Heaven, Earth, & Humankind: Three Spheres, Three Light Cycles, Three Modes


Book Description

Heaven, Earth, and Humankind, Volumes I through IV was inspired by a dream in which I witnessed the collision of two worlds, one red and one green, the red cube was the dragon of Chinese Medical Philosophy, the green globe was the holistic cosmos that I already knew well through tropical astrology. The outcome of this dream was this book that integrates the two systems, and illuminates the core they share. Behind every aspect of human experience we find the influence of light and darkness both as a reality and metaphor. Three great cycles of light and darkness govern experience: the seasonal cycle, the waxing and waning of the moon, and the emergence and retreat of daylight. These three cycles connect directly to the triune principle in Chinese philosophy that differentiates three aspects of human endeavor: spirit, body, and social life. Heaven and earth seem to form a polarity. When they interact, they produce all the multifarious form of life near the surface of the earth. The whole ever remains a unity. Heaven floods the earth with both solar and celestial energy. The earth responds to that influx by producing living forms on its surface. The horizon line of the celestial chart symbolizes this plane where energy and matter interact. From this we can assess where a persons focus is and how they balance the three different aspects of human experience. Human beings are thefinest expression of heaven and earth, if and only if we harmonize with the great cycles of light. In Volume IV I connect this core wisdom from Chinese sages with the astrological idea of the three modes of tropical astrology This volume continues the holistic and cyclic approach to astrology developed in the previous three volumes and culminates in a detailed description of the effect of the Sun, Moon, or Horizon in each zodiac sign. Each sign has a mode and the mode has affinity either with heaven and the sun, earth and the moon, or the ascendant and human affairs. The mutable signs are aligned with the sphere of the ecliptic and the mutable mode. Heaven, Earth, and Humankind maps a path to understanding why astrology works in terms that anyone can understand. The operative power of astrology is the three light cycles as all the ancients understood. We have lost the wisdom, but that lost wisdom is recovered somewhat in this valuable book. How is our human experience connected to the greater life of the cosmos?Our answer depends on our degree of self-realization, and we cannot truly know ourselves unless we understand how we feel and react to the cycles of heaven. This book brings some traditional wisdom into focus to help us with these fundamental questions about how to live well.




Beyond


Book Description

“Beautifully written, expertly researched and masterfully presented, this tour of how heaven has been understood throughout history is absolutely fascinating.” —James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage A smart and thought-provoking cultural history of heaven. What do we think of when we think about heaven? What might it look like? Who or what might be there? Since humans began to huddle together for protection thousands of years ago, these questions have been part of how civilizations and cultures define heaven, the good place beyond this one. From Christianity to Islam to Hinduism and beyond, from the brush of Michelangelo to the pen of Dante, people across millennia have tried to explain and describe heaven in ways that are distinctive and analogous, unique and universal. In this engrossing cultural history of heaven, Catherine Wolff delves into how people and cultures have defined heaven over the centuries. She describes how different faiths and religions have framed it, how the sense of heaven has evolved, and how nonreligious influences have affected it, from the Enlightenment to the increasingly nonreligious views of heaven today. Wolff looks deep into the accounts of heaven to discover what’s common among them and what makes each conception distinct and memorable. The result is Beyond, an engaging, thoughtful exploration of an idea that is central to our humanity and our desire to define an existence beyond death.




Heaven and Earth Are Not Humane


Book Description

That bad things happen to good people was as true in early China as it is today. Franklin Perkins uses this observation as the thread by which to trace the effort by Chinese thinkers of the Warring States Period (c.475-221 BCE), a time of great conflict and division, to seek reconciliation between humankind and the world. Perkins provides rich new readings of classical Chinese texts and reflects on their significance for Western philosophical discourse.




