Kirjahaku

'Migglism' is a short term for Middle Way Philosophy, a practical philosophical approach developed by Robert M. Ellis in a Ph.D. thesis and a series of books. Middle Way Philosophy brings together insights from Buddhism, philosophy and psychology to offer a framework of thinking for a range of integrative practices. This book introduces these ideas in an accessible way. 'The Middle Way' is not a compromise, but a process of navigating between dogmatic extremes. By avoiding either positive or negative claims that go beyond experience, we can find a new way of thinking, valuing and practising. Approved by the Middle Way Society. "The middle is the chaotic and confusing place between the extremes. While the extremes are simpler and more attractive, it is in the mess in the middle where the interesting and creative activities occur - it is where we should be. Robert sets out a foundation for a way of thinking about the middle ground as a place to move towards." Ed Catmull, President of Pixar.

'Parables of the Middle Way' combines fiction and commentary to provide various imaginative ways into the core themes of Middle Way Philosophy already developed in Robert M Ellis's other books. The stories are either original, or adapted from a range of sources: philosophical, Buddhist and Christian. They include the story of a ship caught in a strait between two intractably opposed ports, an inside-out version of Plato's cave, a set of variations of the Good Samaritan suggesting all the other ways of doing good, and the early life of the Buddha transposed to eighteenth century England. Robert M. Ellis is the founder of the Middle Way Society, author of 'Migglism' and of the 'Middle Way Philosophy' series. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy as well as a long-standing interest in fiction, and is devoted to developing new and more adequate ways of thinking that can be applied in practice.

This book was originally written as an accredited Ph.D. thesis - but one that broke all the usual rules. Rather than focusing on a small area like most theses, this is a inter-disciplinary philosophical treatise that attempts to establish a new approach to the whole question of objectivity, especially in ethics. Inspired by the Buddhist Middle Way, but argued in Western terms from first premises, this book challenges widespread assumptions found in both analytic and continental traditions of philosophy. It seeks to establish a Middle Way between absolutism and relativism, using evidence from philosophy, psychology, religion and history. The author, Robert M. Ellis, is a philosopher and teacher, and was also a Buddhist practitioner for many years. However, he has now withdrawn from any commitment to the Buddhist tradition to concentrate on developing a universal Middle Way philosophy, promoted on his website, www.moralobjectivity.net.

This book is a critique of Buddhism by a philosopher with about 20 years' experience of practising Buddhism. It attempts to judge Buddhism by the standards of its own key insight of the Middle Way. This book argues that Buddhism has often abandoned the Middle Way and allowed dogmatic metaphysical assumptions to take its place. The Buddha criticised appeals to metaphysics, yet many of the trappings of traditional Buddhism are built on it - whether these are karma and rebirth, the revelations of the enlightened and their scriptures, dependent origination, the interpretation of the Four Noble "Truths", alienated idealisations of love, or rituals that celebrate metaphysics rather than insight. This is not a purely negative book, but an attempt at a balanced appraisal of Buddhism with praise as well as criticism. In the West we have an opportunity to evaluate Buddhism anew and reform it so that it best applies its own insights.

'A New Buddhist Ethics' offers a different approach to tackling moral issues, using the Middle Way originally inspired by the Buddha. It aims to free Buddhist ethcs from karma, rebirth, and the revelations of the enlightened. Robert M. Ellis has been developing a universal philosophy of the Middle Way. Here he applies this approach to issues of practical ethics. The Middle Way is a practical approach to ethics which avoids the delusions of either affirming or denying metaphysical beliefs. Instead, we live better by addressing conditions in our experience more fully. Practical moral issues provide a good opportunity to see this approach at work. This book challenges established metaphysical assumptions on issues as diverse as sex, war, abortion, vegetarianism and pornography, to ask what our experience really tells us about right moral judgements, when we get beyond the dogmas.

North Cape is the relic of a gradual change in one man's life, over a period of more than twenty years, from aspiring poet to philosopher. Robert M. Ellis is more intent today on developing a philosophy of the Middle Way, but the roots of this philosophical drive are found in earlier creative work, much of it written as a Cambridge student or when on Buddhist retreats. The poems in this collection record varying experiences of travel, observation, emotional struggle and meditation. The influences include Buddhist iconography, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Renaissance art.

Truth on the Edge is an introduction to a new philosophy of objectivity, inspired by the Buddha's Middle Way but worked out in entirely Western terms. Robert M. Ellis's philosophy of the Middle Way was originally developed as a Ph.D. thesis, A Theory of Moral Objectivity, but this book is intended as a more accessible introduction to this philosophy. The key theme is the idea that we are not justified in making any claims about truth, whether moral or scientific, but the idea of truth is still meaningful. Instead of either making or denying metaphysical claims about truth, we need to think in terms of incrementally objective justification within experience. The book follows through the implications of this argument in relation to psychological integration, responsibility, ethics, science, religion and politics, and finally applies the Middle Way to contemporary problems such as Global Warming and the World Food Crisis.

A furious woman with a dead baby haunts thinkers through the ages, from the Buddha and Jesus to Descartes, Hume and Jung. Her questions to them all are similar: Why am I suffering? Do I deserve this? Why is it allowed? Why do women particularly have to suffer like this? Can the baby be brought back to life? The answers, however, vary greatly. A practising philosopher who is also an amateur musician, Robert M. Ellis here turns to fiction to explore death, suffering and gender relations. The 'theme' from a Buddhist story is developed in a variety of styles and formats, as in a musical theme and variations.

The Middle Way is the practical principle of avoiding both positive and negative absolutes, so as to develop provisional beliefs accessible to experience. Although inspired initially by the Buddha’s Middle Way, in Middle Way Philosophy Robert M. Ellis has developed it as a critical universalism: a way of separating the helpful from the unhelpful elements of any tradition. In this book, the Middle Way is applied to the Christian tradition in order to argue for a meaningful and positive interpretation of it, without the absolute beliefs that many assume to be essential to Christianity. Faith as an embodied, provisional confidence is distinguished from dogmatic belief. Recent developments in embodied meaning, brain lateralization from neuroscience, Jungian archetypes and the Jungian model of psychological integration are drawn on to support an account of how Christian faith is not only possible without `belief’ in God or Christ, but indeed puts us in a better position to access inspiration, moral purpose, responsibility and the basis of peace.