06.05.10
Twelve steps of the Jain yogis?
Bodley Head Acquires Twelve Steps To A Compassionate Life By Karen Armstrong
Posted at 8:18AM Thursday 27 May 2010
New book by Armstrong. Armstrong has had a bad commentary here, due to her confused take on the Axial Age. The Twelve Step program applied to ‘compassion’ is a question mark. How about trying to take twelve steps without stepping on an insect, like the Jain yogis or yore, who mostly invented the compassion strain of religion taken over by Buddhism.
After that one might try a fast unto death, again pioneered by Jains, who roamed the world naked.
I think that for all Amstrong’s blah blah about god she is a closet atheist who thinks the ‘mythos’ of god would be good crowd control for the secularist.
Thus compassion foots the bill as endorsable by all parties.
As with her false take on the Axial Age, Armstrong wants the most watered down common denominator possible to serve up religious slop from the sentimental.
Here is the post here on Armstrong on the Axial Age, a perennial favorite here at this blog:
http://darwiniana.com/2005/11/20/karen-armstrong-on-axial-age/
The Bodley Head is delighted to have acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excl. Canada) to TWELVE STEPS TO A COMPASSIONATE LIFE by Karen Armstrong, and will publish in January 2011.
Will Sulkin, Publishing Director at The Bodley Head, acquired the rights from Felicity Bryan at The Felicity Bryan Literary Agency.
Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life stems from TED’s ‘Charter for Compassion’ and is a practical guide to leading a compassionate life which is guaranteed to garner global interest. It is an impassioned book that can help make the world a more compassionate place.Karen Armstrong believes that while compassion is intrinsic in all human beings, each of us needs to work diligently to cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion. This is a straightforward, thoughtful and thought-provoking book. The twelve steps Armstrong suggests begin with “Imagine a World of Compassion” and close with “Love Your Enemies”. In between, she takes up self-love, mindfulness, suffering, sympathetic joy, the limits of our knowledge of others, and “concern for everybody.” She suggests concrete ways of putting compassion into action in our everyday lives.
Will Sulkin said: “‘Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion has had sensational worldwide repercussions. Out of it comes this inspirational yet utterly practical guide to achieving a more compassionate life. It’s a wonderful follow-up to her bestselling The Case for God and an essential read for everyone of good faith in a fractured world.’
LMT said,
June 6, 2010 at 6:02 am
It is misleading to speak of Jainism: the religion that came into existence after Mahavir was not the real Jainism that predated Buddhism. It was more of a public religion and less of a spiritual path.