In A Beginner's Guide to The Steinsaltz Talmud, Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams selects a fascinating and provocative section from the Talmud and helps students to reap the vast rewards that can be achieved when one encounters Rabbi Steinsaltz's historic, ground-breaking work. With the publication of The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition, it is now possible for the modern reader to study Judaism's great compendium of Jewish law and legend for the first time. The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition is more than just a translation. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz becomes our personal instructor, guiding us through the intricate paths of talmudic logic and thought.

Santideva's eighth-century work, the Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryavatara), is known for its eminently practical instructions and its psychologically vivid articulations of the Mahayana path. It is a powerful, succinct poem into which are woven diverse Buddhist traditions of moral transformation, meditative cultivation, and philosophical insight. Since its composition, it has seen continuous use as a ritual, contemplative, and philosophical manual, making it one of the crucial texts of the Buddhist ethical and philosophical tradition. This book serves as a companion to this Indian Buddhist classic. The fifteen essays contained here illuminate the Guide's many philosophical, literary, ritual, and ethical dimensions. Distinguished scholars discuss the historical significance of the text as an innovative piece of Indian literature, illuminate the important roles it played in shaping Buddhism in Tibet, and bring to light its contemporary significance for philosophy and psychology. Whether experienced or first-time students of Buddhist literature, readers will find compelling new approaches to this resonant masterpiece.

The Talmud Unmasked is a book written in 1892 by I. B. Pranaitis (1861-1917). The book, generally regarded as antisemitic, is a collection of quotes from the Talmud and Zohar which purports to demonstrate that Judaism despises non-Jews and promotes the murder of non-Jews. While most of the quotes are accurate, some are fabricated, and others are taken out of context. Pranaitis could not read Aramaic or Hebrew (the languages of the Talmud), and probably used works by August Rohling and others as his sources. Various elements tend to prove that the author, whose incompetence was established unambiguously at the time of the Beilis trial, ignores the rabbinical literature which he intends to describe, unlike other Christian polemists from which he largely borrows. Pranaitis was not able to read Aramaic, the primary language of the Talmud, and so he relied primarily on the works of Jakob Ecker and August Rohling.

A profound and courageous attempt to compare and contrast Islamic ideals of prophecy, as found in Muhammad, with the prophetic traditions of the Hebrew Bible. It challenges Muslims, Jews and Christians to understand their own traditions better and to be open to learn from one another. It rests on prolonged reflection about the character of the three Abrahamic religions.

An introduction to the major themes and passages of the holy book of Islam, this book invites readers of any religion -- or none -- to meditate on verses of the Quran as support for spiritual practices and growth. It guides the reader through the rich tapestry of the Quran, weaving through a number of themes, including the mystery of God, surrender to the divine will, and provisions for the spiritual journey. Quranic verses are supplemented by sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, the words of Rumi and other Sufi poets, and relevant quotations and insights from Jewish and Christian sources. The book also offers practical suggestions for expanding and strengthening one's spiritual sinews.

The general theme of Rumi's thought, like that of other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, is essentially that of the concept of tawhid - union with his beloved (the primal root) from which whom he has been cut off and become aloof - and his longing and desire to restore it The Masnavi weaves fables, scenes from everyday life, Quranic revelations and exegesis, and metaphysics into a vast and intricate tapestry. In the East, it is said of him that he was "not a prophet - but surely, he has brought a scripture." Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry, and dance as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine, and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the practice of "whirling" dervishes developed into a ritual form. His teachings became the base for the order of the Mawlawi which his son Sultan Walad organized. Rumi encouraged sama listening to music and turning or doing the sacred dance. In the Mevlevi tradition, sama represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes, and nations. In other verses in the Masnavi, Rumi describes in detail the universal message of love: The lover's cause is separate from all other causes Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries. Rumi was an evolutionary thinker in the sense that he believed that the spirit after devolution from the divine Ego undergoes an evolutionary process by which it comes nearer and nearer to the same divine Ego. All matter in the universe obeys this law and this movement is due to an inbuilt urge (which Rumi calls "love") to evolve and seek enjoinment with the divinity from which it has emerged. Evolution into a human being from an animal is only one stage in this process. The doctrine of the Fall of Adam is reinterpreted as the devolution of the Ego from the universal ground of divinity and is a universal, cosmic phenomenon. The French philosopher Henri Bergson's idea of life being creative and evolutionary is similar, though unlike Bergson, Rumi believes that there is a specific goal to the process: the attainment of God. For Rumi, God is the ground as well as the goal of all existence. However Rumi need not be considered a biological evolutionary creationist. In view of the fact that Rumi lived hundreds of years before Darwin, and was least interested in scientific theories, it is probable to conclude that he does not deal with biological evolution at all. Rather he is concerned with the spiritual evolution of a human being: Man not conscious of God is akin to an animal and true consciousness makes him divine. Nicholson has seen this as a Neo-Platonic doctrine: the universal soul working through the various spheres of being, a doctrine introduced into Islam by Muslim philosophers like Al Farabi and being related at the same time to Ibn Sina's idea of love as the magnetically working power by which life is driven into an upward trend.

