Buddhist Legends VOL I-III consists of a direct translations from the original Dhammapada Commentary Pali texts. The translations where made by various scholars at Yale University in during 1917 and 1918 and the work was published in the USA in 1921. The collection features hundreds of stories about great saints, human stupidity, parables similar to those of the Bible, animal stories which may remind you of Æsops fables and cryptic stories reminiscent of Sufi stories. Not the least, because you can easily read these books just for the pleasure of reading folktales, the books contains the words of the Buddha and his followers in the form of discussions and similes. Download the free complete PDF e-books here:
Motivation and Personality by Abraham H. Maslow is one of his major works. It was first published in 1954 and it has become a classic, most known for Maslow’s outline of the hierarchical pyramid of human needs, which became a mainstay in the understanding of human nature. At the time it was published it created a revolution in the way the western world understood child care and the later consequences of failing to provide a safe, nurturing environment for children.
Download the free PDF e-book here (394 pages/5.28 MB):
T
he Book of Jasher is also known as the Book of the Just Man or the Book of the Upright and it is one of the non-canonical books referenced in the
Bible. It is mentioned in the Bible the following places in Joshua 10:13:
“And the Sun stood still, and the Moon stayed,until the people had avenged themselves on their enemies.Is this not written in the Book of the Upright.”
The Book of Jasher is also mentioned in Samuel 1:18 and also referenced in Timothy 3:8 therefore it must have been an important work. We can not be sure if this book is the real Book of Jasher. If it is, it gives us many details that are not recorded in the Bible. However the publisher claims that this is the real deal and he attempts to document how entire parts ot the Bible might have been copied directly from the Book of Jasher. The publisher explains the complexity of the question of the origin of the work:
“I have in my possession a copy of Sefer Hayasher – The Book Of The Righteous, edited and translated by Seymour J. Cohen. Its introduction cites several other “Books of Jasher”, some of which are no longer known to be in existence, such as that by Zerahiah Ha-Yevani of the 13th century. There is also known to have been one written by Rabbi Jacob ben Mier of the 12th century, and one by Rabbi Jonah ben Abraham of Gerona of the 14th century. We are told of a work by that title from the Amoraim period (3rd to 6th centuries) that is characterized as containing “for the most part sayings of the sages of the first and second centuries”. So, this title has been a popular one for rabbinical writings, but most are clearly not intended to have been passed off as the book mentioned in the Bible and to this comes the frauds. One version has been republished by the Rosicrucian Order. It claims to have been discovered by Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus, Abbot of Canterbury in the 8th century, while on a pilgrimage…”
Read more about the controversies, history and vindication of this version of the Book of Jasher in the foreword.
Download the free PDF version of Book of Jasher here (405 pages/2.78 MB):
Consciousness Studies – a Wikibook. It is often said that consciousness cannot be defined. This is not true; philosophers have defined it in its own terms for centuries. Consciousness can be described in terms of two principal components: firstly phenomenal consciousness which consists of our experience with things laid out in space and time, sensations, emotions, thoughts, etc., and secondly access consciousness which is the processes that act on the things in experience. Phenomenal consciousness is much like the “perceptual space” of psychological and physiological research. It is the many simultaneous events that become the space of experience in general and it is now a legitimate target of scientific research.
This is a “Wikibook” and it describes how leading schools have dealt with the problems of consciousness up through history in philosophy and religions. It also gives an insight into the most recent research in consciousness and how it is used in the work with artificial intelligence and neural networks.
Download the free PDF e-book here (336 pages/15 MB):
History of Greek Philosophy is an immense work in two volumes about ancient
Greek philosophy. It (Philosophie der Griechen) was written in German by Dr. E. Zeller a professor at the University of Berlin, this is the English translation published in England in 1881. The work is one of the most successful and ambitious attempts at dealing with the entire Greek philosophical tradition as a whole. The authors general idea is that
Greek philosophy gains immeasurably by being studied in the order of its development. The first chapters discusses the sources of Greek philosophy and the connections to the Orient. Before the chronological examination of the single periods of time and the major Greek philosophers we are also given lectures on the ethics of the early Greek societies and the basic cosmological understanding in ancient Greece. I am sorry that the scannings are of such low quality.
You might also be interested in our complete works of
Aristotle and
Plato.
Download the History of Greek Philosophy as free PDF’s here (1.200 pages in total/20 MB each):
The Notion of Growth describes a path to discover a world within us that becomes the more fascinating the deeper we venture into it. It is a path described in the ancient sutras path to the center of our consciousness which has never been described in this clarity and practicability in our time. It is independent of any philosophical orientation or faith. It is a path to experience the majesty, the grandeur, the infinite breadth of our existence, which everyone does sense within himself.
The objective of this path is not the annihilation of our individual existence in a faceless
enlightenment,
nirvana, satori or brahman. It isn’t even the insight into the fundamental mechanisms of this world. The real objective of this path is an ever growing comprehensive, loving understanding, – a love-filled expansion of our being that unfolds more with every single step, yet never violates or annihilates our individuality.
Sutras and their interpretation through commentaries originated in times when knowledge was learnt by heart and handed down orally from generation to generation. Sutras therefore were kept as brief as possible. They were governed by precise rules which for example defined the weight of a word by its position alone. To keep knowledge pure, even the commentators followed exact rules. This method worked with such precision that highly complex information conceived thousands of years ago reached our present times with hardly any distortion. To make this knowledge accessible to a wide audience, a modern commentary accompanies the ancient text.
Download the free PDF e-book here (196 pages/4.5 MB):
Ganadharavada is an important philosophical book, which gives an insight into a number of problems of Indian philosophy from different points of view. It features profound discussions between different schools. For instance we find references to controversies and divergent views in the
Vedas, the
Upanishads, the
Jaina Agamas and the
Buddhist Pitakas from an ancient time when there was an open and intelligent and thoughtful atmosphere among leading scholars frem various directions. This book has been written so that people may read it and understand the meaning of the tattvas relating to the soul, the karmas, the five elements, rebirth, bondage, deliverance etc. and so they may understand the phenomenon of the Universe and attain the liberations from
samsara.
Download the free PDF-version of Ganadharavada here (400 pages/16 MB):