Self Realization

Dominant cultural narratives about later life dismiss the value senior citizens hold for society. In her cultural-philosophical critique, Hanne Laceulle outlines counter narratives that acknowledge both potentials and vulnerabilities of later life. She draws on the rich philosophical tradition of thought about self-realization and explores the significance of ethical concepts essential to the process of growing old such as autonomy, authenticity and virtue. These counter narratives aim to support older individuals in their search for a meaningful age identity, while they make society recognize its senior members as valued participants and moral agents of their own lives.

This collection debates the path and purpose of life. The author discusses such topics as whether it is possible to hasten human evolution, the possibility of a scientific method to ensure a pathway to life's highest fulfilments and what guidelines help mediators find genuine spiritual progress.

Yogananda was one of the most significant spiritual teachers of the 20th century. Since his classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, was first published in 1946, its popularity has increased steadily throughout the world. The Essence of Self-Realization is filled with lessons and stories that Yogananda shared only with his closest disciples, this volume offers one of the most insightful and engaging glimpses into the life and lessons of a great sage. Much of the material presented here is not available anywhere else.

Offers the reader different systems of meditation from cultures world wide.

Confucian philosopher Xunzi’s moral thought is considered in light of the modern focus on self-realization. Self-Realization through Confucian Learning reconstructs Confucian thinker Xunzi’s moral philosophy in response to the modern focus on self-realization. Xunzi (born around 310 BCE) claims that human xing (“nature” or “native conditions”) is without an ethical framework and has a tendency to dominate, leading to bad judgments and bad behavior. Confucian ritual propriety (li) is needed to transform these human native conditions. Through li, people become self-directing: in control of feelings and desires and in command of their own lives. Siufu Tang explicates Xunzi’s understanding of the hierarchical structure of human agency to articulate why and how li is essential to self-realization. Ritual propriety also structures relationships to make a harmonious communal life possible. Tang’s focus on self-realization highlights how Confucianism can address the individual as well as the communal and serve as a philosophy for contemporary times. Siufu Tang is Associate Professor in the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong.

In this book you will find a clear and accessible explanation of the simple and yet profoundly transformative spiritual teachings of the great Indian sage Ramana Maharshi. Ramana is known as one of the greatest Hindu realizers of the twentieth Century and the practice of Self Inquiry that he taught has awakened and transformed the lives of countless people throughout the world. In this book, Jeff Carreira uses personal reflections and vivid descriptions to illuminate the practice of Self Inquiry and the miraculous awakening that can result from it.

The book addresses the intriguing problem of human self-realization precisely because of the diverse uses of the term, which ranges from abstract philosophical-theological theories to practical psychological-spiritual applications. Jennifer Slater draws the concept from Karl Rahner, the twentieth German theologian, who uses the term self-realization in his theology on freedom and symbolism, relating it to the basic free choice, which the human person makes to be for or against God/Divine. Jennifer Slater explores this fundamental free choice, which is at the same time a basic choice about oneself. She writes from the understanding that the human person is radically free to become the choices she or he makes and freedom is the capacity for definitive self-realization. In the book, she shows that in the exercising of freedom, humans, precisely as historical beings, are also transcendent beings. Jennifer grapples with the perception that since human self-realization involves the power to make decisions, which in reality actualizes a persons own reality, how then does this self-realization come about and where does the Divine fit into the process? If self-realization is related to the human self and to the Divine Self, she then questions what constitutes the self and self-realization? This struggle practically employs the woman in general and in particular the woman consecrated to a vowed life. The pervasive question throughout is: What constitutes the self-realization of a human/woman being?