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Losing Ourselves

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Losing Ourselves

Learning to Live without a SelfBy Jay L. GarfieldNarrated by Eric Meyers

Losing Ourselves

Length6h 51m

About this audiobook

This audiobook narrated by Eric Meyers reveals why you don't have a self—and why that's a good thing In Losing Ourselves, Jay Garfield, a leading expert on Buddhist philosophy, offers a brief and radically clear account of an idea that at first might seem frightening but that promises to liberate us and improve our lives, our relationships, and the world. Drawing on Indian and East Asian Buddhism, Daoism, Western philosophy, and cognitive neuroscience, Garfield shows why it is perfectly natural to think you have a self—and why it actually makes no sense at all and is even dangerous. Most importantly, he explains why shedding the illusion that you have a self can make you a better person. Examining a wide range of arguments for and against the existence of the self, Losing Ourselves makes the case that there are not only good philosophical and scientific reasons to deny the reality of the self, but that we can lead healthier social and moral lives if we understand that we are selfless persons. The book describes why the Buddhist idea of no-self is so powerful and why it has immense practical benefits, helping us to abandon egoism, act more morally and ethically, be more spontaneous, perform more expertly, and navigate ordinary life more skillfully. Getting over the self-illusion also means escaping the isolation of self-identity and becoming a person who participates with others in the shared enterprise of life. The result is a transformative book about why we have nothing to lose—and everything to gain—by losing our selves.

Audiobook details

GenrePhilosophy

Length6 hrs 51 mins

Narrated byEric Meyers

FormatAudiobook

Publish dateDec 13, 2022

LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1Opening Anno, Preface

7Chapter 5 - Continued

2Chapter 1 - Who Do You Think You Are. What a Self Is and Why You Think You Have One

8Chapter 6 - Immersion - Selfless Spontaneity and Skillful Living

3Chapter 2 - Why You Have No Self - The View from Buddhism, Philosophy, and Science

9Chapter 7 - Ethics - Abandon the Self to Abandon Egoism

4Chapter 3 - What You Really Are - Recovering and Discovering the Person

10Chapter 8 - Affirmation - Becoming and Being a Person among Persons

5Chapter 4 - The Self Strikes Back I - The Transcendent Self

11Chapter 9 - Being in the World - Living as a Person

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6Chapter 5- The Self Strikes Back II - The Minimal Self

12Chapter 10 - Getting Over Yourself - Drawing This All Together, Closing Anno

About the author

Jay L. Garfield

View all by Jay L. Garfield

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