Prepare to be addicted by your own curiosity

Great Non-Fiction: Learn About Everything! A Listmania! list by Christopher Vitale (Brooklyn, NY)      

The list author says: "So the following books make you smarter with every turn of the page, and yet they're so much fun, you get your geek on while having a great time. These books were such a joy to read, yet also total brain food (and most are pretty affordable in paperback). That's why I decided to make the list, when you find good stuff, you've just gotta share!

For anyone who loves to learn about everything and anything, learning just for the sheer joy of it, these books are total finds. I've read each one, almost all of them cover-to-cover, and I'm a big geek, so these are ones that totally remained with me, even years after I read them. But beware, prepare to be addicted by your own curiosity!"

           

1.  Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond - 2005

The list author says:              "WORLD/ANCIENT HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY: Amazing, couldn't put it  down. Why did some societies come to dominate the earth, and not others? By showing how some societies got to 'guns, germs, and steel' before others, Diamond gives a short history of early civilization and its relation to tons of issues."

2.  Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another by Philip Ball - 2006

The list author says:              "SYSTEMS THEORY, POLITICS: If you want to understand how what used to be chaos/'complex systems theory' can explain everything from biological to political systems, this is the book for you. My students love it, one even said their dad started reading it when it was laying around the house and couldn't stop."

3.  The Evolution of God (Back Bay Readers' Pick) by Robert Wright - 2010

The list author says:              "EVOLUTION, RELIGION: A whirlwind tour of how religions came about, from hunter-gatherers to the 'religions of the book', not from the perspective of a believer, but based on what the historical/archaeological evidence seems to support. If human culture can be thought of as evolving, might our idea of God evolve with it? Recommended this to friends for pleasure reading, they loved it."

4.  Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright - 2001

The list author says:              "EVOLUTION, HISTORY, TECHNOLOGY: Another great book from Wright, shows how what's known as 'game theory' can be used to understand human history, and where it might be going. In the process, he touches on so many different topics in human history, making sense of widely disparate points in human social and technological evolution. Great stuff."

5.  Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century by Howard K. Bloom - 2007

The list author says:              "SYSTEMS THEORY, BIOLOGY: Another 'complex systems' book, this one shows how everything from the earliest forms of life to wikipedia can be understood as complex networks. Wide-ranging, smart, and fun to read. If you're interested in everything from bacterial colonies to primate social behavior, you'll love this."

6.  Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics by Eric D. Beinhocker - 2007

The list author says:              "ECONOMICS: Best general book on economics I've ever read, and with none of the jargon or math. Uses evolutionary and complex systems theories (no prior experience necessary!) to show how evolution and economics aren't all that different.  In the process, you'll learn about stock markets, theories of evolution, robotics, fractals, Toyota, power grids, and lots of other cool stuff."

7.  Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler - 2006

The list author says:              "LANGUAGE, HISTORY: If you're a language geek, there's SOOOO much in here: what makes some language spread, even when the people who created it lose battles, culture wars, etc? Ostler examines every language that has ever come to dominate part of the world, from Egyptian to Sanskrit to English."

8.  The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention by Guy Deutscher - 2006

The list author says:              "LINGUISTICS: How did languages evolve? What do linguists study, and how do they do it? If you ever wondered where verbs came from, and want to enjoy the process, this is a great book."

9.  Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra by John Derbyshire - 2007

The list author says:              "MATH: I never thought a book on the history of math could be so much fun. This book's about a LOT more than just algebra, it's a whirlwind tour of how match changed in history. Tons of cool stories, and no difficult symbols. Anyone can read this and learn a ton."

10.  Why Beauty Is Truth: The History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart - 2008

The list author says:              "MATH, PHYSICS: Ian Stewart is such a great writer, all his books are amazing. This one introduces the notion of symmetry, and how it can be used to understand, well, just about anything. You'll go from ancient Babylon to quantum theory, no math background required!"

11.  The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross - 2008

The list author says:              "MUSIC: If twentieth century music totally baffles you, and you want to understand it, it's history, why and how and where, this is the book for you. And you get a tour of the early twentieth century in the process. Lots of fun, well written, a joy to read."

12.  About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution by Paul Davies - 1996

The list author says:              "RELATIVITY THEORY, QUANTUM PHYSICS: Clearest explanation you'll ever find of relativity and quantum physics, all packaged with bits from the life story of Albert Einstein. Tons of cool paradoxes, written a a relaxed, talky, laidback style that everyone can understand, even on this difficult stuff! A really great book."

