Self Cultivation Of Human Beings

Download Self Cultivation Of Human Beings full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Self Cultivation Of Human Beings ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

SELF-CULTIVATION OF HUMAN BEINGS

Author : SHAOYONG LI
Publisher : American Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 1631815369
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (318 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis SELF-CULTIVATION OF HUMAN BEINGS by : SHAOYONG LI

Download or read book SELF-CULTIVATION OF HUMAN BEINGS written by SHAOYONG LI and published by American Academic Press. This book was released on 2021-07-19 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All kinds of problems in the world, in the final analysis, are human problems which originate from the evil, selfishness and ignorance of human nature. The book "Self-cultivation of Human Beings" reflects on the crises and contradictions faced by the world today with the Oriental scholars’ lofty ideals of "self-cultivation, family regulation, state governance and maintaining world peace". It consists of five chapters of "Spiritual Beliefs, Self-cultivation of Human Life, The State and the Society, Wisdom and Reason, Human Destiny",discussing the topics that we must face in life: how to deal with suffering and trouble, how to distinguish between good and evil, and how to improve fate and pursue happiness, as well as people's spiritual beliefs and the meaning of life. The author attaches great importance to family construction, advocates love and tolerance, benevolence and morality, holds in high esteem of angels, heroes and sages, discusses the great role of education, science, rule of law, criticism, struggle and communication in human progress, and has profound thinking about the road of national rejuvenation and prosperity, as well as military principles in the hope of enlightening people’s way of thinking.

Ethics and Self-Cultivation

Author : Matthew Dennis
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351591533
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (515 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Ethics and Self-Cultivation by : Matthew Dennis

Download or read book Ethics and Self-Cultivation written by Matthew Dennis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of Ethics and Self-Cultivation is to establish and explore a new ‘cultivation of the self’ strand within contemporary moral philosophy. Although the revival of virtue ethics has helped reintroduce the eudaimonic tradition into mainstream philosophical debates, it has by and large been a revival of Aristotelian ethics combined with a modern preoccupation with standards for the moral rightness of actions. The essays comprising this volume offer a fresh approach to the eudaimonic tradition: instead of conditions for rightness of actions, it focuses on conceptions of human life that are best for the one living it. The first section of essays looks at the Hellenistic schools and the way they influenced modern thinkers like Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche, Hadot, and Foucault in their thinking about self-cultivation. The second section offers contemporary perspectives on ethical self-cultivation by drawing on work in moral psychology, epistemology of self-knowledge, philosophy of mind, and meta-ethics.

The Body, Self-Cultivation, and Ki-Energy

Author : Yasuo Yuasa
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791416235
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (162 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Body, Self-Cultivation, and Ki-Energy by : Yasuo Yuasa

Download or read book The Body, Self-Cultivation, and Ki-Energy written by Yasuo Yuasa and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an inquiry into ki-energy, its role within Eastern mind-body theory, and its implications for our contemporary Western understanding of the body. Yuasa examines the concept of ki-energy as it has been used in such areas as acupuncture, Buddhist and Taoist meditation, and the martial arts. To explain the achievement of mind-body oneness in these traditions he offers an innovative schematization of the lived body. His approach is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, offering insights into Western philosophy, religion, medical science, depth psychology, parapsychology, theater, and physical education. To substantiate the relationship that ki-energy forms between the human body and its environment, Yuasa introduces contemporary scientific research on ki-energy in China and Japan, as well as evidence from acupuncture medicine and from the experience of meditators and martial arts practitioners. This evidence requires not only a rethinking of the living human body and of the mind-body and mind-matter relation, but also calls into question the adequacy of the existing scientific paradigm. Yuasa calls for an epistemological critique of modern science and explores the issue of the relation of teleology to science.