Intended to be a treatise on life itself, this epic poem embraces religion and ethics, polity and government, philosophy and the pursuit of salvation. This collection of more than 4,000 verses is supplemented by a glossary, genealogical tables, and an index correlating the verses with the original Sanskrit text.

The Qur'an's biblical foregrounds have long formed a controversial concern within Qur'anic Studies, with field-leading scholars debating the Muslim scripture's complex relationship and response to the Judeo-Christian canon. This contentious subject has largely overshadowed, however, a reciprocal, yet no less rich, question which motivates the present study. Rather than read the Muslim scripture in light of its biblical antecedents, The Qur'an & Kerygma adopts the inverse approach, situating the Qur'an as itself the formative foreground to Western literary innovation and biblical exegesis, stretching from late antiquity in the 9th century to postmodernity in the 20th. The book argues, in particular, that Qur'anic readings and renditions have provoked and paralleled key developments in the Christian canon and its critique, catalyzing pivotal acts of authorship and interpretation which have creatively contoured the language and legacy of biblical kerygma. Structured chronologically, the study's span of more than a millennium is sustained by its specific concentration on four case studies selected from representative areas and eras, exploring innovative translations and interpretations of the Qur'an authored by Christian literati from 9th-century Andalucia to 20th-century North America. Mirroring its subject matter, the book engages a literary critical approach, offering close-readings of targeted texts frequently neglected and never before synthesized in a single study, highlighting the stylistic, as well as spiritual, influence on Western authors exercised by Islamic writ.

In 1993, an astonishing discovery was made at a tomb in Guodian in Hubei province (east central China). Written on strips of bamboo that have miraculously survived intact since 300 B.C., the "Guodian Laozi," is by far the earliest version of the "Tao Te Ching" ever unearthed. Students of ancient Chinese civilization proclaimed the text a decisive breakthrough in the understanding of this famous text: it provides the most conclusive evidence to date that the text was the work of multiple authors and editors over hundreds of years, rather than the achievement of a single individual writing during the time of Confucius.

Robert Henricks now presents the first English translation of the "bamboo slip Laozi." Differing substantially from other versions we have of the text, the Guodian Laozi provides us with clues on how and when the text came into being. As Henricks's translation shows, many chapters are missing in this form of the text, and some chapters remain incomplete. All of this seems to suggest that the "Tao Te Ching" was not yet "complete" when these slips were copied.

In his translation, Henricks focuses attention on lines in each of the chapters that vary from readings in other editions. In addition, he shows how the sequence of chapters in this form of the text is totally unrelated to the sequence readers commonly see in the "standard" form of the text, i.e., in other translations.

Here are just a few of the noteworthy features of this new "Tao Te Ching: "

- A lucid introduction to the Guodian Laozi, offering background on the archaeological interpretation of the discovery

- Line-by-line comparisons of the Guodian Laozi against the Mawangdui and Wang Bi editions

- Extensive notes on each chapter describing the unique elements of the Guodian Laozi in comparison with other versions

- Transcriptions for each chapter, noting both the ancient and modern form of the characters in the chapter

- An appendix featuring the official biography of Laozi written by Sima Qian, the Grand Historian of China, as well as Henricks's commentary and notes on this biography

This groundbreaking work will lead to a reassessment of the history and significance of this well-known and critical work as well as a reevaluation of the role it played in the development of Taoism in early China.

This unique edition of the "Tao Te Ching features: - the first comprehensive verbatim translation of the entire text of the "Tao Te Ching; - literal character definitions that allow the reader to create his or her own interpretation; - a concordance section that enables the reader to track the different ways a single character is used throughout the work; - grammatical and interpretive notes on individual terms and verses, - a unique commentary on the first verse, which represents a complete spiritual teaching in itself; and- a literary translation of the "Tao Te Ching that can be read on its own or compared with the verbatim translation.

One of the most popular Asian classics for roughly two thousand years, the Vimalakirti Sutra stands out among the sacred texts of Mahayana Buddhism for its conciseness, its vivid and humorous episodes, its dramatic narratives, and its eloquent exposition of the key doctrine of emptiness or nondualism. Unlike most sutras, its central figure is not a Buddha but a wealthy townsman, who, in his mastery of doctrine and religious practice, epitomizes the ideal lay believer. For this reason, the sutra has held particular significance for men and women of the laity in Buddhist countries of Asia, assuring them that they can reach levels of spiritual attainment fully comparable to those accessible to monks and nuns of the monastic order.

Esteemed translator Burton Watson has rendered a beautiful English translation from the popular Chinese version produced in 406 C.E. by the Central Asian scholar-monk Kumarajiva, which is widely acknowledged to be the most felicitous of the various Chinese translations of the sutra (the Sanskrit original of which was lost long ago) and is the form in which it has had the greatest influence in China, Japan, and other countries of East Asia. Watson's illuminating introduction discusses the background of the sutra, its place in the development of Buddhist thought, and the profundities of its principal doctrine: emptiness.

