"The contributors to this volume have found the language and concepts by which to interpret Leonard Howell and the origins of the Rastafari movement in the 1930s. This volume is richly documented from the archives, and from interviews, and is informed by multidisciplinary methods, so the reader is treated to an authoritative and comprehensive collection of essays. "Leonard Howell was persecuted over five decades by the British colonial state and by Jamaican governments since independence in 1962. It is in this context that Howell defined the main tenets of the movement, a movement that has now spread globally. All the major themes of his thinking, such as African redemption, the divinity of Haile Selassie, repatriation, and the struggle for freedom and self-reliance are discussed. Howell challenged British colonialism and Jamaican elites in a very different way from the approaches used by the middle-class intelligentsia. He focused, rather, on a new way of seeing God, King and self, thus creating an alternative way of being in the world. Developing Marcus Garvey's focus on Africa, Leonard Howell and his followers reclaimed their ancestral identity from the dehumanized condition left by British slavery and colonialism. Howell's communal settlement on `Pinnacle' was an alternative communal space for Rastafari artisans, musicians and peasant farmers."-Rupert Lewis, Professor Emeritus, Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica

The experience of the divine in India has three components, sight, performance, and sound. One in a trilogy of books that include Diana Eck's "Darsan: Seeing the Divine in India, " and Susan L. Schwartz's "Rasa: Performing the Divine in India, Mantra" presents an introduction to the use of sound -- mantra -- in the practice of Indian religion.

Mantra -- in the form of prayers, rituals, and chants -- permeate the practice of Indian religion in both temple and home settings. This book investigates the power of mantra to transform consciousness. It examines the use and theory of mantra under various religious schools, such as the Patanjali sutras and tantra, and includes references to Hindu, Sikh, Sufi, Islam, and Buddhist traditions. This edition adds new sections on the use of sacred sound in Hindu and Sikh North American diaspora communities and on the North American non-Indian practice of yoga and mantra.

Jayadeva's dramatic lyrical poem "Gitagovinda" is one of the most important works in Indian literature and a source of religious inspiration in both medieval and contemporary Vaishnavism. Revealing an intense earthly passion to express the complexities of divine and human love, its songs are an important part of Indian devotional music and literature.

The twentith anniversary edition of the renowned translation by noted scholar Barbara Stoler MIller brings this classic to a new generation of readers and offers fresh insights for those familiar with the text.

The relevance of this book is enhanced rather than diminished by the years since its original publication. The human situation has become even more critical. We are moving from a period of industrial plundering of the planet into a more intimate way of relating to the planet. We can no longer violate the integrity of Earth without becoming a destructive force for both the surrounding world and for ourselves.

Building on the achievements of Goethe in his Theory of Colour, Rudolf Steiner shows how colour affects us in many areas of life, including our health, our sense of well-being, and our feelings. Distinguishing between 'image' and 'lustre' colours, he lays the foundation, based on his spiritual-scientific research, for a practical technique of working with colour that leads to a new direction in artistic creativity. His many penetrating remarks on some of the great painters of the past are supplemented by a deep concern to see a cultural, spiritual renewal emerge in the present time. 'If you realize', he states, 'that art always has a relation to the spirit, you will understand that both in creating and appreciating it, art is something through which one enters the spiritual world.' This volume is the most comprehensive compilation of Rudolf Steiner's insights into the nature of colour, painting and artistic creation. It is an invaluable source of reference and study not only for artists and therapists but for anyone interested in gaining an appreciation of art as a revelation of spiritual realities.

Here is the twentieth anniversary edition of the classic study of the culture, religion, history, ideology, and influence of the Rastafarians of Jamaica. "Barrett offers the most comprehensive study to date of the Rastafarians".--BULLETIN of the Center for the Study of World Religions. Bibliography. Index. Photos.

Collected here in one edition are two of the most important books on the Samurai Way, Bushido: The Soul of Japan and The Book of Five Rings. Bushido: Chivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the soil of Japan than its emblem, the cherry blossom; nor is it a dried-up specimen of an antique virtue preserved in the herbarium of our history. It is still a living object of power and beauty among us. The Book of Five Rings: There are various Ways. There is the Way of salvation by the law of Buddha, the Way of Confucius governing the Way of learning, the Way of healing as a doctor, as a poet teaching the Way of Waka, tea, archery, and many arts and skills. Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.