13.  The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients by Irvin D. Yalom - 2003

The list author says:              "PSYCHOLOGY, THERAPY: If you ever wondered how or why therapy works, or what it's like to be a therapist, read this book. Yalom shows how therapy can be an ethical practice for life. Incredible."

14.  Body And Soul: The Making Of American Modernism by Robert Morse Crunden - 2000

The list author says:              "MODERNISM: The roaring twenties in art, literature, music, and culture comes to life in this excellent read."

15.  Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 by George Chauncey - 1995

The list author says:              "QUEER/GENDER STUDIES, NYC: This great book describes worlds most people have no idea ever existed, from the cabarets of Harlem to the drag balls at Madison Square Garden to the lives of sailors on the bowery. A great intro to queer theory, lgbt history, the roaring twenties, and the history of nyc."

16.  Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by Bell Hooks - 1994

The list author says:              "EDUCATION, PEDAGOGY: Best book written about teaching that I've ever read. Deeply ethical, practical, intense. Also a great intro to thinking about race, class, gender, and sexuality and how they relate to the classroom."

17.  Experience And Education by John Dewey - 1997

The list author says:              "EDUCATION, PEDAGOGY: What should we teach, and how? Dewey shows how education is all about form over content, and he does it in plain English. Great stuff."

18.  The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft by Anne Friedberg - 2009

The list author says:              "ART: A great history of art from the easel painting to laptops, with tons of film theory, discussions of perspective, window making, and other cool visual storylines. A bit more 'scholarly' than some of the others, but still well written and accessible to all."

19. Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws (English and English Edition) by John C. Taylor - 2001

The list author says:              "SCIENCE, HISTORY: A really great history of the development of science, up to and including quantum physics and the theory of relativity. Has some basic math, but nothing above HS level. Does a great job of explaining why and how major breakthroughs came about."

20.  A Universe Of Consciousness How Matter Becomes Imagination by Gerald M. Edelman - 2001

The list author says:              "THE BRAIN: Explains how the brain works, pure and simple. Really smart, and pretty easy to read. And after this, you'll understand why your neocortex is like a network . . ."

21.  Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain by Antonio R. Damasio - 2005

The list author says:              "THE BRAIN, EMOTION: Damasio's a great writer, and with tons of examples, he shows why emotions are central to what it means to think, throwing in a lot of the architecture of the brain in the process."

22.  The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain by Terrence W. Deacon - 1998

The list author says:              "THE BRAIN, LANGUAGE: How did our brain and language coevolve? Slightly more technical than some of the others, but still a good read. And so much in here! You'll learn about the evolution of so many different parts of the brain, how they taught chimps human language using language-boards, and so much more."

23.  Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes by Charles Seife - 2007

The list author says:              "INFORMATION THEORY: Every wondered what information theory is? Here's a totally accessible book to explain it to you, with tons of scientific tidbits thrown in."

24.  Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-László Barabási - 2003

The list author says:              "NETWORKS: If you wanna know more about why the study of networks is hot these days, check this book out."

25.  Sync: How Order Emerges From Chaos In the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life by Steven H. Strogatz - 2004

The list author says:              "SYSTEMS THEORY: Another great pop-sci systems theory book. If you wanna get why order evolves from chaos, often by itself, starting from how crickets come to flash in sync, look no further. And it's a fun read."

26.  In Search of the Multiverse: Parallel Worlds, Hidden Dimensions, and the Ultimate Quest for the Frontiers of Reality by John Gribbin - 2010

The list author says:              "MULTIPLE UNIVERSES: Ever wonder about why scientists argue that there could be many univeres? All explained, and its lots of fun."

27.  What Is Thought? (Bradford Books) by Eric B. Baum - 2006

The list author says:              "WHAT IS THOUGHT?: Unlike the other books, this book is difficult, but there's nothing here that requires a math or science background, he explains everything. Introduces everything from the DNA to computer science to artificial intelligence, etc. Amazing."

28.  A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice (Oxford Studies in Music Theory) by Dmitri Tymoczko - 2011

The list author says:              "MUSIC AND MATH: If you're ever wondered what music and math have in common, this book is for you. It's not the easiest going, but it does explain almost all the music theory you'll need as you go along. And this is the first book that really brings music theory and modern mathematics (ie: group theory) together. A little more difficult than some of the other texts on the list, but amazing."

