The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain

The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain PDF Author: Will Johnson
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892811939
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
"The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain" presents a unique view into how we can create the circumstances that invite profound spiritual awakenings to occur in our lives. Part spiritual travelogue, part personal memoir, Will Johnson reflects on his own life passages, and tells the story of the remarkable journey with his son to Mount Kailas--a journey that proves to be a moment of passage for both father and son.

The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain

The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain PDF Author: Will Johnson
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892811939
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
"The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain" presents a unique view into how we can create the circumstances that invite profound spiritual awakenings to occur in our lives. Part spiritual travelogue, part personal memoir, Will Johnson reflects on his own life passages, and tells the story of the remarkable journey with his son to Mount Kailas--a journey that proves to be a moment of passage for both father and son.

Following Fish

Following Fish PDF Author: Samanth Subramanian
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 8184752555
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
In a coastline as long and diverse as India’s, fish inhabit the heart of many worlds — food of course, but also culture, commerce, sport, history and society. Journeying along the edge of the peninsula, Samanth Subramanian reports upon a kaleidoscope of extraordinary stories. In nine essays, Following Fish conducts rich journalistic investigations: among others, of the famed fish treatment for asthmatics in Hyderabad; of the preparation and the process of eating West Bengal’s prized hilsa; of the ancient art of building fishing boats in Gujarat; of the fiery cuisine and the singular spirit of Kerala’s toddy shops; of the food and the lives of Mumbai’s first peoples; of the history of an old Catholic fishing community in Tamil Nadu; of the hunt for the world’s fastest fish near Goa. Throughout his travels, Subramanian observes the cosmopolitanism and diverse influences absorbed by India’s coastal societies, the withdrawing of traditional fishermen from their craft, the corresponding growth of fishing as pure and voluminous commerce, and the degradation of waters and beaches from over-fishing. Pulsating with pleasure, adventure and discovery, and tempered by nostalgia and loss, Following Fish speaks as eloquently to the armchair traveler as to lovers of the sea and its lore.

From Boys to Men

From Boys to Men PDF Author: Bret Stephenson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594777179
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
A guide to restoring the successful models used by ancient cultures the world over to raise adolescent boys • Explains the negative effects of Western youth culture and how it can be transformed • Offers instructions for integrating basic rites of passage into modern family life and youth programs For tens of thousands of years all across the globe, societies have been coping with raising adolescents. Why is it then that native cultures never had the need for juvenile halls, residential treatment centers, mood-altering drugs, or boot camps? How did they avoid the high incidence of teen violence America is experiencing, and how did they prevent their youth from relying on drugs and alcohol, the use of which has become so prevalent in Western society? In From Boys to Men, Bret Stephenson shows readers that older cultures didn’t magically avoid adolescence; instead they developed successful rituals and rites of passage for sculpting teen boys into healthy young men. From Aleutian Eskimos to Polynesian Islanders, from tribal Africans to Australian Aborigines, each culture found archetypal ways to initiate their boys into the adult community. Stephenson explains the basics of rites of passage and offers insight into how to reintroduce these successful practices and traditional understandings into modern family life and programs for youth. He discusses the damaging effects of our youth culture and the negative teen products that are fueled by corporate America and reveals how we can counteract these negative forces by using meaningful rites of passage to create a society with happy and healthy adolescent boys.

The Spiritual Practices of Rumi

The Spiritual Practices of Rumi PDF Author: Will Johnson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594777284
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The secret Rumi found in beholding the Divine in his sacred relationship with Shams-i-Tabriz • Shows how, in 1244, Sufi poet and mystic Jalaluddin Rumi was first brought to a state of ecstatic union with the cosmos and all its creatures • Reveals the radical spiritual practice Rumi formulated in his private retreat with the mendicant seeker Shams-i-Tabriz • Uses the poetry and prose of Rumi to explain how to come face-to-face with the Divine One of the most extraordinary events in the history of Sufism occurred in 1244 when the Sufi poet and mystic Jalaluddin Rumi met a wandering seeker named Shams-i-Tabriz. Upon meeting, the two men immediately went into private retreat together, emerging ninety days later in a transformed condition. In The Spiritual Practices of Rumi, Will Johnson reveals the radical spiritual practice that transpired between Rumi and Shams. To put it simply, they sat and gazed into each other’s eyes. Because the eyes are portals to the soul, their sustained gazing formed the basis of a devotional practice that opened the doors to a profoundly ecstatic state of divine union. Johnson draws on the poetry and prose of Rumi to unfold his story. He also explains how one may embark on the practice of intentional gazing to experience the state of ecstatic divine union shared by Rumi and Shams so many centuries ago.

