Being and Becoming is a wide-ranging analysis of the nature of being and selfhood. The book presents an original, integrated paradigm with the aim of creating a comprehensive overview of the human condition—and finding ways to alleviate suffering. In essence, the book explores the question, “What does it mean to be?” Being and Becoming begins with fresh interpretations of the work of Martin Heidegger and Buddhist, Taoist, and Christian writings as they relate to this question. Most of Being and Becoming, however, is about the nature of self and selfhood as a process of “I-am-this,” “my becoming” rather than “my being.” Author Franklyn Sills interweaves concepts from object relations theories, psychodynamics, pre- and perinatal psychology, and Buddhist self-psychology, along with his own rich experience as a Buddhist monk, somatic therapist, and psychotherapist, into his inquiry. The works of Fairbairn and Winnicott are discussed in depth, as are Winnicott and Stern’s insights into the nature of the early holding environment, the infant-mother relational field, and early perceptual dynamics. A thoughtful guide for psychologists, therapists, counselors, and other health professionals, the book is also ideal for Buddhists and anyone looking for alternative therapy models.

Many people spend considerable time seeking a sense of purpose in life and, concomitant with that, a sense of personal identity. This book demystifies this search, revealing why this search is a fallacy. The purpose is to inform readers about results in neuroscience and biophysics that may guide us to some liberation needed in the current age of great complexity in life with a diverse burden of chores; a deliverance from some afflictions that prevent individuals from achieving the true purpose of our lives. Among these afflictions we find two primordial concerns: the belief and subsequent attachment to a self, and the conviction that life must have a deep purpose in which we are major players. While this is a scientific text, it can easily be read by a lay audience, written with minimal technical jargon and with references to scientific papers enough to satisfy the curious. We have tried to extract the essence of scientific observations such that we can glimpse at those aforementioned concerns about the self and life, observations which help us comprehend what we are and what we become, the being and becoming of our own selves and natural phenomena around us. Jose Luis Perez Velazquez received a PhD in Molecular Physiology & Biophysics. His research seeks principles of biological organisation. He worked at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and was Professor at the University of Toronto. Currently he is a Research Scholar at the Ronin Institute and lives in the natural paradise of Asturias, in Northern Spain. Vera Nenadovic is a nurse practitioner, neuroscientist and entrepreneur. She has 30 years of experience in healthcare from First Nations communities to intensive care units. Her research focuses on predicting brain injury outcomes. She is a clinician and researcher at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Hospital. Her startup company BrainsView is commercializing software that analyzes brainwaves to monitor brain function and recovery after head injury. She is married and lives in Toronto, with her husband and Rottweiler.

The actress recalls her long, rich, and varied career in Hollywood, on the stage, and as a political activist.

While existentialism has long been associated with Parisian Left Bank philosophers sipping cocktails in smoke-filled cafés, or with a brooding, angst-filled outlook on life, Gosetti-Ferencei shows how vital and heterogeneous the movement really was. In this concise, accessible book, Gosetti-Ferencei offers a new vision of existentialism. As she lucidly demonstrates, existentialism is a rich and diverse philosophy that encourages meaningful engagement with the world around us, offering a host of fascinating concepts that pertain to life as we experience it. The movement was as heterogeneous as it is now misunderstood, influenced by jazz music, involving diverse thinkers from around the world, challenging received ideas about the meaning of human existence. Part of the difficulty in defining existentialism is that it was never a unified philosophy, but came to identify a set of shared concerns about the meaning and possibility of human freedom, as it may be expressed in authentic choices, actions, and projects. Existentialists all explored how, in the absence of traditional reassurances about the meaning of life, we may transcend our present circumstances, and give our situation new meaning. With existentialism, concrete, lived experience of the single individual emerged from the shadow of abstract systems and long-defended traditions, and became subject-matter in its own right for philosophical inquiry. Far from solipsistic, Gosetti-Ferencei shows that existentialist attention to the human self can be intertwined with ways of conceiving the world, our being with others, the earth, and the encompassing concept of being. Fully appreciating what existentialism has to offer requires recognizing the rich diversity of its prospects, which involve not only anxiety, absurdity, awareness of death and the loss of religious meaning, but also hope, the striving for happiness, and a sense of the transcendent. On Being and Becoming unpacks this philosophical movement's insights, and reveals how its core ideas promote creative responses to the question of life's meaning.

A collection of essays on the Metis Native americans by various authors.

We live in a universe that can be seen and experienced from many different perspectives. We therefore need to look at the universe from many different angles. Everything and everyone is a form of the universe being expressed in a particular way. In other words, each one of us can say with absolute certainly “We are the Universe!” Since we are the universe, each one of us provides a valuable perspective that complements the contributions of everyone and everything else around us. Each of us is the universe being expressed in a particular location in a specific way. We’re all part of the same moving and evolving cosmos, but the view of it is unique from each of our respective locations. This suggests that the universe is not only omnicentric, but that it is also multiperspectival – there are many different, and equally valid, viewpoints on this. Each one of us is a cosmic laboratory within which we can discover the secrets of the universe. We speak in various ways, we are each the universe having become aware of itself in our own unique way. The insights that the universe has many different perspectives and is both cosmic and personal has great transformative potential, and is worth reflecting on deeply