This is the 3rd recipe book in the Texas Jack's Famous Secret Recipe series of Cook Books. This edition focuses on a Southern favorite, the sweet potato. There are over 25 different recipes including recipes for pies, casseroles, mash, hash, cupcakes, even a sweet potato cornbread and biscuits. With easy to follow recipes, this will become a "go to" book for the chef desiring to create a wonderful dessert using sweet potatoes. Yummy and Sweet Potatoes go together like peas and carrots. This is a vegetable that can be utilized all year long to create some of the most delightfully delicious desserts that you have ever had. Have some fun and cook up a sweet potato dish that will sure to become a family favorite. Enjoy

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." -Ernest Hemingway "Love doesn't know distance, neither in hours or miles, nor in life or death" Losing his wife was only the beginning. Getting her back from the hands of death meant losing himself. This is a book about a man who loved, who made choices, and who was brave enough to stand by the decisions he made. This is first and foremost a love story. It is an unusual love story, granted. It tells of love so powerful that even death cannot break these two people apart. The two lovers will stay together, either in life or in death. Or perhaps somewhere in between... "Yeah, man meets woman and they fall in love but it ain't meant to be. Life is rough like that, sometimes taking more than it gives. I bet you most people are with someone other than their first choice, living a lie, all the while thinking of someone else. Blessed are those who find the one that are meant for them. But it seems that the only place that happens is in fairytales. Maybe that what's makes it so sad, the more things change, the more they remain the same." -Robert A Love Story

Land Otter Man, aka, The Kushtaka Kushtaka or Kooshdakhaa is a Tlingit word meaning "land otter man." The Kushtaka is on one hand the nemeses of the Tlingit people, yet necessary to their Shamans who play a critical role in the survival of the Tlingits. The Tlingit people are as mysterious in their beliefs as the Kushtaka, making for strange bedfellows. "Otter Tales- Stories of the Land Otter Man and Other Spirit Stories based on the Folklore of the Tlingit of Southeastern Alaska" is an excerpt from the book, "In Search of the Kushtaka" by Dennis Waller. The purpose of these 10 stories is to serve as an introduction into the myths and legends of the Tlingit People.

"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..."

What are the Kushtaka? There are incredible stories of the sinister Kushtaka or "land otter man" as it is known by the Tlingit's all throughout Southeastern Alaska. Whether these stories are the stuff of legend and myth remains to be seen. However a legend that endures over time, endures for a reason, leaving us with the question. Is the legend and myth of the Kushtaka something that really exists? Is it based on actual events or the byproduct of a vivid imagination of a people unable to explain the unexplainable? The purpose of this book is to explore this amazing mystery, to see if we can unlock the door to the Kushtaka and discover the truth. Joseph Campbell said myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life, that a myth helps you to put your mind in touch with the experience of being alive. In this case, in order to experience being alive, we might have to experience being scared to death. The Kushtaka are mystical shape shifting creatures with supernatural powers. They are masters at waging psychological warfare with the ability to twist time and space creating anomalies that defy the laws of physics. It is said they possess telepathic abilities. Their ability to move freely from one place to another in an instant is legendary. Appearing as someone the victim knows is commonplace in the stories of the encounters with the Kushtaka. From deceased relatives, to being a friend, to appearing as a ghostly creature, there are no limits to what and who the Kushtaka can transform into. Encounters have told of the unsuspecting victim having their worst nightmares brought to life, as if the Kushtaka were able to draw on the fears of their intended targets. In the worst of reports, the Kushtaka will possess the person and as a malevolent trickster, bring harm to them and those around them, tormenting them to the point of driving them insane to the point of death. The Kushtaka seem to have a special hatred for those who do not take them seriously and laugh at the Kushtaka as if it they are a joke. For those folks who fall into this category and venture in the land of the Kushtaka will soon find that the Kushtaka has an agenda for them. The Kushtaka are considered evil and treated with a level of trepidation among the Tlingit. It is believed that the Kushtaka deprived their victims of everlasting life thus not allowing for the victims soul to be reincarnated. These creatures appear to the victims as in the form of relatives or friends to confuse the victim. Their primary purpose is to lure the unsuspecting target away from their homes in order to turn them into Kushtaka. On the seas, the Kushtaka are feared for taking advantage of the Tlingit's in their canoes. They prey on the drowning by expediting the Tlingit's demise by creating these disastrous events. Adding to the mystery is the location of their habitat. The Kushtaka are said to live along the southeastern coast of Alaska hidden away in the deep rugged rainforest that even today remains mostly uncharted and unknown to man. Protected by rough seas to the west and insurmountable mountains to the east and north, these creatures are literally cut off from the world you and I know. If someone or something wanted to drop off the face of the earth, this is one place where you could do it. With names like the "Bay of Death," it's easy to see how someone could disappear in this lonely vastness, never to be seen again. Some consider the Kushtaka to be a cousin to Bigfoot while others believe the Kushtaka are multi-dimensional beings. There are no photos or videos, no cast of their footprint. There have been no reports of the Kushtaka named Harry having dining with the Henderson's. Nor has anyone claimed to have a Kushtaka stuffed and mounted. These creatures are much more mysterious, almost as if Stephen King himself created them.

