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Introduction
To think about God is to the human soul what breathing is to the human body.
I say to think about God, not necessarily to believe in God—that may or may not come later.
I say: to think about God.
I clearly remember the moment something deep inside me started breathing for the first time. Something behind my thoughts and my desires and fears, something behind my self, something behind “Jerry,” which was and is my name, the name of me, from my earliest childhood.
I can say this now, more than sixty years after my first conscious experience of this second breathing, this first breathing of the soul.
Let me explain.
April 24 2009 | Books | 1 Comment »
The Essential Marcus Aurelius
by Jacob Needleman and John Piazza
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This inaugural-and all new-Tarcher Cornerstone Edition presents a stunningly relevant and reliable translation of the thoughts and aphorisms of the Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, properly placing the philosopher-king’s writings within the vein of the world’s great religious and ethical traditions.
The late antique world possessed no voice like that of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE). His private meditations on what constitutes a good life have withstood the centuries and reach us today with the same penetrating clarity and shining light as the words of Shakespeare, Emerson, or Thoreau.
In this remarkable new translation, bestselling religious philosopher Jacob Needleman and classics scholar John P. Piazza have retained the depth of Marcus’s perspective on life. They have carefully selected and faithfully rendered those passages that clarify Marcus’s role as someone who stood within the great religious and ethical traditions that extend throughout every culture in human history. The voice that emerges from their translation is a universal one, equally recognizable to students of Christ, Buddha, the Vedas, the Talmud, and to anyone who sincerely searches for a way of meaning in contemporary life.
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March 01 2009 | Books | No Comments »
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The widely respected social philosopher embarks on his most gripping and broadly appealing work, asking the ultimate question of human nature: Why do we repeatedly violate our most deeply held values and beliefs?
For all our therapies, resolutions, self-help programs, and the vast religious and ethical literature available to men and women today, we return again and again to the same limiting and predictable behaviors, vowing to do better “next time.”
And far beyond the travails of our everyday existence-although sometimes intruding upon it with a ghastly shock-we witness a world twisted in conflict and warfare in which religious systems are continually used to justify slaughter. For sensitive people everywhere, the question resounds: Why can’t we be good?
After nearly forty years of weighing humanity’s deepest dilemmas-working in settings ranging from university and high school classrooms to corporate offices and hospitals - bestselling author, philosopher, and religious scholar Jacob Needleman presents the most urgent, deeply felt, and widely accessible work of his career. In Why Can’t We Be Good? Needleman identifies the core problem that therapists and social philosophers fail to see. He depicts the individual human as a being who knows what is good, yet who remains mysteriously helpless to innerly adopt the ethical, moral, and religious ideas that are bequeathed to him.
In his jarring depiction of this most misunderstood of dilemmas, Needleman takes the reader through various settings and case studies: a college classroom, where students of all ages and backgrounds agonize to define goodness in an era marked by relativism and fundamentalism; a chilling psychological experiment from a generation earlier that reveals the capacity for brutality that lurks within us all-and our inability to see it; ancient stories from Rabbinic Judaism and mystical Christianity where, possibly, esoteric schools have left fragments of their own deep inner understanding of humanity’s predicament and how to begin addressing it; and the words of Socrates, which lay bare the problems of the human psyche while hinting at a missing element that would serve to instruct us not merely on that which is good, but on how to commence our own efforts toward becoming the kind of men and women we are capable of being.
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March 01 2009 | Books | 1 Comment »
Download the entire 42-page booklet (PDF, 223KB).
“Then, what of the American dream? Is it a vision or an illusion? Do we need to deepen this dream or awaken from it?
Can anyone doubt the importance of this question? In one form or another, it is a question that has been gathering strength for decades, and it now stands squarely in the path not only of every American, but, such is the planetary influence of America, of every man and woman in the world. What really is America? What does America mean?
To think well and truly about this question, we need to relate it to the deepest inner questions that mankind can ask.”
