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. 

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

The human dilemma is that we have an innate tendency to conflate our current brain state with how reality apart from ourselves really is, forgetting, in the process, that our subjective experiences may be inaccurate or misleading representations of our objective surroundings. There are, of course, good evolutionary reasons for why this is the case, since in our struggle for survival, we have to rely on our mental maps (and take them seriously) in order to find food, ward or fight off enemies, secure housing, find mates, protect offspring, and so on.

This audiobook explores why we should keep open and humble and realize the limits of our cranial capacities and the models of reality we generate.

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 edited volume by the MSAC Philosophy Group includes a variety of essays by different authors on virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and those computational pioneers and thinkers who have advanced our understanding of a digital future.

Tom Blake changed the face of surfing and has long been lauded as one of the true pioneers and innovators in the sport. Although much has been written about him and his contributions (culminating in Gary Lynch's magisterial biography of him, Tom Blake: The Uncommon Journey of a Pioneer Waterman, published in 2001), very little work has been done on Tom Blake's Einsteinian philosophy.

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.

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 book describes the life and work of eight Indian mystics, including Ramana Maharshi, Sawan Singh, Paramahansa Yogananda, Baba Faqir Chand, Sushil Kumar, Tripta Devi, and Pratap Singh. Includes the author's personal interaction with several of them, as well as a detailed account of shabd yoga and the inner journey that occurs during meditation.

This is the first of a three-part series centering on my personal remembrance of Charan Singh (1916-1990), who was the spiritual leader of Radha Soami Satsang Beas from 1951 to 1990. As such, it isn’t a biography, but rather partial glimpses of my own recollection of how I came to know of Charan, and why I eventually took initiation from him into the meditational practice of Surat Shabd Yoga. I didn’t write this as a devotional eulogy to my deceased spiritual teacher, but more selfishly as a way for me to write down key moments of my association with him...for over four decades.

Listening to the inner sound to achieve higher states of consciousness has a long history and can be found in different religious traditions around the world (ranging from Gnostic Christianity to Islamic Sufism to Tibetan Buddhism). In this presentation, we will explore the originations of shabd yoga and trace it over time (in its various manifestations) up until the present day. In so doing, we will want to learn how listening to the inner sound is theologically interpreted in varying cultures on distinct continents.  

Consciousness is a virtual simulator par excellence and as such allows humans to have a rolodex of potential strategies when navigating in a world with ever-changing competitive concerns and environmental niches...The advent of virtual and augmented reality may serve as a useful pathway to better understand why consciousness evolved the way it did, primarily because the brain itself operates as a VR system, albeit a much more sophisticated one than Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. 

It is not too often that a brilliant scientist is also a wonderfully gifted writer. Sir Arthur Eddington was both. Brought up as a Quaker (he was a pacifist during World War One), Eddington was by all accounts a brilliant mathematician and physicist, who eventually became a professor of astronomy at Cambridge University. Sir Arthur Eddington is perhaps most famous for partially confirming Albert Einstein's theory of relativity back in 1919.

I first learned of Errol Flynn’s life and work when by chance I happened upon his autobiography, My Wicked Wicked Ways, in audio format at the Huntington Beach Library some two decades ago. It was an exhilarating find as it is one of the funniest and most insightful books I have ever listened to in my life. In fact, it was so good that I got a copy of the book and read it cover to cover again, and I was even more mesmerized by Errol Flynn’s hilarious stories and pithy insights the second time around.

This audiobook focuses on two of Samuel Butler's more intriguing writings concerning machine evolution and intelligence, including his most famous piece, "Darwin Among the Machines", and his chapter on Erewhon in "The Book of the Machines". Professor David Christopher Lane has written a brief introduction. Also included is a small biography of Samuel Butler.