A publishing phenomenon in Spain: a moving, lyrical, far-ranging meditation on the deep joys of confronting oneself through silence by a Spanish priest and Zen disciple.With silence increasingly becoming a stranger to us, one man set out to become its intimate: Pablo d'Ors, a Catholic priest whose life was changed by Zen meditation. With disarming honesty and directness, as well as a striking clarity of language, d'Ors shares his struggles as a beginning meditator: the tedium, restlessness, and distraction. But, persevering, the author discovers not only a deep peace and understanding of his true nature, but also that silence, rather than being a retreat from life, offers us an intense engagement with life just as it is. Imbued with a rare beauty, Biography of Silence shows us the deep joy of silence that is available to us all.
Parallax Press
|
9781946764232
|
Hardcover
The Lost Gutenberg
By Davis, Margaret Leslie
The never-before-told story of one extremely rare copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and its impact on the lives of the fanatical few who were lucky enough to own it.For rare-book collectors, an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible--of which there are fewer than 50 in existence--represents the ultimate prize. Here, Margaret Leslie Davis recounts five centuries in the life of one copy, from its creation by Johannes Gutenberg, through the hands of monks, an earl, the Worcestershire sauce king, and a nuclear physicist to its ultimate resting place, in a steel vault in Tokyo. Estelle Doheny, the first woman collector to add the book to her library and its last private owner, tipped the Bible onto a trajectory that forever changed our understanding of the first mechanically printed book.The Lost Gutenberg draws readers into this incredible saga, immersing them in the lust for beauty, prestige, and knowledge that this rarest of books sparked in its owners. Exploring books as objects of obsession across centuries, this is a must-read for history buffs, book collectors, seekers of hidden treasures, and anyone who has ever craved a remarkable book--and its untold stories.
TarcherPerigee
|
9781592408672
|
Hardcover
The Four Noble Truths
By Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Lama Zopa
The Buddha's profound teachings on the four noble truths are illuminated by a Tibetan master simply and directly, so that readers gain an immediate and personal understanding of the causes and conditions that give rise to suffering as well as the spiritual life as the path to liberation. Experiential teachings on the Dharma by the Tibetan master Lama Zopa Rinpoche, written in a lively manner to inspire and motivate both general readers and experienced Buddhist practitioners to persist in understanding the nature or truth of suffering, its causes, and the remedies to secure the end of all suffering--the four noble truths of the path, the Buddha's psychological method for us to break free from suffering. Speaks intimately and directly to the reader about how the principles of the four noble truths are to be applied to one's day-to-day spiritual life as the path to liberation.
Wisdom Publications
|
9781614293941
|
Paperback
The First Love Story
By Feiler, Bruce
From the New York Times bestselling author of Walking the Bible and Abraham comes a revelatory journey across four continents and 4,000 years exploring how Adam and Eve introduced the idea of love into the world, and how they continue to shape our deepest feelings about relationships, family, and togetherness.Since antiquity, one story has stood at the center of every conversation about men and women. One couple has been the battleground for human relationships and sexual identity. That couple is Adam and Eve. Yet instead of celebrating them, history has blamed them for bringing sin, deceit, and death into the world. In this fresh retelling of their story, New York Times columnist and PBS host Bruce Feiler travels from the Garden of Eden in Iraq to the Sistine Chapel in Rome, from John Milton's London to Mae West's Hollywood, discovering how Adam and Eve should be hailed as exemplars of a long-term, healthy, resilient relationship. At a time of discord and fear over the strength of our social fabric, Feiler shows how history's first couple can again be role models for unity, forgiveness, and love. Containing all the humor, insight, and wisdom that have endeared Bruce Feiler to readers around the world, The First Love Story is an unforgettable journey that restores Adam and Eve to their rightful place as central figures in our culture's imagination and reminds us that even our most familiar stories still have the ability to surprise, inspire, and guide us today.