Heaven & Earth in Chinese Art


Book Description

Forewords / Michael Brand, Chen Chi-nan -- Heaven and earth in Chinese art / Yin Cao -- Nature in Chinese philosophy / Karyn Lai -- The workds of art -- Heaven and earth -- Seasons -- Places -- Landscape -- Humanity -- List of works and entries -- Timeline of Chinese dynasties -- Selected bibliography




The Beginning of Heaven and Earth


Book Description

In 1865 a French priest was visited by a small group of Japanese at his newly built church in Nagasaki. They were descendants of Japan's first Christians, the survivors of brutal religious persecution under the Tokugawa government. The Kakure Kirishitan, or "hidden Christians," had practiced their religion in secret for several hundred years. Sometime after their visit the priest received a copy of the Kakure bible, the Tenchi Hajimari no Koto, "Beginning of Heaven and Earth," an intriguing amalgam of Bible stories, Japanese fables, and Roman Catholic doctrine. Whelan offers a complete translation of this unique work accompanied by an illuminating commentary that provides the first theory of origin and evolution of the Tenchi. Today, the few Kakure Kirishitan communities still in existence view the Tenchi as strange and flawed, expressing a distorted form of Christianity. It is, however, the only text produced by the Kakure Kirishitan that depicts their highly syncretistic tradition and provides a colorful window through which to examine the dynamics of religious acculturation.




The Philosophy of Qi


Book Description

Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714) was a prominent Japanese Neo-Confucian scholar whose philosophical treatise, The Record of Great Doubts, is one of the central discourses in East Asia on the importance of qi, or the vital force that courses through all life. Available for the first time in English, this book emphasizes the role of the monism of qi in achieving a life of engagement. Ekken believes that moral self-cultivation must take place within the dynamic forces of nature and amid the rigorous demands of society and that the vitalism of qi provides the philosophical grounding for this vibrant interaction.




How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth hc


Book Description

This collection of 101 essays from some of today's most notable thinkers and leaders focuses on the large problems of society, as well as every day challenges, and encourages readers to envision a positive change. The essays explore the themes of peace, democracy, prosperity, racial harmony, ecology, and health, encouraging readers to find meaning in their own lives and share it with others.




The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code (Asian Law Series)


Book Description

This companion volume to Jiang Yonglin's translation of The Great Ming Code (2005) analyzes the thought underlying the imperial legal code. Was the concept of the Mandate of Heaven merely a tool manipulated by the ruling elite to justify state power, or was it essential to their belief system and to the intellectual foundation of legal culture? What role did law play in the imperial effort to carry out the social reform programs?




Jesus Meets the Buddha


Book Description

Does any one religion have all the answers? Or must we find the answers to life’s questions within ourselves? What would the Buddha think of Jesus’ message of unconditional love? Would the Buddha and Jesus have any common ground? In Jesus Meets the Buddha, author James Kim attempts to answer these questions and many more by exploring the histories and beliefs of two of the world’s major religions: Christianity and Buddhism. Driven by his own desire to answer questions such as “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” Kim builds on the discourses of the world’s greatest thinkers to examine religions and philosophies, including Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and even Voodoo. His conclusion is that every religion in existence today is a precious gem of human history and an irreplaceable facet of the giant mosaic that makes up our world. He argues that by combining Jesus’ teaching with the long-held ethical and religious traditions of the East, we can build a meaningful unity for humankind. Provocative and well-researched, Jesus Meets the Buddha is a must-read book for anyone interested in the world’s religions or who is looking for their own answers about their place in the universe.




Opening the Dragon Gate


Book Description

This authorized biography of the contemporary Taoist expert Wang Liping (1949 -) tells the true story of his apprenticeship in Taoist wizardry, as well as Taoist principles and secrets of inner transformation. The 18th-generation transmitter of Dragon Gate Taoism, Wang Liping is heir to a tradition of esoteric knowledge and practice accumulated and refined over eleven centuries. This is the first English translation by noted writer Thomas Cleary of the authorized biography by two longtime disciples of this living master of the Dragon Gate branch of the Complete Reality school of Taoism, which integrated Buddhism and Confucianism into a comprehensive new form of Taoism.