This book presents all of the surviving shorter works of John the Presbyter, the only professional writer among Jesus's followers. They were written over a turbulent thirty-year period in which Jerusalem was destroyed and the author was found guilty of treason against Rome and exiled. During these decades John also strove to explain the true teachings of Jesus and oppose the dogma invented by Paul of Tarsus, who had never even met Jesus. Besides writings found in the New Testament, several very little-known works of John are included: rare teachings of Jesus, an account of Jesus dancing, an instruction manual for congregations, and critical comments about the Gospel of Mark. Freshly translated from Greek and sometimes Aramaic, these texts provide a sharp picture of one man's efforts to keep alive the truth about Jesus. Anyone interested in the real historical Jesus behind the distortions of religious doctrine should come to know them.

"Circle of Life" presents, in written form, traditional oral Native American sacred teachings involving spirituality, ceremonies, visions, healings, everyday life, and the warriors way from the Iroquois, Lakota and other traditions. The author, has been receiving these teachings orally from elders since he was a youth. The wisdom includes Native American views on cosmology, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, sociology, psychology, healing, dream interpretation and vision quests.

This is the only narrative ever written about Jesus by actual eyewitnesses: the Beloved Disciple, Lazarus, and the gifted scholar-author John the Presbyter. It is also one of the world's greatest works of literature, modelled on classical Greek theatre and philosophy, but soaring above them in its own new genre. It was itself less successfully imitated later. The original work was never completed before the author was arrestedand sent into exile. For safekeeping, his friends sent the unfinished manuscript to far-away Pontus. But, even there, the hand of Rome nearly destroyed it. A foolish young man named Marcion rescued it, and had the sense to put it into the hands of the Presbyter's spiritual heirs, and they published it. While the manuscript languished in Pontus some pages got lost or disordered. And after publication various editors changed the manuscript again and again to suit the changing doctrines of the newly established Christian religion, even adding spurious new material. Simply put, the gospel as we have it today is a mess: a beautiful and inspiring mess, but a mess nonetheless. This translation undoes the damage to restore -- not the unfinished original text, but the masterpiece John the Presbyter sought to compose. By so doing we gain a sharply drawn first-hand account of Jesus. Here we encounter a vividly real man sent by God to urge humanity to accept God's will. He is described in a narrative set down before creeds and doctrines repackaged him as an incarnate deity. For a world that has replaced truth with lies, spirituality with commerce, and wisdom with hatred, this work gives us undiluted the sacred wisdom shared with us by a man many call the greatest who ever lived. Volume One contains the carefully restored text in English and Greek, and a history of how the gospel was written, nearly lost to the world several times, and finally published. Volume Two includes detailed commentaries that burnish this masterpiece for the modern reader.

This is the only narrative ever written about Jesus by actual eyewitnesses: the Beloved Disciple, Lazarus, and the gifted scholar-author John the Presbyter. It is also one of the world's greatest works of literature, modelled on classical Greek theatre and philosophy, but soaring above them in its own new genre. It was itself less successfully imitated later. The original work was never completed before the author was arrestedand sent into exile. For safekeeping, his friends sent the unfinished manuscript to far-away Pontus. But, even there, the hand of Rome nearly destroyed it. A foolish young man named Marcion rescued it, and had the sense to put it into the hands of the Presbyter's spiritual heirs, and they published it. While the manuscript languished in Pontus some pages got lost or disordered. And after publication various editors changed the manuscript again and again to suit the changing doctrines of the newly established Christian religion, even adding spurious new material. Simply put, the gospel as we have it today is a mess: a beautiful and inspiring mess, but a mess nonetheless. This translation undoes the damage to restore -- not the unfinished original text, but the masterpiece John the Presbyter sought to compose. By so doing we gain a sharply drawn first-hand account of Jesus. Here we encounter a vividly real man sent by God to urge humanity to accept God's will. He is described in a narrative set down before creeds and doctrines repackaged him as an incarnate deity. For a world that has replaced truth with lies, spirituality with commerce, and wisdom with hatred, this work gives us undiluted the sacred wisdom shared with us by a man many call the greatest who ever lived. Volume One contains the carefully restored text in English and Greek, and a history of how the gospel was written, nearly lost to the world several times, and finally published. Volume Two includes detailed commentaries that burnish this masterpiece for the modern reader.