Penguin Books
|
9781594206818
|
Hardcover
How to Be a Muslim
By Moghul, Haroon
A young Muslim leader's memoir of his struggles to forge an American Muslim identityHaroon Moghul was first thrust into the spotlight after 9/11, as an undergraduate leader at New York University's Islamic Center. Suddenly, he was making appearances everywhere: on TV, talking to interfaith audiences, combating Islamophobia in print. He was becoming a prominent voice for American Muslims. Privately, Moghul had a complicated relationship with Islam. In high school he was barely a believer and entirely convinced he was going to hell. He sometimes drank. He didn't pray regularly. All he wanted was a girlfriend.But as Haroon discovered, it wasn't so easy to leave religion behind. To be true to himself, he needed to forge a unique American Muslim identity that reflected his own beliefs and personality. How to Be a Muslim is the story of a young man coping with the crushing pressure of a world that shuns and fears Muslims, struggling with his faith and searching for intellectual forebears, and suffering the onset of bipolar disorder. This is the story of the second-generation immigrant, of what it's like to lose yourself between cultures, and how to pick up the pieces.
Beacon Press
|
9780807020746
|
Paperback
Day of the Dead
By Hodge, Susie
Celebrate The Day of the Dead with 20 Fun Projects!The growing popularity of Dia de los Muertos - The Day of the Dead - can be seen in the increased number of festivals, music concerts, art fairs, altar nights, arts-and-crafts events, costume contests, and candlelit processions (including the famed one held at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery) . Now you can bring the essence of Mexico's beloved traditions to your own themed party with this evocative guide that includes 20 practical projects. Learn the origins and rituals of this special festival and how to:Create a respectful and beautiful decorated altar with projects for Flor de Muerto (marigold paper pom-poms) , Calavaras (sugar skulls) , Pan de Muerto (bread of the dead) , Mezcal shooters, and more Find inspiration in traditional Mexicana Art and Artisania to create projects such as Papel picado (cut-tissue paper decorations) , fairy light embellishments, embroidered napkins, and more Explore the spectacular look of La Catrina (Mexico's skeleton lady) with ideas for women's and men's costumes and instructions for facial art designs, a floral headdress, felt hat, and moreYou'll also discover other ideas for events with a Day of the Dead theme, including poetry readings, music, and dancing. Features a directory of Day of the Dead festivals and parades.
Barron's Educational Series
|
9781438011011
|
Paperback
A Little Bit of Auras
By Eason, Cassandra
Find your aura with this entry in the popular LITTLE BIT OF series! Every person, animal, and place has an aura: a rainbow-colored energy field surrounding us. With this introductory guide, you can learn how to identify and interpret auras, discover what their different colors mean, and heal and cleanse your own and others' auras. In addition, renowned author Cassandra Eason provides a range of spiritually enhancing hands-on exercises to try.
Sterling Ethos
|
9781454928539
|
Hardcover
Introduction to Islam
By Ramadan, Tariq
Whether the issue is violence, terrorism, women's rights, or slavery, Muslims today are expected to provide answers and to justify what Islam is-or is not. But little opportunity exists, either in the media or in society as a whole, to describe Islam. In simple, direct language, An Introduction to Islam introduces readers to Islam and to its principles, rituals, diversity, and evolution.Tariq Ramadan focuses upon the realities of Islam today. Avoiding ideology and idealism, Ramadan brings to life the essence of the true meaning of Islam and its implications today. No prior knowledge of Islam is required; the book makes the complexity of Islam easy to understand by looking closely at its multi-faceted reality as a religion, and at the civilization that arose from it.