2010 reprint of 1939 edition. The Reverend Justinas Pranaitis (1861-1917) was a Lithuanian Catholic priest, Russian Master of Theology and Professor of the Hebrew Language at the Imperial Ecclesiastical Academy of the Roman Catholic Church in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He published The Talmud Unmasked as an anti-Semitic tract called Christianus in Talmude Iudaeorum in Latin in 1892 under the imprimatur of the Archbishop Metropolitan of Mogilev. This tract was subsequently translated into Polish (1892), French (1892), German (1894), Russian (1911), Lithuanian (1912), Italian (1939), English (1939) and Spanish. In 1912, Pranaitis was called to testify as an expert witness in Jewish hatred of Christians in the famous case of Menahem Mendel Beilis. During the course of that trial his credibility rapidly evaporated, however, when the defense demonstrated his ignorance of some simple Talmudic concepts and definitions, such as hullin, to the point where many in the audience occasionally laughed out loud when he clearly became confused and couldn't even intelligibly answer some of the questions asked by my lawyer. According to accounts of the trial, "cross-examination of Pranaitis has weakened evidentiary value of his expert opinion, exposing lack of knowledge of texts, insufficient knowledge of Jewish literature. Because of amateurish knowledge and lack of resourcefulness, Pranaitis' expert opinion is of very low value." The significance of The Talmud Unmasked is as an influential anti-Semitic tract written from a Catholic perspective.

In Understanding the Talmud: A Modern Reader's Guide for Study, Rabbi Edward S. Boraz presents a thoughtful introduction to the Talmud designed for study by the untrained reader. Using a unique approach, Rabbi Boraz focuses on a specific selection from one tractate of the Talmud, allowing readers to uncover the moral and theological concerns of the text. The portion he has selected comes from the tractate Bava Metziah and deals with the conditions under which an oath may be administered in a civil lawsuit. On the surface this issue appears mundane and far removed from the domain of holiness. However, when the discourse is studied in relation to passages from Scripture, Midrash, and Mishnah that are also presented, it becomes a spiritual and ethical adventure. Before embarking on this journey of discovery, the reader is given a concise explanation of the rules of logic and the argumentative style utilized in the Talmud. It becomes evident that the Talmud's style is essential to its mission to understand the timeless messages of Torah in the context of the ever-changing world in which we live. Equipped with the necessary background, the reader is prepared to delve into the texts.

Yogi Amrit Desai, one of the earliest pioneers of yoga in this country, began teaching in 1960. Out of the Kundalini awakening he experienced in 1970, Yogi Desai developed a spiritual dimension to the practice of Hatha Yoga and named it Kripalu Yoga in honor of his guru, Swami Sri Kripalvanandji. Today, more than 5,000 yoga teachers are certified in the methodology he developed. A prolific author, his books include Kripalu Yoga: Meditation in Motion, Book I and II and Amrit Yoga, and the upcoming Love & Bliss, a book of inspirational poetry for daily living, also available on CD, read by Yogi Desai.

2009 reprint of 1939 edition. The Reverend Justinas Pranaitis (1861-1917) was a Lithuanian Catholic priest, Russian Master of Theology and Professor of the Hebrew Language at the Imperial Ecclesiastical Academy of the Roman Catholic Church in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He published The Talmud Unmasked as an anti-Semitic tract called Christianus in Talmude Iudaeorum in Latin in 1892 under the imprimatur of the Archbishop Metropolitan of Mogilev. This tract was subsequently translated into Polish (1892), French (1892), German (1894), Russian (1911), Lithuanian (1912), Italian (1939), English (1939) and Spanish. In 1912, Pranaitis was called to testify as an expert witness in Jewish hatred of Christians in the famous case of Menahem Mendel Beilis. During the course of that trial his credibility rapidly evaporated, however, when the defense demonstrated his ignorance of some simple Talmudic concepts and definitions, such as hullin, to the point where many in the audience occasionally laughed out loud when he clearly became confused and couldn't even intelligibly answer some of the questions asked by my lawyer. According to accounts of the trial, "cross-examination of Pranaitis has weakened evidentiary value of his expert opinion, exposing lack of knowledge of texts, insufficient knowledge of Jewish literature. Because of amateurish knowledge and lack of resourcefulness, Pranaitis' expert opinion is of very low value." The significance of The Talmud Unmasked is as an influential anti-Semitic tract written from a Catholic perspective.

Steiner sees Krishna as a great spiritual teacher and the Bhagavad Gita as a preparation, though still abstract, for the coming of Christ and the Christ impulse as the living embodiment of the world, law, and devotion, represented by the three Hindu streams of Veda, Sankhya, and Yoga. For him, the epic poem of the Bhagavad Gita represents the fully ripened fruit of Hinduism, whereas Paul is related but represents the seed of something entirely new. In the last lecture, Steiner reveals Krishna as the sister soul of Adam, incarnated as Jesus, and claims Krishas Yoga teachings streamed from Christ into Paul.