Abstract
The distinctive contribution of the Axial Age is the innovation of sustained spiritual practice to effect a “systematic deconstruction” of ordinary consciousness and effect a transformation of the self. India is paradigmatic with well-known forms like Hindu yoga and Buddhist meditation. Taoism, clearly, and with some demonstration, Confucianism are shown to be Chinese analogues focused on the idea of self-cultivation. For Greece, the work of Pierre Hadot is seminal: philosophy as practically focused on the spiritual transformation of the self through askesis. Israel is the least evidenced case, with the suggestive possibility that early prophets undertook “training for ecstasy” within guilds whereas later prophets focus on textual interpretation as involving systematic self-disciplinary rigor. All critically renounce “this worldly” power for a higher, “other worldly,” transcendence.
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Peet, C. (2019). The Axial Road Not Taken: Spiritual Practices of Transcendence. In: Practicing Transcendence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14432-6_6
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