Oxford University Press
|
9780190467487
|
Paperback
Muhammad
By Knight, Michael Muhammad
He is one of the most contested and explosive historical figures in the world. Muhammad: Forty Introductions offers a distinct and nuanced take on the life and teachings of Muhammad the prophet, using a traditional genre of Islamic literature called the forty hadiths collection. Hadiths are the reported sayings and actions of Muhammad that have been collected by the tens of thousands throughout Islamic history. There is a tradition in which Muslim scholars take from this vast textual ocean to compile their own smaller collections of forty hadiths, an act of curation that allows them to present their particular understanding of Muhammad's legacy and the essential points of Islam. Here, Michael Muhammad Knight contributes his own forty hadith collection, from his point of view as a convert to Islam, ex-punk-rocker-turned-academic, who understands the religion for its heterogeneity and changeability. He examines his own faith while exploring such topics as visual portrayals of Muhammad through history; Muhammad's views on homosexuality and the treatment of animals; the evolving definition of jihad; and Muhammad's family's history as migrants and refugees. By showing us how the religion has been constructed in its followers' imaginations over centuries, and revealing how all sacred biographies are contested spaces, he carefully unravels prevailing notions about Islamic "fundamentalism."
Soft Skull Press
|
9781593761479
|
Paperback
Daring to Drive
By Al-sharif, Manal
A ferociously intimate memoir by a devout woman from a modest family in Saudi Arabia who became the unexpected leader of a courageous movement to support women's right to drive.Manal al-Sharif grew up in Mecca the second daughter of a taxi driver, born the year fundamentalism took hold. In her adolescence, she was a religious radical, melting her brother's boy band cassettes in the oven because music was haram: forbidden by Islamic law. But what a difference an education can make. By her twenties she was a computer security engineer, one of few women working in a desert compound that resembled suburban America. That's when the Saudi kingdom's contradictions became too much to bear: she was labeled a slut for chatting with male colleagues, her teenage brother chaperoned her on a business trip, and while she kept a car in her garage, she was forbidden from driving down city streets behind the wheel. Daring to Drive is the fiercely intimate memoir of an accidental activist, a powerfully vivid story of a young Muslim woman who stood up to a kingdom of men - and won. Writing on the cusp of history, Manal offers a rare glimpse into the lives of women in Saudi Arabia today. Her memoir is a remarkable celebration of resilience in the face of tyranny, the extraordinary power of education and female solidarity, and the difficulties, absurdities, and joys of making your voice heard.
Simon & Schuster
|
9781476793023
|
Hardcover
Just Enough
By Greenwood, Gesshin Claire
Fresh out of college, Gesshin Claire Greenwood found her way to a Buddhist monastery in Japan and was ordained as a Buddhist nun. Zen appealed to Greenwood because of its all-encompassing approach to life and how to live it, its willingness to face lifes big questions, and its radically simple yet profound emphasis on presence, reality, the now. At the monastery, she also discovered an affinity for working in the kitchen, especially the practice of creating delicious, satisfying meals using whatever was at hand - even when what was at hand was bamboo. Based on the philosophy of oryoki, or "just enough," this book combines stories with recipes. From perfect rice, potatoes, and broths to hearty stews, colorful stir-fries, hot and cold noodles, and delicate sorbet, Greenwood shows food to be a direct, daily way to understand Zen practice. With eloquent prose, she takes readers into monasteries and markets, messy kitchens and predawn meditation rooms, and offers food for thought that nourishes and delights body, mind, and spirit.
