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Meditations on the Trinity: Beauty, Mystery, and Glory in the Life of God
by A. W. TozerFrom one of the 20th century's most beloved spiritual writersA. W. Tozer is known for many things. He's known for his powerful writing style. He's known for being vigorously biblical. And he&’s known for gazing upon God intently in Word and prayer, and then telling readers plainly what he sees. All of these aspects of Tozer shine through in Meditations on the Trinity. Divided into four parts—one for each person of the Trinity, and one for the Godhead three-in-one—this volume compiles excerpts from Tozer's writings into a collection of daily readings to help you grow in you understanding of a central Christian doctrine. No one can over-contemplate the Trinity. It is an inexhaustible mystery, and one that rewards sustained reflection. Readers of Meditations on the Trinity will receive a more accurate view of who God is, and in turn offer Him truer worship. We exist to know and praise God, and this book will help readers do just that.
Meditations on the Trinity: Beauty, Mystery, and Glory in the Life of God
by A. W. TozerFrom one of the 20th century's most beloved spiritual writersA. W. Tozer is known for many things. He's known for his powerful writing style. He's known for being vigorously biblical. And he&’s known for gazing upon God intently in Word and prayer, and then telling readers plainly what he sees. All of these aspects of Tozer shine through in Meditations on the Trinity. Divided into four parts—one for each person of the Trinity, and one for the Godhead three-in-one—this volume compiles excerpts from Tozer's writings into a collection of daily readings to help you grow in you understanding of a central Christian doctrine. No one can over-contemplate the Trinity. It is an inexhaustible mystery, and one that rewards sustained reflection. Readers of Meditations on the Trinity will receive a more accurate view of who God is, and in turn offer Him truer worship. We exist to know and praise God, and this book will help readers do just that.
Meditations with James Van Praagh
by James Van PraaghMeditate Your Way to True Peace and WisdomMeditations with James Van Praagh is an inspiring collection of meditations and affirmations that will empower you to connect with your inner self. Bestselling author and renowned spiritual medium Van Praagh offers over forty meditations, each of which addresses a specific issue or concern that may be blocking your spiritual journey, such as "Release the Past," "Confronting Fears," and "Tuning In to Abundance." By helping you to truly see, feel, and listen to your inner voice, Van Praagh leads you to develop the wonderful, innate abilities that let you become your best self.
Meditations with Meister Eckhart
by Matthew FoxMeister Eckhart was a 13th-century mystic, prophet, feminist, declared heretic, and an early advocate of creation-centered spirituality. This tradition affirms humanity’s potential to act divinely, and it embraces life--living and dying, growing old and sinning, groaning and celebrating--as the creative energy of God in motion. For Eckhart, to be spiritual is to be awake and alive; creation itself was for him the primary sacrament that begins from “the spring of life” or the heart. Eckhart’s pathway and that of the creation tradition is a simple way. It demands no gurus, no fanciful methods, no protracted exercises or retreats. This is why he called it a “wayless way” that is available to everyone, and why he points out that the person “who has found this way needs no other.”
Meditations with Teresa of Avila: A Journey into the Sacred
by Megan DonMeditations with Teresa of Avila invites you to explore the depths of your inner being by following the pathway of the beloved mystic Teresa of Avila. Born into Spanish nobility in 1515, Teresa entered the monastic life at twenty and was eventually guided to reform the Carmelite Order. She blended a rich mystical inner life with everyday work in the secular world, and she remains an unparalleled source of inspiration for living deeply and effectively in both realms. Always concerned with the practical application of her beliefs, Teresa wrestled with questions of worth and place. She sought to understand what her visions and experiences meant and whether she was doing all she could for the divinity she loved and served. Her ideas were rejected by many of her contemporaries, and she struggled against the many male clerics who tried to invalidate her mystical experiences. Her spiritual exploration formed the basis of the prolific body of writing she left to the world. Megan Don makes Teresa's timeless wisdom fully contemporary through translations of Teresa's words followed by practical interpretations and brief, inviting meditations. In this award-winning book, Teresa of Avila and Don guide you to explore the voice of the Beloved and knowledge of the self, the restlessness of the mind and the care of the body, doubt, loss, intimacy, and more.