A novelist whose works are often based on dreams here provides vivid dreams from over a lifetime that not only inspired a number of literary works, but are artistic creations themselves. "Dreams are essential to me. I do my best to pay attention to them. Not only do I often write them down, but I think about them for years afterwards. It is occasionally made clear to me that they are meant to be turned into stories or poems or plays, or even songs. ... Dreams can be funny, irritating, frightening, profound, exciting, and everything else - but always sacred. Some of these dreams have been clearly prophetic, some came at significant moments in my life, and all of them are moving. ... If nothing else, I hope you will find these dreams entertaining. More than that, you might appreciate this window into the craft of a writer. Best of all, perhaps you will sense through them how sacred and powerful the voice of Spirit is and be encouraged to listen for that voice yourself. For these dreams are not mine, in the possessive sense; they are all of ours; they are Spirit's." --from the Preface

I think the time has come to embalm these stories and commit them to the museum of the written word. I beg you, though, to bear in mind that these stories are meant not at all to be read silently. Try reading them aloud, especially before a good campfire, and see if the mummies do not escape their wrappings and walk about in the firelight, as strange and beautiful as when first they came to me. These stories frequently border on the improbable, if not the outright fantastic; I have been lifelong a writer of stories that leave behind the mundane, ordinary, "realistic" world of our everyday experience, and I believe that such stories can pull our minds out of the ruts of culturally conditioned thinking and propel us into new ways of understanding and perhaps even of being. The common theme, I believe, is the idea of sainthood. But a saint, to me, is the same as a bodhisattva or a medicine man or woman - such a person is not necessarily associated with a certain particular religious tradition, or any at all. Such a person, rather, is one who knows how to walk the "pathless path" and guides others on it. A saint is one who has left behind the sound and fury of this physical world, who has transcended self entirely, and who thus can guide others on the path to transcendence. The stories herein partake of motifs from several spiritual traditions, however I do not mean any of them to be representative, or even evocative, of any particular tradition, but rather of the universal theme of transcendence that is found at the deepest level in all traditions, at the level where particularities of creed and dogma are left far behind and one approaches the unspeakable Truth that underlies all being. I mean this collection to resemble somewhat, and to serve as my humble bouquet offered to, those wonderful Mediaeval "Lives of the Saints," and similar fantastic gatherings of tales found in sacred traditions worldwide, as well as the parables of Jesus and others, and traditional Talmudic, Sufi, Taoist, Native African, and Native American stories. As Gautama Buddha said, "To reach a destination you have never found, you must take a path you do not know." --from the Introductio

He is a runaway Dreamer, but he must stay awake -- or else the universe will be invaded by the Unreals. From his dreams the most popular virtual realities are constructed - but he has disappeared into the underworld. And Alina Nemitz, a top executive of the Nets, will be thrown from her good life in the beautiful city unless she finds him. But that means returning to her shadowy past to find him. The only one who can help her is her ex-lover, Barkas Todd, whom she has ordered executed. And only Mikel Smith, a test-tube spy with no imagination, knows where the Dreamer is - if he doesn't fall victim to the Lady of the Awakening, leader of the Unreals. Meanwhile, Symington, a bizarre recluse in the war-slagged regions Outside, is preparing an invasion of the city. Thus the Dreamer is scared. If he falls asleep, the Unreals - everything that has never existed and cannot even be imagined - will come crashing through his dreams and destroy reality.

A little country surrounded by the Wall everyone knows is insurmountable. But the boy who refuses to be king vows to pass over it. Young as he is, Adam understands that being king would shackle him more tightly than being the lowest slave. He watches birds and clouds pass by overhead as if this land surrounded by an impassable Wall is less than nothing. What is out there -- the destroying chaos they warn him about, or mysteries beyond his imagination? He runs away from kingship, and, though political potentates seek him out, he seeks the imposing shadowy presence of that final brambled cliff of masonry. This is the first volume in the monumental series of seven novels, "The Seven Last Days."

Gimel. Ur. Suoche. An unnameable desert. Shambhala. Xanadu. A boy enters manhood while exploring the world - and finally finds home among a frightening, humble people. Given the wild gift of scrying, Adam is subjugated to a mad emperor and slavers, meets the Prince of the Upper Air, runs from the Assassin's Guild, gets lost in an impassable desert, is overwhelmed by the maddening magic of the East, and finally finds his place among a people literally in the middle of nowhere. Yet even there the rising tide of, ahem, civilization - of war and commercialism and rampant greed - threatens to inundate him and his adopted people. This is the second volume in the monumental series of seven novels, "The Seven Last Days."

Poetically frightening, filled with nebbishy gods and endearing demons, set everywhere from Beldonooza to the back porch, here are short fictions from James David Audlin. A boy turns into an orange to escape his tormentors. A planet with a million gods and only one human. A little deal with the Devil. Shadows haunt a traveller's night. A young girl whose dolls are alive. The room that shouldn't be there, beyond the bedroom wall. A living boy rides with the Caravan of the Dead. Someone who remembers only the future, not the past. A battle of wills between character and author. In the most ancient times, someone invents hills, but forgets to invent "down the other side." The City of Mists, from which no one ever returns. A freak who is a little too real, even for the travelling circus. The letter "W" is banned from ever being spoken or written. A struggling author meets his own unfinished story. Some kind of kid named Weisenheimer brings a god to life in the barn. The author of Rats Live on no Evil Star and The Circle of Life arranges a bizarre bouquet of strange blooms, most of them based on his own dreams and nightmares.

