Read China Galland's posts on the Penguin Blog With this book, China Galland brought increased attention to the spiritual traditions of the Black Madonna and other cross-cultural expressions of the feminine divine. The popularity of recent works by authors like Sue Monk Kidd and Kathleen Norris have only increased readers' fascination. Now with a new introduction by the author, Longing for Darkness explores Galland's spellbinding and deeply personal journey from New Mexico through Nepal, India, Switzerland, France, the former Yugoslavia, and Poland-places where such figures as Tara, the female Buddha of the Tibetan tradition, and the Black Madonna are venerated today.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

The "Tao Te Ching" is a 2000-year-old Chinese manuscript of wisdom and advice. Love has been around since the dawn of time. Can ancient Chinese philosophy shed any light on one of mankind's perennial concerns? Ed Bremson explores this question in "The Tao of Love." Using the "Tao Te Ching" as his starting-point and guide, the author writes about love from an Eastern perspective. Readers will find their own thinking and understanding about this subject to be stimulated. "The Tao of Love" might not change any minds, but it might help clarify and define what those minds are thinking and feeling. And readers also might find an improvement in their relationships with members of the opposite sex, which wouldn't be bad.

This book presents, for the first time, a collection of ancient Japanese Shinto prayers in a format where English speaking readers can both understand the deep meaning of the translated text and can also pronounce the original Japanese words.
Shinto is an ancient spiritual tradition, primarily practiced in Japan, which is now spreading its traditions to the western world. Its primordial rituals and traditions touch a deep chord within one's spiritual self. Shinto's focus on divinity of all beings and of all creation, on living with gratitude and humility, and on purification and lustration of one's self and environment will bring light and joy to any reader.
The purpose of prayer and ritual as practiced in the Shinto tradition, is to reinsert ourselves into a divine state of being, not as a new position, but as an acknowledgement and reinforcement of what already exists. Ritual restores sensitive awareness to our relationship to the universe. Through purification and removal of impurities and blockages, we return to our innate internal brightness and cultivate a demeanor of gratitude and joy.
Shinto rituals and prayers were created by ancient man over 2,000 years ago in a time when mankind was more intuitive about his relationship to this world. Because of this, the rites are archetypal and invoke deep emotion within the participants.
This book of prayers will introduce the western reader to the deep spirituality of Shinto, providing explanation of the spiritual tradition and practice and providing a collection of 22 prayers for use in personal meditation and devotions.
Order a perfect bound version of Shinto Norito

The Hibbert Lectures, Second Series, Lectures Delivered in the University Hall of Dr. Williams Library, London. Oct.-Dec. 1914.

This first Western-language translation of one of the great books of the Daoist religious tradition, the "Taiping jing', or "Scripture on Great Peace," documents early Chinese medieval thought and lays the groundwork for a more complete understanding of Daoism's origins. Barbara Hendrischke, a leading expert on the Taiping jing in the West, has spent twenty-five years on this magisterial translation, which includes notes that contextualize the scripture's political and religious significance. Virtually unknown to scholars until the 1970s, the "Taiping jing" raises the hope for salvation in a practical manner by instructing men and women how to appease heaven and satisfy earth and thereby reverse the fate that thousands of years of human wrongdoing has brought about. The scripture stems from the beginnings of the Daoist religious movement, when ideas contained in the ancient Laoziwere spread with missionary fervor among the population at large. "The Taiping jing" demonstrates how early Chinese medieval thought arose from the breakdown of the old imperial order and replaced it with a vision of a new, more diverse and fair society that would integrate outsiders - in particular women and people of a non-Chinese background.

1912. The American Lectures on the History of Religions. The writer's objective is to exhibit his view of the primitive and fundamental element of Chinese religion and ethics. That view is based on independent research into the ancient literature of China and into the actual state of her religion. Confident that his view is correct it gives the book as a key to the study of Taoism and Confucianism. Contents: The Tao or Order of the Universe; The Tao of Man; Perfection, Holiness, or Divinity; Asceticism. Prolongation of Life. Immortality; Worship of the Universe; Social and Political Universism (1); Social and Political Universism (2); and Fung-Shui.

Confucius did not regard himself as an innovator, but as the conservator of ancient truth and ceremonial propriety. He dealt with neither theology nor metaphysics, but with moral and political conduct. The Lun Yu, Analects or Sayings of Confucius, were probably compiled, says Legge, "by the disciples of the disciples of the sage, making free use of the written memorials concerning him which they had received, and the oral statements which they had heard, from their several masters. And we shall not be far wrong, if we determine its date as about the beginning of the third, or the end of the fourth century before Christ."

The Master said, 'If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame.

An uncomplicated, easy to use feng shui manual for Spanish readers.

1905. This work comprises an outline theory of the origin and earlier stages of the development of religion, prepared with special reference to the Shinto evidence. Contents: Materials for the Study of Shinto; General Features-Personification; General Features-Deification of Men; General Features-Functions of Gods, etc.; Myth; The Mythical Narrative; The Pantheon-Nature-Deities; The Pantheon-Man-Deities; The Priesthood; Worship; Morals, Law and Purity; Ceremonial; Magic, Divination, Inspiration; and Decay of Shinto. Modern Sects.

