Book picks similar to
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Direct Truth: Uncompromising, non-prescriptive Truths to the enduring questions of life


Kapil Gupta - 2018
    They are things that move humans away from Truth. For they approach all matters from the standpoint of a “fix.” The Truth is a path away from all fixes. And away from all chases. It is for the one who is Serious. It is for the one who is Sincere. This book is for but a handful of individuals in the world. Those with a rarest form of DNA. The DNA to arrive at the Direct Truth in all things. So that they may put an end to all chases. So that they may walk life’s Final Mile. And come to possess the things that they have called by various other names.

The Compleat Strategyst: Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy


J.D. Williams - 1965
    D. Williams wrote this entertaining, witty introduction for the nonscientist, game theory was still a somewhat mysterious subject familiar to very few scientists beyond those researchers, like himself, working for the military. Now, over thirty years after its original publication as a Rand Corporation research study, his light-hearted though thoroughly effective primer is the recognized classic introduction to an increasingly applicable discipline. Used by amateurs, professionals, and students throughout the world in the classroom, on the job, and for personal amusement, the book has been through ten printings, and has been translated into at least five languages (including Russian and Japanese).Revised, updated, and available for the first time in an inexpensive paperback edition, The Compleat Strategyst is a highly entertaining text essential for anyone interested in this provocative and engaging area of modern mathematics. In fully illustrated chapters complete with everyday examples and word problems, Williams offers readers a working understanding of the possible methods for selecting strategies in a variety of situations, simple to complex. With just a basic understanding of arithmetic, anyone can grasp all necessary aspects of two-, three-, four-, and larger strategy games with two or more sets of inimical interests and a limitless array of zero-sum payoffs.As research and study continues not only in this new discipline but in the related areas of statistics, probability and behavioral science, understanding of games, decision making, and the development of strategies will be increasingly important. In the areas of economics, sociology, politics, and the military, game theory is sure to have an even wider impact. For students and amateurs fascinated by game theory's implications there is no better, immediately applicable, or more entertaining introduction to the subject than this engaging text by the late J. D. Williams, Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and a member of the Research Council of The Rand Corporation.

The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master, Volume 1


Timothy Ferriss
    http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/...

Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti


Jiddu Krishnamurti - 1996
    Now the trustees of Krishnamurti’s work have gathered his very best and most illuminating writings and talks to present in one volume the truly essential ideas of this great spiritual thinker.Total Freedom includes selections from Krishnamurti’s early works, his ‘Commentaries on Living’, and his discourses on life, the self, meditation, sex and love. These writings reveal Krishnamuri’s core teachings in their full eloquence and power: the nature of personal freedom; the mysteries of life and death; and the ‘pathless land’, the personal search for truth and peace. Warning readers away from blind obedience to creeds or teachers – including himself – Krishnamurti celebrated the individual quest for truth, and thus became on of the most influential guides for independent-minded seekers of the twentieth century – and beyond.

The Tao of Philosophy: The Edited Transcripts (The Love of Wisdom Library)


Alan W. Watts - 1995
    With down-to-earth writing he reveals our direct connection to the natural world and reminds us that we are not so much born into this world as grown out of it. This collection of eight of Watts' unique philosophical essays and an early piece written in 1953 has a brief introduction by Alan's son, Mark Watts, which gives the background of these pieces and their place in Alan Watts' life and work.

The Reality Creation Technique


Frederick Dodson - 2010
    Beyond the shallow waters of new-age, "law of attraction" and conventional motivational psychology there is a deep well from which you derive unbending determination and strength. That source is within you and can be awakened to achieve anything. The Reality Creation Technique is the most speedily effective method to help you make your dreams come true.

Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living


Bruce Lee - 2000
    A good teacher is merely a catalyst."—Bruce LeeWithin the pages of Striking Thoughts, you will find the secrets of Bruce Lee's amazing success— as an actor, martial artist, and inspiration to the world. Consisting of eight sections, Striking Thoughts covers 72 topics and 825 aphorisms—from spirituality to personal liberation and from family life to filmmaking—all of which Bruce lived by.His ideas helped energize his life and career, and made it possible for him to live a happy and assured life, overcoming difficult obstacles with seeming ease. His ideas also inspired his family, friends, students, and colleagues to achieve success in their own lives and this personal collection will help you in your journey too.Sections include:On First Principles—including life, existence, time, and deathOn Being Human—including the mind, happiness, fear, and dreamsOn Matters of Existence—health, love, marriage, raising children, ethics, racism, and adversityOn Achievement—work, goals, faith, success, money, and fameOn Art and Artists—art, filmmaking, and actingOn Personal Liberation—conditioning, Zen Buddhism, meditation, and freedomOn the Process of Becoming—self-actualization, self-help, self-expression, and growthOn Ultimate (Final) Principles—Yin-yang, totality, Tao, and the truthThis Bruce Lee Book is part of the Bruce Lee Library which also features:Bruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden DragonBruce Lee: The Tao of Gung FuBruce Lee: Artist of LifeBruce Lee: Letters of the DragonBruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human BodyBruce Lee: Jeet Kune Do

The Book of Secrets (Complete)


Osho - 1974
    Confined to small, hidden mystery schools for centuries, and often misunderstood and misinterpreted today. Tantra is not just a collection of techniques to enhance sexual experience. As Osho shows in these pages, it is a complete science of self-realizatoin, based on the cumulative wisdom of centuries of exploration into the meaning of life and consciousness. Tantra-the very word means "technique"-is a set of powerful, transformative tools that can be used to bring new meaning andjoy to every aspect of our daily lives.

Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality


Lewis Carroll Epstein - 1989
    Thinking Physics is a perfect beginner’s guide to an amazingly wide range of physics-related questions. The book targets topics that science teachers and students spend time wondering about, like wing lift. Epstein elucidates the familiar but misunderstood — such as how tides work — along with more obscure but fascinating phenomena like the “Bernoulli sub” and the “artificial aurora” created by hydrogen bombs. Broken into many short sections and peppered with Epstein’s own playful hand-drawn illustrations, the book does not simply give the right answer: It also goes into the answers that seem right but are wrong and shows why they are wrong — a rarity in science books. Thinking Physics is a rigorously correct, lighthearted, and cleverly designed Q and A book for physicists of all ages.

The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge


Matt Ridley - 2015
    Drawing on anecdotes from science, economics, history, politics and philosophy, Matt Ridley’s wide-ranging, highly opinionated opus demolishes conventional assumptions that major scientific and social imperatives are dictated by those on high, whether in government, business, academia, or morality. On the contrary, our most important achievements develop from the bottom up. Patterns emerge, trends evolve. Just as skeins of geese form Vs in the sky without meaning to, and termites build mud cathedrals without architects, so brains take shape without brain-makers, learning can happen without teaching and morality changes without a plan.Although we neglect, defy and ignore them, bottom-up trends shape the world. The growth of technology, the sanitation-driven health revolution, the quadrupling of farm yields so that more land can be released for nature—these were largely emergent phenomena, as were the Internet, the mobile phone revolution, and the rise of Asia. Ridley demolishes the arguments for design and effectively makes the case for evolution in the universe, morality, genes, the economy, culture, technology, the mind, personality, population, education, history, government, God, money, and the future.

Seeker After Truth


Idries Shah - 1982
    It is precisely because of the unreliability of vision, of memory, of wanting to believe, of induced belief ... that the Sufis say that an objective perception must be acquired before even familiar things can be seen as they are. "Seeker After Truth" goes beyond the familiar "first do this, then do that" style of handbook, transporting the reader to new ranges of perception, according to his or her capacity. Among the many assumptions questioned are: the objective worth of deep emotional feelings; the superiority of man's social habits over those of rats, and the origin of those habits; the evils of deceit ... The magazine Literary Review said about it: "This book ... is food for many different kinds of study - a book unlike anything our society has produced until recently, in its richness, its unexpectedness, its capacity to shock us into seeing ourselves as others see us, both personally and as a society."

The Way to Love


Anthony de Mello - 1991
    In thirty-one meditations, he implores his  readers with his usual pithiness to break through  illusion, the great obstacle to love. "Love  springs from awareness," de Mello insists, saying  that it is only when we see others as they are  that we can begin to really love. But not only must  we seek to see others with clarity, we must examine  ourselves without misconception. The task,  however, is not easy. "The most painful act,"  de Mello says, "is the act of seeing. But in  that act of seeing that love is born." Anthony  De Mello was the director of the Sadhana Institute  of Pastoral Counseling in Poona, India, and  authored several books. The Way To Love  is his last.

Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book


Daniel M. Ingram - 2007
    The very idea that the teachings of meditation can be mastered will arouse controversy within Buddhist circles. Even so, Ingram insists that enlightenment is an attainable goal, once our fanciful notions of it are stripped away, and we have learned to use meditation as a method for examining reality rather than an opportunity to wallow in self-absorbed mind-noise .Ingram sets out concisely the difference between concentration-based and insight (Vipassana) meditation; he provides example practices; and most importantly he presents detailed maps of the states of mind we are likely to encounter, and the stages we must negotiate as we move through clearly-defined cycles of insight. It s easy to feel overawed, at first, by Ingram s assurance and ease in the higher levels of consciousness, but consistently he writes as a down-to-earth and compassionate guide to the practitioner willing to commit themselves this is a glittering gift of a book."

Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen


Brad Warner - 2019
    It's the last thing he feels like doing. What he wants to do instead is tell his friend everything he never said, to explain Zen and what he does for a living and why he spends his time "Sitting. Sitting. Sitting. Meditating my life away as it all passes by. Lighting candles and incense. Bowing to nothing." So, as he continues his teaching tour through Europe, he writes to his friend all the things he wishes he had said. Simply and humorously, he reflects on why Zen provided him a lifeline in a difficult world. He explores grief, attachment, and the afterlife. He writes to Marky, "I'm not all that interested in Buddhism. I'm much more interested in what is true," and then proceeds to poke and prod at that truth. The result for readers is a singular and winning meditation on Zen -- and a unique tribute to both a life lost and the one Warner has found.

God's Debris: A Thought Experiment


Scott Adams - 2001
    Adams describes God's Debris as a thought experiment wrapped in a story. It's designed to make your brain spin around inside your skull. Imagine that you meet a very old man who you eventually realize knows literally everything. Imagine that he explains for you the great mysteries of life: quantum physics, evolution, God, gravity, light psychic phenomenon, and probability in a way so simple, so novel, and so compelling that it all fits together and makes perfect sense. What does it feel like to suddenly understand everything? You may not find the final answer to the big question, but God's Debris might provide the most compelling vision of reality you will ever read. The thought experiment is this: Try to figure out what's wrong with the old man's explanation of reality. Share the book with your smart friends, then discuss it later while enjoying a beverage.