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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious experience > General
In The Synchronicity Key, David Wilcock goes beyond this new
understanding to investigate how our universe works. Using history
and astrology, as well as new research into fractals, spiritual
geometry and quantum physics, Wilcock demonstrates that there is a
hidden architecture within time which guides individuals and
nations through a system of enlightenment (which Joseph Campbell
called the Hero's Journey). Historical events occur in shockingly
precise and repeating cycles of time and once the hidden laws
governing our fate through seemingly random 'synchronicity' are
identified we are left with a remarkable blueprint of how to lead
our lives in an uncertain world. David Wilcock's understanding of
the living fabric that binds the universe together is behind his
knowledge of synchronicity, the connections between seemingly
unrelated events, and how we are guided by it. Synchronicity is a
means to awaken us to our true identity, the thoughts we think and
the actions we take are being guided by hidden cycles that repeat
throughout the universe and time. David Wilcock is our guide to
this new world.
Motherhood, Spirituality and Culture explores spiritual skills that
may assist women in changes, challenges and transformations
undergone through the transition to motherhood. This study
comprises rich, qualitative data gathered from interviews with 11
mothers. Results are analysed by constructing seven unique maternal
narratives that elucidate and give voice to the mothers in their
transition by in depth exploration of six themes emerging from the
analysis. Overall discussion ranges across such realities as: *
desires, expectations and illusions for mothering; * birth and
spiritual embodied experiences of mothering; * instinctual knowing;
identity and crisis, and connections of motherhood; * changes and
transformations undergone through motherhood. This study presents a
unique framework for qualitative studies of spirituality within
motherhood research; by weaving together transpersonal psychology,
humanistic psychology, spiritual intelligence and the spiritual
maternal literature.This book will appeal to all women who have
transitioned to motherhood. It willalso be of assistance to
professionals who wish to approach any aspect of maternity care and
support from a transpersonal perspective. It will also
provideunique insights for academics and postgraduate students in
the fields of anthropology, psychology, psychotherapy and feminism
studies.
First published in 1935, Men & Gods in Mongolia is rare and
unusual travel book that takes the reader into the virtually
unknwon world of Mongolia, a country only now opening up to the
West. Henning Haslund was a Swedish Explorer who accompanied Sven
Hedin and other explorers into Mongolia and Central Asia in the
1920s and 30s. Haslund takes the reader to the lost city of
Karakota in the Gobi desert, introduces the reader to the Bodgo
Gegen, a God-king in Mongolia, and allows the reader to meet Dambin
Jansang, the dreaded warlord of the 'Black Gobi'. Alongside the
esoteric and mystical material, there is plenty of adventure;
caravans across the Gobi desert; kidnapped and held for ransom;
initation into shamanic societies; encounters with warlords; and
the violent birth of a new nation.
Weaving together Jewish lore, the voices of Jewish foremothers, Yiddish fable, midrash and stories of her own imagining, Ellen Frankel has created in this book a breathtakingly vivid exploration into what the Torah means to women. Here are Miriam, Esther, Dinah, Lilith and many other women of the Torah in dialogue with Jewish daughters, mothers and grandmothers, past and present. Together these voices examine and debate every aspect of a Jewish woman's life -- work, sex, marriage, her connection to God and her place in the Jewish community and in the world. The Five Books of Miriam makes an invaluable contribution to Torah study and adds rich dimension to the ongoing conversation between Jewish women and Jewish tradition.
"No scientific law can ever compare with the discovery of the
Living Word of Power, which unifies man's whole being and makes him
one in nature and character with his indwelling God". This is the
theme developed by Dr Thind, in this book - an inspiring volume for
all who seek to go ever onward, forward and Godward. The chapters
include: Modus Operandi; Walking in the Inner Path to God; How Sat
Guru Helps; Nature, Nurture and Nam; and, Overcoming the World.
