scholarly journals Tradition of Transformative Initiation in Taoism and the Concept of xian

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-24
Author(s):  
Alexey A. Maslov
Keyword(s):  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Bright Light ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Transpersonal Experience

This paper focuses on the characteristics of one of the key types of Taoist tradition – хian, which is usually inaccurately translated as “immortal”. Based on a number of texts of Taoist traditions Lingbao, Shanqing and Quanzhen, the paper shows that the acquisition of the state of xianhood is not connected with physical immortality, but based on the deep transformative and transpersonal experience. The practitioner goes through a series of transformative stages, each of which, depending on the particular school, includes a set of spiritual practices aimed at achieving absolute peace and self-deactualization. Such reincarnation is also accompanied by the acquisition of a bright “light”, getting a “shining spirit”, immersion into a “deep dream” that is associated with a strong insight experience. In some cases, it could be regarded as the self-rebirth in the true form (the state of the “true man”): passing through the stage of “dying of the previous body” and rebirth in the new one, as well as going to the “distant wanderings”, which typologically can be defined as a special type of rites of passage and passing through a system of consecrated rituals.

TAX FOR THE SELF-EMPLOYED: PROS AND CONS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.S. Hasanova ◽  
R.R. Hatueva ◽  
A.L. Arsaev
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
State Budget ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Crisis Conditions ◽  
Part Time Work

This article discusses the pros and cons of applying professional income tax. Professional income tax is not mandatory, but an alternative way to pay 2 taxes on self-employment or part-time work. The introduction of this tax can mediate an increase in revenues to the state budget, which is of particular importance for the country in post-crisis conditions.

The Self-Undermining State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjun Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Final Section ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Central Authority ◽  
Interstate War ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Willingness To Sacrifice ◽  
The Cost

This chapter provides an informal rationalist model of state formation as an exchange between a central authority and a population. In the model, the central authority protects the population against external threats and the population disarms and pays taxes. The model specifies the conditions under which the exchange is self-enforcing, meaning that the parties prefer the exchange to alternative courses of action. These conditions—costly but winnable interstate war—are historically rare, and the cost of such wars can rise beyond the population’s willingness to sacrifice. At this point, the population prefers to avoid war rather than fight it and may prefer an alternative institution to the state if that institution can prevent war and reduce the level of extraction. Thus the modern centralized state is self-undermining rather than self-enforcing. A final section addresses alternative explanations for state formation.

scholarly journals Stylizations of Being: Attention as an Existential Hub in Heidegger and Christian Mysticism

Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-220
Author(s):  
Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Existential Phenomenology ◽  
Causal Relations ◽  
Christian Mysticism ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
Simone Weil ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Philosophical Framework

AbstractThe assimilation of phenomenology by theology (namely of Heidegger by Karl Rahner) exemplifies how a pre-existing philosophical framework can be imported into a theological system by being suffused with belief. Although one would imagine that the incommensurability between philosophy and religion would thus be overcome, the two disciplines risk to remain, given the sequels of the ‘French debate’, worlds apart, separated by a leap of faith. In this paper I attempt to uncover what grammatical similitudes afforded Rahner formal transference in the first place. Uncovering analogous uses of contemplative attention, namely between Heidegger and Simone Weil, I hope to demonstrate the filial relationship between existential phenomenology and Christian mysticism. I propose that attention is a key factor in both systems of thought. Furthermore, I propose that: 1) attention, the existential hub between subject and phenomena, provides a base for investigating methodologies, as opposed to causal relations, in philosophy and religion; 2) that the two attentional disciplines of meditation and contemplation, spiritual practices designed to shape the self, also constitute styles of thinking; and 3) the ‘turn’ in the later Heidegger’s philosophy is a strategic point to inquire into this confluence of styles of thinking, evincing the constantly dynamic and intrinsically tight relation between philosophy and theology.

Drafted into a Foreign War?

Rhizomata ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-217
Author(s):  
Matthew Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Technologies Of The Self ◽  
Analytic Tradition ◽  
Modern Conception ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rational Inquiry

Abstract This paper examines the central criticisms that come, broadly, from the modern, ‘analytic’ tradition, of Pierre Hadot’s idea of ancient philosophy as a way of life.: Firstly, ancient philosophy just did not or could not have involved anything like the ‘spiritual practices’ or ‘technologies of the self’, aiming at curing subjects’ unnecessary desires or bettering their lives, contra Hadot and Foucault et al. Secondly, any such metaphilosophical account of putative ‘philosophy’ must unacceptably downplay the role of ‘serious philosophical reasoning’ or ‘rigorous argument’ in philosophy. Thirdly, claims that ancient philosophy aimed at securing wisdom by a variety of means including but not restricted to rational inquiry are accordingly false also as historical claims about the ancient philosophers. Fourthly, to the extent that we must (despite (3)) admit that some ancient thinkers did engage in or recommend extra-cognitive forms of transformative practice, these thinkers were not true or ‘mainline’ philosophers. I contend that the historical claims (3) and (4) are highly contestable, risking erroneously projecting a later modern conception of philosophy back onto the past. Of the theoretical or metaphilosophical claims (1) and (2), I argue that the second claim, as framed here, points to real, hard questions that surround the conception(s) of philosophy as a way of life.