New World Library
|
9781608685820
|
Hardcover
The Three Questions
By Ruiz, Don Miguel
The beloved spiritual teacher builds on the message of his enduring New York Times and international bestseller The Four Agreements with this profound guide that takes us deeper into the tradition of Toltec wisdom, helping us find and use the hidden power within us to achieve our fullest lives.In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz introduced seekers on the path to enlightenment to the tenets of Mesoamerican spiritual culture - the ancient Toltec. Now, he takes us deeper into Native American practice, and asks us to consider essential questions that drive our lives and govern our spiritual power. Three eternal questions can help us into our power and use it judiciously:Who am I?What is real?How do I express love?At each stage in our lives, we must ask these simple yet deeply profound questions. Finding the answers will open the door to the next stage in our development, and eventually lead us to our complete, truest selves. But as Don Miguel Ruiz makes clear, we suffer if we do not ask these questions - or if we fail to pay attention to their answers - because we either never act on our power or use it destructively. Only when power is anchored in our identity and in reality will it be able to be in synch with the universe - and be of true benefit to ourselves and to others.The three questions provide a practical framework that allows readers to engage with Ruiz's transformative message and act as a vehicle for overcoming fear and anxiety and discovering peace of mind. An essential guide for all travelers pursuing self-knowledge, understanding, and acceptance, The Three Questions is the next step in our unique spiritual metamorphosis.
HarperElixir
|
9780062391094
|
Hardcover
Tao Te Ching
By Tzu, Lao
The original mindfulness book, in a landmark new translation by the award-winning translator of the I Ching and The Art of War The most translated book in the world after the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, or "Book of the Tao," is a guide to cultivating a life of peace, serenity, and compassion. Through aphorisms and parable, it leads readers toward the Tao, or the "Way": harmony with the life force of the universe. Traditionally attributed to Lao-tzu, a Chinese philosopher thought to have been a contemporary of Confucius, it is the essential text of Taoism, one of the three major religions of ancient China. As one of the world's great works of wisdom literature, it still has much to teach us today, offering a practical model based on modesty and self-restraint for living a balanced existence and for opening your mind, freeing your thoughts, and attaining greater self-awareness. With its emphasis on calm, simplicity, purity, and non-action, it provides a time-tested refuge from the busyness of modern life. This new translation seeks to understand the Tao Te Ching as a guide to everyday living and encourages a slow, meditative reading experience. The Tao Te Ching's eighty-one brief chapters are accompanied by illuminating commentary, interpretation, poems, and testimonials by the likes of Margaret Mead, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. Specially commissioned calligraphy for more than two hundred Chinese characters illustrate the book's essential themes.
Viking
|
9780670024988
|
Hardcover
Beating Guns
By Claiborne, Shane
Parkland. Las Vegas. Dallas. Orlando. San Bernardino. Paris. Charleston. Sutherland Springs. Newtown. These cities are now known for the people who were shot and killed in them. More Americans have died from guns in the US in the last fifty years than in all the wars in American history. With less than 5% of the world's population, the people of the US own nearly half the world's guns. America also has the most annual gun deaths--homicide, suicide, and accidental gun deaths--at 105 per day, or more than 38,000 per year. Some people say it's a heart problem. Others say it's a gun problem. The authors of Beating Guns believe it's both.This book is for people who believe the world doesn't have to be this way. Inspired by the prophetic image of beating swords into plows, Beating Guns provides a provocative look at gun violence in America and offers a clarion call to change our hearts regarding one of the most significant moral issues of our time. Bestselling author, speaker, and activist Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin show why Christians should be concerned about gun violence and how they can be part of the solution. The authors transcend stale rhetoric and old debates about gun control to offer a creative and productive response. Full-color images show how guns are being turned into tools and musical instruments across the nation. Charts, tables, and facts convey the mind-boggling realities of gun violence in America, but as the authors make clear, there is a story behind every statistic. Beating Guns allows victims and perpetrators of gun violence to tell their own compelling stories, offering hope for change and helping us reimagine the world as one that turns from death to life, where swords become plows and guns are turned into garden tools.
Brazos Press
|
9781587434136
|
Paperback
The Butcher's Daughter
By Glendinning, Victoria
The atmospheric novel set during the Tudor era of a young woman's struggle to define herself in a world of uncertainty, intrigue, and danger in a period of great upheavalIn 1535, England is hardly a wellspring of gender equality; it is a grim and oppressive age where women -- even the privileged few who can read and write -- have little independence. In The Butcher's Daughter, it is this milieu that mandates Agnes Peppin, daughter of a simple country butcher, to leave her family home in disgrace and live out her days cloistered behind the walls of the Shaftesbury Abbey. But with her great intellect, she becomes the assistant to the Abbess and as a result integrates herself into the unstable royal landscape of King Henry VIII.As Agnes grapples with the complex rules and hierarchies of her new life, King Henry VIII has proclaimed himself the new head of the Church.
