Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist


Book Description

Eihei Dogen, the founder of the Japanese branch of the Soto Zen Buddhist school, is considered one of the world's most remarkable religious philosophers. Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist is a comprehensive introduction to the genius of this brilliant thinker. This thirteenth-century figure has much to teach us all and the questions that drove him have always been at the heart of Buddhist practice. At the age of seven, in 1207, Dogen lost his mother, who at her death earnestly asked him to become a monastic to seek the truth of Buddhism. We are told that in the midst of profound grief, Dogen experienced the impermanence of all things as he watched the incense smoke ascending at his mother's funeral service. This left an indelible impression upon the young Dogen; later, he would emphasize time and again the intimate relationship between the desire for enlightenment and the awareness of impermanence. His way of life would not be a sentimental flight from, but a compassionate understanding of, the intolerable reality of existence. At age 13, Dogen received ordination at Mt. Hiei. And yet, a question arose: "As I study both the exoteric and the esoteric schools of Buddhism, they maintain that human beings are endowed with Dharma-nature by birth. If this is the case, why did the buddhas of all ages - undoubtedly in possession of enlightenment - find it necessary to seek enlightenment and engage in spiritual practice?" When it became clear that no one on Mt. Hiei could give a satisfactory answer to this spiritual problem, he sought elsewhere, eventually making the treacherous journey to China. This was the true beginning of a life of relentless questioning, practice, and teaching - an immensely inspiring contribution to the Buddhadharma. As you might imagine, a book as ambitious as Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist has to be both academically rigorous and eminently readable to succeed. Professor Hee-Jim Kim's work is indeed both.




Mystic Realists


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Magical Realism


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On magical realism in literature




Representing Realists in Victorian Literature and Criticism


Book Description

This book is about the historical moment when writers and critics first used the term “realism” to describe representation in literature and painting. While scholarship on realism tends to proceed from an assumption that the term has a long-established meaning and history, this book reveals that mid-nineteenth-century critics and writers first used the term reluctantly, with much confusion over what it might actually mean. It did not acquire the ready meaning we now take for granted until the end of the nineteenth century. In fact, its first definitions came primarily by way of example and analogy, through descriptions of current practitioners, or through fictionalized representations of artists. By investigating original debates over the term “realism,” this book shows how writers simultaneously engaged with broader concerns about the changing meanings of what was real and who had the authority to decide this.




Realism and Antirealism


Book Description

Throughout the past century, a debate has raged over the thesis of realism and its alternatives. Realism—the seemingly commonsensical view that all or most of what we encounter in the world exists and is what it is independently of human thought—has been vigorously denied by such prominent intellectuals as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Thomas Kuhn, Hilary Putnam, and Nelson Goodman. The opponents of realism, among them historians and social scientists who support social constructionism, hold that all or most of reality depends on human conceptual schemes and beliefs. In this volume of original essays, a group of philosophers explores the ongoing controversy. The book opens with an introduction by William P. Alston, whose writing on the subject has been widely influential. Selected essays then compare and contrast aspects of the arguments put forward by the realists with those of the antirealists. Other chapters discuss the importance of the debate for philosophical topics such as epistemology and for domains ranging from religion, literature, and science to morality.




God’S Mystical Realism


Book Description

Writing about her indescribable Christ-driven unusual experience, Wilma returns to tell of a divine place over yondera place we describe as limbo to some, the place between heaven and hell. It is somewhere for people who are not Christians, those who are not walking the walk of Christianity now. Maybe a stopping off place many go to when they die. A place described as the place that is believed to be home to the souls of children who died before baptism or believers. The souls of the righteous who died stop there. Although they are barred from entry to heaven, they are not condemned to the eternal suffering of hell. Realizing the portal was the entrance to heaven, Wilma remembers she was in the presence of the Holy Spirit, turning to see Jesus Christ standing on the pathway. Yet Wilma returns from a divine place, with a burning personal desire inside to tell this story. Wilma presses daily to complete this manuscript and reveal to unbelievers that there is a place called skekinah, visiting God in prayer, a living God, revealing his mighty power besides telling of a mystical place where the soul descends to after death. In reality, we do meet Christ for his divine judgment. Daily, Wilma finds herself wanting to drift outside and sit in the yard swing that extends from a large hickory tree limb. In finding peace there, she sings and praises the Lord. At times, she feels his presence with her during prayer time there. The wind starts to blow softly, and she closes her eyes. At this point, he comes to her as a feeling in her heart that he is there with her. She feels his presence as the wind stops, and there is a silence that only she and Christ can feel.




Blind Realism


Book Description

Blind Realism originated in the deeply felt conviction that the widespread acceptance of Gettier-type counterexamples to the classical definition of knowledge rests in a demonstrably erroneous understanding of the nature of human knowledge. In seeking to defend that conviction, Robert F. Almeder offers a fairly detailed and systematic picture of the nature and limits of human factual knowledge.




How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 3


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With the subjugation of the Principality of Amidonia accomplished, Souma, the provisional king, begins the post-war cleanup process with his next move, Project Lorelei. It is an entertainment program that uses the Jewel Voice Broadcast. It was originally only thought that this program would amuse the people of the Kingdom, but it is being broadcast in occupied Van, too. What does Souma hope to accomplish with that...?! Then, when Souma takes some time off to rest in the capital of Amidonia, Van, with Juna and Tomoe, he encounters Jeanne Euphoria, the younger sister of the Empress of the Gran Chaos Empire. What sort of “negotiation” does the “realistic” Jeanne, who supports her idealistic sister, have in store for Souma...?! The revolutionary transferred-to-another-world administrative fantasy is now on its third volume!







A Study in Realism


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