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Philosophy

On the Subtle Art of Dharma

By Bhaavin Shah
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Jun 27, 2013
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My Book Summaries, Philosophy

Key Learning points from

‘The difficulty of being good: On the subtle art of Dharma’
by Gurcharan Das

Dharma is a complex word and is untranslatable. It means variously virtue, duty and law, but is chiefly concerned with doing the right thing. Duty, goodness, justice, law and custom all have something to do with it, but they all fall short.

Dharma refers to ‘balance’ – both moral balance and cosmic balance. It is the order and balance within each human being which is also reflected in the order of the cosmsos. It is the moral law that sustains the society, the individual and the world. It is the discipline of ordered existence. Keep Reading

THIS IS IT ( Part 1)

By Bhaavin Shah
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Jun 17, 2013
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My Book Summaries, Philosophy

Key Learning Points from the book

‘THIS IS IT’

By ALAN WATTS

Spiritual shouldn’t be separated from material nor the wonderful from the ordinary. We need, above all, to disentangle ourselves from the habit of speech and thought which set this two apart making it impossible for us to see that THIS – the immediate, everyday and present experience – is IT, the entire and ultimate point for the existence of a universe.

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Wisdom of Insecurity Part 2

By Bhaavin Shah
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May 13, 2013
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My Book Summaries, Philosophy, World Order

THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY : PART 2
BY ALLAN WATTS

The transformation of life

The proper meaning of the word ‘theory’ is not idle speculation but vision. Vision in this sense means ‘clarity’ .. proper understanding of who you are and where you want to go. Without such vision all talk of being practical is useless. It is like walking busily in a fog and going nowhere.

If we have contradictory wants for example sovereign borders and world peace, then their results however practical we may be about getting them will be further contradictions. Keep Reading

Wisdom of Insecurity Part 1

By Bhaavin Shah
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May 02, 2013
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My Book Summaries, Philosophy, World Order

THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY : PART 1
BY ALLAN WATTS

The Age of anxiety

Essential realities of religion and metaphysic are vindicated in doing without them and manifested in being destroyed.

Human beings appear to be happy just so long as they have a future to which they can look forward. Man seems to be unable to live without the myth that the routine and drudgery, the pain and fear of this life have some meaning and goal in the future. Keep Reading

What is Zen?

By Bhaavin Shah
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Apr 05, 2013
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My Book Summaries, Philosophy

Synopsis of

‘What is Zen’

by Alan Watts

The mundane too is sacred

Zen has always believed that the mundane and the sacred are one and the same.

Ask not and you will get

The transformation of consciousness is not a question of how much time you put into it as if it were all added up on some sort of quantitative scale and you got rewarded according to the amount of effort you put into it. Nor is it that simply by avoiding the effort and wanting it instantly would you get it. The only thing that your effort or ‘no effort’ can teach you is that this approach doesn’t work. You can only get it when you discover that you do not need it. You can only get it when you don’t want it. That is the secret. Keep Reading