Sri Aurobindo & Hassidism

Forum :: Integral Yoga :: Vishwa Dharma Mandalam
Sri Ramakrishnananda Integral Yoga  May 28, 2011 07:25AM

The Sanskrit word purna means ‘complete’, ‘total’ or ‘integral’. Purna-yoga simultaneously opens different doors for us to discover and integrate ourselves: the doors of action, body, breathing, heart, energy, mind, sex, observation, sound and word, among others.

Through integral yoga, our different facets as human beings can be harmonized, unified, and ultimately, transcended through a process that includes the path of action, through karma-yoga; the emotional, through bhakti-yoga; the mental, through raja-yoga, the way of self-inquiry, to which jñana-yoga invites us, and many others. It can be said that purna-yoga is a synthesis of the immense and ancient wisdom of ViSva-dharma.  

Any system unconcerned with our totality, and directed only to a part or a particular aspect, will merely increase our suffering and our conflicts. Purna-yoga refers to the process of integrating each and every one of our aspects, so that we can reunite in turn with the Whole and be elevated to the plane of divine existence.
It is a movement that leads us above the intellect, allowing us to transcend the intellectual judgments executed by the prism of the mind, so that we may perceive the light of intuition. In this way, our actions, emotions and sense perceptions become “intuitivized”.  

Rather than struggling against the darkness, or investing time and energy to bring the sun into our room, this path suggests that we simply open our windows and make ourselves accessible, so that the golden rays of sunlight may enter and warm our frozen heart. There is no other way to dispel the darkness. Opening doors and windows means shedding all our defenses, to let what is impossible to achieve through effort, happen. In integral yoga, renunciation of the body is not essential to reach the soul. If enlightenment is the realization of totality, our aspiration must be inclusive; never exclusive. 

Our longing must be rooted in the integration of all values, whether classified as material or spiritual, for any such division is illusory. Matter is not the counterpart of spirit; the manifested retains within itself the unmanifested, and spirit lies in the depths of the material.

Yoga is not to flee from the earthly, but to integrate it with the divine; its intention is not only the transcendence of illusion, or mundane consciousness, but to manifest the celestial in this world, to create a paradise on earth. Into dark ignorance, yoga brings the power of light.  

Sri Aurobindo refers to his integral yoga as “having God descend to the mundane”. In Hassidism we find very similar idea, expressed in Hebrew as “laasot lo dira ba tajtonim” or “make Him a dwelling place below”. If we go deeper, we will discover that the descent of heaven to earth is actually nothing more than the revelation that any division of material from spiritual —or above from below—has no existence beyond our egoic perspective, and that there is no need to make anything descend, because heaven is much closer than we believe, and God dwells within us. 

Philip Goldberg | Feathered Pipe Ranch May 31st, 2011

CABLE CARS TO INDIA: THE BAY AREA’S EAST-WEST TRANSMISSION – PHILIP GOLDBERG

One of the most important figures in the development of Bay Area spirituality was a giant of India who never set foot in America and died in 1950. Sri Aurobindo, whose blend of Vedantic philosophy and modern scientific insights remains a marvel of intellectual prowess, has impacted millions who never heard his name. In a sense, that includes anyone who has ever taken a workshop at Esalen. That’s because Esalen cofounder, Michael Murphy, was inspired by his reading of Sri Aurobindo and his sojourn at the Aurobindo Ashram in South India to create an institute that combines the best of East and West to explore the higher reaches of human potential. Esalen has been doing that for nearly 60 years now, and some of its earliest presenters were progressive thinkers who advanced our understanding of human development: Huston Smith, Joseph Campbell, Ram Dass, and importantly, Abraham Maslow and other pioneers of psychology who made the Bay Area the fulcrum of the revolution that gave us humanistic and transpersonal psychologies. The gauntlet was thrown down at Grace Cathedral on January 6, 1966, when Maslow gave a lecture titled “Toward a Psychology of Religious Awareness.” 

It is no coincidence that the institutions most responsible for integrating psychology and spirituality are in the Bay Area: JFK University, Saybrook, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and the California Institute of Integral Studies. CIIS, it should be noted, was founded (under an earlier name) by the philosopher Haridas Chaudhuri, who also established the still-functioning Cultural Integration Fellowship across the street from Golden Gate Park on Fulton. Dr. Chaudhuri was sent by Sri Aurobindo himself to join the startup faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies (AAAS). 

Philip Goldberg is a spiritual counselor and the author of many books, including his latest, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. 