— Jacob Needleman, Two Dreams of America
March 01 2009 | Books | No Comments »
See below for 20% discount offer from Browser Books.
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The American Soul is now available on audiocassette: Buy this audiotape from Amazon or call AudioLiterature: 800-383-0174
At the heart of The American Soul is a call to rediscover the timeless truths hidden within the founding vision of the American nation. Embedded in the ideals of democracy, individual liberty and freedom of conscience is a view of human nature that echoes essential aspects of the wisdom that has guided every great civilization of the world. Free of all religious and philosophical dogma, and liberated from all historical and political clichés, this uniquely American vision has the power to speak again to the modern world’s need for meaning and community
Throughout the book, Jacob Needleman takes a new sounding of the inner beliefs and spiritual sensibilities of the great iconic figures of American history. His uniquely conceived portraits show us Washington as the great symbol of selfless impartiality; Jefferson as the embodiment of the communal search for truth, Franklin as the seeker of knowledge in two worlds. Lincoln emerges as the incarnation of the ideal of the individual; Frederick Douglass as the voice of America’s conscience; the story of the Iroquois constitution reveals the cosmic dimensions of our own ideal of democracy.
Needleman shows how the crimes and defeats of America-slavery, the destruction of the culture of the American Indian, the Vietnam war-cry out for a clear vision of America asleep to its own spiritual essence, while bringing home the depth of what America owes to its own people and to the earth itself.
Finally, following an illuminating discussion of what we need to learn from America’s all but forgotten early mystical communities, Needleman concludes with a resounding call, echoing Walt Whitman’s quest for a new American mythology, to understand what is truly eternal and indestructible in the American vision.
———
“While Needleman clearly finds much to love about America, he balances our light with our darkness, our genuine good will and spirituality with our great crimes of slavery and the genocidal abuse of the American Indian…. Needleman’s latest work gives open-minded readers a new set of spiritual role models and much valuable food for thought at a crucial moment.”
—Publishers Weekly (Read the full review)
—Read Publisher’s Weekly’s interview with Jacob Needleman.
Read Shepherd Bliss’s review of The American Soul in MetroActive: Soul Searching: A book looks to great minds of the past to illuminate the present.
Philosophical and Spiritual Aspects of American Life Examined in Next Year’s Book In Common: The American Soul selected as 2003-2004 Book in Common at CSU. Read the Chico State University Press Release.
The American Soul is available at a 20% discount from Browser Books:
(415)567-8027 2195
Fillmore St. San Francisco CA 94115 .
Payment by Checks or Master Card/Visa. (California residents add 8.5% sales tax.)
March 01 2009 | Books | No Comments »
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Experience the miracle called love…
What is the purpose of love? Is the storm of ecstasy that we call love simply a biological urge that eventually passes–or the first stage in something much more? Is it possible for love to last, literally, forever?
formerly published as A Little Book on Love
In this extraordinary book, philosopher Jacob Needleman explores the greatest works of philosophy, myth, and sacred wisdom to offer a bold new interpretation of why two people are brought together in the first place. The radiant poetry of the great Sufi mystic Rumi, the revelations of St. Paul, the moving tale of Philemon and Baucis, and the words of the world’s sages become, with Needleman’s gentle guidance, an enthralling journey of discovery–one that reveals the secret to finding love…and staying together for a lifetime. Resonating with hope and wisdom, The Wisdom of Love shows us how true love can transcend time and the difficulties of daily life. It is a precious resource for anyone who wants a relationship to last a lifetime–and beyond.
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Listen to Jacob Needleman talk about love with Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral.
March 01 2009 | Books | No Comments »
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Time is the greatest modern scarcity. What used to be considered signs of success–being busy, having many responsibilities, being involved in many projects or activities–are today being felt as afflictions. The bestselling author of Money and the Meaning of Life, philosopher Jacob Needleman, shows how to take a bold and unconventional approach to time. The aim: to get more out of it by breaking free of our illusions about it. Needleman dispenses with tricks and techniques that only serve to make our obsessiveness more “efficient.” Instead he shows how we can understand what our days are for. It’s this understanding that allows time to finally begin to “breathe” in our lives.