Meditations with the Cherokee: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony
by J. T. Garrett• A collection of earth-centered meditations to enhance our connection to the natural world. • Reveals the Old Wisdom of the Cherokee elders for living in harmony with all beings. • Written by J. T. Garrett, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, who was taught the ancient ways by his grandfather and other medicine men of his tribe. In a time before ours, humans could talk with animals, hear whisperings from plant life, and understand the origin stories written in the stars. Survival depended on active kinship with family and tribe, with four-leggeds and plant people, with sun and moon and fire. The Cherokee, known widely as the Principal People or the First People, hold a deeply tapestried collection of stories about human interrelatedness with nature. Those stories, passed down through countless generations of Cherokee, are especially significant at this time in human history, when Mother Earth suffers under the weight of unchecked "progress." As a boy, J. T. Garrett sat beside his grandfather and the other medicine men of his tribe as they chanted and drummed the stories of his ancestry. From those stories of Nu-Dah (the Sun), Grandmother Moon, Spring Rain, and Little Eagle comes this collection of active meditations for reconnecting with the natural intelligence that is our birthright. Recognizing that we are all kin in the Universal Circle of life opens us to communication with all beings, bringing us back to our natural spirit selves. If we listen carefully to the Cherokee stories of the Old Ways we can gain understanding of lost social and spiritual traditions that can help ensure a thriving future.
Meditations with the Hopi
by Robert BoissiereThis is a story of creation and change, of prophecy and fulfillment in the world we all journey through--a world the Hopi call koyaanisqatsi, or "world out of balance." A heartfelt and reverential view of the Hopi Way as seen by one of the few white men to have lived within this ancient culture, Meditations with the Hopi imparts to us the essence of the Hopi experience--from child's first cry to soul's departure, each transition celebrated in song and ritual.
Meditations with the Lakota: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony
by Paul Steinmetz• Native American meditations that help the reader find spirit in everyday life. • Intimate meditations offer insight into the symbology of the Lakota religious experience. • Lakota elders present the ancient prayers that weave together psyche and spirit. • New Edition of Meditations with Native Americans. The Lakota, people of the sacred buttes of the Black Hills, hold a rich tradition that connects the world of visible creation to the world of spirit. A century after the battle at Wounded Knee, Lakota elders are beginning to speak their belief that this spirituality is indigenous to every man and woman. By inviting all nations to recognize their interdependence with one another and with the earth, Native Americans can help modern man and woman find a personal relationship with nature and a willingness to view creation as sacred. Many feel that this spirituality is not a luxury but a necessity. From impressions and teachings gathered over decades of living with the Oglala Sioux and participating in their ceremonies, author Paul Steinmetz has compiled a book of provocative meditations centered on creation spirituality. Lakota elders join the author in evoking the essence of the sweat lodge ceremony, the vision quest, yuwipi meetings, and the teachings of Buffalo Calf Woman and the sacred pipe, offering the reader a focus for prayerful intention in finding spirit in everyday life. This insider's view reveals the Lakotas' profound interconnectedness with all matter, a weaving of psyche and spirit that is the call to consciousness so crucial at this time.