Disruptive practices to revolutionize your relationship with
meditation and fully engage with the full breadth of your
experience. Why do we meditate? The main reason most modern people
start meditating is because it helps us feel better--reducing
anxiety, improving sleep, decluttering the mind, and so forth. "But
where does your meditation go when things go bad?" asks Andrew
Holecek. "Where is your spirituality when 'rock meets bone, ' as
they say in Tibet--when the crap hits the fan?" Reverse Meditation
is for anyone who wants to bring the challenges of life onto the
path of awakening. When things get hard, it's time to turn your
practice on its head--and throw out any assumption that meditation
exists to insulate you from the confusion, difficulties, and
uncertainty of life. "By putting your meditation into reverse,"
Holecek teaches, "you'll actually find yourself going forward. Step
into your pain and you can step up your evolution." With his
signature blend of depth and accessibility, Holecek invites you to
explore: - Three core forms of meditation--mindfulness, open
awareness, and the boundary-smashing reverse meditations - How to
know when you're ready to engage with reverse meditation -
On-the-spot practices for snapping into a meditative mindset in
difficult situations - Contraction and expansion--how to dismantle
habits of avoidance to become more open, resilient, and fully alive
- How reverse meditation opens you to a direct experience of the
fundamental perfection of reality--just as it is "These unique
meditations are designed to reverse our relationship to unwanted
experiences, which means going directly into them instead of
avoiding them," says Andrew Holecek. "It's not an easy journey--yet
this path leads to the discovery of unconditional happiness, basic
goodness, and true freedom in the most turbulent situations."
Book in Treasure Box. "Life in Beauty" demonstrates how experiences
of beauty bring us in close proximity with spirit and so, to pure
joy. Kate presents a unique view, demonstrating a rarely recognised
pathway to spirit through beauty. This enchanting book, artfully
packaged in a beauty treasure box, is as much an experience as an
idea. It delights, captivates and opens the heart and soul to
experience life differently. In gold and jade, rich with imagery,
the box captures the imagination, calling out to be touched and
used. The initial experience of the book begins with the beautiful
Beauty Treasure Box, which contains it. The box is intended as the
reader's own repository for beauty experiences, a place where
personal treasures can be safely stowed and brought out when one
wants to reclaim an experience of beauty. Thus, Porter, not only
shows the reader a pathway to spirit, but also gives him/her a tool
to use on the journey to awe and wonder. On opening the box, one is
presented with the little pocket book, "Life in Beauty". This
little book is such a sweet read, that it is likely to be viewed as
a treasure to be visited again and again. It may sit on a bedside
table or be hidden away in a handbag to be brought out and perused
whenever the mundane of life intrudes too much.
The story of the spiritual journey of the famous Tibetan yogi
Milarepa is often told, but less well known are the stories of his
encounters with those he met and taught after his own
Enlightenment, eleven of which are the catalyst for volumes 18 and
19 of the Complete Works. The first three were originally published
in The Yogi's Joy, and to these have been added an intriguing
fourth, `The Shepherd's Search for Mind'. The other seven stories
form a sequence tracing the relationship between Milarepa and his
disciple Rechungpa, from their first meeting to their final
parting, when Rechungpa is exhorted to go and teach the Dharma
himself. As portrayed in The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa,
Rechungpa is a promising disciple, but he has a lot to learn, being
sometimes proud, distracted, anxious, desirous of comfort and
praise, over-attached to book learning, stubborn, sulky and liable
to go to extremes. In other words, he is very human, and surely
recognizable to anyone who has embarked on the spiritual path. He
all too often takes his teacher's advice the wrong way, or simply
ignores it, and it takes all of Milarepa's skill, compassion and
patience to keep their relationship intact and help his unruly
disciple to stay on the path to Enlightenment. Sangharakshita's
commentary is based on seminars he gave to young, enthusiastic but
as yet inexperienced Dharma followers, and while much can be
gleaned from it about the path of practice of the Kagyu tradition,
the main emphasis is simply on how to overcome the difficulties
that are sure to befall the would-be spiritual practitioner, how to
learn what we need to learn - in short, the art of discipleship.