Moral Education and the Ethics of Self-Cultivation

Author : Michael A. Peters
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 9811380279
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (113 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Moral Education and the Ethics of Self-Cultivation by : Michael A. Peters

Download or read book Moral Education and the Ethics of Self-Cultivation written by Michael A. Peters and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-07-30 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Educational philosophies of self-cultivation as the cultural foundation and philosophical ethos for education have strong and historically effective traditions stretching back to antiquity in the classical ‘cradle’ civilizations of China and East Asia, India and Pakistan, Greece and Anatolia, focused on the cultural traditions in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in the East and Hellenistic philosophy in the West. This volume in East-West dialogues in philosophy of education examines both Confucian and Western classical traditions revealing that although each provides its own distinct figure of the virtuous person, they are remarkably similar in their conception and emphasis on moral self-cultivation as a practical answer to how humans become virtuous. The collection also examines self-cultivation in Japanese traditions and also the nature of Michel Foucault’s work in relation to ethical and aesthetic ideals of Hellenistic self-cultivation.

Neither Heroes Nor Saints

Author : Rebecca Stangl
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0197508456
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Neither Heroes Nor Saints by : Rebecca Stangl

Download or read book Neither Heroes Nor Saints written by Rebecca Stangl and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Most of us are far from perfect in virtue. Faced with this fact, moral philosophers can respond in two different ways. On the one hand, they might insist that the only real virtue is perfect virtue, and the only right actions are perfectly virtuous ones. Any failure to meet the exacting standards of perfect virtue will amount to vice, and any less than perfectly virtuous actions will be wrong. On the other hand, and if they reject such a rigorist picture, they can instead affirm that there are actions that are truly good and right even if they fall short of perfection. This book urges the attractions of a virtue ethics committed to the second sort of picture. In doing so, it makes two major innovations. First, it constructs and defends Neo-Aristotelian accounts of supererogation and suberogation. But just as importantly, and far from encouraging a kind of complacency, the recognition that there can be genuine goodness short of perfection is precisely what opens up theoretical space for appreciating the goodness of striving towards ideal virtue. Thus, the second major innovation it makes is to show that self-improvement itself can be morally excellent, and the disposition to seek and engage in it, where appropriate, can itself be a virtue"--

Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China

Author : Christopher W. Gowans
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190941022
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China by : Christopher W. Gowans

Zhu Xi

Author : Philip J. Ivanhoe
Publisher : Oxford Chinese Thought
ISBN 13 : 0190861258
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (98 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Zhu Xi by : Philip J. Ivanhoe

Download or read book Zhu Xi written by Philip J. Ivanhoe and published by Oxford Chinese Thought. This book was released on 2019 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume contains translations, by a range of leading scholars, focusing on core themes in the philosophy of Zhu Xi (1130-1200), one of the most influential Chinese thinkers of the later Confucian tradition. It includes an Introduction, a chronology of important events, and a list of key terms"--

Self-cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China

Author : Christopher W. Gowans
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780190941031
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Self-cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China by : Christopher W. Gowans

Download or read book Self-cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China written by Christopher W. Gowans and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The book defends the thesis that the concept of self-cultivation philosophy is an informative interpretive framework for comprehending and reflecting on several philosophical outlooks in India, the Greco-Roman world and China. On the basis of an understanding of human nature and the place of human beings in the world, self-cultivation philosophies maintain that our lives can and should be substantially transformed from what is judged to be a problematic, untutored condition of human beings, our existential starting-point, into what is put forward as an ideal state of being. We are to do this by undertaking a set of therapeutic or spiritual exercises guided by some philosophical analysis. The self-cultivation philosophies in India are expressed in: the Bhagavad Gītā; the Sāṃkhya and Yoga philosophies of Īśvarakṛṣṇa and Patañjali; and teaching of the Buddha and his followers Buddhaghosa and Śāntideva. The philosophies originating in Greece, with subsequent development in the Roman period, are the most prominent Hellenistic approaches: the Epicureanism of Epicurus, Lucretius and Philodemus; the Stoicism of Chrysippus, Epictetus and Seneca; and Pyrrho and the Pyrrhonism of Sextus Empiricus. The self-cultivation philosophies from China are the early Confucian outlooks of Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi; the classical Daoist perspectives of the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi; and the Chan tradition of Bodhidharma, Huineng and Linji"--

Human Beings or Human Becomings?

