Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious experience > General
The long-awaited continuation of the bestselling classic The Spiral Dance
How awake are we to our inner being, our true nature? How much self-knowledge do we really have? In relation to our intrinsic self, we can easily feel like a novice. In truth, we face a long journey before we can fully understand ourselves - and we are equally unpractised in relating to our 'shadow' and inner wounds. The path described in this book is an inward one, concerned with strengthening our individuality. Based on life-long research, Karsten Massei has created a valuable workbook for knowing and healing ourselves. In a series of short chapters, he explains the interplay and tensions between the human individual and the nature of our 'inner and cosmic child'. Both are complex entities but are directly related; both are deeply connected with our destiny. Our experiences with our inner child are often still in the earliest stages - but cultivating a relationship with her, noticing her, holding conversations with her, is vital, and offers us ever deepening experiences. As our insights expand, our frailties, deficiencies and inner wounds become apparent. The being of the inner child wants to educate us to become inwardly truthful and authentic. Only honest engagement with the traumas and vulnerabilities of our soul will enable a true picture of ourselves to arise. Child of the Cosmos contains surprising perspectives arising from the author's personal experiences, opening up a clear path of personal development. The text is complemented with seven special meditations to assist us in engaging with the challenges ahead.
The first book-length introduction to an exciting new interdisciplinary field written by an internationally recognized leader of the Contemplative Studies movement This is the first book-length introduction to a growing and influential interdisciplinary field focused on contemplative practice, contemplative experience, and contemplative pedagogy. Written by an internationally recognized leader in the area, Introducing Contemplative Studies seeks to provide readers with a deep and practical understanding of the nature and purpose of the field while encouraging them to find a place of their own in an increasingly widespread movement. At once comprehensive overview, critical reflection, and visionary proposal, the book explores the central approaches and issues in Contemplative Studies, tackles questions and problems that sometimes go unaddressed, and identifies promising new developments. The author also discusses contemplative pedagogy, an experiential approach to teaching and learning informed by and expressed as contemplative practice. This is a major introduction to a fast emerging interdisciplinary field that will be invaluable to those interested in the area. * The only comprehensive introduction to the emerging, interdisciplinary field of Contemplative Studies * Written by a distinguished leader in the Contemplative Studies movement who is founding Co-Chair of the Contemplative Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion * Informed by ten years of research and practice, the book explores the field s varied approaches and expressions * Offers critical reviews of trends which will create discussions both within and outside the Contemplative Studies * Liberally illustrated with both images and charts Introducing Contemplative Studies is a must-read for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, teachers and scholars in Contemplative Studies, as well as anyone who is curious about contemplative practice, meditation, contemplative experience, contemplative pedagogy, contemplative science, and, of course, the exciting field of Contemplative Studies generally.
A practical guide to simple daily techniques for rapid spiritual progress Enlightenment means becoming a light unto yourself. But how does one get on the path to enlightenment? In this practical spiritual guide, Simon Chokoisky shares 11 time-tested yet simple daily techniques to help you find your spiritual path, or "dharma," no matter what your spiritual background--be it Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or Agnostic. He explains how everyone has a unique learning style as well as a spiritual style--your "Dharma type"--and how the Dharma method allows you to pick any seven of the 11 methods described in the book to practice. You can even change them daily, all based on your unique needs. And by holding to the 7/11 "rule" daily, you'll soon find yourself on the road to rapid spiritual progress and personal enlightenment. In this book, the author explains how he distilled these 11 spiritual techniques from centuries of methods used by spiritual masters from around the world. He details the 5 different Dharma types and provides personality tests to determine your type. He provides routines, tips, and tricks to keep you on track as well as thoughtful exercises to help you apply spiritual principles in your everyday life. Showing how spirituality is inherent in each of us and is abundant, free, and easy to cultivate, the author reveals how you can best cultivate your spiritual light and share it with the world.
Natural Materials of the Holy Land and the Visual Translation of Place, 500-1500, focuses on the unique ways that natural materials carry the spirit of place. Since early Christianity, wood, earth, water and stone were taken from loca sancta to signify them elsewhere. Academic discourse has indiscriminately grouped material tokens from holy places and their containers with architectural and topographical emulations, two-dimensional images and bodily relics. However, unlike textual or visual representations, natural materials do not describe or interpret the Holy Land; they are part of it. Tangible and timeless, they realize the meaning of their place of origin in new locations. What makes earth, stones or bottled water transported from holy sites sacred? How do they become pars pro toto, signifying the whole from which they were taken? This book will examine natural media used for translating loca sancta, the processes of their sanctification and how, although inherently abstract, they become charged with meaning. It will address their metamorphosis, natural or induced; how they change the environment to which they are transported; their capacity to translate a static and distant site elsewhere; the effect of their relocation on users/viewers; and how their containers and staging are used to communicate their substance.
The first collection of Thomas Merton's nature writings serves as a primer on eco-spirituality. Thomas Merton: millions know him as the author of The Seven Storey Mountain, the international bestseller and a modern spiritual classic. Now, in the first collection of his writings on nature, Merton is revealed as a man whose spirituality is rooted in nature, an environmentalist ahead of his time. These writings reveal Merton's approach to ecology as a spiritual issue that exposes the degree of human alienation from the sacredness of the planet. Kathleen Deignan, has skillfully grouped over 300 of Merton's nature writings into thematic sections on the seasons, elements, creatures and other topics and has added an informative introduction. A foreword by renowned environmental and spiritual mentor Thomas Berry and art by John Giuliani complete this important compilation.