"The Tlingit and the Haida don't have myths; they are stories about our history" The Raven is as much a paradoxical creature as he is important in the myths of many native cultures. The central character of these stories, the Raven is considered the benevolent creator, filling the world with beauty and harmony, the master mind behind all that is good and looked upon with warm admiration. On the other hand, he is often viewed as a malevolent conniving, scheming trickster with self-gratification as his only goal. Including stories of the Raven eating the unsuspecting victim out of house and home or bidding someone to do his work, he is still the ultimate larger-than-life heroic figure within the myths. Whether it is creating animals or chasing down a woman to marry, one thing for sure, the Raven has left us with a rich and colorful history recorded in the myths and legends of the indigenous people. While the Raven appears throughout the world in mythology, our focus here will be centered on the Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida, the Yupiit and Inupiat also known as the Eskimo, and the Athapascan Peoples of Alaska. What follows are 30 stories that seem to contradict each other adding to the confusion as to what or who this Raven really is. The cornerstone of this book is the Tlingit Creation Story which shows why the Raven is regarded as a grandfather to the people and is thought of with respect in asking for good health, good hunting, and for good fortune. It was the Raven that created man, the forest and the animals that inhabited them, the rivers and the fish that live in the water. In this context, the Raven is revered. However there are other stories that portray the Raven as a lazy scavenger, living off the hard work of others, or seeking sexual pleasure, the Raven is a shining example of how multi-faceted a myth can be. From being worship to being considered a lazy birdbrained (pardon the pun) imbecile, the Raven has most definitely left us with a fascinating collection of tales.

Hi, I am Dennis Waller, founder of Texas Jack's Famous Pralines along with being a bestselling author on Amazon. This is my second recipe book with a total of 21+ recipes, this one focuses on Texas Jack's Famous Caramels. What makes this recipe book different is it is easy to follow and understand. Including a wide variety of over 14 caramel recipes from Traditional caramels to Pumpkin Spice caramel, Bourbon Chocolate caramel to the crazy delicious Wild Turkey with Honey caramel, these are sure to please everyone. There are also 4 Fudge recipes including the "Andes" Chocolate Mint Fudge and a "Fast and Simple" Fudge with only two ingredients that is so easy to make, you'll be making this one right away. Along with the caramel and fudge recipes, there is a recipe on how to make the "Fruteria" series of Texas Jack's Famous Pralines. The recipes for these pralines incorporate the use of dried fruits like Mango, Papaya, Cantaloupe, Pineapple or Dates to create a delightful new twist on an old southern favorite. Also included is a recipe for Pumpkin Spice and Apple Spice Pecan Pralines, sure to be a Holiday Favorites this year. And no Texas Jack's Recipe book wouldn't be complete without the history of our name-sake. A fun and useful recipe book that you will enjoy Get a copy and become a member of the Texas Jack nation.

