Enlightenment Without God

Enlightenment Without God
Author: Swami Rama
Publisher: Himalayan Institute Press
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1982
Genre: History
ISBN:

It is a common misconception that a spiritual seeker must have faith in a god or divine entity to achieve self-realization. When one understands the teachings of the Upanishads, enlightenment is possible here and now without the word "God." The Mandukya Upanishad is for those students who want to practice spirituality without resorting to unnecessary abstract concepts. The Mandukya Upanishad provides a comprehensive map for the inward journey that shows the individual the way from the mundane to the eternal. It describes this state as the ultimate reality and the goal of human existence. When one understands the teachings of the Upanishads, then one realizes that life itself is a sort of worship that can shine on the altar of infinity. --From Chapter 1, "Awakening"

God in the Enlightenment

God in the Enlightenment
Author: William J. Bulman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2016-04-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190267097

We have long been taught that the Enlightenment was an attempt to free the world from the clutches of Christian civilization and make it safe for philosophy. The lesson has been well learned. In today's culture wars, both liberals and their conservative enemies, inside and outside the academy, rest their claims about the present on the notion that the Enlightenment was a secularist movement of philosophically driven emancipation. Historians have had doubts about the accuracy of this portrait for some time, but they have never managed to furnish a viable alternative to it-for themselves, for scholars interested in matters of church and state, or for the public at large. In this book, William J. Bulman and Robert G. Ingram bring together recent scholarship from distinguished experts in history, theology, and literature to make clear that God not only survived the Enlightenment but thrived within it as well. The Enlightenment was not a radical break from the past in which Europeans jettisoned their intellectual and institutional inheritance. It was, to be sure, a moment of great change, but one in which the characteristic convictions and traditions of the Renaissance and Reformation were perpetuated to the point of transformation, in the wake of the Wars of Religion and during the early phases of globalization. The Enlightenment's primary imperatives were not freedom and irreligion but peace and prosperity. As a result, Enlightenment could be Christian, communitarian, or authoritarian as easily as it could be atheistic, individualistic, or libertarian. Honing in on the intellectual crisis of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries while moving from Spinoza to Kant and from India to Peru, God in the Enlightenment takes a prism to the age of lights.

No Religion Without Idolatry

No Religion Without Idolatry
Author: Gideon Freudenthal
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-09-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9780268206635

No Religion without Idolatry offers an interpretation of Mendelssohn's general philosophy and discusses for the first time his semiotic interpretation of idolatry in his commentaries.

Sense and Goodness Without God

Sense and Goodness Without God
Author: Richard Carrier
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2005-02-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1452059268

If God does not exist, then what does? Is there good and evil, and should we care? How do we know what’s true anyway? And can we make any sense of this universe, or our own lives? Sense and Goodness answers all these questions in lavish detail, without complex jargon. A complete worldview is presented and defended, covering every subject from knowledge to art, from metaphysics to morality, from theology to politics. Topics include free will, the nature of the universe, the meaning of life, and much more, arguing from scientific evidence that there is only a physical, natural world without gods or spirits, but that we can still live a life of love, meaning, and joy.

Enlightenment Now

Enlightenment Now
Author: Steven Pinker
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2018-02-13
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0525427570

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR "My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. By the author of the new book, Rationality. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

Embodied Enlightenment

Embodied Enlightenment
Author: Amoda Maa Jeevan
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2017-06-01
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1626258414

In Embodied Enlightenment, contemporary spiritual teacher Amoda Maa Jeevan dispels the outdated view of a transcendent enlightenment and instead presents a new, feminine expression of awakened consciousness for all—one that is felt and known through what our everyday lives are made of: our emotions, bodies, intimate relationships, work, and life’s purpose. This book is a direct invitation to awaken in a profound, embodied way, and to participate in a collective evolution that can create a new world. When many of us think of enlightenment, we may envision a life of seclusion and contemplation, transcending the body and worldly attachments, or the achievement of karmic perfection. But what if, rather than something reserved for the mountaintop meditator or sage, the call to awaken is meant for us all? And how can we consciously live that awakening in the midst of our complex, messy, modern lives? Speaking from her own awakened experience, Amoda Maa Jeevan offers a timeless wisdom, busting some of the common myths about enlightenment and addressing topics often excluded from more traditional spiritual conversations—from the connection between consciousness and the body to relationships to planetary health. In addition, she covers the unfamiliar territory of what happens after enlightenment, delving into awakened action, creative expression, and more. There’s an urgency today to evolve beyond humanity’s current ego-based paradigm, and along with it, a unique expression of enlightenment is emerging. With clarity, passion, and grace, Embodied Enlightenment invites you on an exploration of consciousness that embraces both the messiness of your earthly experience and the non-duality of pure awareness, offering guidance on how your daily life can bring you into alignment with a divine destiny of individual and collective awakening.

Sadhana: The Path to Enlightenment

Sadhana: The Path to Enlightenment
Author: Swami Rama
Publisher: Lotus Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2012-02
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 8188157686

The focus of the second volume of Yoga the Sacred Science is sadhana, spiritual practice. In this volume Swami Rama reminds us that we are here in this world because we have a purpose to fulfill. That purpose is enlightenment, a state of awareness of the Self, the one Absolute beneath all forms and names. The height of enlightenment is the realization that God is within. The path to enlightenment is sadhana.

Reasonable Faith

Reasonable Faith
Author: William Lane Craig
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433501155

This updated edition by one of the world's leading apologists presents a systematic, positive case for Christianity that reflects the latest work in the contemporary hard sciences and humanities. Brilliant and accessible.

The Power of Now

The Power of Now
Author: Eckhart Tolle
Publisher: New World Library
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2010-10-06
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1577313119

Celebrating 25 Years as a New York Times Bestseller — Over 16 Million Copies Sold It’s no wonder that The Power of Now has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light. In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being, “the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.” Featuring a new preface by the author, this paperback shows that only after regaining awareness of Being, liberated from Mind and intensely in the Now, is there Enlightenment.

God Is Not Great

God Is Not Great
Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2008-11-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1551991764

Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.