Explore the many ways to uncover the wonder and release the joy of teaching and learning in all areas of life.Drawing on her own experience as well as the stories and journeys of many other teachers in conventional and unconventional settings, Jane Vennard explores the elements that make teaching a sacred art recognizing teaching as a call to service and the teaching profession as a vocation.She paints a broad picture of the teaching experience and invites readers to learn from the stories of others and to remember their own stories of both teaching and learning. Every chapter offers reflections, practices and activities designed to draw the reader inward to learn from and be reinvigorated by their own experiences.Vennard writes vividly about the teaching life the messiness, wonder, joy and frustration. She captures the real day-to-day responsibility teachers have for those in their care. Although aimed primarily at those at all levels of the teaching profession, parents, grandparents and all those who have any interest in the teaching-learning process will find inspiration in the stories, information and ideas presented in this lively book."
Find calm 365 days of the year with this little book of tips and
quotes. It'll transport you to a peaceful place, where you can
focus on being present and reap the rewards of a more relaxed life.
Staying calm is about how you deal with your emotions, and this
little book is here to help you pinpoint what makes you stressed so
you can stay in charge of your feelings. Within these pages are
simple but effective tips on how to: Use breathing techniques and
meditation to help you feel grounded Practise mindfulness to avoid
catastrophizing Improve your health and well-being for a happier
mind As well as its many practical ideas, 365 Days of Calm includes
a range of insightful quotes, from Lao Tzu to Cara Delevingne, to
help restore the peace in your day. Learning how to create calm in
your life will boost your well-being, mental health and inner
strength, helping you to become a happier and healthier person.
This book explores the entanglements of gender and power in
spiritual practices and analyzes strategies used by spiritual
practitioners to attain what to social scientists might seem an
impossible goal: creating spiritual communities without creating
gendered hierarchies. What strategies do people within these
networks use to attain gender equality and gendered empowerment?
How do they try to protect and develop individual freedom? How do
gender and power nevertheless play a role? The chapters in this
book together and separately demonstrate that, in order to
understand contemporary spirituality, the analytical lenses of
gender and power are essential. Furthermore, they show that it is
not possible to make a clear distinction between established
religions and contemporary spirituality: the two sometimes overlap,
and at other times spirituality distances itself from religion
while reproducing some of its underlying interpretative frameworks.
This book does not take the discourses of spiritual practitioners
for granted, yet recognizes the reflexivity of spiritual
practitioners and the reciprocal relationship between spirituality
and disciplines such as anthropology. The ethnographic descriptions
of lived spirituality included in this volume span a wide range of
countries, from Portugal, Italy, and the Netherlands to Mexico and
Israel.
Within the general chaos that is our daily lives, there is a
perspective where everything falls into place and finally makes
sense. H.E. Tsem Rinpoche brings this perspective through
explaining the mechanism of life based on the fundamental
principles of Buddhism. In his characteristically logical and
down-to-earth manner, Rinpoche introduces the vast topics of
reincarnation and karma in a way that anyone can understand. He
also provides easily applicable guidelines on how we can
immediately unlock the liberating powers within us to lead a happy
and harmonious life, simply by finding the living Buddha within
each and every one of us.
This is an original contemporary expression of the timeless wisdom
of Enlightenment. The fruition of Andrew Cohen's fifteen years as a
spiritual teacher, this book presents a radical psychology of
liberation. It takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery that
reveals not only the liberating fact of our true nature, but the
way to live that truth in this world.
This volume, first published in 2002, presents a sophisticated
analysis of the musical instruments, repertoires, musicians and
ensembles, and symbolism of the ritual music of Shamans of Seoul,
Korea. Placed firmly in a social and historical context, it shows
that Shamanism, considered superstition by many today, is alive and
well in Seoul in a rich tradition reaching back to the Choson
Dynasty (1392-1910), the capital of which was Hanyang (now Seoul).