People can learn to experience time more purposefully and meaningfully. We need not be at time’s mercy. Needleman rejects time-management techniques in order to reveal ancient and little-known modern practices for exploring one’s internal clock. He reveals how time is experienced by the soul. Drawing on the wisdom literature that chronicles the ways of Buddhists, poets, and philosophers,one learns:
- What it could mean to chart one’s real past, unclouded by emotions
- How memory can lie to us
- Why we need not be obsessed with the future
- How to experience time so that it is not an enemy robbing us of the joy of life
- How to have more “nonpsychological time,” or “time of the heart [that] does not move,” such as moments of ecstasy or joy in which time is cut off from the physical world
- How to experience the gifts of time
Read the new introduction for the paperback release (PDF, 137KB).
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March 01 2009 | Books | Comments Off
If we understood the true role of money in our lives, writes philosopher Jacob Needleman, we would not think simply in terms of spending it or saving it. Money exerts a deep emotional influence on who we are and what we tell ourselves we can never have. Our long unwillingness to understand the emotional and spiritual effects of money on us is at the heart of why we have come to know the price of everything, and the value of nothing. Money has everything to do with the pursuit of an idealistic life, while at the same time, it is at the root of our daily frustrations. On a social level, money has a profound impact on the price of progress. Needleman shows how money slowly began to haunt us, from the invention of coins in Biblical times (when money was created to rescue the community good, not for self gain), through its hypnotic appeal in our money-obsessed era. This is a remarkable book that combines myth and psychology, the poetry of the Sufis and the wisdom of King Solomon, along with Jacob Needleman’s searching of his own soul and his culture to explain how money can become a unique means of self-knowledge. As part of the Currency paperback line, it includes a “User’s Guide” an introduction and discussion guide created for the paperback by the author—to help readers make practical use of the book’s ideas.
Money and the Meaning of Life is available at a 20% discount from Browser Books:
(415)567-8027
2195 Fillmore St. San Francisco CA 94115
Payment by Checks or Master Card/Visa.
(California residents add 8.5% sales tax.)
March 01 2009 | Books | Comments Off
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In Heart of Philosophy, Needleman explores philosophy and how our human search for meaning is integral to our lives. Needleman documents his experiences teaching courses in philosophy at a high school, and shows to us how real philosophy, the love and search for meaning, is a fact of human nature.
Read the new introduction for the paperback release (PDF, 28KB).
“Needleman brings a scholar’s knowledge along with a personal warmth to this work, producing a provocative and moving study. Socrates and Plato emerge as living beings whose teaching are as vital and relevant today as they were 2300 years ago, making one feel that philosophy can play an invaluable role in aiding one’s own personal transformation.”
—Shambala
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March 01 2009 | Books | Comments Off
Co-authored by Jacob Needleman and David Appelbaum
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Our primary drive as humans, say the authors of this anthology of religious and philosophical writings, is not sexual or to do with any biological or socially conditioned impulse: It is hunger for meaning.
It is only in addressing the huge, fundamental questions such as “Who am I?”, “Why death?” and the like that humankind finds itself capable of
withstanding the worst and abiding in the best. The selections in this book are a survey of that universal quest for understanding and are particularly relevant to the awakening taking place in the world today as old orders crumble. The authors call this questioning real philosophy. It is not academic: it know that intellect must be coupled with feeling in order to nourish the whole person and the holistic vision.
Heraclitus, The Grail, Chuang Tzu, St. Augustine, The Upanishads and the Epic of Gilgamesh, Dostoyevsky, Tagore, Wittgenstein, Rilke, to name but a few—such are the guardians of the traditional human values we need to reclaim as individuals in order to break the spell both of ’scientism’ and ‘religionism’ and to rediscover our own moral worth.
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March 01 2009 | Books | Comments Off
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