Meditations with the Navajo: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony
by Richard Erdoes Gerald HausmanA collection of stories, poems, and meditations that illuminate the spiritual world of the Navajo. • Explores the Navajo's fundamental belief in the importance of harmony and balance in the world. • Shares Navajo healing ways that have been handed down for generations.• Includes meditations following each story or poem.Navajo myths are among the most poetic in the world, full of dazzling word imagery. For the Navajo, who call themselves the Dine (literally, "the People"), the story of emergence--their creation myth--lies at the heart of their beliefs. In it, all the world is created together, both gods and human beings, embodying the idea that change comes from within rather than without. Poet and author Gerald Hausman collects this and other stories with meditations that together capture the essence of the Navajo people's way of life and their understanding of the world. Here are myths of the Holy People, of Changing Woman who teaches the People how to live, and of the trickster Coyote; stories of healings performed by stargazers and hand tremblers; and songs of love, marriage, homecoming, and growing old. These and the meditations that follow each story reveal a world--our world--that thrives only on harmony and balance and shares the Dine belief that the most important point on the circle that has no beginning or end is where we stand at the moment.
Meditations6
by Thanissaro BhikkhuDhamma talks on breath meditation and various aspects of the Buddhist Path given during the evening meditation sessions at Metta Forest Monastery from 2009-2011.
Meditations: A New Translation (Oxford World's Classics)
by Marcus AureliusNATIONAL BESTSELLER • &“Meditations offers a glimpse into [Marcus Aurelius&’s] mind, his habits, and his approach to life. . . . I think any reader would find something useful to take away from it.&”—James Clear, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Atomic Habits &“To me, this is the greatest book ever written. . . . It is the definitive text on self-discipline, personal ethics, humility, self-actualization, and strength. . . . If you&’re going to read it, you absolutely have to go with the Gregory Hays translation.&”—Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Obstacle Is the Way &“It is unbelievable to see how the emperor&’s words have stood the test of time. . . . Read a page or two anytime you feel like the world is too much.&”—Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Wall Street Journal Nearly two thousand years after it was written, Meditations remains profoundly relevant for anyone seeking to lead a meaningful life. Your ability to control your thoughts—treat it with respect. It&’s all that protects your mind from false perceptions—false to your nature, and that of all rational beings. A series of spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behavior, Marcus Aurelius&’s Meditations remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. With bite-size insights and advice on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others, Meditations has become required reading not only for statesmen and philosophers alike, but also for generations of readers who responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style. In Gregory Hays&’s translation—the first in nearly four decades—Marcus&’s thoughts speak with a new immediacy. In fresh and unencumbered English, Hays vividly conveys the spareness and compression of the original Greek text. Never before have Marcus&’s insights been so directly and powerfully presented.With an Introduction that outlines Marcus&’s life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work&’s ongoing influence, this edition makes it possible to fully rediscover the thoughts of one of the most enlightened and intelligent leaders of any era.
Meditazione Buddista per Principianti
by A. J. ParrFacili Lezioni ed Esercizi per Sviluppare la Presenza e la Pace Interiore! LE LEZIONI E GLI ESERCIZI contenuti in questo libro introduttivo vi aiuteranno a capire gli insegnamenti essenziali del Budda (il Dharma, Via o Sentiero), comprese le basi della pratica della meditazione buddista. Oltre a citare le antiche scritture buddiste, queste pagine contengono consigli di enorme valore del Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Krishnamurti e Alan Watts, insieme a quelli di altri famosi maestri spirituali. Benché lo scopo ultimo della pratica della meditazione buddista sia il raggiungimento di uno stato di Risveglio o Illuminazione spirituale, bisogna dire che pochissimi arrivano a tanto, a parte forse alcuni monaci assai zelanti e alcuni praticanti molto avanzati. Ciò nonostante, la maggior parte delle persone ottiene un beneficio reale dalla pratica regolare della meditazione, come risulta da un recente studio della Clinica Mayo: “La meditazione può spazzare via lo stress di una giornata e portare con sé la pace interiore... Se lo stress vi rende ansiosi, tesi e preoccupati, prendete in considerazione l'idea di provare con la meditazione. Pochi minuti passati a meditare possono ristabilire la vostra calma e la vostra pace interiore... La meditazione può darvi un senso di calma, di pace e di equilibrio che gioverà sia al vostro benessere emotivo che alla vostra salute generale. E questo giovamento non finisce quando finisce la sessione di meditazione. La meditazione può aiutare a far sì che trascorriate le vostre giornate in modo più calmo e può migliorare alcune patologie…” Questo è un libro davvero raccomandabile per chiunque sia interessato a trovare la Verità, sfuggendo all'Illusione e provando la pace interiore nell'Adesso!
