Focusing on the evolution of Buddhist views of reality, this book is designed for intermediate and advanced practitioners seeking to enhance their understanding through both practice and study. It presents contemplations in accessible language, using contemporary metaphors to clarify traditional concepts. The text features insights from historical and contemporary meditation masters and scholars, illustrating key principles. Topics covered provide a comprehensive exploration of Buddhist ideas, making them relevant for today's practitioners.
"Into the Mirror is an integrative presentation of the Mahayana Buddhist view of the nature of reality, combining insights from modern Western philosophy, science, and physics to guide the reader on an experiential journey. Andy Karr invites the reader to engage in complex Buddhist ideas with guided contemplations, such as how to bring awareness to the textures of thoughts and feelings that come and go in meditation practice, how to investigate the way we impute qualities onto the objects we crave, and how to generate compassion without a sense of grasping on to things as having a concrete essence. Turning the classical mind-body problem of contemporary philosophy on its head, he guides the reader to investigate the mind's role in creating experiences of the external world. The book consists of three parts. The first is a highly accessible summary of the Buddhist path to the cessation of suffering, presenting foundational concepts such as the four truths, the notion of enlightenment, and the practice of meditation. The second part offers methods for deconstructing our presumptions about the relationship between consciousness and matter, incorporating modern philosophy and science into a traditional Buddhist presentation of the true nature of mind. Part three then explores the progressive stages of insight of the Mahayana tradition, introducing the reader to key premodern Buddhist thinkers such as Nagarjuna and Asanga. This history of Indian Buddhist thought, and the Yogacara tradition in particular, is used a guide for an inquisitive journey that offers transformative insight into ordinary human experience"-- Provided by publisher
This book teaches us how to fully connect with the visual richness of our ordinary, daily experience. Photography is not just a mechanical process; it requires learning how to see. As you develop your ability to look and see, you will open, more and more, to the natural inspiration of your surroundings. Filled with practical exercises, photographic assignments, and techniques for working with texture, light, and color, this book offers a system of training that draws on both Buddhist mindfulness practice and the insights of master photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
