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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious experience > Mysticism
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-73) was a 13th-century Persian
poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from
Greater Khorasan in Iran. This Chinese-bound volume offers a
selection of his many poems with a variety of themes, including
love, marriage, life and death, passion and mysticism, as well as
his religious collection, Rubaiyat, and his long poem, Masnavi, one
of the most influential works of Sufism, an Islamic form of
mysticism. Rumi's reach transcends national borders and ethnic
divisions: his poetry has influenced not only Persian literature,
but also the literary traditions of the Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai,
Urdu, Bengali and Pashto languages.
This book comprises responses by a Sufi master, Hadrat Sahib of the
Naqshbandi tradition, to letters written by students of the master.
The questions posed in these letters cover a wide range of issues
including, financial problems, health issues, family matters,
education and bereavement. The advice given by the master reveals a
deep spirituality which places the particular student's problem in
context and details a specific method of offering oneself to God at
all times. It is difficult to find such detail relating to
spiritual practices in Sufi literature. These letters are
inspirational and timeless. They provide a cure to a world
dominated by materialism and all its attendant miseries.
This is an astrology book about the planets in the houses. Clear
descriptions explain the actions of ten planets in each of the
twelve astrological houses that relate to the main areas of life
including money, family, relationships and work. The talents and
abilities that a person may take for granted but, with awareness
could develop further, are described for each planetary placement.
By understanding that challenges are learning opportunities a
person may be able to cope with them better. Spiritual perspectives
suggest what the soul may be learning from daily experiences and
how the spirit of a person is striving to attain its highest
aspirations. The book is straightforward and easy to follow. It can
be used like a textbook by student astrologers and may assist
experienced astrologers to consider a more spiritual way of looking
at horoscopes.
This book highlights the life and teachings of Qibla Alam 1871-1934
as narrated by his son and successor, Janab Qibla Hadrat Sahib
1921-2008 and other sangis. This book not only presents an
authentic account of the great master of the Naqshbandiyya
Mujaddidiyya path but also provides an insight into the religious,
spiritual, cultural and social history of the Azad Jammu and
kashmir region during the period 1871-2008.
As one of the world's most loved poets, Rumi's poems are celebrated
for their message of love and their beauty, but too often they are
stripped of their mystical and spiritual meanings. The Gift of Rumi
offers a new reading of Rumi, contextualising his work against the
broader backdrop of Islamic mysticism and adding a richness and
authenticity that is lacking in many Westernized conceptions of his
work. Author Emily O'Dell has studied Sufism both academically, in
her work and research at Harvard, Columbia, and the American
University of Beirut, and in practice, learning from a Mevlevi
master and his whirling dervishes. She weaves this expertise
throughout The Gift of Rumi, sharing a new vision of Rumi's classic
work. At the heart of Rumi's mystical poetry is the "religion of
love" which transcends all religions. Through his majestic verses
of ecstasy and longing, Rumi invites us into the religion of the
heart and guides us to our own loving inner essence. The Gifts of
Rumi gives us a key to experiencing this profound and powerful
invitation, allowing readers to meet the master in a new way.
An Ironic Approach to the Absolute: Schlegel's Poetic Mysticism
brings Friedrich Schlegel's ironic fragments in dialogue with the
Dao De Jing and John Ashbery's Flow Chart to argue that poetic
texts offer an intuition of the whole because they resist the
reader's desire to comprehend them fully. Karolin Mirzakhan argues
that although Schlegel's ironic fragments proclaim their
incompleteness in both their form and their content, they are the
primary means for facilitating an intuition of the Absolute.
Focusing on the techniques by which texts remain open, empty, or
ungraspable, Mirzakhan's analysis uncovers the methods that authors
use to cultivate the agility of mind necessary for their readers to
intuit the Absolute. Mirzakhan develops the term "poetic mysticism"
to describe the experience of the Absolute made possible by
particular textual moments,examining the Dao De Jing and Flow Chart
to provide an original account of the striving to know the Absolute
that is non-linear, non-totalizing, and attuned to non-presence.
This conversation with ancient and contemporary poetic texts enacts
the romantic imperative to join philosophy with poetry and advances
a clearer communication of the notion of the Absolute that emerges
from Schlegel's romantic philosophy.
From the earliest centuries there has existed a Christian theology
of mysticism, defining the state which Bernard Lonergan called a
"being in love with God." St. John of the Cross wrote such a
theology for the sixteenth century, calling it "the science of
love." Now, William Johnston, one of the great spiritual writers of
our time, attempts to do the same for the twenty-first century.
In Part One of Mystical Theology Johnston surveys Christian
mysticism through the centuries. Johnson shows that such a theology
today must dialogue with modern science and with Eastern religions.
Part Two provides this dialogue, where Johnston engages Einstein's
theories as well as Zen Buddhism. In Part Three, it becomes clear
how the "science of love" is no longer an esoteric discipline for
monks and nuns. In Johnston's writing it becomes accessible to all
modern people grappling with problems of sexuality, social justice,
world peace, and the protection of the environment.
Mystical Theology is indispensable to all those seeking guidance
as well as intellectual and historical foundations of the Christian
mystical experience today.
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