Sri Aurobindo was pragmatically plural; for him human harmony lay not in effacing differences

Back to caste count Sri Lanka Guardian by Sam Rajappa (June 01, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian)

Sri Aurobindo, in his essay Un-Hindu Spirit of Caste Rigidity, wrote: "The baser ideas underlying the degenerate perversions of the caste system, the mental attitude which bases them on superiority, depending on the accident of birth of a fixed and intolerant inequality, are inconsistent with the supreme teaching, the basic spirit of Hinduism which sees the one invariable and indivisible divinity in every individual being." …

A comprehensive caste census is not only impractical but also against the spirit of the Constitution. It would reduce India from a democracy of citizens to an oligarchy of communities… The way to transcend caste is not by reinforcing its identity, but by stressing citizenship of the nation. The writer is a veteran journalist and former Director, Statesman Print Journalism School

Recent Additions 21 May 11: Review by Amiya P. Sen 

However, though what Heehs’s work seems to lack is a willingness to situate Sri Aurobindo within contemporary Indian thought. Ideally, a biography, especially that of a thinker and philosopher like Sri Aurobindo, also ought to be a history of ideas. I have the feeling that Aurobindo shares with Swami Vivekananda many more things than Heehs concedes, the most important of which are, first, the attempt to bring out the deepest subjectivities in man and second, the belief that social transformation began with the individual. The first Vivekananda called anubhav, human subjectivity that Aurobindo related to sadhana which was anchored in praxis, not textuality. […]

The other question is whether or not Aurobindo may be counted among the Hindus...  Perhaps those who strongly deny his ‘Hindu’ credentials are as much in error as those who insist on it. For one, I am not aware of Aurobindo’s categorically denying or disowning his identity as a Hindu. It would be reasonable to claim therefore, that at least culturally, he remained a Hindu. Though of a non-conformist Brahmo lineage he chose to marry a Hindu girl but more importantly, his entire cultural hermeneutics was deeply anchored in Hindu religion and mythology. This sets him apart from near contemporary figures like Krishna Mohan Bandopadhyay or Brahmabandhab Upadhyay who underwent a formal change of faith and though greatly interested in Hindu religion and philosophy, began to see these from a visibly altered perspective. I am also persuaded to say that neo-Hindu thinkers of the late nineteenth compounded the identity question somewhat by trying to adopt a universalistic posture which, practically, they found hard to sustain. To call Vedanta universalistic, culturally neutral and an effective surrogate to the word ‘Hinduism’, as indeed was done since the days of Rammohun Roy, is a good instance of this false consciousness. Rammohun’s The Universal Religion (1929) is almost entirely based on Hindu-brahminical sources.

On the other hand, it will have to be admitted that Sri Aurobindo was not a Hindu in the ordinary sense of the term; the reader has only to turn to his essay ‘Two Hinduisms’ (Epistles from Abroad: 1910) to learn what kind of Hinduism he would have personally preferred . This leads me to conclude that an active dissociation from the politics of the Hindu Right need not ipso facto undermine one’s self-understanding as a Hindu. I would fervently hope that one is not contingent upon the other. Sri Aurobindo rejected Hindu nationalism and looked to a Utopia where human consciousness could rise above social and cultural ascriptions. At the same time, he was pragmatically plural; for him, if I have been able to understand him at all, human harmony lay not in effacing differences but in trying to felicitously live with them. Amiya P. Sen, Jamia Millia Islamia 

Sri Aurobindo on Hinduism 12 Aug 2010

Sri Aurobindo made a clear distinction between two types of ...

Sri Aurobindo's Writings - The Mother's Collected Works

Reasoning and logic are a mask; conclusions spring from preferences, prejudices and passions

Sri Aurobindo: On Original Thinking

We have, most of us, our chosen explanation of this dolorous phenomenon [of the decline of Indian civilisation]. The patriot attributes our decline to the ravages of foreign invasion and the benumbing influences of foreign rule; the disciple of European materialism finds out the enemy, the evil, the fount and origin of all our ills, in our religion and its time-honoured social self-expression. Such explanations, like most human thoughts, have their bright side of truth as well as their obscure side of error; but they are not, in any case, the result of impartial thinking.