The instruments, dress and other accoutrements of courtly life from
the Choson Dynasty have been taken up, although transformed, in
contemporary rituals among spirit-possessed Shamans. Through a
comparison of Hanyang kut - the rituals of the Hanyang Shamans -
and the ritual practice of Inner Asian Shamans, and through an
analysis of the relations of spirit-possession music rituals to
musok, the indigenous religion of Korea, Seo sheds light on the
role of music, spiritual practice and culture in present-day Korea.
New Age and holistic beliefs and practices - sometimes called the
"new spirituality" - are widely distributed across modern global
society. The fluid and popular nature of new age makes these
movements a very challenging field to understand using traditional
models of religious analysis. Rather than treating new age as an
exotic specimen on the margins of 'proper' religion, "New Age
Spirituality" examines these movements as a form of everyday or
lived religion. The book brings together an international range of
scholars to explore the key issues: insight, healing, divination,
meditation, gnosis, extraordinary experiences, and interactions
with gods, spirits and superhuman powers. Combining discussion of
contemporary beliefs and practices with cutting-edge theoretical
analysis, the book repositions new age spirituality at the
forefront of the contemporary study of religion.
How close is spirituality to psychosis? Covering the interrelation
of psychosis and spirituality from a number of angles, Insanity and
Divinity will generate dialogue and discussion, aid critical
reflection and stimulate creative approaches to clinical work for
those interested in the connections between religious studies,
psychoanalysis, anthropology and hagiography. Bringing together an
international range of contributors and covering many different
types of religious experience, this book presents its theme in
three parts: Psychoanalysis, belief and mysticism Anthropology,
history and hagiography Psychology, psychosis and religious
experience. Each section includes discussion of the hinterland
between madness and religious experience from the perspective of a
number of religions, autobiographical accounts of those who have
experienced a psychosis in which spirituality played a key part and
a comprehensive review of the position of psychology research into
the meaning and function of spirituality in relation to the
psychoses. Insightful, enlightening and wide-ranging, Insanity and
Divinity is ideal for clinicians, academics and chaplains working
in clinical settings.
The Open Access version of this book, available at
www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781472453983, has been made available
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivative
4.0 license. Experiences of hearing the voice of God (or angels,
demons, or other spiritual beings) have generally been understood
either as religious experiences or else as a feature of mental
illness. Some critics of traditional religious faith have dismissed
the visions and voices attributed to biblical characters and saints
as evidence of mental disorder. However, it is now known that many
ordinary people, with no other evidence of mental disorder, also
hear voices and that these voices not infrequently include
spiritual or religious content. Psychological and interdisciplinary
research has shed a revealing light on these experiences in recent
years, so that we now know much more about the phenomenon of
"hearing voices" than ever before. The present work considers
biblical, historical, and scientific accounts of spiritual and
mystical experiences of voice hearing in the Christian tradition in
order to explore how some voices may be understood theologically as
revelatory. It is proposed that in the incarnation, Christian faith
finds both an understanding of what it is to be fully human (a
theological anthropology), and God's perfect self-disclosure
(revelation). Within such an understanding, revelatory voices
represent a key point of interpersonal encounter between human
beings and God.
This accessible study of Northern European shamanistic practice, or seidr, explores the way in which the ancient Norse belief systems evoked in the Icelandic Sagas and Eddas have been rediscovered and reinvented by groups in Europe and North America. The book examines the phenomenon of altered consciousness and the interactions of seid-workers or shamanic practitioners with their spirit worlds in historical and political contexts. Written by a follower of seidr, this study not only investigates, but also addresses those new communities involved in a postmodern quest for spiritual meaning.
Glossolalia (paranormal speaking in tongues) and zenolalia
(paranormal speaking in allegedly foreign languages) are features
of many sub-cultures and religions. The most obvious example is
Pentecostalism, where every believer in many denominations is
expected to speak in tongues at least once - the gift in other
cultures being limited to individuals, shamans and mediums. This
book, first published in 1978, surveys the practice of 'speaking in
tongues' in anthropology, Christianity and spiritualism, and
provides an analysis of the psychological, theological and
linguistic considerations of the phenomenon.
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