Meditazione cristiana in facili passi: Il Cristianesimo e gli insegnamenti di Meister Eckhart, Eckhart Tolle, Alan Watts, Krishnamurti e altri!
by A. J. Parr7 LEZIONI E 7 ESERCIZI PER PRINCIPIANTI! QUESTO LIBRO contiene i passi fondamentali della meditazione cristiana, conosciuta anche come l'antica pratica del “silenzio interiore” impartita originariamente da Gesù ai suoi discepoli più stretti. Frutto di quattro decenni di pratica della meditazione e di studio comparato delle religioni, queste pagine sono basate fondamentalmente sui quattro Vangeli canonici come anche sul Vecchio Testamento. Si basano sull'assunto che per praticare la meditazione cristiana non c'è bisogno di cambiare le vostre credenze attuali o la vostra religione specifica. Gli insegnamenti impartiti in questo libro sono aperti, infatti, a cattolici, evangelici, ortodossi, anglicani, presbiteriani, unitariani, metodisti e virtualmente a tutti i cristiani interessati a imparare una via veloce per provare l'esperienza della pace interiore e della scoperta della gioia di vivere e del Paradiso dentro. Per comprendere meglio questa antica pratica, ho incluso anche una serie di scritti selezionati dei più rilevanti cristiani di tutti i tempi: da Sant'Agostino a Meister Eckhart a Santa Teresa d'Avila, a San Giovanni della Croce a San Tommaso Moro a Martin Lutero a Madre Teresa fino a Papa Francesco e a maestri spirituali più “olistici” come Eckhart Tolle, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Allan Watts per citarne solo alcuni. In poche parole, la pratica impartita in queste pagine si basa sull'ottenere uno stato di “silenzio interiore” o “immobilità interiore”, come affermato dal mistico tedesco e monaco domenicano Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) che ha detto che “c'è un enorme silenzio dentro ognuno di noi che chiama a sé, e il recupero del nostro stesso silenzio può cominciare a insegnarci il linguaggio del Paradiso.”
Meditação Budista para iniciantes
by KATIA ALVES LIMA BUFFOLO A. J. ParrMeditação Budista para iniciantes orienta e traz exercícios práticos que auxiliam aos leitores interessados em conhecer e praticar a meditação. MILHARES DE ANOS, as pessoas buscam o sentido da vida, uma “explicação lógica” sobre o que há por trás de tudo. Mas isto é impossível, diz Buda, porque todas as explicações são meras palavras, ou seja, apenas símbolos e, por isso, incapazes de retratar a vida como ela realmente é. O problema, ressalta, consiste em tentar expressar tudo com palavras. Quem pode realmente definir em palavras o que é a Vida, o Amor ou a Justiça, por exemplo? E o sabor do chocolate, a visão do arco-íris, um beijo da pessoa amada, o perfume de uma flor, a sensação de respirar, a felicidade provocada pela risada ou o sentimento de beber água, tomar banho ou lavar as mãos? Nenhuma palavra é suficiente. O mesmo acontece quando você fala sobre os ensinamentos de Buda, pois sua verdadeira essência esconde-se por trás das palavras. Isso explica porque o Despertado, Buda Gautama disse apropriadamente há 2.500 anos que a essência de seu ensinamento ou “Dharma” não pode ser entendido pelo intelecto, imaginado ou descrito: “Meu ensinamento é como o dedo indicador apontando para a lua. Não confunda o dedo com a lua.” Buda falou de uma “realidade primordial situada além do pensamento humano” composta por tudo o que é real e que não pode ser pensado ou descrito. Reconhecer esta “realidade primordial”, assim como diferenciá-la da “ilusão” ou “Maya” constitui, como veremos, a essência daquilo que é denominado o Caminho do Despertar ou Iluminação. As lições e exercícios inseridos nestas páginas formam um conjunto budista de parábolas e atividades selecionadas que irão ajudar-lhe a entender os ensinamentos fundamentais de Buda (o Dharma, o Caminho ou Trajetória). Inclui também citações de Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Krishnamu
Meditação Cristã em Passos Simples
