic ethicist rather than a dogmatic metaphysician. He envisions Buddhism as a constantly evolving culture of awakening whose long survival is due to its capacity to reinvent itself and interact creatively with each society it encounters. This original and provocative book presents a new framework for understanding the remarkable spread of Buddhism in today’s globalized world. It also reminds us of what was so startling about the Buddha’s vision of human flourishing.