Biography of Silence
By D'ors, Pablo
A publishing phenomenon in Spain: a moving, lyrical, far-ranging meditation on the deep joys of confronting oneself through silence by a Spanish priest and Zen disciple.With silence increasingly becoming a stranger to us, one man set out to become its intimate: Pablo d'Ors, a Catholic priest whose life was changed by Zen meditation. With disarming honesty and directness, as well as a striking clarity of language, d'Ors shares his struggles as a beginning meditator: the tedium, restlessness, and distraction. But, persevering, the author discovers not only a deep peace and understanding of his true nature, but also that silence, rather than being a retreat from life, offers us an intense engagement with life just as it is. Imbued with a rare beauty, Biography of Silence shows us the deep joy of silence that is available to us all.
The Lost Gutenberg
By Davis, Margaret Leslie
The never-before-told story of one extremely rare copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and its impact on the lives of the fanatical few who were lucky enough to own it.For rare-book collectors, an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible--of which there are fewer than 50 in existence--represents the ultimate prize. Here, Margaret Leslie Davis recounts five centuries in the life of one copy, from its creation by Johannes Gutenberg, through the hands of monks, an earl, the Worcestershire sauce king, and a nuclear physicist to its ultimate resting place, in a steel vault in Tokyo. Estelle Doheny, the first woman collector to add the book to her library and its last private owner, tipped the Bible onto a trajectory that forever changed our understanding of the first mechanically printed book.The Lost Gutenberg draws readers into this incredible saga, immersing them in the lust for beauty, prestige, and knowledge that this rarest of books sparked in its owners. Exploring books as objects of obsession across centuries, this is a must-read for history buffs, book collectors, seekers of hidden treasures, and anyone who has ever craved a remarkable book--and its untold stories.
The Four Noble Truths
By Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Lama Zopa
The Buddha's profound teachings on the four noble truths are illuminated by a Tibetan master simply and directly, so that readers gain an immediate and personal understanding of the causes and conditions that give rise to suffering as well as the spiritual life as the path to liberation. Experiential teachings on the Dharma by the Tibetan master Lama Zopa Rinpoche, written in a lively manner to inspire and motivate both general readers and experienced Buddhist practitioners to persist in understanding the nature or truth of suffering, its causes, and the remedies to secure the end of all suffering--the four noble truths of the path, the Buddha's psychological method for us to break free from suffering. Speaks intimately and directly to the reader about how the principles of the four noble truths are to be applied to one's day-to-day spiritual life as the path to liberation.
The First Love Story
By Feiler, Bruce
From the New York Times bestselling author of Walking the Bible and Abraham comes a revelatory journey across four continents and 4,000 years exploring how Adam and Eve introduced the idea of love into the world, and how they continue to shape our deepest feelings about relationships, family, and togetherness.Since antiquity, one story has stood at the center of every conversation about men and women. One couple has been the battleground for human relationships and sexual identity. That couple is Adam and Eve. Yet instead of celebrating them, history has blamed them for bringing sin, deceit, and death into the world. In this fresh retelling of their story, New York Times columnist and PBS host Bruce Feiler travels from the Garden of Eden in Iraq to the Sistine Chapel in Rome, from John Milton's London to Mae West's Hollywood, discovering how Adam and Eve should be hailed as exemplars of a long-term, healthy, resilient relationship. At a time of discord and fear over the strength of our social fabric, Feiler shows how history's first couple can again be role models for unity, forgiveness, and love. Containing all the humor, insight, and wisdom that have endeared Bruce Feiler to readers around the world, The First Love Story is an unforgettable journey that restores Adam and Eve to their rightful place as central figures in our culture's imagination and reminds us that even our most familiar stories still have the ability to surprise, inspire, and guide us today.