Author : Peter D. Hershock
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438481853
Total Pages : 346 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Human Beings or Human Becomings? by : Peter D. Hershock

Download or read book Human Beings or Human Becomings? written by Peter D. Hershock and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2021-02-01 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Great transformations are reshaping human life, social institutions, and the world around us, raising profound questions about our fundamental values. We now have the knowledge and the technical expertise, for instance, to realize a world in which no child needs to go to bed hungry—and yet, hunger persists. And although the causes of planetary climate disruption are well known, action of the scale and resolution needed to address it remain elusive. In order to deepen our understanding of these transformations and the ethical responses they demand, considering how they are seen from different civilizational perspectives is imperative.Acknowledging the rise of China both geopolitically and culturally, the essays in this volume enter into critical and yet appreciative conversations with East Asian philosophical traditions—primarily Confucianism, but also Buddhism and Daoism—drawing on their conceptual resources to understand what it means to be human as irreducibly relational. The opening chapters establish a framework for seeing the resolution of global predicaments, such as persistent hunger and climate disruption, as relational challenges that cannot be addressed from within the horizons of any ethics committed to taking the individual as the basic unit of moral analysis. Subsequent chapters turn to Confucian traditions as resources for addressing these challenges, reimagining personhood as a process of responsive, humane becoming and envisioning ethics as a necessarily historical and yet open-ended process of relational refinement and evolving values.

Sculpting the Self

Author : Muhammad Umar Faruque
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472132628
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (721 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sculpting the Self by : Muhammad Umar Faruque

Download or read book Sculpting the Self written by Muhammad Umar Faruque and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sculpting the Self addresses “what it means to be human” in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of self and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical and mystical thought. Alongside detailed analyses of three major Islamic thinkers (Mullā Ṣadrā, Shāh Walī Allāh, and Muhammad Iqbal), this study also situates their writings on selfhood within the wider constellation of related discussions in late modern and contemporary thought, engaging the seminal theoretical insights on the self by William James, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Michel Foucault. This allows the book to develop its inquiry within a spectrum theory of selfhood, incorporating bio-physiological, socio-cultural, and ethico-spiritual modes of discourse and meaning-construction. Weaving together insights from several disciplines such as religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, critical theory, and neuroscience, and arguing against views that narrowly restrict the self to a set of cognitive functions and abilities, this study proposes a multidimensional account of the self that offers new options for addressing central issues in the contemporary world, including spirituality, human flourishing, and meaning in life. This is the first book-length treatment of selfhood in Islamic thought that draws on a wealth of primary source texts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Greek, and other languages. Muhammad U. Faruque’s interdisciplinary approach makes a significant contribution to the growing field of cross-cultural dialogue, as it opens up the way for engaging premodern and modern Islamic sources from a contemporary perspective by going beyond the exegesis of historical materials. He initiates a critical conversation between new insights into human nature as developed in neuroscience and modern philosophical literature and millennia-old Islamic perspectives on the self, consciousness, and human flourishing as developed in Islamic philosophical, mystical, and literary traditions.

Cultivation of Self in East Asian Philosophy of Education

Author : Ruyu Hung
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000747417
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Cultivation of Self in East Asian Philosophy of Education by : Ruyu Hung

Download or read book Cultivation of Self in East Asian Philosophy of Education written by Ruyu Hung and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides exciting and significant inquiries into the cultivation of self in East Asian philosophy of education. The contributors to this volume are from different countries or areas in the world, but all share the same interest in exploring what it means to be human and how to cultivate the self. In this book, self-cultivation in classical Chinese philosophies—including Confucianism, neo-Confucianism, and Daoism—is scrutinised and elaborated upon, in order to reveal the significance of ancient wisdom for today’s educational issues, and to show the meaningful connections between Eastern and Western educational thoughts. By addressing many issues of contemporary importance including environmental education, equity and justice, critical rationalism, groundlessness of language, and power and governance, this book offers fresh views of self-cultivation illuminated not merely by East Asian philosophy of education but also by Western insights. For those who are interested in comparative philosophies, intercultural education, and cultural study, this book is both thought-provoking and inspirational. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Educational Philosophy and Theory journal.