Breathing through the Whole Body

Breathing through the Whole Body PDF Author: Will Johnson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594777101
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
Explores the Buddha’s own words on breathing meditation for healing, wholeness, and a deeper understanding of his teachings • Explains the complete series of steps in the Buddha’s Satipatthana Sutta for refining awareness of the breath, from posture and center of gravity to extending breath awareness beyond the nostrils, lungs, and abdomen to the entire body • Shows that stillness in meditation refers only to the mind, not to the body • Reveals breath to be a direct agent of healing for chronic tensions and an agitated mind Explaining how stillness in meditation refers not to a rigid and frozen body but to a quality of mind, Will Johnson examines the Buddha’s own words at the core of the Satipatthana Sutta: “As you breathe in, breathe in through the whole body; as you breathe out, breathe out through the whole body”--an instruction often overlooked in the majority of Buddhist schools. Exploring the Buddha’s complete series of steps for deepening awareness of the breath, he shows how to invite natural, responsive movement back into the posture of meditation by extending breath awareness beyond the nostrils, lungs, and abdomen to the entire body--a practice that unifies the breath, body, and mind into a single shared phenomenon. Showing how the flow of breath is directly affected by chronic tensions in the body and in the mind, Johnson explains that when breath starts flowing through more and more of the body, it becomes a direct agent of healing, massaging and melting any areas of tension it touches and moves through, whether physical or emotional. By breathing through the whole body in accordance with the Buddha’s instructions on breath, the body becomes much more comfortable, the mind starts resolving its addiction to thinking, and meditative practice deepens much more rapidly, allowing the teachings of the Buddha to be directly glimpsed and revealed.

Tales of a Modern Sufi

Tales of a Modern Sufi PDF Author: Nevit O. Ergin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594779295
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
A collection of modern Sufi tales by renowned Rumi translator and Sufi initiate Nevit Ergin • Contains 24 deceptively simple stories that invoke questioning and awareness • By the renowned English translator of Rumi’s complete Divan-i Kebir Sufi stories have traditionally been a means of opening a portal that allows us to advance from our basic perceptions into states of extraordinary awareness. This collection of deceptively simple stories by renowned Rumi translator and Sufi Nevit Ergin has the ability to remove readers’ complacent sense of self and identity and to expand their ordinary awareness of reality from every possible direction. In his stories the primrose path we travel suddenly turns into a trickster’s hall of mirrors where we learn that we are not children of Adam and Eve so much as children of our perceptions. The protagonists and antagonists of these stories are constantly morphing and exchanging places. They exist in a world where individuals are stalked by a cricket that is an “invisible monster with the face of a demon,” confront the ambiguous burden of ridding oneself of one’s own corpse, and discover the “invisible fence of reality” existing in the layers of a discarded piece of art. The symbols in these stories are booby traps designed to release the mind from the sense of its own importance and awaken the realization that “if you refuse to be born, you cannot die.” Blind faith, the author says, has proved itself incapable of producing wisdom, tolerance, or world peace. This is because the answers to humanity’s problems lie beyond our ordinary perception and require love and ecstasy to be made visible. Our thirst for wisdom and understanding must go to the fountain of universal truth. These stories provide water from that fountain.

Yoga of the Mahamudra

Yoga of the Mahamudra PDF Author: Will Johnson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594776253
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Presents three simple yogic principles from Tilopa's Song of Mahamudra • Explains how balance is the key to achieving higher consciousness • Includes somatic koans Mahamudra, literally "the great gesture," is often looked upon as the highest manifestation of consciousness known within the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition. In Yoga of the Mahamudra, Will Johnson explains how it is possible to bring forth the condition of mahamudra naturally by utilizing the mystical yoga of balance to create what he calls the embodied cross. He presents three simple yogic principles from Tilopa's Song of Mahamudra. The first principle, "do nothing with the body but relax," forms the vertical axis of the embodied cross. It is an internal process that focuses on the upright structure of the body, which opens up our relationship to the divine source. The second principle, "Let the mind cling to nothing," allows the horizontal flow of energy to our mind. This horizontal axis represents our relationship to the world: what we see and hear, and what our mind does with the objects we perceive. The establishment of these vertical and horizontal flows of energy allows us to embody the third principle, "to become like a hollow bamboo." In this way the body and mind become extraordinarily fluid, surrendering to the currents of the life forces that constantly flow through them like air through a flute. The author concludes with a number of somatic koans, exercises that allow the direct experience of balance and lead to the creation of the embodied cross.

