Middle Way Philosophy 1: The Path of Objectivity

Middle Way Philosophy 1: The Path of Objectivity
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2012-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1471632652

Initially inspired by the Buddha's Middle Way, but working in Western Philosophy and related disciplines, Robert M. Ellis first developed Middle Way Philosophy in a Ph.D. thesis in 2001. This new detailed account is the product of a further ten years of refinement of his approach, and concentrates on the philosophical core. It will be followed by further volumes focusing more on the psychological and practical implications of the philosophy. Middle Way Philosophy aims to clear the ground for practical progress. It challenges many entrenched assumptions, including those of analytic philosophy. It also offers a new account of objectivity, as an incremental quality that helps us to engage with all conditions in our experience. It insists on a consistent approach to both facts and values that avoids both absolute claims and relativism. An important, original work, that should get the widest possible hearing. Iain McGilchrist, author of 'The Master and his Emissary'

Middle Way Philosophy

Middle Way Philosophy
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 710
Release: 2015-07-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1326343793

"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.

Migglism: A Beginner's Guide to Middle Way Philosophy

Migglism: A Beginner's Guide to Middle Way Philosophy
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2014-05-20
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1291871845

'Migglism' is a short term for Middle Way Philosophy, a practical philosophical approach developed by Robert M. Ellis in a Ph.D. thesis and a series of books. Middle Way Philosophy brings together insights from Buddhism, philosophy and psychology to offer a framework of thinking for a range of integrative practices. This book introduces these ideas in an accessible way. 'The Middle Way' is not a compromise, but a process of navigating between dogmatic extremes. By avoiding either positive or negative claims that go beyond experience, we can find a new way of thinking, valuing and practising. Approved by the Middle Way Society. ""The middle is the chaotic and confusing place between the extremes. While the extremes are simpler and more attractive, it is in the mess in the middle where the interesting and creative activities occur - it is where we should be. Robert sets out a foundation for a way of thinking about the middle ground as a place to move towards."" Ed Catmull, President of Pixar.

Middle Way Philosophy 2: The Integration of Desire

Middle Way Philosophy 2: The Integration of Desire
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2013-02-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1291330046

We are not single selves, but constantly meet conflicts of desire both within and beyond ourselves. We meet conflict at different levels, from everyday distraction, to the suffering of the addict, through even to world war. The integration of desire is the process of bringing opposing desires to work together, whether at the psychological or the political level. Robert M Ellis here brings together approaches that have previously been separated, drawing on ethics, psychology, philosophy, history, politics, and Buddhism to suggest a common pattern in the resolution of conflict at all levels. This is the second volume of a planned 5-volume series on Middle Way Philosophy, and follows the first volume, which set out an overall philosophical approach to applying the Buddha's Middle Way in the modern Western context. The Jungian concept of integration is here combined with the philosophical approach of the Middle Way to offer a practical way forward beyond absolutism and relativism

Middle Way Philosophy 4: The Integration of Belief

Middle Way Philosophy 4: The Integration of Belief
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 714
Release: 2015-02-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1326174266

This fourth volume of the Middle Way Philosophy series uses cognitive psychology and balanced sceptical philosophy to explain both how we get stuck in dogmas, and how provisionality is possible. It is argued that we can make progress both in avoiding delusions and developing wisdom not by finding 'truth' or employing 'rationality', but rather through awareness of our assumptions. We need not ultimately true beliefs (as is often assumed), but judgements that are more adequate to each new set of conditions. The book includes a wide survey of the cognitive biases identified by psychology, with an argument that the practically important aspect of each is an absolutising assumption that we could potentially avoid through awareness. Robert M Ellis's work on Middle Way Philosophy has been described by Iain McGilchrist, author of 'The Master and his Emissary' as ""Important, original work...a departure at right angles to typical thinking in the modern Western world.""

Middle Way Philosophy 3: The Integration of Meaning

Middle Way Philosophy 3: The Integration of Meaning
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2013-12-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1291660283

This third volume of the Middle Way Philosophy series applies the revolutionary view, taken from cognitive science, that meaning is found in our bodies rather than in a relationship between language and reality. The cognitive meaning found in dictionaries and the emotive 'meaning of life' cannot be separated. This approach reveals the basic error of the metaphysical views that depend on absolute cognitive meaning. It also provides the basis for an account of how we can integrate meaning. Each new time we connect an experience to a symbol we extend meaning in a way that gives us more resources to develop more adequate beliefs. The practice of integrating meaning can be promoted by the arts, meditation and focusing, and can also involve working to resolve archetypes. Middle Way Philosophy was first developed by Robert M Ellis in a Ph.D. thesis, and he has now founded the Middle Way Society for the development and practice of the Middle Way beyond religious tradition.

The Christian Middle Way

The Christian Middle Way
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2018-07-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1785357573

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.

Parables of the Middle Way

Parables of the Middle Way
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2016-05-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1326648764

'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.

The Middle Way

The Middle Way
Author: Dalai Lama
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2010-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 145878407X

In this luminous presentation, the Dalai Lama lays out the Middle Way - the way of the intelligent person who approaches all matters, including matters of faith and devotion, with the highest spirit of critical inquiry and does so without fall...

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
Author: Stephen Batchelor
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2010-03-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1588369846

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.