Confucian Moral Self Cultivation

Author : P. J. Ivanhoe
Publisher : Hackett Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780872205086
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (5 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Confucian Moral Self Cultivation by : P. J. Ivanhoe

Download or read book Confucian Moral Self Cultivation written by P. J. Ivanhoe and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise and accessible introduction to the evolution of the concept of moral self-cultivation in the Chinese Confucian tradition, this volume begins with an explanation of the pre-philosophical development of ideas central to this concept, followed by an examination of the specific treatment of self cultivation in the philosophy of Kongzi (Confucius), Mengzi (Mencius), Xunzi, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming, Yan Yuan and Dai Zhen. In addition to providing a survey of the views of some of the most influential Confucian thinkers on an issue of fundamental importance to the tradition, Ivanhoe also relates their concern with moral self-cultivation to a number of topics in the Western ethical tradition. Bibliography and index are included.

Xiu Yang

Author : Mimi Kuo-Deemer
Publisher : Courier Dover Publications (courier-dover_publications)
ISBN 13 : 0486847489
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (868 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Xiu Yang by : Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Download or read book Xiu Yang written by Mimi Kuo-Deemer and published by Courier Dover Publications (courier-dover_publications). This book was released on 2020-06-17 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A beautiful and timely gift." — Sifu Matthew Cohen, Founder, Sacred Energy Arts Founder For centuries, Chinese sages, rulers, and spiritual seekers have embraced a simple yet powerful principle that enables them to live in harmony with the source of nature and all life. The art of self-cultivation or xiu yang (pronounced "sheow yaang") is based on the concept that we can nurture our capacity to be fully human and awake, finding balance and peace in our home, life, and community. Author Mimi Kuo-Deemer leads readers through a combination of practices from meditation and mindfulness to yoga and qigong, offering ancient wisdom to help with contemporary challenges. "Exquisite ... for anyone interested in building a sustainable life that is imbued with vibrant healthy, mental and emotional clarity, and the most basic human need of all: happiness." — Donna Farhi, author of Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit "A treasure chest for the heart and mind, a potent tonic for body and breath, and a vibrant life essence for the spirit." — Simon Low, Principal of The Yoga Academy "Kuo-Deemer doesn't simply write about these ancient teachings, she shares the fruits of practicing them, processing timeless truths in her own heart and mind and body, so that we can do so in ours. Xiu Yang gives glimpses of her own transformational self-cultivation, while showing us a path for our own." — Martin Lylward, Co-Founder, The Mindfulness Institute "Profound and powerful." — Norman Blair, author of Brightening Our Inner Skies "Almost lost in China over the past century's onslaught of modernisation, xiu yang is now at the centre of Chinese people's search for values and belief — a tribute to the enduring power of these ancient practices. In this slender but powerful book, Mimi Kuo-Deemer unlocks xiu yang for the modern reader, de-mystifying it without losing the eternal, timeless qualities that have made it one of Chinese people's most potent ways of living a good, honourable, happy, and healthy life." — Ian Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao

The One-Straw Revolution

Author : Masanobu Fukuoka
Publisher : New York Review of Books
ISBN 13 : 1590173929
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The One-Straw Revolution by : Masanobu Fukuoka

Download or read book The One-Straw Revolution written by Masanobu Fukuoka and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2010-09-08 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.” Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.

Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China

Author : Christopher W. Gowans
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190941049
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China by : Christopher W. Gowans

Download or read book Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China written by Christopher W. Gowans and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophies in several ancient traditions aimed to alleviate people's anxieties and improve their lives. In contrast to the contemporay world, in which philosophy is mostly an academic subject and personal concerns are commonly addressed by psychological therapies, philosophy in these traditions often played a central role in programs that aspired to enable people to achieve a good life. In this volume, Christopher W. Gowans argues that the idea of self-cultivation philosophy provides a valuable approach for comprehending and reflecting on several philosophies in ancient India, Greece and China. Self-cultivation philosophies put forward a program of development for ameliorating the lives of human beings. On the basis of an account of human nature and the place of human beings in the world, they claim that our lives can be substantially transformed from what is thought to be a problematic condition into what purports to be an ideal state of being. Self-cultivation philosophies are preeminently practical in their aspirations: their purpose is to change human life in fundamental ways. Yet, in pursuing these practical ends, these philosophies typically make significant theoretical as well as empirical claims about human nature and the world. The book shows how the concept of self-cultivation philosophy provides an interpretive framework for understanding, comparing, assessing and learning from several philosophical outlooks in India, the Greco-Roman world, and China. The self-cultivation philosophies in India are those expressed in: the Bhagavad Gita; the Samkhya and Yoga philosophies of Isvarakrsna and Patanjali; and the teaching of the Buddha and his followers Buddhaghosa and Santideva. The philosophies originating in Greece, with subsequent development in the Roman world, are the most prominent Hellenistic approaches: the Epicureanism of Epicurus, Lucretius, and Philodemus; the Stoicism of Chrysippus, Epictetus, and Seneca; and Pyrrho and the Pyrrhonism of Sextus Empiricus. The self-cultivation philosophies from China are the early Confucian outlooks of Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi; the classical Daoist perspectives of the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi; and the Chan tradition of Bodhidharma, Huineng and Linji. Though these philosophies developed in very different traditions, Gowans shows the connections between them in this compelling work of comparative philosophy.

Eastern Philosophies and Psychology: Towards Psychology of Self-Cultivation

Author : Yung-Jong Shiah
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
ISBN 13 : 2889453340
Total Pages : 131 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (894 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Eastern Philosophies and Psychology: Towards Psychology of Self-Cultivation by : Yung-Jong Shiah

Download or read book Eastern Philosophies and Psychology: Towards Psychology of Self-Cultivation written by Yung-Jong Shiah and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2017-11-29 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The publication of this book, East Asian Philosophies and Psychology: Towards Psychology of Self-cultivation, signifies an important breakthrough for the indigenization movements of psychology which have happened in many non-Western countries since 1980s. Viewing from the perspective of scientific revolution (Kuhn, 1969), when Western paradigms of psychology are transplanted to non-Western countries and encounter anomalies which cannot be explained by the imported theories, the foreign theories are in a state of crisis waiting for scientific revolution.

This Difficult Thing of Being Human

Author : Bodhipaksa
Publisher : Parallax Press
ISBN 13 : 1946764523
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (467 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis This Difficult Thing of Being Human by : Bodhipaksa

Download or read book This Difficult Thing of Being Human written by Bodhipaksa and published by Parallax Press. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Become your own greatest advocate with this “wise guide” to developing self-compassion through mindfulness meditation, lovingkindness, and more—from a Buddhist scholar and teacher (Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance) We all long for someone to offer us unconditional love and support. But what if that person is us? The practice of mindful self-compassion creates the space we need so that observation, acceptance, and real love can enter—no matter how judgmental or disconnected we may feel. It sounds like a simple idea: to be kind to yourself. But if you pay attention to your thoughts, habits, and self-talk, you may find that it’s more difficult than it sounds. The intentional practice of self-compassion, outlined here by Buddhist scholar and teacher, Bodhipaksa, can help you find greater overall wellbeing, emotional resilience, physical health, and willpower. Bodhipaksa provides both the why and the how of mindful self-compassion, drawing on contemporary psychology and neuroscience and also on Buddhist psychology, weaving the modern and ancient together into a coherent whole. Contemporary psychologists are focusing less on self-esteem and more on self-compassion. Bodhipaksa, a practicing meditator of more than thirty years, effortlessly blends ancient techniques dating back to the time of the Buddha with the most recent understanding of psychology and neuroscience. And in the end, as Bodhipaksa writes, it is actually quite simple: “Life is short. Be kind.”