The Rubais of Rumi

The Rubais of Rumi PDF Author:
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594777438
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The first English translation of the rubais of Rumi • Presents 233 of the most evocative of Rumi’s 1,700 rubais • Shows that the mystical embrace is the way to directly experience the Divine Rumi is well known for the over 44,000 verses that appear in a 23-volume collection called the Divan-i Kebir. Yet Rumi also composed 1,700 rubais, short aphorisms and observations, whose depth and message belie their brevity. The form of rubais first became well known through the 11th-century collection The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. But unlike Khayyam, who like most poets would sit and carefully craft each word, Rumi would compose and speak his poems through the spontaneous “language of poetry” that poured from his lips as he traveled the streets of Konya, Anatolia (present-day Turkey). Very few of Rumi’s rubais have been translated into any of the languages of the contemporary Western world. Now, Nevit O. Ergin, the translator of the complete Divan-i Kebir, and Will Johnson present here 233 of the most evocative of Rumi’s 1,700 rubais. Rumi’s poetry expresses profound and complex truths in beautiful yet simple language. He reveals that by going deep into the interior of our heart and soul, we can arrive at a place in which we once again merge and connect with the divine. This mystical quest, Rumi contends, is the birthright of us all. Anything less than a complete dissolving into the world of divine union will not provide the satisfaction and peace that we all seek. The simple, yet profound spiritual truths and visions contained in The Rubais of Rumi lead the way to the path of reconnection to the direct energies of God.

The Dictionary of Modern Herbalism

The Dictionary of Modern Herbalism PDF Author:
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892812387
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
This clear and comprehensive reference on the full range of healing herbs is an indispensable guide to the herbal remedies most used in the Anglo-American and European traditions. Each remedy is defined in terms of its main pharmacological actions and its therapeutic application to modern health problems.

Flight of the Bön Monks

Flight of the Bön Monks PDF Author: Harvey Rice
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1644118599
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
An inside account of the Chinese invasion of Tibet told through the voices of three persecuted monks • Shares the true story of three monks’ heroic escape from occupied Tibet and the subsequent rebirth of the Bön religion in exile • Introduces Bön, Tibet’s oldest religion, and a traditional way of life extinguished by foreign occupation • Reveals details of the 1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet and the exodus of thousands of Tibetans to neighboring countries Providing an inside view into the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the tenets of Bön, one of the world’s oldest but least known religions, this book chronicles the true story of three Bön monks who heroically escaped occupied Tibet and went on to rebuild their culture through incredible resilience, determination, and passion. After taking his vows to become a Bön monk and completing a pilgrimage around 22,000-foot Mt. Kailash, the holiest mountain in Tibet, Tenzin Namdak envisions a life of quiet contemplation at Menri, Bön’s mother monastery. Instead, he finds himself fleeing for his life across the highest and most difficult terrain on the planet. After being joined by a CIA-backed warlord, Tenzin’s escape party is ambushed and he is severely wounded. Narrowly escaping execution by Chinese soldiers, the dying Tenzin is taken to a concentration camp, where he is afforded special consideration because of his status as a monk. He overcomes his nearly fatal wound and makes an arduous escape from Tibet over the daunting Himalayas. The other monks, life-long friends Samten Karmay and Sangye Tenzin, witness Tibet’s capital explode in a violent insurrection against Chinese rule. Escaping to Nepal, they worry about the survival of the Bön religion and begin collecting scattered works of Bön scripture. A chance meeting with British scholar David Snellgrove brings the three monks together again and dramatically changes their lives. Snellgrove invites Sangye, Samten, and Tenzin to spend three years in London on a Rockefeller Foundation grant. There, they hone their English and forge influential relationships, enabling Tenzin to answer the pleas for help from the Bön community by founding a settlement in exile in India. Sangye is chosen as the 33rd Menri Trizen, Bön’s highest office, and together the three monks help rebuild the nearly extinct Bön religion. Aside from the escape of the Dalai Lama, no other Tibetan escape has been so consequential for so many.