Worlds In Harmony

In Worlds in Harmony, the Dalai Lama explores the nature of suffering and its release through compassionate action. The book focuses on the understanding that a deep awareness of our shared desire to avoid pain leads to an awareness of our responsibility to relieve others of suffering. Worlds in Harmony offers the reader insight into the relation between awareness and right action, and bridges personal consciousness and global concerns. With the knowledge that insight is of no use unless it results in action, the Dalai Lama teaches ways of being, thinking, and acting in the world that are based on equanimity and understanding.

For the first time, His Royal Highness Charles, the Prince of Wales, shares his views on how mankind’s most pressing modern challenges are rooted in our disharmony with nature. In the vein of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Van Jones’ Green Collar Economy, Prince Charles presents the compelling case that solutions to our most dire crises—from climate change to poverty—lie in regaining a balance with the world around us.

The authors have presented and interpreted Johannes Kepler's Latin text to English readers by putting it into the kind of clear but earnest language they suppose Kepler would have used if he had been writing today.

The Dalai Lama represents a great culture centered on a wisdom tradition that has survived intact into modern times. And the fragility of our times is demonstrated by the fact that even that culture survives only in exile. Science and technology have brought immense control over nature, but power without wisdom is dangerous. We need to balance our modern capabilities with an ancient wisdom. His Holiness the Dalai Lama often speaks of the interconnectedness of all things. In a sense, that means we are all in this together. He has said, also, that just because these times are so dire, it is a great honor to be alive now, at this moment, on this planet. It is we who bear the responsibility, who face the challenge, who must take care of the planet, not just for ourselves, but for the future and for our children.

From the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and “one of our most gifted writers” (Chicago Tribune)—these ten stories show make everyday experiences seem utterly unprecedented, even as Baxter reminds us, gently and with a sly comic twist, that everything they feel is only the collateral damage of being human. Whether he is writing about the players in a rickety bisexual love triangle or a woman visiting her husband in a nursing home, probing the psychic mainspring of a grimly obsessive weight lifter or sifting through the layers of resentment, need, and pity in a friendship that has gone on a few decades too long, Baxter enchants us with the elegant balance of his prose and the unexpectedness of his insights. Harmony of the World is a masterpiece of lucidity and compassion.

Worlds in Harmony offer wide-ranging yet focused exchanges among seven highly-accomplished panelists and H.H. the Dalai Lama who address inner-city violence, environmental destruction, roles of women, war and its aftermath, and other crucial issues of our time.

Focusing on the role of harmony in Chinese international relations (IR) theory, this book seeks to illuminate Chinese understandings of world politics and foreign policy. Taking a decolonial approach and rooted in China's cultural and epistemic terms, the title first describes three traditions of the concept of harmony in ancient Chinese thought and then analyses three strands of contemporary Chinese IR theory that draw upon this traditional thinking. Despite their similarities in advocating a radical deepening of China's relations with other countries and intense interdependence as essential for global peace and prosperity, these Chinese IR theories understand the concept of harmony in different ways and present different recommendations for achieving harmonious relations. Based on this framework of harmonious IR, Chinese social scientists also argue for new directions in Chinese foreign policy in a manner that is complementary with China's policymaking system. In the case-study section, the authors apply harmonious IR perspectives to the Belt and Road Initiative and demonstrate how a better understanding of Chinese IR theories can shed light on motivations behind Chinese foreign policy. This work will be a valuable reference for scholars, students, policymakers, and general readers interested in Chinese politics, Chinese foreign policy, Chinese IR theory, and ancient Chinese philosophy.