The Discipline of Freedom

Download or read book The Discipline of Freedom written by Phillip Olson and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. He is the author of Islamic Art and Spirituality, Islamic Life and Thought, and Knowledge and the Sacred; and the co-editor of Expectation of the Millenium: Shi'ism in History, and Shi'ism: Doctrines, Thought, and Spirituality, all published by SUNY Press. He is also the General Editor of the SUNY series in Islam. Nasr was educated at M.I.T. and Harvard and has taught throughout America, Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Japan, and Australia. The author shows that both Shunryu Suzuki and Kant posit a reciprocally supportive relationship between the development of personal autonomy and the respectful observance of moral rules or precepts, and that both see the practice of a discipline restricting the speculative activity of reason as essential to the attainment of true freedom and moral worth. By cultivating consciousness of freedom through insight into emptiness, the discipline of zazen acts as what Kant calls a "moral ascetic," cultivating a mind and body responsive to universal moral concerns. Olson concludes by showing how Kant's notion of the ultimate end of moral behavior--the highest good--is manifested in the Bodhisattva's vow to work for the salvation of all sentient beings.