by A. J. Parr Marlon Nascimento7 LIÇÕES E 7 EXERCÍCIOS PARA INICIANTES! ESTE LIVRO DE EXERCÍCIOS contém os passos básicos da meditação cristã, também conhecida como a antiga prática do “silêncio interior”, ensinada originalmente por Jesus aos seus discípulos mais próximos. Fruto de quatro décadas de prática de meditação e pesquisa em religião comparada, estas páginas estão baseadas nos quatro Evangelhos canônicos assim como no Antigo Testamento, e fundamentam-se no pressuposto de que, para aprender a meditação cristã, você não precisa modificar suas crenças ou a sua denominação religiosa específica. Portanto, é um livro aberto a católicos, evangélicos, ortodoxos, anglicanos, presbiterianos, unitários, metodistas e a todos os cristãos interessados em aprender uma forma rápida de experienciar a paz interior, o Céu interior, e descobrir a alegria de viver. Para melhor compreensão dessa antiga prática, estão inclusos também uma série de escritos selecionados de cristãos notáveis de todas as épocas: desde Santo Agostinho, Mestre Eckhart, Santa Teresa d’Ávila, São João da Cruz, São Tomás Moro, Martin Luther, Madre Teresa e o Papa Francisco, até mestres espirituais mais “holísticos” como Eckhart Tolle, Jiddu Krishnamurti e Allan Watts, entre outros. De modo resumido, a prática apresentada nessas páginas está fundamentada na obtenção de um estado de “silêncio interior” ou “quietude interior”. Nas palavras do místico alemão e monge dominicano Mestre Eckhart (1260-1327): “Há um enorme silêncio dentro de cada um de nós, que nos chama em sua direção, e a retomada desse silêncio pode começar a nos ensinar a linguagem do Céu”.
Meditieren lernen: Ein 8-Wochen-Plan
by Aimar RollánMit diesem kurzen Buch lernst du zu meditieren, Schritt für Schritt, bei dir zu Hause, auf die westliche Art, also auf einem Stuhl sitzend. Wir werden die grundlegende Theorie beleuchten und einige einfache, jedoch tiefgehende Meditationstechniken kennenlernen, die auf Mindfulness, Yoga und Zen basieren. Wir festigen unsere Meditationsroutine mit einem 8-wöchigen Programm, das speziell dafür konzipiert wurde, die Gewohnheit des täglichen Meditierens bei sich zu Hause zu etablieren. Es sind keine Vorkenntnisse nötig. Man muss weder im Lotussitz sitzen können noch religiös sein oder eine besondere Liebe zu fernöstlichen Traditionen hegen. Meditation ist eine universelle Technik, die uns dabei hilft, unseren Geist zu kontrollieren, Stress zu reduzieren und uns selbst besser kennenzulernen. Zu Beginn meditieren wir eine Minute am Tag, und nach 8 Wochen werden wir in der Lage sein, 20 Minuten lang zu meditieren. Es geht darum, Meditation in den Alltag zu integrieren, damit sie uns dabei hilft, ein erfüllteres und glücklicheres Leben zu führen. Was lernst du mit diesem Buch? Was ist Meditieren? Geschichte der Meditation Unterschiede zwischen Meditation und Mindfulness Die Bedeutung von Gewohnheit und Routine Wie der Verstand funktioniert Meditieren auf einem Stuhl: die richtige Haltung Die Technik der Bauchatmung Grundlegende Meditationstechniken Welche Gefühle während der Meditation auftreten können Wie du dich weiterentwickeln kannst Dieser Kurs schließt an den Meditationskurs für Anfänger an, den der Autor über seinen YouTube-Kanal anbietet. „Das ganze Unglück der Menschen rührt allein daher, dass sie nicht ruhig in einem Zimmer zu bleiben vermögen.“ Blaise Pascal
Medium Mentor: 10 Powerful Techniques to Awaken Divine Guidance for Yourself and Others
by MaryAnn DiMarcoTechniques to Awaken Divine Guidance and Transform Your Life Written by an experienced psychic medium and teacher, Medium Mentor will guide you to connect more deeply to your soul’s innate abilities and employ them to enhance your everyday life and serve others. Through true stories and expert tips, MaryAnn DiMarco reveals the magic, joy, and responsibility of developing psychic gifts and working with souls on the Other Side, as well as how to interpret the powerful energy you experience and establish boundaries. MaryAnn’s deep wisdom comes through as she teaches you to create your own unique approach to intuition and understand and implement universal guidance.