Beyond Bias: Critical Analysis and Layered Reading of Mao-Era Sources

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-782
Author(s):  
Sigrid Schmalzer
Keyword(s):  
Gold Standard ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Layered Approach ◽  
Flea Markets ◽  
Mao Era

Abstract Scholars of Mao-era history adopt a wide range of approaches to the selection and treatment of source material. Some scholars regard published sources as propaganda, and therefore as biased and unreliable. For many, archival sources are the gold standard; others question the reliability even of the archive and favor materials that escaped the filtering fingers of the state to be found in flea markets or garbage piles. Avoiding the false choice of either accepting sources as received wisdom or dismissing them as biased, the author argues that how scholars read their sources is more important than which they keep and which they throw away. She advocates for a layered approach that accounts for contexts of production and circulation, and further emphasizes the need to make this process of reading sources visible in our writing. A critical, layered reading of three unlikely sources demonstrates the myriad possibilities for analysis that combines the empirical, the discursive, and the self-reflexive.

Organización y funcionamiento municipal y personal directivo público profesional

2017 ◽  
pp. 349-366
Author(s):  
Ignacio Javier ETXEBARRIA ETXEITA
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
State Legislation ◽  
Professional Managers ◽  
Government Capacity ◽  
Municipal Autonomy

LABURPENA: Euskadiko Toki Erakundeei buruzko Legeak udal-funtzionamendua eta -antolaketa arautzen ditu, eta udal-autonomia indartzen du, estatuko legediarekin erkatuta areagotu egin baitu tokiko entitateen autoantolakuntzarako gaitasuna, bidea emanez tokiko gobernuek modu gardenagoan joka dezaten eta hautetsiek lana eta familia hobeto uztar ditzaten. Legeak, horrez gain, tokiko gobernuak indartzea lortu nahi du, eta, horretarako, eskuordetze-teknikak jaso, eta modu aitzindarian arautu du zuzendari publiko profesionalen figura; oraingoz, hala ere, 40.000 biztanletik gorako udalerrietarako mugatu da. RESUMEN: La Ley de Instituciones Locales de Euskadi regula la organización y funcionamiento municipal y potencia la autonomía municipal al incrementar respecto a la legislación estatal la capacidad de autoorganización de las entidades locales posibilitando una actuación de los gobiernos locales más transparente y una mejor conciliación de la vida laboral y familiar de las corporativas y corporativos. La Ley busca asimismo potenciar los gobiernos locales y para ello incorpora técnicas de delegación y de forma pionera regula la figura de los directivos públicos profesionales si bien de momento limitada a los municipios con una población superior a los 40.000 habitantes. ABSTRACT: The Act on Local Entities of Euskadi regulates the municipalorganization and functioning and enhances the municipal autonomy by increasing as compared to the State legislation the self-government capacity of local entities enabling a more transparent operation by local governments and a better labour and family reconciliation of municipalities memberships. The Act also seeks to promote local governments and to do this it includes techniques of delegation and in a pioneer way it regulates the figure of public professional managers though only limited to those municipalities with a population exceeding 40.000 inhabitants.

scholarly journals The enchantment of archaeological sites and the quest for personal transformation

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. e021012
Author(s):  
Yael Dansac
Keyword(s):  
Personal Transformation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Archaeological Sites

Ethnographical studies increasingly testify the conversion of archaeological sites into places used for a myriad of spiritual purposes associated to the culture of personal transformation. Analyzing data gathered at contemporary spiritual practices held in Carnac, a megalithic site located in northwest France, this article argues that the resignification of ancient places as ‘sacred’ and ‘energetic’ is a strategy to develop and enact inner search and work on the self. Collected data provides understanding on the actor’s conceptualizations and uses given to this place, while also suggesting further inquiries to assess the relations between spirituality, personal transformation and the enchantment of archaeological sites.

scholarly journals The Political Asceticism of Mamata Banerjee: Female Populist Leadership in Contemporary India

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Proma Ray Chaudhury
Keyword(s):  
West Bengal ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leadership Models ◽  
Interpretive Analysis ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Political Landscapes ◽  
Religious Iconography

Abstract Operating within the androcentric premises that support idealized models of populist leadership, self-representations cultivated by female populist leaders often involve precarious balancing acts, compelling them to appropriate contextualized traditionalist discourses and modes of power to qualify for conventional leadership models. This article engages with the stylistic performance of populist leadership by Mamata Banerjee of the All India Trinamool Congress in the state of West Bengal, India, focusing on her adoption of the discursive mode of political asceticism, nativist rhetoric, and religious iconography. Through an interpretive analysis of selected party documents, autobiography, and semistructured interviews with Banerjee's followers and critics, the article delineates Banerjee's populist self-fashioning as a political ascetic and explores perceptions of her leadership. The article argues that while the self-makings of female populist leaders remain fraught and contested, they contribute substantially toward redrawing the boundaries of both conventional leadership models and the broader political landscapes they inhabit.

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