For the first time in English, Stephen Earle tells the epic story of Nakamura Tempu, one of Japan’s most inspirational twentieth-century thinkers and teachers, whose mind-body approach to personal transformation influenced hundreds of thousands, including prominent leaders in government, industry, and the arts. Earle chronicles Tempu’s origins in the samurai tradition, his genius for martial arts, and his work in Manchuria as a spy during the Russo-Japan War of 1904–1905. He relates how, after escaping a Russian firing squad, Tempu contracted tuberculosis; how he embarked on a search for a cure that led to the halls of Columbia University, the salons of Paris, and the foothills of the Himalayas, where he practiced yoga under the tutelage of an Indian guru; and how he not only regained his health but also underwent a spiritual transformation. This transformation laid the groundwork for the secular and practical methodology for self-realization and the cultivation of will that Tempu developed and disseminated to the sick and socially disenfranchised, as well as to princes and prime ministers. Over the course of nine decades, Tempu’s philosophy of mind-body unification has charted a clear and accessible path to mastery over hardship and the ability to meet life’s challenges head-on. Yet, the man, his story, his teachings, and his legacy remain almost unknown outside of Japan—until now. In addition to demonstrating how Tempu’s teachings were significant to Japan’s reconstruction and economic rise following the devastation of World War II, Heaven’s Wind is also an engaging historical narrative, an account of personal transformation, and a clear guide to the practical philosophy of mind-body unity.
The standard interpretation of Special Relativity is that of the “space-time block,” where the past, present and future are laid out in a vast, frozen structure. The origins of the “block” rest in Langevin's 1911 announcement of the twin paradox, the validity of this paradox also invariably being included as part of this standard view. The view is ubiquitous, is described repeatedly, and is completely misguided. This book explores the fundamental contradictions in this interpretation, its inconsistencies in the assignment of ontological status to time dilation versus the opposite for space contraction, its failure to properly factor the reciprocity of systems, the ultimate non-ontological status of the “block” and thus the non-status of relativity as a theory of time. In this, the work explores the problems for a theory of consciousness and perception inherent in the “block,” the extensions of certain of the inconsistencies into the foundations of the General Theory, and the origins of relativity in the classic metaphysic of space and time - now outmoded. In contrast to the classic structure, the temporal metaphysic of Bergson is described with its indivisible or non-differentiable flow of time, where “objects” are simply transferences of state within the global motion of the universal field. In this framework, we see Bergson's remarkable model of perception with its natural marriage to that of the great perception theorist, J. J. Gibson. It is a model which generates a testable contradiction to the standard interpretation of relativity, and it is a model of conscious perception that relies on the reality of the simultaneity of flows of events – a fundamental feature of the fabric of time that relativity and the relativization of simultaneity cannot incorporate. This little book, it should be noted, for those who have read Time and Memory: A Primer on the Scientific Mysticism of Consciousness, is a modified version of a chapter or so in this earlier work.
Earle Christmas Grafton Page (1880–1961) – surgeon, Country Party leader, treasurer and prime minister – was perhaps the most extraordinary visionary to hold high public office in twentieth-century Australia. Over decades, he made determined efforts to seize ‘the psychological moment’, and thereby realise his vision of a decentralised, regionalised and rationally ordered nation. Page’s unique dreaming of a very different Australia encompassed new states, hydroelectricity, economic planning, cooperative federalism and rural universities. His story casts light on the wider place in history of visions of national development. He was Australia’s most important advocate of developmentalism, the important yet little-studied stream of thought that assumes that governments can lead the nation to realise its economic potential. His audacious synthesis of ideas delineated and stretched the Australian political imagination. Page’s rich career confirms that Australia has long inspired popular ideals of national development, but also suggests that their practical implementation was increasingly challenged during the twentieth century. Effervescent, intelligent and somewhat eccentric, Page was one of Australia’s great optimists. Few Australian leaders who stood for so much have since been so neglected.
Be advised that you read this book at your own risk: chances are, it will at least challenge your conceptual understanding of reality and may even alter forever how you see the world. Norio's Kushi's insights, the windfall of long hours on the road, are the stuff of practical wisdom. The ability to question one's reality is the first requisite of evolutionary change. Awakening-you might also call it spiritual transformation or enlightenment-is neither a solution to life's problems nor a goal to be achieved through personal endeavor but, rather, a ground zero, a place to come from if one is to live a productive and fulfilling life. This is the story of Norio Kushi's journey, how he was born in New York City to Japanese parents, Michio and Aveline Kushi, how he grew up and came of age within the eccentric surroundings of the Boston macrobiotic community of the 1960s and 1970s, and how, since then, he has consistently been guided by his intuition.
The “Singularity” is the hypothetical point in time – considered by AI writers to be very close – where artificial intelligence and super intelligent machines meet and surpass human intelligence. Yet neither AI theory nor Cognitive Science – equally committed to the computer model of mind – have begun to make the needed considerations on what the human mind truly is. While they have entertained “embodiment,” or “embodied cognition,” and/or J.J. Gibson's ecological psychology as needed components, these frameworks are themselves only dimly grasped. For coherence, Gibson must be placed within the remarkable model of time, mind and brain of Henri Bergson. This book is a challenge to look deeply at the real nature of human perception, memory, and consciousness, that is, what is required to even begin to claim human equivalence in intelligence. Much of this book is a reorganization, expansion and deepening of portions of an earlier book, Time and Memory: A Primer on the Scientific Mysticism of Consciousness, aimed and refocused for those interested in artificial intelligence and its future.
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