Medium: A Step-by-Step Guide to Communicating with the Spirit World
by Konstanza Morning StarLearn and Perfect Your Spirit Communication Using a Straightforward, Step-By-Step ProcessWith precise detail, a wide variety of exercises, and a wealth of expertise, Konstanza Morning Star shows how to develop your innate gift of spirit communication. Discover how mediumship works, how anyone can use it, and how to build a strong spiritual foundation so that your abilities will flourish.Medium is a beginner-friendly book designed to help you gain strong and clear spiritual perception through a nine-step process. It takes you inside the medium’s mind and body, demonstrating how to actually experience contact with a spirit person through clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, and other spiritual senses. Featuring instructions for creating and conducting a home practice circle, assisting a "stuck" spirit to move on to the light, and much more, this is a book no aspiring medium should be without.
Mediums and Magical Things: Statues, Paintings, and Masks in Asian Places
by Laurel KendallStatues, paintings, and masks—like the bodies of shamans and spirit mediums—give material form and presence to otherwise invisible entities, and sometimes these objects are understood to be enlivened, agentive on their own terms. This book explores how magical images are expected to work with the shamans and spirit mediums who tend and use them in contemporary South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bali, and elsewhere in Asia. It considers how such things are fabricated, marketed, cared for, disposed of, and sometimes transformed into art-market commodities and museum artifacts.
Mediumship Scrying & Transfiguration for Beginners: A Guide to Spirit Communication
by Diana PalmUnlock Your Spiritual Sight and Experience the Spirit World Everyone can gain the ability to see spirits and communicate with loved ones in the spirit world, whether you're a medium or not. Mediumship Scrying & Transfiguration for Beginners shows how to develop skills for mediumship, scrying, séances, transfiguration, clearing your space, and protecting yourself from harm. Designed for everyone from psychics to everyday people who are curious about spirituality and the afterlife, this book will help you see past life images, ghosts, and loved ones in spirit.There's a great deal of comfort in knowing that life continues after death. This book will show you how to gain first-hand experiences of the other side, whether its seeing spirits manifest in a crystal ball, in a transfiguration, or through any number of different physical materials. With step-by-step instructions and explanations of tools and techniques, author Diana Palm will show you that the gift of psychic sight is available to everyone.
Mediumship: An Introductory Guide To Developing Spiritual Awareness And Intuition
by Gordon SmithFor many years Gordon Smith has been delivering messages of hope and love from the spirit world. Based on his experiences of teaching and guiding complete beginners on their paths to communicating with spirit, Gordon provides simple and easy-to-follow exercises that will help you sharpen your psychic senses, open yourself to receive communication from your spirit guides and interpret the telepathic language of spirit. In this book, you will learn: The core practices of meditation and grounding. What the light body is, how it works and how to sense it. The three faculties of mediumship: clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience. How to find your ‘switch’ to give you immediate access to spirit. Exercises to connect and communicate with your spirit guide. Ways to overcome your doubts and fears to give clear messages ...and much more!