In a world all but destroyed by nuclear war and mind-controlling governments, a living corpse with the power to heal sets out to die on a cross. Across a landscape blasted by war, littered with still-crawling body parts and computer-driven fighting machines that continue to fire at random, a former soldier wanders, not really alive and not really dead, finding he has the unwanted power to heal. Accompanied by his dozen despicably loathesome disciples, companioned first by Sister Clare the young mother abbess, and then by Sappho the beautiful violet-haired poet, John Boanerges seeks his own death on a cross. This is the fourth volume in the monumental series of seven novels, "The Seven Last Days."

The fabric of time and space have been ripped apart by humanity. But nobody seems to care; everyone is involved in the latest fad, an illegal pastime called The Game. Legend speaks of the Unknown King, who will supposedly come to set things right, but time, literally, is running out. With reality falling apart at the seams, things come into existence without antecedent cause, or wink out of existence for no apparent reason. Clocks start running backwards. Time freezes in some places, and to enter these timeswamps is to live a horrible eternity. A false god has become real and has set out to pull the universe apart. And some enemy that may or may not be real is pulling humanity down. Only the Unknown King can halt the destruction of literally everything, but nobody has come forward claiming to be him. Least of all someone like Arjuna, down on his luck and playing The Game to pass the time.

Behold the ordinary world from the wrong side and nightmares and visions appear. These are strange, unquiet short fictions from the author of RATS LIVE ON NO EVIL STAR and THE CIRCLE OF LIFE. A stripper loves a swinging lightbulb. An explorer encounters the Face of God. The accidental inventor of streaking. Children dig a hole to China. After his death a father's storytelling talent is discovered. A couple find the way to have a perfect relationship. A soldier at the front writes an absolutely perfect poem. A Sultan who despairs of finding the woman he desires in his well-stocked harem. A woman is haunted by her own reflection. A dying man feels ever so much better when his family has gone. An explorer changes the name of a village in rural Asia - and changes history. A mountain pool that shows the Face of God. A couple who have the perfect relationship, by never divulging any personal information to each other. A government agent finds a hill on which he may face death if he crosses it. A father carries his dead child through the village to the sacred mountain. These and more strange stories come from the off-kilter imagination of James David Audlin.

In a manner accessible to the general reader, this treasury of traditional Native American sacred teachings offers the results of a lifetime of study of oral traditions involving spirituality, ceremonies, visions, healings, everyday life, and the warrior's way. This is the COMPLETE EDITION, three times the length of the previously published version. "The Circle of Life" presents, in written form, traditional oral Native American sacred teachings from the Iroquois, Lakota, and other traditions. The author, James David Audlin (Distant Eagle), has been receiving these teachings orally from elders since he was a youth. The wisdom includes Native American views on cosmology, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, sociology, psychology, healing, dream interpretation, and vision quests. Audlin is not a spiritual teacher nor does he even consider himself an authority - he sees himself as a conduit through which the oral traditions handed down to him by elders from various tribes can be presented in a meaningful manner to peoples in today's modern world. He outlines universal principles common to all the Native peoples of "Turtle Island" - and, in fact, to many traditional peoples the world over. We are all a part of the Sacred Hoop, he explains, and the traditional ways of the Native Americans differ only in relatively less essential outer characteristics from the traditional ways of other peoples. The Red Road is available to everyone -regardless of religion or ethnicity - who is willing to follow its paths. These paths, however, are often not easy and require deep personal and spiritual commitment. "The Circle of Life" can be used as a guide on this journey. As Audlin says in his introduction, "If this book serves any purpose, let it be to help us bring the Sacred Hoop of All the Nations back together again, so we and all that lives may stand as one in silent awe before that Great Mystery. Grandfather Sings-Alone, of the Eastern Cherokee Nation, author of "Sprinting Backwards to God," says this book "is a must read for all who want to know the Native ways of worship and honor." The Rev. Nickolas M. Miles, Powhatan Nation says: "James David Audlin's book Circle of Life offers the reader a glimpse into Native American traditional teachings that will help to eliminate preconceived notions and lead one to a deeper understanding of what it means to live in harmony with all of life. A bonus to reading this book is that your life will change. Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota Nation, a nationally syndicated columnist, says: "James David Audlin draws from his own experiences with Indian spirituality and blends them with the traditional Indian spirituality that is becoming more important in America with each passing decade. In blending his points of view with those of the indigenous people, he has created a mixture of Western values and Indian values. Some readers may think that the subject matter touches on traditional values some Indians would rather not reveal, and others will embrace his thoughts and his vibrant storytelling about something that has long been on the backburner of history. Audlin is not bashful in presenting an entirely new conception of Indian spirituality and values."

