Showing results by author "David Christopher Lane" in All Categories

This small book contains two parts: 1) the words of Ramana on his spiritual methodology: "Who Am I?" And 2) an original essay by Dr. David Christopher Lane describing, in brief, the life and work of this most remarkable Indian sage, who is more influential today, decades after his death, than ever before.

The following is a selection from three books that were published in 1894, 1910, and 1905 respectively by early pioneers who ventured into Tibet. They are Among the Tibetans, India and Tibet, To Lhassa at Last. Although as Westerners their perspectives are culturally bounded (and too often myopic), they each write vividly and occasionally with great insight about what they experienced in their travels. Sadly, however, two of the narratives are militaristic and we witness an unwanted invasion on behalf of the British to gain controlling interest in the region.

I first encountered the mystical logic of Nicholas of Cusa when I read S.L. Frank's magnificent (and underappreciated) volume, The Unknowable. I was both mesmerized and haunted by Cusa's koan-like summation of his philosophy when he wrote, "The unattainable is attained by its unattainment." As Socrates and other mystic-philosophers before him, Nicholas of Cusa had realized through mathematics and geometry that infinity cannot be comprehended by that which is finite.

Sri Ramakrishna is one of the most thoroughly studied saints in the last 150 years. He is by any measure one of the most extraordinary mystics to have emerged from India. Ramakrishna has impacted the lives of millions around the world and he continues to intrigue and puzzle spiritual seekers and scholars alike. After reading many of Sri Ramakrishna’s wonderful sayings, filled with such rich and earthly analogies, I thought it would be instructive to choose 88 of his insights and put them in a short, introductory book.

This is the current catalog of audiobooks available from the MSAC Philosophy Group. Also included is an introductory essay by David Christopher Lane, Professor of Philosophy at Mt. San Antonio College, on the subject of audiobooks and why they are important in the future of education.

In this partially autobiographical book, Professor David Christopher Lane, PhD., a long-time skeptic of religion and the paranormal, explains why he meditates and why he believes it is extremely beneficial to human well-being. Includes a detailed section on how to meditate using an ancient technique called shabd yoga (listening to the inner sound) without resorting to mythological concepts or overlays.

Charles Sanders Peirce is perhaps the greatest philosophical mind to emerge from the United States. He was hugely influential on William James, Alfred North Whitehead, and many other eminent thinkers. This small volume includes two famous essays by Peirce, "The Fixation of Belief" and "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man." Also included is a short, intellectual biography of Peirce which focuses on his many contributions to science and philosophy. Chosen and very slightly edited by Professor David Christopher Lane, PhD.

This is an abridged edition of a classic text on Rumi and Sufism which was first published in London in 1920 under the title The Persian Mystics and authored by F. Hadland Davis. This special edition contains selections from the poetry of Rumi. Also included is an analysis of Sufism and the concept of love. Edited by Professor David Christopher Lane, PhD.

This audiobook explores the ancient Indian concept of Maya. Utilizing the latest research in neuroscience and physics, this work explains why Maya (or the notion of illusion) is an important concept and better understood today in light of science, even though ancient rishis had glimpsed its importance thousands of years ago.

Many critics consider "Rain" to be Maugham's finest short story and it has proven to be wildly successful for an essay that is less than 16,000 words, eventually earning him over a million dollars. What makes the story standout, besides its exotic setting in the South Pacific, is the archetypal conflict between the pull of the flesh and the pull of the spirit.

This book covers four distinct areas concerning the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Taken as a whole, it provides a new way of looking at Jesus and early Christianity.

Jeffrey Kripal’s latest book, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge, extends his anti-materialist critique. Kripal goes so far as to suggest that “matter may, in fact, be an expression of some kind of cosmic Mind [sic], which expresses itself as the material world through the abstract structures of mathematics and physics.” I find that the examples he cites to support his “trans-materialism” purview to be half-baked and lacking in the necessary attention to detail. This short book is a three-fold critique of Kripal's anti-materialist purview.

\The long-awaited sequel to The Making of a Spiritual Movement: The Untold Story of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar, this work goes into further detail about Paul Twitchell's extensive plagiarism, his cover-ups, his neo-mythology, and the acrimonious break-up of Darwin Gross and Harold Klemp.

The MSAC Philosophy Group is pleased to announce a new edition of that timeless classic in spiritual literature, The Dhammapada. Attributed to Buddha, this early text in Buddhism sheds a clear light on the teachings of the four noble truths and the eightfold path. This translation is from Max Mueller, the famous 19th century Indologist.

One of the first critical studies ever done on the hidden history of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar. It was first completed as a term paper when David Lane was only 20 years old as an undergraduate student at CSUN. Later, it evolved into a very controversial book which caused a worldwide stir in the Eckankar organization. Contains extensive documentation on how Paul Twitchell created a fictional mythology about himself while denying his association with certain spiritual teachers.

This book contains brief stories about famous Hindu myths, including Ganesha, Garuda, and Rama. It also includes two pertinent excerpts on advaita vedanta or non-dualist thinking from one of its earliest exponents and one from a famous modern sage, Ramana Maharshi.

The moral imperative behind vegetarianism is precisely this: to imagine the pain of an animal and then to ask yourself one straightforward question: Do I need to kill it in order to live? And, if you do not need to eat animals to live a good life, then ask yourself the following, and perhaps more pertinent, questions: Is slaughtering a cow, beheading a chicken, or hooking a fish necessary? Is my palate the driving force behind my ethical values?

This audiobook on Kabir, the great Indian mystic, contains selected poems from the Sikh's holy book Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The narration illuminates the deep insights of this wonderful saint-poet. It also includes a brief introduction and biography.

This small audiobook includes a remarkable 1990 interview with the famous professor of philosophy, Patricia Churchland, from the University of California, San Diego, who produced the groundbreaking book Neurophilosophy. Conducted by Meredith Doran and edited by David Christopher Lane. Also includes an essay by Professor Lane on the multi-level perspective on consciousness.

This is a brief narration commemorating the life and work of Acharya Sushil Kumar (1926-1994), the great Jain monk who spread the teachings of "ahimsa" (non-violence) worldwide.