How do different religions explain illness and suffering? These essays, by religious practitioners, physicians, and historians of medicine, medical history, medical anthropology, and religion, survey different religions, citing common practice and official doctrine, and discuss traditional as well as alternative medicines in multi-religious societies. Addressing such issues as general practice, psychiatric illness, and attitudes toward pain, this book will be of interest in such fields as history, religious studies, and practical care.
Much has been written of about the issue religious freedom and church-state relations. This book, however, takes up another side of the question: what has been the impact of religion on human rights, and in particular on women's human rights and development? Representatives from various religious traditions address questions such as: the theological venus the secular validation of human rights; reconciling Islamic feminism with the religion of Islam; harmonizing confessional with liberationist directions within the Catholic Church; establishing inter-religious dialogue amidst the clamor of politicized Hindu-Moslem communal hostility; a human-centered vs a nature-centered environmentalism. Contributors explore different of these questions in a provocative and compelling debate.
Much has been written about the issue of religious freedom and church-state relations. The contributors to this book, however, take up another side of the question: what has been the impact of religion on human rights. Representatives from various religious traditions address a broad range of topics, from environmental rights to the basic validation of human rights, to the rights of women in India and Iran and within Orthodox Judaism, to the global imposition of criminal justice, to pressures for democratization within the Catholic Church in Latin America. The six major essays, along with their accompanying "replies" answer questions and raise issues in a provocative and compelling debate.
In the face of the increasingly variegated ideological landscape of contemporary America, cults have become the focus of public controversy. The growth of new religions has been matched by the development of an organized and vocal opposition, the anti-cult movement. This in turn has prompted an extensive investigation of new religious movements (NRMs) by sociologists and psychologists of religion, as well as historians and religious studies scholars. The readings collected here contribute to the debate about cults by sampling some of the best and most accessible publications from the academic study of NRMs. The contributors address the questions most commonly asked about cults, such as: What brought about the emergence of new religious movements? What is a cult or new religious movement? Who joins new religious movements and why? Are converts to new religious movements brainwashed? Why did the Jonestown and Waco tragedies happen? Are cults inclined to be violent? What does the emergence of so many new religious movements say about our society? What does it say about the future of religion? "Cults in Context" surveys the descriptive typologies, theories, and data accumulated by sociologists and psychologists studying new religious movements over the last twenty years. It serves to defuse many popular fears and misconceptions about cults, allowing the reader to develop a more reasonable and tolerant understanding of the people who join new religious movements and the functions of these movements in contemporary society.
In Myriad Intimacies postcolonial theorist, spiritual practitioner, and filmmaker Lata Mani oscillates between text and video, poetry and prose, genre and form, register and voice, and secular and sacred to offer a transmedia exploration of the interrelatedness of lives, concepts, frameworks, and aspects of self. She draws on concepts from tantra-a philosophy that celebrates matter as alive, embodiment as sacred, and the senses as a form of intelligence-alongside feminist, critical race, and cultural theory to meditate on the ways in which everyone and everything exists in mutually constitutive interrelations. Addressing issues ranging from desire, the body, nature, and love, to otherness, identity politics, social justice, #MeToo, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Mani foregrounds the power and necessity of recognizing relationality as foundational. Throughout, she offers a way of reframing what we think we know and how we come to know it, demonstrating that it is only by acknowledging and embracing the indivisible and interdependent nature of existence that we restore our true intimacy with each other and the world.
The NIV Lucado Encouraging Word Bible is designed to encourage
believers along their journey with the Lord. Max Lucado’s warm,
conversational style ensures that the marginal notes, short articles,
and various study tools meet you where you are, providing encouragement
and insight. This Bible will strengthen you as you follow the included
reading plan and incorporate this Bible into your daily devotional
life. The 30-day study guide will help you jumpstart this practice.
This Bible will help you as a believer, and with Pastor Lucado’s gentle
yet powerful notes, it’s a beautiful gift for your non-believing
friends and family who could use some encouragement with Scripture.
This work analyses how laughter has been used as a symbol in myths, rituals and festivals of Western religions, and has thus been inscribed in religious discourse. The author argues that laughter is a central human phenomenon. Humans use laughter as a means to experience the world, categorize its forms and judge its values. But, laughter also transcends language, and is frequently used as a characteristic of the divine. The Mesopotamian Anu, the Israelite Jahweh, the Greek Dionysos, the Gnostic Christ and the late modern Jesus were all laughing gods. Through their laughter, gods prove both their superiority and their proximity to humans. In this study, Professor Gilhus examines the relationship between corporeal human laughter and spiritual divine laughter from Classical antiquity, to the Christian West and the modern era. The book combines the study of the history of religion with social-scientific approaches, to provide an exploration of a universal human phenomenon, and its significance for the development of religions.
The ancient heartland of shamanism is no longer forbidden territory - to travelers or to the spirits. But the spirits never left the vastnesses of Siberia and Central Asia, as these writings reveal. Russian and native experts, and an American cultural anthropologist who has done fieldwork in the region, introduce us to shamans as the poets, therapists, healers, and even leaders of their communities. Among the special features of this collection are remarkable transcriptions of shamanic exhortations and a pathbreaking study of shamanic tales and rituals. |
You may like...
|