|
|
Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Oriental religions
The Confucian revival which manifests itself in the Modern
Confucian current, belongs to the most important streams of thought
in contemporary Chinese philosophy. This book introduces this
stream of thought by focusing on the second generation Modern
Confucians-Mou Zongsan, Tang Junyi, Xu Fuguan and Fang Dongmei.
They argue thattraditional Confucianism, as a specifically Chinese
social, political, and moral system of thought can, if adapted to
the modern era, serve as the foundation for an ethicallymeaningful
modern life.
Latin American Christianity is too often presented as a unified
story appended to the end of larger western narratives. And yet the
stories of Christianity in Latin America are as varied and diverse
as the lands and the peoples who live there. The unique political,
ecclesial, social, and historical realities of each nation
inevitably shaped a variety of Christian expressions in each. Now,
for the first time, a resource exists to help students and scholars
understand the histories of Latin American Christianity. An ideal
resource, this handbook is designed as an accompaniment to reading
and research in the field. After a generous overview to the history
and theology of the region, the text moves nation-by-nation,
providing timelines, outlines, and substantial introductions to the
politics, people, movements, and relevant facts of Christianity as
experienced in that nation. The result is an informative and
eye-opening introduction to a kaleidoscope of efforts to articulate
the meanings and implications of Christianity in the context of
Latin America.
This book is intended to give the seeker of Truth a devotional
practice that is designed to aid in the ultimate goal of union with
God or the Divine. The Sai Krishna Premopasana assists the seeker
to become aware of the divinity that is inherent within us all.
When the act of love, the lover, and the object of love all become
one, the individual disappears into Pure Being-into that which is
eternal. The Sri Sai Krishna Mandalam-the Yantra of Sw ta Dweepam
(Golokam)-was specifically prepared to help those interested in Sai
Krishna Premopasana. This approach has seven steps and each step
has its own mantra and tantra. The seventh step is the ultimate
step representing the seat of Consciousness. Religions are many but
the goal is one, and the language of love is the universal way to
this realization.
"I simply needed to know I was wanted" "I simply needed to know I
was wanted," Kenny Loggins once said. This comes from a man who
knew how much people loved him and adored his songs, from a man who
has been probably more productive in his life than ninety nine
percent of the population, from a man who lived his life
discovering His Way, His Tao, and never stopped. There's a lesson
to be learned here, the lesson that the great thinkers of the ages,
from Laozi (Lao Tzu), Buddha and Christ, to "enlightened" era
philosophers like Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer, to the modern
spiritual leaders and thinkers of our age have been pondering and
yet still do not have the answer to - "Can A Man Reach Perfection,
the Spirit, the Divine, if you will?" Or perhaps there's no need to
actually reach perfection and it is indeed the Way, the Tao that is
our lives, that matters the most? Are we drifting aimlessly in a
sea of change or are we looking for a beacon to guide us? For Kenny
Loggins, that connection to the spiritual has always been his
ability to, as he put it, " Stop and listen to the song playing in
my head." This for him was the light, the love, the sense of
Interconnectedness of the world as a whole and his songs are the
records of what the Spirit imparted to him when he would allow
himself to listen. For the man who was so connected to his inner
self and to the spiritual around him, Kenny Loggins to this day is
still discovering his Tao and that idea of never stop "listening to
the songs that are playing in our heads," is, perhaps, his greatest
gift to us. I hope you will embark on this journey with Kenny
Loggins and me and we will all emerge wiser, better, and filled
with the Love that is easy to find if we just stop and listen.
After reading Kenny Loggins book, The Unimaginable Life, It was
obvious he had underwent a major shift in his awareness to the
innerconnectiveness, truth, and love of the universal divine love.
Through his music he was able to demonstrate these new principles.
With the release of the album "Leap of Faith" in 1991, Loggins
brought forth his joy of this awakening and desired to share the
incredible sense of love and belonging he had discovered. Even
though by his own admission, his music had always had a deep
spiritualness to it, it was with this album that he knew he was
awakened to it and truly felt it. He was singing from his soul. He
was singing an universal truth that has been here since the
beginning of time. With Leap of Faith, his music took on a new
higher level of spiritualness that reminded me of the same type of
awareness that is in Zen and in Taoism. The principles of Truth,
Love, and the Innerconnectiveness is essentially the same with
Kenny Loggins as with Lao Tzu. Let's take a look at Kenny Loggins
music from a Zen perspective. According to Osho, "Zen is like a
telegram. It believes in the very essentials. It has no nonsense
around it, no rituals, no chanting, no mantras, no scriptures- just
small anecdotes. If you have the right awareness, they hit you
directly in the heart. It is a very condensed and crystallized
teaching, but it needs the person to be prepared for it. And the
only preparation is meditative awareness. Zen and the Tao are very
fragmentary, like telegrams, urgent, immediate, not giving you any
explanation, but simply giving you the very essence, the perfume of
thousand of flowers. You just have to be alert enough to absorb
them. I'm trying to give a context, the right background, because I
am talking to people who are not born in the Zen-Taoist tradition."
Examples of these "telegrams" are throughout the lyrics of Loggins
music. Like "Conviction of the Heart," this is a song that I
believe that Lao Tzu could have written if he were alive today.
This "telegram" drives home the very essence of the message with
crystal clarity, "With any Conviction of the Heart, One with the
earth, with the sky, One with everything in life, I believe that
we'll survive, If we only try..."
Darkly you sweep on, Eternal Fugitive, round whose bodiless rush
stagnant space frets into eddying bubbles of light. Is your heart
lost to the Lover calling you across his immeasurable loneliness?
Is the aching urgency of your haste the sole reason why your
tangled tresses break into stormy riot and pearls of fire roll
along your path as from a broken necklace? Your fleeting steps kiss
the dust of this world into sweetness, sweeping aside all waste;
the storm centred with your dancing limbs shakes the sacred shower
of death over life and freshens her growth.
|
You may like...
Gloria
Sam Smith
CD
R234
R157
Discovery Miles 1 570
|