Philosophy on Towards Freedom

The Spirit of the Tao

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 13:10:37 -0700

A small book with many large ideas that are universally valid.

Taoist teachings have arisen in many forms: abstract aphorisms, philosophical discussions, legends, fables—even jokes. All are represented here, culled from the most popular Taoist classics: the Tao-te Ching, Chuang-tzu, Huai-nan-tzu, and Wen-tzu, stories from the “Tales of Inner Meaning,” and teachings of the Taoist patriarch Ancestor Lu. The spirit of the Tao manifests in myriad images, brought to life in this superb translation—from the ever-keen blade of a Taoist butcher to the mechanical miracles of inventor Ken Shiwa, from little boys baiting the great Confucius to mountain hermits disappearing in the mist, from the six robber organs that obscure the primordial to the ineffable mystery of mysteries.
Amazon

Pictures From Mystics

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 10:36:25 -0700

A beautiful collection of short stories cross religions and cultures told by Swami Vaswani that often show the way to living properly. It is from the East and West Series.

The book is no longer in print as far as we know, but may possibly be found in some collections.

Zen Mind Beginners Mind

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 02:11:59 -0700

A zen literature classic that contains much wisdom and enlightenment.

Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it’s all about. An instant teaching on the first page. And that’s just the beginning.
Amazon

Radical Zen

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 23:45:55 -0700

An intriguing book with many items about and attributed to Joshu.

… many of our standard stereotypes of the Zen Master can be traced to this figure–irascible and blunt, down-to-earth and practical, prone to answer religious questions with seemingly off-the wall non-sequiturs and paradoxes if not a good sharp smack in the face.
Amazon

(Also available for previewing as a pdf from here.)

Zen Comics

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 23:36:07 -0700

Truly an excellent way to encounter zen, these cartoons present many of the koans delightfully!

Comics communicate the Zen spirit perfectly. Laughter deflates pretension and a good rap on the head sometimes transcends so-called logic. In the words of Zen, “Nothing is left for you but to laugh!”
Goodreads

Buddha Stories

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 14:10:59 -0800

A book with stories that are both entertaining and enlightening.

This was a fun book with one page budda stories. The illustrations are cool, solid gold figures. With a deep blue backgroud. They shine in a really cool way. This book would be nice for students to read on their own, look at the art, and ponder the lessons learned.
Googlebooks

Animal Liberation

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 14:49:50 -0800

The classic which is considered to be the beginning of animal liberation.

Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals is a 1975 book by Australian philosopher Peter Singer. It is widely considered within the animal liberation movement to be the founding philosophical statement of its ideas. Singer himself rejected the use of the theoretical framework of rights when it comes to human and nonhuman animals. Following Jeremy Bentham, Singer argued that the interests of animals should be considered because of their ability to experience suffering and that the idea of rights was not necessary in order to consider them. He popularized the term “speciesism” in the book, which had been coined by Richard D. Ryder to describe the exploitative treatment of animals …
Wikipedia

The Book That Started A Revolution. Since its original publication in 1975, this groundbreaking work has awakened millions of concerned men and women to the shocking abuse of animals everywhere – inspiring a worldwide movement to eliminate much of the cruel and unnecessary laboratory animal experimentation of years past …
Goodreads

First published in 1975, Animal Liberation was a philosophical bombshell. It forever changed the conversation about our treatment of animals. It made people—myself included–change what we ate, what we wore, and how we perceived animals… (Ingrid Newkirk, PETA) PETA