Art as Spiritual Perception


Book Description

A reader covering everything from sixth-century icons to contemporary art, this compilation offers a critical investigation of art history from a Christian perspective.




Concerning the Spiritual in Art


Book Description

Pioneering work by the great modernist painter, considered by many to be the father of abstract art and a leader in the movement to free art from traditional bonds. 12 illustrations.




True Perception


Book Description

Genuine art has the power to awaken and liberate. The renowned meditation master and artist Chögyam Trungpa called this type of art "dharma art"—any creative work that springs from an awakened state of mind, characterized by directness, unselfconsciousness, and nonaggression. Dharma art provides a vehicle to appreciate the nature of things as they are and express it without any struggle or desire to achieve. A work of dharma art brings out the goodness and dignity of the situation it reflects—dignity that comes from the artist’s interest in the details of life and sense of appreciation for experience. Trungpa shows how the principles of dharma art extend to everyday life: any activity can provide an opportunity to relax and open our senses to the phenomenal world. An expanded edition of Trungpa's Dharma Art (1996), this book includes a new introduction and essay.




The Three Levels of Spiritual Perception


Book Description

The Three Levels of Spiritual Perception is a revised edition of the classic guide to the Lamdre, a key system of meditation of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Written by one of the first Tibetan masters to live and teach in the United States, it is rendered in a lyrical style that entertains, inspires, and motivates the reader. A key work for all those who are eager to develop and deepen their meditation practice.




Art & the Spiritual


Book Description




Boundless Awareness


Book Description

Suffering is part of the human experience, and everyone in the world is seeking relief. But there is something greater, something that we all share, indeed something that we all are, that can alleviate that pain: it is the formless presence—the loving, boundless awareness—at the heart of all experience. This book cuts through the esotericism surrounding spiritual awakening to help you realize your true nature and show you how to integrate that realization into everyday life. In life, there is turmoil and inevitable pain. There is war, hunger, failure, heartbreak, and trauma. We struggle in relationships and with our attachments, thoughts, feelings, and memories, trapped in the prison of psychological self-consciousness. Most of us have been conditioned to believe that we are all separate individuals to whom uncomfortable or upsetting things happen. We feel alone and isolated from the world, and convince ourselves that the beauty, truth, and goodness we long for are out of our reach. Really, it’s this imaginary division that causes us to suffer. Boundless Awareness seeks to relieve this suffering by drawing attention to the beautiful, encompassing, cohesive nature of awareness itself, as found in your direct experience. Using practical, contemplative exercises and brief meditations, the author guides you along a broad path of spiritual awakening, deconstructing your delusions of self and separation and integrating a concept of existence that is free from the suffering of individual selfhood, but which acknowledges the attachments, traumatic experiences, and emotional pain of being human. With this book, you’ll come to realize your innate perfection as the uncreated light of boundless awareness, and soften into the open, spacious, and unconditionally loving essence of existence. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of pain and attachments, and learn to meet these experiences with a new resilience. Most importantly, you’ll find guidance on how to embody and express this awakening as love, joy, service, and creativity in your daily life.




Holy Listening


Book Description

Describes the role and practice of a spiritual director as distinct from pastoral care and from psychotherapy. Compares the spiritual director to a midwife for the soul, describing actions of teaching prayer and offering exercise suggestions.




Art Perception


Book Description

A complex and fascinating question is why do humans have such strong emotional reactions and human connections to art? Why do viewers become scared, even haunted for days, by a movie monster they know doesn't exist? Why do humans become enthralled by distorted figures and scenes that aren't realistic? Why do viewers have emotional attachments to comic book characters? The answer lies in that, while humans know art is human made artifice, they view and decipher art using the same often nonconscious methods that they use to view and decipher reality. Looking at how we perceive reality shows us how we perceive art, and looking at how we perceive art helps show us how we perceive reality. Written by the prominent art historian and philosopher Cycleback, this book is a concise introduction to understanding art perception, covering key psychological, cognitive science, physiological and philosophical concepts.




Good & Truth: The Art of Spiritual Balance


Book Description

The idea of love, hopefully includes romance, sex, and reciprocity. Yet, the archetypal idea of love, brings a greater-use into the love-act, and when that good-use gets developed within each of us as individuals, there is a greater chance of manifesting the outer riches we are seeking. The Archetypal idea of love has a higher use, besides manifesting in individuals as good-use. The goal is for it to build a permanent home in us. Yet, most times the body does not live a full life, or long enough to achieve it. An inner permanent home gets made from the affection of love in proportion that an individual dwells on it, and hopes for it. A good-use would be using the affection of archetypal love, to unite all levels of our being, and to begin a new relationship from within. Even the idea developed while you read this book is enough to attract the affections that cause our own spiritual regeneration. We are reaching into the archetypal world where it all began, looking to align ourselves inwardly spiritually, equally to the feelings of love and acceptance that we are seeking outwardly. Once we balance the inner with the outer, the polarity of the body shifts to the center, and the archetypal love as intuition restores our memory of what we truly are. In that memory of ourselves, a feeling radiates out from our body as big as the universe. The mind begins to understand concepts of archetypal love. We immediately comprehend that the more we enclose others in our affectionate love, the more the good-use can make a permanent home in our body. When the inner center strengthens, all mind-chatter ends. Every time we make ourselves feel as big as the universe, we are filled with the memory of the One Self. Yet, each time we bring ourselves back to thinking of ourselves in a body, we attract the pleasurable feeling of Conjugial love.




Doors of Perception


Book Description

Originally published: London: Mowbray, 1987.