Is it true, as they say, the virtues of wisdom, bravery, honor, loyalty, compassion and purity enshrined in the Japanese soul have become lost in the rush of modern civilization? Has the power divine, the spirit of infinite light, love, tears and remembrance, and the courage to die for a noble cause become the stuff old movies in Japan are made of? After more than forty years in Japan I once thought so. But through a revelation of penetrating spiritual observations about the legacy of gods and men enshrined in the Japanese soul the late head priest of "tatsuta taisha," the Dragon Shrine, showed me I was wrong.

"Where the Trees Grow Thick" is a search for a dying fortress called the Yamato spirit The unseen is never easy to find, but searching for it--as I discovered--is like coming to know one's True Self.

1912. The American Lectures on the History of Religions. The writer's objective is to exhibit his view of the primitive and fundamental element of Chinese religion and ethics. That view is based on independent research into the ancient literature of China and into the actual state of her religion. Confident that his view is correct it gives the book as a key to the study of Taoism and Confucianism. Contents: The Tao or Order of the Universe; The Tao of Man; Perfection, Holiness, or Divinity; Asceticism. Prolongation of Life. Immortality; Worship of the Universe; Social and Political Universism (1); Social and Political Universism (2); and Fung-Shui.

1895. Having written a book on Confucius, Alexander turns his attention to another Chinese classical subject-the life and teaching of the most distinguished of Confucius's contemporaries, Lao-tsze, the Great Thinker. Believing that knowledge of Lao-tsze is to be gained from the thoughts to which he gave utterance in his one great work, the Tao-tih-King, Alexander has made a translation of this piece the focal point of this volume. The Contents are divided into the following three Parts: Origins and Antecedents; Lao-Tsze and His Period; and The Tao-Tih-King.

Now the question arises, If all human beings are endowed with Buddha-nature, why have they not come naturally to be Enlightened? To answer this question, the Indian Mahayanists told the parable of the drunkard who forgets the precious gems put in his own pocket by one of his friends. The man is drunk with the poisonous liquor of selfishness, led astray by the alluring sight of the sensual objects, and goes mad with anger, lust, and folly. Thus he is in a state of moral poverty, entirely forgetting the precious gem of Buddha-nature within him. -from "The Nature of Man" There are, unknown to many Western minds, two schools of Buddhist thought: the Theravada, the one Westerners are generally more familiar with, and the Mahayanistic, or Zen, philosophy, which is still a great mystery even to occidental explorers of world religions. This 1913 book, one of the first works on Zen written in the English language, examines the Zen mode of meditation, which is virtually unchanged from the practices of the pre-Buddhistic recluses of India, and discusses the intensely personal aspects of this branch of Buddhism, which stresses the passing of wisdom through teachers rather than Scripture. Ardently spiritual and beautifully reflective, this splendid book will be treasured by all seekers of the divine. KAITEN NUKARIYA was a professor at Kei-o-gi-jiku University and So-to-shu Buddhist College, Tokyo.

The Chung-Yung was written by Tzu-ssu, the grandson of Confucius, to put on record the teachings of Confucius on the nature and conduct of life. These teachings did not spring from Confucius. They had already stood the test for more than 2000 years, when he devoted his life to the task of expounding and completing them. By putting them into writing, Tzu-ssu hoped that the wisdom of long ages of experience would be saved from loss, amid the hubbub aroused by new schools of thought and the chaotic state of the country.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

1905. This work comprises an outline theory of the origin and earlier stages of the development of religion, prepared with special reference to the Shinto evidence. Contents: Materials for the Study of Shinto; General Features-Personification; General Features-Deification of Men; General Features-Functions of Gods, etc.; Myth; The Mythical Narrative; The Pantheon-Nature-Deities; The Pantheon-Man-Deities; The Priesthood; Worship; Morals, Law and Purity; Ceremonial; Magic, Divination, Inspiration; and Decay of Shinto. Modern Sects.

A volume in the University of Toronto Studies in Philosophy. This work is presented to the public in the hope that it will throw light on some of the formative elements of Japanese civilization, and lead to a better understanding of Japanese character and life. Armstrong endeavors to give an outline of the history of Japanese Confucianism. The title is given to this book because any intensive study of thought in Japan involves more or less knowledge of Korea, China and India. The schools of Confucianism, which originated in China in the Sung and Ming dynasties, assimilated much from Northern Buddhism which comes from India.

A new translation with introduction and commentary. This work is a translation of the celebrated work of the Chinese sage about the simple life. It is relation to our principles of life rather than our common activities that the simple life gains its greatest meaning and value. The simple life is not always the simple way.

Discusses the historical development of Korean Confucianism in terms of its social functions. This book examines the types of transfiguration Confucianism underwent and the role it played in each period of Korean history. It spans from the Three Kingdoms period (18 BCE to 660 CE) to the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910).

A dramatic poem. In a most concise form adapted to the stage, the composition represents Confucianism in its origin and according to the sources. The author's main object has been to work out for the English speaking public a presentation of the Chinese religio-ethical world- conception in the dramatized life of its founder, K'ung Ni, commonly called K'ung Fu Tze.