1900. The Sacred Books of the East series, comprising fifty volumes, has translations of key sacred texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Islam. The series was edited by the famous linguist Max Muller, who also produced many of the translations and were the foundational documents for the new discipline known as the comparative science of religions. This volume contains the First and Second Kanda. According to the text of the Madhyandina School. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

1880. The Sacred Books of the East series, comprising fifty volumes, has translations of key sacred texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Islam. The series was edited by the famous linguist Max Muller, who also produced many of the translations and were the foundational documents for the new discipline known as the comparative science of religions. The Zend Avesta Part I contains The Vendidad: Fargard I-XXII. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Anthropologist David Jordan and Daniel Overmyer, a historian of religions, present a joint analysis of the most important group of sectarian religious societies in contemporary Taiwan: those that engage in automatic writing seances, or worship by means of the phoenix" writing implement.

Originally published in 1986.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Though a directive principle of the constitution, a uniform civil code of law has never been written or instituted in India. As a result, in matters of personal law the segment of law concerning marriage, dowry, divorce, parentage, legitimacy, wills, and inheritance individuals of different backgrounds must appeal to their respective religious laws for guidance or rulings. But balancing the claims of religious communities with those of a modern secular state has caused some intractable problems for India as a nation. Religion and Personal Law in Secular India provides a comprehensive look into the issues and challenges that India faces as it tries to put a uniform civil code into practice.

Contributors include Granville Austin, Robert D. Baird, Srimati Basu, Kevin Brown, Paul Courtright, Rajeev Dhavan, Marc Galanter, Namita Goswami, Laura Dudley Jenkins, Jayanth Krishnan, Gerald James Larson, John H. Mansfield, Ruma Pal, Kunal M. Parker, William D. Popkin, Lloyd I. Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, Sylvia Vatuk, and Arvind Verma."

Tourists to Ouidah, a city on the coast of the Republic of Benin, in West Africa, typically visit a few well-known sites of significance to the Vodun religion-the Python Temple, where Dangbe, the python spirit, is worshipped, and King Kpasse's sacred forest, which is the seat of the Vodun deity known as Loko. However, other, less familiar places, such as the palace of the so-called supreme chief of Vodun in Benin, are also rising in popularity as tourists become increasingly adventurous and as more Vodun priests and temples make themselves available to foreigners in the hopes of earning extra money. Timothy R. Landry examines the connections between local Vodun priests and spiritual seekers who travel to Benin-some for the snapshot, others for full-fledged initiation into the religion. He argues that the ways in which the Vodun priests and tourists negotiate the transfer of confidential, sacred knowledge create its value. The more secrecy that surrounds Vodun ritual practice and material culture, the more authentic, coveted, and, consequently, expensive that knowledge becomes. Landry writes as anthropologist and initiate, having participated in hundreds of Vodun ceremonies, rituals, and festivals. Examining the role of money, the incarnation of deities, the limits of adaptation for the transnational community, and the belief in spirits, sorcery, and witchcraft, Vodun ponders the ethical implications of producing and consuming culture by local and international agents. Highlighting the ways in which racialization, power, and the legacy of colonialism affect the procurement and transmission of secret knowledge in West Africa and beyond, Landry demonstrates how, paradoxically, secrecy is critically important to Vodun's global expansion.

A treatise Written for the Personal Use of Those Who are Ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, and Who Desire to Enter Within its Influence. Introduction by C. Jinarajadasa. (see also our book, "Our Glorious Future" by the same author which is a continuation of this book.)

Theosophy is a key work for anyone seeking a solid grounding in spiritual reality as described by Rudolf Steiner. The book is organized in four parts. First, Steiner builds up a comprehensive understanding of human nature, beginning with the physical bodily nature and moving up through the soul nature to our spiritual being: the I and the higher spiritual aspects of our being.This then leads to the experience of the human being as a sevenfold interpenetrated being of body, soul, and spirit. In the next section Steiner gives an extraordinary overview of the laws of reincarnation and the workings of karma as we pass from one life to the next. This prepares us for the third section where Steiner shows the different ways in which we live, during this life on earth and after death, in the three worlds of body, soul, and spirit, as well as the ways in which these worlds in turn live into us.Finally, a succinct description is given of the path of knowledge by which each one of us can begin to understand the marvelous and harmonious complexity of the psycho-spiritual worlds in their fullness.