How to Be a Muslim
By Moghul, Haroon
A young Muslim leader's memoir of his struggles to forge an American Muslim identityHaroon Moghul was first thrust into the spotlight after 9/11, as an undergraduate leader at New York University's Islamic Center. Suddenly, he was making appearances everywhere: on TV, talking to interfaith audiences, combating Islamophobia in print. He was becoming a prominent voice for American Muslims. Privately, Moghul had a complicated relationship with Islam. In high school he was barely a believer and entirely convinced he was going to hell. He sometimes drank. He didn't pray regularly. All he wanted was a girlfriend.But as Haroon discovered, it wasn't so easy to leave religion behind. To be true to himself, he needed to forge a unique American Muslim identity that reflected his own beliefs and personality. How to Be a Muslim is the story of a young man coping with the crushing pressure of a world that shuns and fears Muslims, struggling with his faith and searching for intellectual forebears, and suffering the onset of bipolar disorder. This is the story of the second-generation immigrant, of what it's like to lose yourself between cultures, and how to pick up the pieces.
Day of the Dead
By Hodge, Susie
Celebrate The Day of the Dead with 20 Fun Projects!The growing popularity of Dia de los Muertos - The Day of the Dead - can be seen in the increased number of festivals, music concerts, art fairs, altar nights, arts-and-crafts events, costume contests, and candlelit processions (including the famed one held at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery) . Now you can bring the essence of Mexico's beloved traditions to your own themed party with this evocative guide that includes 20 practical projects. Learn the origins and rituals of this special festival and how to:Create a respectful and beautiful decorated altar with projects for Flor de Muerto (marigold paper pom-poms) , Calavaras (sugar skulls) , Pan de Muerto (bread of the dead) , Mezcal shooters, and more Find inspiration in traditional Mexicana Art and Artisania to create projects such as Papel picado (cut-tissue paper decorations) , fairy light embellishments, embroidered napkins, and more Explore the spectacular look of La Catrina (Mexico's skeleton lady) with ideas for women's and men's costumes and instructions for facial art designs, a floral headdress, felt hat, and moreYou'll also discover other ideas for events with a Day of the Dead theme, including poetry readings, music, and dancing. Features a directory of Day of the Dead festivals and parades.
A Little Bit of Auras
By Eason, Cassandra
Find your aura with this entry in the popular LITTLE BIT OF series! Every person, animal, and place has an aura: a rainbow-colored energy field surrounding us. With this introductory guide, you can learn how to identify and interpret auras, discover what their different colors mean, and heal and cleanse your own and others' auras. In addition, renowned author Cassandra Eason provides a range of spiritually enhancing hands-on exercises to try.
Introduction to Islam
By Ramadan, Tariq
Whether the issue is violence, terrorism, women's rights, or slavery, Muslims today are expected to provide answers and to justify what Islam is-or is not. But little opportunity exists, either in the media or in society as a whole, to describe Islam. In simple, direct language, An Introduction to Islam introduces readers to Islam and to its principles, rituals, diversity, and evolution.Tariq Ramadan focuses upon the realities of Islam today. Avoiding ideology and idealism, Ramadan brings to life the essence of the true meaning of Islam and its implications today. No prior knowledge of Islam is required; the book makes the complexity of Islam easy to understand by looking closely at its multi-faceted reality as a religion, and at the civilization that arose from it.