This short essay is an introduction on the Tao Te Ching exploring the three points of truth, love and the interconnectedness of the life. It is written in a modern style using the pop music of Kenny Loggins, Bruce Springsteen, and David Gates to illustrate the points. The purpose of this essay is to serve as a companion to the Tao Te Ching. It is for those who wish to dive deeper into the essence of the Tao while living in the modern world. It also shows how after all these years, the Tao is just as relevant today as it was when it was written. It offers an interesting and unique look at one of the most important text of mankind. "You've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above " - Bruce Springsteen "Cause when you're done with this world, you know the next is up to you" - John Mayer "All my life has been a struggle in trying to get free. But this world I created turned out to be only about me. Forgetting we are brothers" - Kenny Loggins "The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced"- Soren Kierkegaard Truth- "Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise from outward things, whatever you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in fullness." Love- "Now is the moment to dive as deep as your dream. Love is the greatest freedom when you love a courageous person. It allows for an entirely different experience of life than the freedom of journeying alone. Wherever you are, you know you are loved, not only by God, but by a mirror of yourself." - Kenny Loggins Innerconnectiveness of Life- " All my life has been a struggle in trying to get free. But this world I created turned out to be only about me. Forgetting we are brothers" - Kenny Loggins

This "how to" book offers a broad stroke look into an understanding of what is required in starting a business by outlining the basics such as creating a business plan, hiring the right people, having the right financial skills, marketing and internet presence, etc into 9 areas of importance. It is easy to understand and a clear and concise summation of the basics of starting a business. Common Sense is the underlying theme throughout the book while covering the different aspects involved in getting started to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

HOW TO MAKE PRALINES Hi, I am Dennis Waller, founder and creator of Texas Jack's Famous Pralines. Besides being a bestselling author on Amazon.com with my books on Eastern Thought, I also love to cook and known throughout these parts for my delicious treats including my Pralines. A Praline is a Sweet Southern Treat made up of sugar, cream, vanilla extract, and pecans that can be compared to fudge. This treat is famous throughout the South and over the years, there have been many variations of pralines made. The praline recipes in this book are easy to follow and easier to make using everything from chocolate, coconut, macadamia nuts, almonds, ginger, Amaretto, to Spice Rum. This is a recipe book containing 13 great different recipes for making Pralines that you can change to make them your own by replacing the flavorings and nuts to whatever suits your fancy. There are also 4 cookie recipes, 4 fudge recipes, 2 candied pecan recipes, and a recipe for making Aunt Bill's Brown Candy and if you have never had Aunt Bill's Brown Candy, well, you aint living, so here is the recipe and get busy living Included in this book is the recipe for the all-time favorite, Texas Jack's Calico Cookies. These will leave a smile on your face and a sure bet to please any company that might come calling, so get back to better simpler times and enjoy some Old Fashion Southern Treats

