What do you imagine when you think of Shaolin? Ferociously strong warriors flying through the air?

Shaolin is more than just the physical expression of martial arts. Rooted in Zen and Tao philosophy, it also offers a way of reconnecting our minds with our bodies through meditative movement to cultivate the core virtues of discipline and perseverance.

In this book, Shi Heng Yi, founder of Shaolin Temple Europe and lay disciple of the Songshan Shaolin Temple, introduces us to the contemplative practice that underpins Shaolin – a way of life that has existed for over 1,500 years – and shows how it can help us today.

Having experienced the challenges of modern life as a young man, Shi Heng Yi understands the pressures only too well. Here, he highlights twelve key practices to help improve sleep, relationships and decision-making, as much as balance, flexibility and strength, offering a powerful pathway to self-mastery and understanding.

"The Thoughtful Guide to God" presents a rational approach to notions of God and soul for those who are disenchanted with organized religion. Reviving concepts of the divine that go back to the earliest human civilizations of both East and West, it shows how ideas have evolved from early scriptural revelations, through the rationalization of the Greek philosophers, to the developments of modern physics. Few works bring together ideas from so many disciplines-from religion, philosophy and science, with all the supporting detail. Packed with references for further reading, it provides a bridge between science and religion, and between many of the different religions of the world. All the terms and concepts are explained so that they are accessible to the general reader. The discoveries of Newton and Galileo, through to Einstein and contemporary scientists, and the ideas of God from a number of Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Hindu thinkers, are presented with brief biographical background to put these personalities in context. Their thoughts are fused with those of Greek and later philosophers that have shaped society in Western Europe to provide a unifying concept of the divine as Communal Soul- a one-world view which it is essential should convince more of the population in the materialist West if Earth and humankind are to survive into the 22nd century.