Muhammad
By Knight, Michael Muhammad
He is one of the most contested and explosive historical figures in the world. Muhammad: Forty Introductions offers a distinct and nuanced take on the life and teachings of Muhammad the prophet, using a traditional genre of Islamic literature called the forty hadiths collection. Hadiths are the reported sayings and actions of Muhammad that have been collected by the tens of thousands throughout Islamic history. There is a tradition in which Muslim scholars take from this vast textual ocean to compile their own smaller collections of forty hadiths, an act of curation that allows them to present their particular understanding of Muhammad's legacy and the essential points of Islam. Here, Michael Muhammad Knight contributes his own forty hadith collection, from his point of view as a convert to Islam, ex-punk-rocker-turned-academic, who understands the religion for its heterogeneity and changeability. He examines his own faith while exploring such topics as visual portrayals of Muhammad through history; Muhammad's views on homosexuality and the treatment of animals; the evolving definition of jihad; and Muhammad's family's history as migrants and refugees. By showing us how the religion has been constructed in its followers' imaginations over centuries, and revealing how all sacred biographies are contested spaces, he carefully unravels prevailing notions about Islamic "fundamentalism."
Daring to Drive
By Al-sharif, Manal
A ferociously intimate memoir by a devout woman from a modest family in Saudi Arabia who became the unexpected leader of a courageous movement to support women's right to drive.Manal al-Sharif grew up in Mecca the second daughter of a taxi driver, born the year fundamentalism took hold. In her adolescence, she was a religious radical, melting her brother's boy band cassettes in the oven because music was haram: forbidden by Islamic law. But what a difference an education can make. By her twenties she was a computer security engineer, one of few women working in a desert compound that resembled suburban America. That's when the Saudi kingdom's contradictions became too much to bear: she was labeled a slut for chatting with male colleagues, her teenage brother chaperoned her on a business trip, and while she kept a car in her garage, she was forbidden from driving down city streets behind the wheel. Daring to Drive is the fiercely intimate memoir of an accidental activist, a powerfully vivid story of a young Muslim woman who stood up to a kingdom of men - and won. Writing on the cusp of history, Manal offers a rare glimpse into the lives of women in Saudi Arabia today. Her memoir is a remarkable celebration of resilience in the face of tyranny, the extraordinary power of education and female solidarity, and the difficulties, absurdities, and joys of making your voice heard.
Just Enough
By Greenwood, Gesshin Claire
Fresh out of college, Gesshin Claire Greenwood found her way to a Buddhist monastery in Japan and was ordained as a Buddhist nun. Zen appealed to Greenwood because of its all-encompassing approach to life and how to live it, its willingness to face lifes big questions, and its radically simple yet profound emphasis on presence, reality, the now. At the monastery, she also discovered an affinity for working in the kitchen, especially the practice of creating delicious, satisfying meals using whatever was at hand - even when what was at hand was bamboo. Based on the philosophy of oryoki, or "just enough," this book combines stories with recipes. From perfect rice, potatoes, and broths to hearty stews, colorful stir-fries, hot and cold noodles, and delicate sorbet, Greenwood shows food to be a direct, daily way to understand Zen practice. With eloquent prose, she takes readers into monasteries and markets, messy kitchens and predawn meditation rooms, and offers food for thought that nourishes and delights body, mind, and spirit.
The Three Questions
By Ruiz, Don Miguel
The beloved spiritual teacher builds on the message of his enduring New York Times and international bestseller The Four Agreements with this profound guide that takes us deeper into the tradition of Toltec wisdom, helping us find and use the hidden power within us to achieve our fullest lives.In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz introduced seekers on the path to enlightenment to the tenets of Mesoamerican spiritual culture - the ancient Toltec. Now, he takes us deeper into Native American practice, and asks us to consider essential questions that drive our lives and govern our spiritual power. Three eternal questions can help us into our power and use it judiciously:Who am I?What is real?How do I express love?At each stage in our lives, we must ask these simple yet deeply profound questions. Finding the answers will open the door to the next stage in our development, and eventually lead us to our complete, truest selves. But as Don Miguel Ruiz makes clear, we suffer if we do not ask these questions - or if we fail to pay attention to their answers - because we either never act on our power or use it destructively. Only when power is anchored in our identity and in reality will it be able to be in synch with the universe - and be of true benefit to ourselves and to others.The three questions provide a practical framework that allows readers to engage with Ruiz's transformative message and act as a vehicle for overcoming fear and anxiety and discovering peace of mind. An essential guide for all travelers pursuing self-knowledge, understanding, and acceptance, The Three Questions is the next step in our unique spiritual metamorphosis.