"Zen and Tao, A Little Book on Buddhist Though and Meditation" is really not a little book. It is a collection of Buddhist quotes, thoughts, and meditations from the school of Zen and the Tao. The Translations of the Hsin Hsin Ming, The Tao Te Ching, and Nargarjuna's Tree of Wisdom by Dennis Waller are included along with a collection of 50 selected quotes from Chuang Tzu, Okakura Kakuzo, and Buddha. Also included are selected commentaries on Zen and the Tao from the works of Dennis Waller. An Excerpt from the book- Throughout Buddhism, Taoism and Zen there it much talk and mention about Nothingness, Emptiness, Oneness, the Void, and Suchness. In the western world, this makes no sense, "There has to be something, even nothing is something, right?" The western world cannot understand these meanings, maybe because there are no meaning to these words in the East. This is a major conflict between the two worlds. The west always believes that there is meaning in everything, there is always a "why" and a meaning to that "why." In Zen, in the true meaning of life, there is no meaning. In Zen, it is call existence. In existence, there is no need for a meaning or explanation, it just is what it is. There is a story about Picasso the painter. One day an observer watched Picasso start a painting. As the day wore on Picasso continued to paint till he finished with the work in the afternoon. Upon completion, the observer asked Picasso what the painting represented, what was the meaning of it. Picasso became upset, angry, even mad. He shouted, "Go ask the roses in the garden what is the meaning of the roses Why do people come to me and ask for the meaning? If the rose can be there without any meaning, then why cannot my painting be there without any meaning?" Meanings are a thing of the mind. It is the mind that seeks a meaning to everything. Sometimes this is a good thing, like in science and medicine. But for nature, there is no meaning, there is just is. This is the precept of existence in nature, for there is no need for meaning. Look at it this way, how absurd would it be to ask a cloud, "What is the meaning of this? Why are you here and where did you come from?" I am sure the cloud will have no answer for you. Because the cloud is being a cloud, doing what clouds do. That is the dharma of a cloud and it is fulfilling that dharma. It would be the same thing if you asked a dog why it barks. What do you think the answer would be? The dog cannot answer the question, because it doesn't understand why you're asking such a question. Dogs bark and cats meow, because that is their nature. If a sentient being is living its dharma, there is no need for meaning, its existence is enough. All throughout nature, there isn't any meaning placed on anything by nature. It is us that has a ego driven need for meaning and to place meaning on things. If we do not have meaning we began to feel insecure and worried. We feel out of place or disconnected. This behavior isn't seen in nature, only in man. In creating meaning, we create separation. As long we are in separation, there can be no enlightenment. Enlightenment is losing separation and meaning. When you focus on the meaning of something, you have missed the point. Because the something really isn't what it appears to be."

"NEW REVISED EXPANDED EDITION WITH EVEN MORE STUFF" "This has to be Dennis Waller's best work ever I never laugh as hard as I did while reading this book. It's George Carlin meets Wayne Dyer over a bottle of 30 year old Scotch. It's refreshing to read what other Self Help Gurus only think about. Dennis has the balls to write what needs to be read and I thank him for that. This book is a MUST read for everyone who deals with miserable assholes. I am going to be giving these books away as gifts to everyone I know that has to put up with assholes. I can't wait to see the sequel to find out what happens to Seth and Joe. Thanks Dennis for a brutally honest look at this issue while keeping the humor You rock "- Billy D Hernandez

The Tree of Wisdom by Nagarjuna is a treatise on morals and ethics written over 2,000 years ago. This commentary on moral living is very similar to other text such as the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, the Hsin Hsin Ming by Seng Ts'an, the Enchiridion by Epictetus, and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It remarkable that this is only the second English translation of this ancient text from this incredible Indian philosopher. The first translation into English was done by W.L. Campbell in 1918. At the time of Campbell's translation, there was so already much lost to history in the allegories that the meaning couldn't be extrapolated for all the verses. This version has been interpreted into a more modern new age style yet it still possess the essence of the message that Nagarjuna implied. I prefer to use the word interpretation over the word translation as this is more of a rendering constructed to clarify the meaning in such a way that it is easy to grasp the concepts. However, there are a few verses that have been left in the original Campbell translation as their relevance hasn't change. The primary difference between the Tree of Wisdom and the Tao Te Ching is the Tree of Wisdom takes a more "matter of fact" practical approach to life where the Tao Te Ching is more spiritual and esoteric. Both text have the same basic underlying principles, they are just different paths to the same goal. The text itself consist of 260 verses containing just over 8,000 words. In the tradition of Buddhism, there are a few verses that will leave you confused. This is natural as in the contemplation of the verse, the understanding will become clear. One major difference in this translation and Campbell's is the use of the way. Where the word "way" is used, it is to imply the way of the Tao Te Ching. This is to serve in helping give a clearer understanding the principles that the text is conveying. I encourage those who are not familiar with the Tao Te Ching to read it as the two text complement each other.