Yuko Ishihara is Associate Professor at the College of Global Liberal Arts at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. She specializes in Kyoto School philosophy and classical phenomenology. Her research includes a focus on the topic of play and, specifically, how modern philosophers have turned to the notion of play to overcome the metaphysics of subjectivity.Steven A. Tainer has studied Asian contemplative traditions intensively since 1970 with Tibetan, Chinese and Korean masters. After practicing for decades in both mountain retreats and ordinary life circumstances, he began teaching Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian fundamentals to private groups and at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery in Berkeley California, USA.

This sparkling book is an antidote to technical philosophy closed to non- specialists. Instead of working through abstract ideas detached from ordinary life, its chapters and exercises open fresh access to philosophy that deepens as well as widens a direct and playful engagement with reality.

• List of FiguresSeries Editor PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction Part I1. An Invitation to Play with Reality 2. Falling into Play 3. Openness, Playfulness and Freedom 4. Practicing Playing 5. A Conversation with Contemplative Traditions Part II6. Practicing Phenomenology—the Historico-Theoretical Context 7. Practicing Phenomenology—the Personal Side in Practice and ‘Play’ 8. Japanese Perspectives on ‘Practice’, ‘Nature’, and ‘Play’ Recommended ReadingsNotes BibliographyIndex

Yuko Ishihara is Associate Professor at the College of Global Liberal Arts at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. She specializes in Kyoto School philosophy and classical phenomenology. Her research includes a focus on the topic of play and, specifically, how modern philosophers have turned to the notion of play to overcome the metaphysics of subjectivity.Steven A. Tainer has studied Asian contemplative traditions intensively since 1970 with Tibetan, Chinese and Korean masters. After practicing for decades in both mountain retreats and ordinary life circumstances, he began teaching Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian fundamentals to private groups and at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery in Berkeley California, USA.

This sparkling book is an antidote to technical philosophy closed to non- specialists. Instead of working through abstract ideas detached from ordinary life, its chapters and exercises open fresh access to philosophy that deepens as well as widens a direct and playful engagement with reality.

• List of FiguresSeries Editor PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction Part I1. An Invitation to Play with Reality 2. Falling into Play 3. Openness, Playfulness and Freedom 4. Practicing Playing 5. A Conversation with Contemplative Traditions Part II6. Practicing Phenomenology—the Historico-Theoretical Context 7. Practicing Phenomenology—the Personal Side in Practice and ‘Play’ 8. Japanese Perspectives on ‘Practice’, ‘Nature’, and ‘Play’ Recommended ReadingsNotes BibliographyIndex

Yuko Ishihara is Associate Professor at the College of Global Liberal Arts at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. She specializes in Kyoto School philosophy and classical phenomenology. Her research includes a focus on the topic of play and, specifically, how modern philosophers have turned to the notion of play to overcome the metaphysics of subjectivity.Steven A. Tainer has studied Asian contemplative traditions intensively since 1970 with Tibetan, Chinese and Korean masters. After practicing for decades in both mountain retreats and ordinary life circumstances, he began teaching Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian fundamentals to private groups and at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery in Berkeley California, USA.

This sparkling book is an antidote to technical philosophy closed to non- specialists. Instead of working through abstract ideas detached from ordinary life, its chapters and exercises open fresh access to philosophy that deepens as well as widens a direct and playful engagement with reality.

• List of FiguresSeries Editor PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction Part I1. An Invitation to Play with Reality 2. Falling into Play 3. Openness, Playfulness and Freedom 4. Practicing Playing 5. A Conversation with Contemplative Traditions Part II6. Practicing Phenomenology—the Historico-Theoretical Context 7. Practicing Phenomenology—the Personal Side in Practice and ‘Play’ 8. Japanese Perspectives on ‘Practice’, ‘Nature’, and ‘Play’ Recommended ReadingsNotes BibliographyIndex