Taylor G. Petrey's trenchant history takes a landmark step forward in documenting and theorizing about Latter-day Saints (LDS) teachings on gender, sexual difference, and marriage. Drawing on deep archival research, Petrey situates LDS doctrines in gender theory and American religious history since World War II. His challenging conclusion is that Mormonism is conflicted between ontologies of gender essentialism and gender fluidity, illustrating a broader tension in the history of sexuality in modernity itself. As Petrey details, LDS leaders have embraced the idea of fixed identities representing a natural and divine order, but their teachings also acknowledge that sexual difference is persistently contingent and unstable. While queer theorists have built an ethics and politics based on celebrating such sexual fluidity, LDS leaders view it as a source of anxiety and a tool for the shaping of a heterosexual social order. Through public preaching and teaching, the deployment of psychological approaches to "cure" homosexuality, and political activism against equal rights for women and same-sex marriage, Mormon leaders hoped to manage sexuality and faith for those who have strayed from heteronormativity.

This book fills a long-standing need in literature: Voodoo, Santeria, and Macumba as practised today in cities throughout the Western world. It is not another history or sociological study, but a candid personal account by two who came to "the religion" from the outside. It includes descriptions of the phenomena triggered by Voodoo practice, divination techniques, spells and a method of self-initiation.

11 lectures, Hamburg May 16-28, 1910 (CW 120) Why do people en-counter such different events and circumstances in life? What is behind diseases, accidents, and natural disasters? Rudolf Steiner speaks of karma as a reality that, if we understand it, answers the questions that arise as we begin to look seriously for life's meaning and purpose. We create our own karma in every area of existence, laying the foundation in one incarnation for the next. The whole pattern is not contained in one but in many lives on earth. Steiner tells us that we can gain acceptance and a sense of purpose by recognizing that self-induced karma is always in the process of being resolved. About karma and animals; health and illness; the curability and incurability of diseases; accidents; volcanoes, earthquakes, and epidemics; the karma of higher beings; free will in the future of human evolution; and individual and shared karma. "By exploring the more hidden aspects of a whole range of life phenomena in the light of the evolution of our planet Rudolf Steiner raises our consciousness to the vital role we play in helping or hindering the powers which serve the world's evolvement" (from the foreword). This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120).

From his clairvoyant reading of the Akashic Record -- the cosmic memory of all events, actions, and thoughts -- Rudolf Steiner was able to speak of aspects of the life of Jesus Christ that are not contained in the four biblical Gospels. Such research can be spoken of as a "fifth gospel." After an intense inner struggle to verify the exact nature of these events, and checking the results of his research, Steiner describes many detailed episodes from the Akashic Record. This new edition has been retranslated and features six lectures that have never before been published in English.

" Don't mistake mere words to be the meaning of the teachings. Mingle the practice with your own being and attain liberation from samsara right now."
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava is the primary master of Vajrayana, the teachings for our time. Out of his great compassion and wisdom, he instructed his main disciple Yeshe Tsogyal to conceal terma treasures to be revealed at the destined time for future practitioners. The profundity of this advice is meant to be personally applied by all individuals in all circumstances. It is a classic work, which contains valid truth for anyone who sincerely wants to follow a spiritual path.
"The chief compiler of Padmasambhava's teachings was Yeshe Tsogyal, an emanation of a female Buddha. There may be some people who believe that only men can attain enlightenment, but her life is proof to the opposite. The awakened state of mind is neither male or female."
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, from Introductory Teachings

"The best book on Bali for the serious visitor...Has the freshness of personal experience."--Dr. Hildred Geertz, author of Kinship in Bali and Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University In Bali, what you see--sekala--is a colorful world of ceremony, ritual, dance, and drama. What you don't see what is occult--niskala--is the doctrine underlying the pageants, the code underlying the rites, and the magic underlying the dance. In this book, author Fred Eiseman explores both tangibles and intangibles in the realm of Balinese religion, ritual, and performing arts. The essays collected here topics ranging from Hindu mythology to modern gamelan music. Eiseman's approach is that of a dedicated reporter in love with his subject--he has the knowledge and patience to explain the near-infinite permutations of the Balinese calendar, and yet he is still moved by the majesty of the great Eka Dasa Rudra ceremony. The author's 28 years experience on the island shows and this book rewards close reading--even by the most seasoned students of Balinese culture.