schinko94's reviews
107 reviews

This is maybe one of the most important pieces on socialism outside of literature written by Marx and Engels themselves. Oscar Wilde speaks of truths in this piece that are so timeless that they ring true today. As he says, "'Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written. And the message of Christ to man was simply 'Be thyself.' That is the secret of Christ." Such eloquent words from a man who was so thoroughly mistreated by the very society that he derides in this essay.

Excellent commentary on primordial awareness from the great Tibetan master himself, Padmasambhava

This is a great book! If you're looking for a "secular" book on lucid dreaming, though, this isn't it. This is lucid dreaming through the lense of Tibetan Buddhism. (There's nothing wrong with that, though, because as it turns out, Buddhism is the truth)

This book is interesting--You can tell that Francis Tiso is an incredibly well studied scholar, so it surprised me when I didn't agree with the overall premise of the book, which is that Tibetan Buddhism is foundationally influenced by contemplative Christianity, and that Christian meditation practices were the originators of tantric points of view. This just seems silly to me, because Occam's razor says that East Asian Buddhism was almost certainly more influential on Tibetan Buddhism during its formation, as well as Tantric Hinduism--Chan and Hindu meditation practices are extremely similar to (although not exactly the same as) many Tibetan meditation practices, so it seems superfluous to say that these practices come from an external non-dharmic source. It feels a bit like Tiso is trying to shove Christianity into the conversation when it doesn't need to be put there (which is par for the course in the history of Christianity, in my opinion).

In fact, I would flip the book's thesis on its head--Buddhism was well-known in Judea during the period when Christ was alive, so it's more likely that Buddhism (albeit not Tibetan Buddhism) was foundationally influential to Christianity, and not the other way around. If Buddhism influenced Christianity first, then it's not hard to theorize that Christian contemplative practices could have been the culmination of that influence. Many of Jesus' main teachings are strikingly similar to those of the Buddha, and they don't have a precedent in Halakhic Jewish law. It seems more apropos to say that Jesus' teachings were a combination of Buddhist Humanism and Jewish apocalypticism if we're going to postulate about which tradition influenced the other. All in all, I didn't find this book very impressive for that reason, despite the extensive citing of the Dunhuang Cave library throughout the text.

Good stuff, really 4.5 stars from me. This book offers helpful suggestions concerning lucid dreaming, and there's even a chapter on supplements that could potentially help the dreaming process! I practice Tibetan dream yoga, so I found some of the stuff about the "hero's journey" to be a little corny, and I'm also a little concerned about how much this author focuses on Jung and Freud. In my experience, you can meet real beings in your dreams that have real effects on your life, and not everything is a part of your subconscious (or, as the Tibetans say, all experience is a part of your subconscious and nothing else really exists). On the whole though, this book is pretty amazing, and I'll likely reference it quite a bit during my future practice.

Really 4.5 stars--This book is a DESPERATELY needed clarification of karmamudra and its role in tantra. Dr. Nida is an accepting and practical teacher who is one of the foremost lineage holders of the Yuthok Nyingthig terma teachings. I would highly recommend this book to those who are looking to incorporate their sexuality into their already-existing dharma practice.

My only criticism is that, since this book is actually a compilation of talks given by Dr. Nida at various locations, it can be a little repetitive at times. However, the benefits of this book certainly outweigh any faults it may have, and I would still say that it's a must-read for any Tibetan Buddhist practitioner. It also made me consider buying the Yuthok Nyingthig course that Dr. Nida offers through his website, which would no doubt prepare one to practice any of the points referenced in this text and the root texts needed for sadhana.

(Really 3.5 stars). This book was interesting but not for the reasons that I picked it up. I think Professor Gleiser makes a compelling argument for the rarity of complex life and the naivete of hoping for a unified theory of physics. The science seems to back up his opinion that a unified field theory is a chimera that probably won't be found, and he gives a useful (if dense for me personally) crash course in particle physics. I can't pretend that I understand everything that he was talking about, but he made it as simple as he could without cutting scientific corners.

I was hoping, though, that Gleiser might pay more attention to the philosophical implications of conscious experience at the end of the book. He pays a lot of attention to how life itself can emerge from organic materials, but he doesn't pay a lot of attention to the so-called "hard problem" of consciousness. For example, it's perfectly possible to be alive but not be conscious of external phenomena. We can talk all we want about evolution and the drive to survive, but why is life inherently concerned with self-preservation and self-duplication in the first place if it's just a complex interaction of electricity, magnetism, and chemical reactions? Why wasn't there just one flicker of life that didn't continue beyond the last universal common ancestor? How does a sentient experiencer arise from a chain of amino acids? What is the difference between sentient matter and insentient matter? If life really is just a series of chemical reactions, magnetism, and electricity, then why haven't we figured out how to produce living cells out of a soup of amino acids?

I realize these questions are not the concern of Gleiser's thesis, but these were the types of questions I had after receiving the particle physics crash course in this book. Oh well, maybe I should just stick to philosophy books instead.

This is an essential text for all Vajrayana practitioners. The sadhana included at the end of the text is concise and beautiful, and I will absolutely incorporate it into my daily meditation.

This is an old-timey look at precolonial Tibet, and it contains some interesting vignettes about a Westerner travelling through the region. However, since the author is a Westerner and also from a major empire, this book is stained with a lot of racist and orientalist language. We can't expect more from an author who was writing in the early 20th century, but as a modern reader, it still puts a bad taste in my mouth.

This is an excellent book for answering beginners' questions about anarchism and why it is a practical, non-authoritarian political philosophy. Gelderloos provides many examples of non-statist societies and their cultural dynamics, as well as examples of what happens when a state is arbitrarily imposed upon them. Really an invaluable work for anyone who needs anarchism put into easy-to-read, accessible language.