xii, 245 pages 22 cm

Examines the doctrines and structure of the Eastern cults and religions involved in the spiritual explosion shaking America

Includes bibliographical references

1. Introduction -- Suspicions -- What is California? -- The loss of the cosmic -- A wider sense of psychology -- The agonies of religious "relevance" -- The sense of Asian teachings -- Why now? Why here? -- The inclusion of the mind -- The return of the practical -- The modern underestimation of man -- Hinduism, Buddhism and Sufism -- The occult -- The place of California -- 2. Zen center -- The embrace of Zen Buddhism -- "Just sitting" -- Drugs and "extraordinary" experience -- Difficulties -- Suzuki Roshi -- What is a master? -- The uses ritual -- The place of the intellect -- The question of discipline -- Tassajara -- An American Zen monastery -- What is a monk? -- A monastery in the midst of life -- The monastery as a laboratory -- 3. Meher Baba -- The age of the avatar -- Psyche and cosmos -- The instrumentality of love -- The life and work of Meher Baba -- The silence -- The Baba-lovers -- A search for the emotions -- Love from the point of failure -- 4. Subud -- The experience of latihan -- An "ordinary" man -- Energies -- The meaning of submission -- The energies of sex -- Social order and self-perfection -- Understanding death -- 5. Transcendental meditation (Maharish Mahesh Yogi) -- Promises -- The attracted mind -- The theory of the mantra -- "It's easy!" -- What is a "practical method?" -- 6. A note on Krishnamurti -- Instantaneous self-observation -- A new understanding of freedom -- Thought and death -- The surface of Krishnamurti -- The existence of psychological help -- Relationship: an example -- Right education -- 7. Tibet in America -- The appearance of Tibet -- The compassion of reality -- Why are they here? -- Tarthang Tulku -- The Vajrayana -- Balanced disillusionment -- The path to the path -- The "accumulation of merit" -- The weight of Tibet -- 8. Hunger for ideas -- A more fundamental world -- Astrology -- The idea of influence -- Reincarnation -- Ideas as tools -- The sacred in nature -- The American Indian -- The silence of nature -- Western esotericism -- Civilization in the midst of the cosmos -- 9. In search of a central question -- Other groups and teachings -- Drugs and the problem of work -- Enthusiasm -- Spiritual effortlessness -- The new religions -- 10. Conclusion

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews