Bücher von Wim van den Dungen

This book is about choice. Undoubtedly, to decide lies at the heart of existentialism. Do we choose, or are we set? Both. Defining existentialism, a word coined by the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel in 1943, is irrelevant and impossible. Immaterial because an objectifying stance or "God's Eye" on the matter is absent. Unfeasible because existentialists hold a wide range of divergent positions when answering its two basic queries : Who am I? How to live? Given the replies to these questions are as inexhaustible as crucial, existentialism is never outdated or on the way out.The existentialists were averse to a detached, theoretical approach.In answering existential questions, the scientific, objectifying, cataloging, judgmental way of thinking is deemed grossly inadequate.In every moment, one can choose. And this freedom is fundamental. One can also choose servitude. The flexibility with which the calm mind molds each moment -with its time, space, matter, information, and consciousness- into something better than before depends on meditative self-knowledge. Authenticity, creativity, and spiritual connection depend on this.Such knowledge is not theoretical but born out of meditative practice used as a gate to the "fourth time" of the living present.

An organised summary of my philosophy of the transpersonal, referring to experiences, processes, and events transcending the egology of the coarse mind and involving a sense of connection to, or participation with a more meaningful existence transforming consciousness. In the past, transpersonal philosophy developed Perennial, Empiricist and Participatory models to explain the holotropic, or altered states of consciousness calling for wholeness. This book integrates these views to accommodate a critical model, encompassing Criticism, Process Philosophy, Piaget's Genetic Epistemology, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the Eastern Chakra system, the Qabalah, Psychedelica and Depth Psychology, in casu Assagioli's Psychosynthesis. The distinction between self-actualization (the vision of totality) and self-realization (mystical experience touching the infinite) is pertinent and informs this critical and eclectic transpersonal philosophy.

This book offers translations of the 'Yoga S¿tra' of Patañjali in English, French and Dutch, as well as a commentary from the perspective of a practicing Buddhist. The 'Yoga S¿tra' of Patañjali is a remarkable short text of about 1200 words, codifying the best yoga practices in 195 Sanskrit aphorisms. Yoga became one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. In contrast to Jainism and Buddhism, it always kept close to the 'Vedas'. These crucial scriptures speak of three paths to freedom from ignorance and the suffering it brings : Ritual, Mystical Devotion and Yoga. The 'Yoga S¿tra' of Patañjali turned Hindu Yoga systematic and close to direct yogic experience. Besides a critique of the eternal substances of seer (the self) and seen (Nature), the commentary also identifies correspondences between Jh¿na Yoga and the various types of union (sam¿dhi) mentioned by Patañjali and compares constraint (the application of concentration, contemplation and union) with the Nine Stages of Calm Abiding.

English, French and Dutch translations of the 'Yoga S¿tra' of Patañjali. The 'Yoga S¿tra' of Patañjali is a remarkable short text of about 1200 words, codifying the best yoga practices in 195 Sanskrit aphorisms. Yoga became one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. In contrast to Jainism and Buddhism, it always kept close to the 'Vedas'. These crucial scriptures speak of three paths to freedom from ignorance and the suffering it brings : Ritual, Mystical Devotion and Yoga. The 'Yoga S¿tra' of Patañjali turned Hindu Yoga systematic and close to direct yogic experience. In 'The Yoga S¿tra of Patañjali : Translations and Commentary' (2016), the text is provided with a commentary from the perspective of a practicing Buddhist.