Man may be, as he has been defined, a reasoning animal, but it is necessary to add that he is, for the most part, a very badly reasoning animal. He does not ordinarily think for the sake of finding out the truth, but much more for the satisfaction of his mental preferences and emotional tendencies; his conclusions spring from his preferences, prejudices and passions; and his reasoning and logic paraded to justify them are only a specious process or a formal mask for his covert approach to an upshot previously necessitated by his heart or by his temperament. When we are awakened from our modern illusions, as we have been awakened from our mediaeval superstitions, we shall find that the intellectual conclusions of the rationalist, for all their pomp and protest of scrupulous enquiry, were as much dogmas as those former dicta of Pope and theologian, which confessed without shame their simple basis in the negation of reason....

It is always best, therefore, to scrutinise very narrowly those bare, trenchant explanations which so easily satisfy the pugnacious animal in our intellect; when we have admitted that small part of the truth on which they seize, we should always look for the large part which they have missed. INDIA'S REBIRTH- Part II

Comment posted by: Sandeep: Re: 15 August: an Eternal Birth—the Mother explains its significance

I tend to leave aside some of these high-brow observations made by the Mother like this one about the significance of 15th August.  Thats because I don't possess the consciousness she had when she spoke of these things, so it makes no sense to interpret it intellectually.

Tusar N. Mohapatra Says: May 21, 2011 at 8:24 am

[Principles of the Evolutionary Process from Sri Aurobindo Studies 

Sri Aurobindo has outlined this very succinctly in this chapter: [...]

Rod on Issues of inclusion v exclusion in Auroville

Standing on the head of reason is Adwaita. I don't think the law of parsimony gets that far at all and probably has little to do with spirituality; something like the idea can probably be found in Nyaya and Mimamsa which said about everything possible concerning causality. I am mentioning the idea in this context because it is very tempting to ascribe "spiiritual" and "occult" causes for things that are actually quite concrete and present, such as class discrimination. There, Marxist criticism and psychology is probably the best authority

Vrinda Estela Pujals on Issues of inclusion v exclusion in Auroville - Keka on Issues of inclusion v exclusion in Auroville - Vladimir on Issues of inclusion v exclusion in Auroville - Rod on Issues of inclusion v exclusion in Auroville - Vladimir on Some thoughts on the Vedic gods : Sri Aurobindo's Writings - The Mother's Collected Works

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Issues of inclusion v exclusion in Auroville

Comment by Rod  in reply to philippe Last Updated: May 15, 2011

One of the results of this pattern, which can be seen in Auroville, is a kind of mass paranoid psychosis. Instead of addressing the behaviors of people in a direct and rational way, people are overcome by their fears and their righteous delusions, etc. I prefer using Occam's razor, if possible. The law of parsimony was effectively used to combat religious obscurantism during his time as well.

Comment by Rod  in reply to Rod Last Updated: May 15, 2011

Standing on the head of reason is Adwaita. I don't think the law of parsimony gets that far at all and probably has little to do with spirituality; something like the idea can probably be found in Nyaya and Mimamsa which said about everything possible concerning causality. I am mentioning the idea in this context because it is very tempting to ascribe "spiiritual" and "occult" causes for things that are actually quite concrete and present, such as class discrimination. There, Marxist criticism and psychology is probably the best authority. Back to Rod's Comment

larvalsubjects Says: May 21, 2011 at 8:16 pm Ross,

if you’re looking for an orthodoxy here you won’t find it. I find some things of value in Marx just as I do in the case of a number of other philosophers. I also think he’s mistaken on certain points. As for the Frankfurt school I largely see these thinkers as a catastrophic betrayal of Marxist materialism and attempt to domesticate his thought back in the fold of bourgois idealism.

larvalsubjects Says:May 21, 2011 at 10:51 pm

This is a fair point and the sorts of demystification that we find in Lucretius and Spinoza (two of my personal heroes), differ substantially from the sort of demystification I’m talking about. These sorts of demystifications reveal not the human in everything, but precisely that the human isn’t in everything (which is part of what makes Marx’s dissertation such a hoot and complete misreading of Lucretius). 

When I evoke the concept of demystification I’m thinking specifically of 20th century critical projects where the aim is always to reveal some hidden human force behind what we take to be out there in the world. The Frankfurt school would, of course, be included in this, but also psychoanalysis, deconstruction, Foucault’s analyses of power, Zizek’s critiques of ideology, etc., etc., etc. 

Let me be clear: I am not suggesting these modes of demystification aremistaken. All of these modes of critique reveal something real and important. The problem is their overstatement. There’s a marked tendency to see all material beings as disguised reflections of the human, ignoring the positive contributions of nonhuman agencies that can’t be reduced to the human.