Medjugorje: The 90's
by Sister Emmanuelin the heart of Herzegovina, in the former Yugoslavia, the Croatian village of Medjugorje nestles between two hills. The people, all hard-working country folk making their living from the soil, barely managed to survive by growing tobacco and grapes. Until recently they lived in a state of political repression under the eagle eye of the omnipresent Communist militia. On June 24, 1981, the Feast of St. John the Precursor, the village was thrown into turmoil by an extraordinary happening. Six youngsters,ranging in age from ten to 17, were walking along when they saw, upon a hill before them, a shining silhouette of a lady holding a baby in her arms. The next day the children again saw the Lady who identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary. She told the children that she had come to tell the world that God exists. Every day the Gospa (the Croatian word for Our Lady) reappeared, giving the six visionaries "messages" for themselves, for the parish, and for the world: messages of peace and the need for conversion and love. From 1981 to the present, the Blessed Virgin Mary continues appearing to several of these visionaries on a daily basis. More than 20 million pilgrims have gone to Medjugorje to pray and experience conversion. Through 89 short narratives, the author, a French nun, who lives in Medjugorje, relates stories of the villagers, visionaries and pilgrims. The book contains the text of many of the messages the Blessed Virgin Mary has given to the world through the visionaries.
Medusa's Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience
by Gananath ObeyesekereThe great pilgrimage center of southeastern Sri Lanka, Kataragama, has become in recent years the spiritual home of a new class of Hindu-Buddhist religious devotees. These ecstatic priests and priestesses invariably display long locks of matted hair, and they express their devotion to the gods through fire walking, tongue-piercing, hanging on hooks, and trance-induced prophesying. The increasing popularity of these ecstatics poses a challenge not only to orthodox Sinhala Buddhism (the official religion of Sri Lanka) but also, as Gananath Obeyesekere shows, to the traditional anthropological and psychoanalytic theories of symbolism. Focusing initially on one symbol, matted hair, Obeyesekere demonstrates that the conventional distinction between personal and cultural symbols is inadequate and naive. His detailed case studies of ecstatics show that there is always a reciprocity between the personal-psychological dimension of the symbol and its public, culturally sanctioned role. Medusa's Hair thus makes an important theoretical contribution both to the anthropology of individual experience and to the psychoanalytic understanding of culture. In its analyses of the symbolism of guilt, the adaptational and integrative significance of belief in spirits, and a host of related issues concerning possession states and religiosity, this book marks a provocative advance in psychological anthropology.
Meet Al Sharpton
by Al SharptonLord knows, Rev Al has had his personal and very public ups and downs - but he's come out bigger and better than ever. Though the host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation is as fiery and outspoken as ever about the events and issues that matter most, he's learned that the only way we can get right as a nation is by getting right from within. In this, his first book in over a decade, Rev Al will take you behind the scenes of some unexpected places e" from officiating Michael Jackson and Whitney Houstone(tm)s funerals, hanging out with Jay-Z and President Barack Obama at the White House, to taking charge of the Trayvon Martin case. And he will discuss how he came to his unexpected conclusions in such areas as Immigration, Gay Rights, Religion and the Family. But the heart of the book is an intimate discussion of his own personal evolution from street activist, pulpit provocateur and civil rights leader to the man he is today - one hundred pounds slimmer, and according to the New York Observer eoethe most thoughtful voice on cable. e No, the Rev. Al you met ten years ago isne(tm)t the same man youe(tm)ll meet today. And he has a simple promise. We can transform this nation and we can all lead better lives if we're willing to transform our hearts and transform our minds.
Meet Hattie (Hattie Collection, Book #1)
by Marie Himba FrostHattie Hart is a young girl growing up on a farm in the 1920's with her Dutch immigrant parents and her brothers and sisters. Book 1 of the Hattie series; part of the Treasures of Childhood series; for ages 6 and up.