Books by David R. Loy
Nonduality: In Buddhism and Beyond
by David R. Loy
One of Western Buddhism’s most sophisticated thinkers on one of Buddhism’s most central topics.
The concept of nonduality lies at the very heart of Mahayana Buddhism. In the West, it’s usually associated with various kinds of absolute idealism in the West, or mystical traditions in the East—and as a result, many modern philosophers are poorly informed on the topic. Increasingly, however, nonduality is finding its way into Western philosophical debates. In this “scholarly but leisurely and very readable” (Spectrum Review) analysis of the philosophies of nondualism of (Hindu) Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, and Taoism, renowned thinker David R. Loy extracts what he calls “a core doctrine” of nonduality. Loy clarifies this easily misunderstood topic with thorough, subtle, and understandable analysis.
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Previously published as Nonduality by Humanity Books.
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Lack & Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism
by David R. Loy
David R. Loy draws from giants of psychotherapy and existentialism, from Nietzsche to Kierkegaard to Sartre, to explore the fundamental issues of life, death, and what motivates us.
Psychotherapy, existentialism, and Buddhism are all concerned with the same fundamental issues of life and death—and death-in-life. David R. Loy’s groundbreaking claim is that the unifying feature connecting these perspectives is a sense of pervasive sense of dissatisfaction—or, in a word, lack. In Lack & Transcendence, he brings all three traditions together in a way that casts new light on each, as he draws from giants of psychotherapy, particularly Freud, Ernest Becker, Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, and Otto Rank; great existentialist thinkers, like Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre; and the teachings of Buddhism, especially as interpreted by Nagarjuna, Huineng, and Dogen.
Written in accessible style that does not assume prior familiarity with any of its subjects, this book will appeal to readers of all backgrounds, including psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, religious scholars, Continental philosophers, and anyone seeking clarity on the Great Matter itself.
The reader will come away with fresh perspectives on ancient questions and deeper insights into the human predilection to be unhappy—and what the liberating alternative may be.
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A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency
by John Stanley, David R. Loy, Gyurme Dorje
Today, we are confronted by the gravest challenge that humanity has ever faced: the ecological consequences of our collective actions. What role can Buddhism play in our response to this global predicament? Can Buddhist traditions help us meet this challenge successfully? Should we focus on prayer and meditation or social action? This book shows that it's possible to do both. It presents the hard science of global warming and solutions to the crisis from a Buddhist perspective, together with the views of leading contemporary teachers. The Dalai Lama, Chatral Rinpoche, Sakya Trizin, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joanna Macy, Joseph Goldstein, Lin Jensen, and other eminent voices address topics such as peak oil, deforestation, renewable energy, and breaking the addiction to fossil fuels in essays that are both meaningful and mindful. Prayers for the planet, along with steps we can take individually and as a society, offer hope and inspiration.
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A Buddhist History of the West (Suny Series in Religious Studies)
by David R. Loy
A Buddhist interpretation of Western history that shows civilization shaped by the self's desire for groundedness.
Buddhism teaches that to become happy, greed, ill-will, and delusion must be transformed into their positive counterparts: generosity, compassion, and wisdom. The history of the West, like all histories, has been plagued by the consequences of greed, ill-will, and delusion. A Buddhist History of the West investigates how individuals have tried to ground themselves to make themselves feel more real. To be self-conscious is to experience ungroundedness as a sense of lack, but what is lacking has been understood differently in different historical periods. Author David R. Loy examines how the understanding of lack changes at historical junctures and shows how those junctures were so crucial in the development of the West.
“A polymath’s tour through intellectual and social history, David Loy’s Buddhist retelling goes far in revealing the historically conditioned limitations of many dominant Western terms, metaphors, and assumptions. By reinterpreting greed, ill will, and delusion as structural rather than personal problems, Loy offers a compassionate account of ways that we make ourselves unhappy and a trenchant critique of market capitalism’s manipulation of these habits of mind.” — The Journal of Asian Studies
“…his study of European history from what he calls the perspective of lack reveals astonishing yet previously barely highlighted insights into European thought … Loy’s book is filled with observations and indictments of common myths that are not only provocative in nature but sure to challenge many of the presuppositions that the proponents of the so-called Western World hold dear.” Philosophy East & West
This book expands the dialog, enlarges the vocabulary, takes instruction from other cultural traditions, and throws light on our own Occidental problems. I like its clarity in a territory that is of critical importance and is intrinsically difficult. The book has to do with ways of coming to a better understanding of civilization, history, politics, and our own human psyches, and how it is that certain sets of problemswar and exploitation among themkeep arising. David Loy is opening up new territory that is of great value. He is a very exciting thinker. Gary Snyder, author of The Gary Snyder Reader: Prose, Poetry, and Translations, 19521998
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