Tao Te Ching
By Tzu, Lao
The original mindfulness book, in a landmark new translation by the award-winning translator of the I Ching and The Art of War The most translated book in the world after the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, or "Book of the Tao," is a guide to cultivating a life of peace, serenity, and compassion. Through aphorisms and parable, it leads readers toward the Tao, or the "Way": harmony with the life force of the universe. Traditionally attributed to Lao-tzu, a Chinese philosopher thought to have been a contemporary of Confucius, it is the essential text of Taoism, one of the three major religions of ancient China. As one of the world's great works of wisdom literature, it still has much to teach us today, offering a practical model based on modesty and self-restraint for living a balanced existence and for opening your mind, freeing your thoughts, and attaining greater self-awareness. With its emphasis on calm, simplicity, purity, and non-action, it provides a time-tested refuge from the busyness of modern life. This new translation seeks to understand the Tao Te Ching as a guide to everyday living and encourages a slow, meditative reading experience. The Tao Te Ching's eighty-one brief chapters are accompanied by illuminating commentary, interpretation, poems, and testimonials by the likes of Margaret Mead, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. Specially commissioned calligraphy for more than two hundred Chinese characters illustrate the book's essential themes.
Beating Guns
By Claiborne, Shane
Parkland. Las Vegas. Dallas. Orlando. San Bernardino. Paris. Charleston. Sutherland Springs. Newtown. These cities are now known for the people who were shot and killed in them. More Americans have died from guns in the US in the last fifty years than in all the wars in American history. With less than 5% of the world's population, the people of the US own nearly half the world's guns. America also has the most annual gun deaths--homicide, suicide, and accidental gun deaths--at 105 per day, or more than 38,000 per year. Some people say it's a heart problem. Others say it's a gun problem. The authors of Beating Guns believe it's both.This book is for people who believe the world doesn't have to be this way. Inspired by the prophetic image of beating swords into plows, Beating Guns provides a provocative look at gun violence in America and offers a clarion call to change our hearts regarding one of the most significant moral issues of our time. Bestselling author, speaker, and activist Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin show why Christians should be concerned about gun violence and how they can be part of the solution. The authors transcend stale rhetoric and old debates about gun control to offer a creative and productive response. Full-color images show how guns are being turned into tools and musical instruments across the nation. Charts, tables, and facts convey the mind-boggling realities of gun violence in America, but as the authors make clear, there is a story behind every statistic. Beating Guns allows victims and perpetrators of gun violence to tell their own compelling stories, offering hope for change and helping us reimagine the world as one that turns from death to life, where swords become plows and guns are turned into garden tools.
The Butcher's Daughter
By Glendinning, Victoria
The atmospheric novel set during the Tudor era of a young woman's struggle to define herself in a world of uncertainty, intrigue, and danger in a period of great upheavalIn 1535, England is hardly a wellspring of gender equality; it is a grim and oppressive age where women -- even the privileged few who can read and write -- have little independence. In The Butcher's Daughter, it is this milieu that mandates Agnes Peppin, daughter of a simple country butcher, to leave her family home in disgrace and live out her days cloistered behind the walls of the Shaftesbury Abbey. But with her great intellect, she becomes the assistant to the Abbess and as a result integrates herself into the unstable royal landscape of King Henry VIII.As Agnes grapples with the complex rules and hierarchies of her new life, King Henry VIII has proclaimed himself the new head of the Church.