A widowed skater. A shill. A tree who loves Shakespeare. A freight train. Snow falling on unblinking eyes. Tumbleweed. Tachyons. Kites. A stranger who isn't. * * * A retired skater is driven by guilt over her husband's death to return to the village where she was raised, lacking any longer the will to live. But oblivion will not take her; she begins hearing stories whispered to her from walls and floors - funguswood boards taken from a species of trees long since rendered extinct by humanity. A shill on death row somehow escapes prison by way of an old Leadbelly song; or perhaps it is a drug-induced madness. He comes to the same village and spies on the skater, out on the Suicide Flats nearby, talking for hours with something that looks like tumbleweed. A tree, either the last or the first of its species, who is curiously familiar with Shakespeare, Blake, and Milton, and who bears humanity no ill will, is looking for a savior. And a stranger, who is someone once known and loved, must overcome his anger and doubt to bring these three and their stories together, changing the past in order to preserve the future.

This DELUXE edition is generously sized (81/2"x11"), with gorgeous photographs on nearly every page An American who cannot afford to live in his own house escapes to Panama. Finds himself in Heaven - a beautiful land with wonderful people - but finds corrosive civilization coming ever nearer this fragile alien world. In this travel memoir, novelist James David Audlin tells of his adventures in one of the world's last frontier lands. Here one still sees Ngabe Bugle people, in their bare feet and traditional finery, walking through the village as if they are visiting from another planet. Here descendants of the Conquistadores still ride horseback on dirt roads far too rutted for the new arrivals, the gringos, to negotiate in their big SUVs. Here in the temblor-shaken Tierras Altas, in the shadow of the great Baru volcano at the center of the world - here, for a while yet, there is a respite from the worldwide flood of commercialism, bigotry, arrogation, and greed. But it will not last much longe

An American who cannot afford to live in his own house escapes to Panama. Finds himself in Heaven - a beautiful land with wonderful people - but finds corrosive civilization coming ever nearer this fragile alien world. In this travel memoir, novelist James David Audlin tells of his adventures in one of the world's last frontier lands. Here one still sees Ngabe Bugle people, in their bare feet and traditional finery, walking through the village as if they are visiting from another planet. Here descendants of the Conquistadores still ride horseback on dirt roads far too rutted for the new arrivals, the gringos, to negotiate in their big SUVs. Here in the temblor-shaken Tierras Altas, in the shadow of the great Baru volcano at the center of the world - here, for a while yet, there is a respite from the worldwide flood of commercialism, bigotry, arrogation, and greed. But it will not last much longer.

Poetry is not only the most sublimely difficult but the most deeply personal of all word-arts. Close to being a spiritual autbiography, this collection mostly strives to express what lies beyond the reach of language. Previous readers have suggested similarities to Neruda, Paz, Rumi, William Blake, Rilke, and Rimbaud. "Poetry," a friend once wrote, "leads us past the indescribable and submerges us in the experience." Just as the mountaintop has a natural affinity for the sky it cannot touch, so poetry, as the highest form of word-art, has a natural affinity for that which is beyond words: beauty, horror, love, the sacred, and so on. Poetry improves with age and repeated appreciation, like a fine wine or a well-made violin: the more one reads a good poem the more insight it provides to the reader; indeed, more than any other word-art, it draws us back repeatedly to read it, to read it aloud, to linger yet again before its beauty and marvel at its wisdom. And, finally, as someone (it might have been me) said, "Poetry is the art of breaking words across the silence without disturbing it." Good poetry - unlike prose, which tends to revel in its own loquacity - economizes to the point that what little is said does not describe, as does prose, but points to, just as a finger points at the moon; ... for silence is as asymptotically close as we humans can get to the perfect truth. --from the Preface

The War to End All Wars, except it is draining humanity. And the city has spiritually died. A sculptor comes home from war and dares to create a living sculpture that might yet restore hope to humanity. The city has no hope, no dreams, no vision. But Albion is inspired by the glimpsing visions he receives of the actress Argent de Resznay. But then she disappears and in her memory he begins to sculpt her back into reality. The government, meanwhile, prepares a device that will shut down the unconscious mind - and with it not only all resistance to authority, but any vestige of the creative spirit in humanity. The sculpted reality of Argent may be the Goddess Who can stop this, or it may be another tool in the hands of totalitarianism. This is the third volume in the monumental series of seven novels, "The Seven Last Days."

The Sun is sputtering and guttering with only a pallid reddish light. Dark night has nearly completed its victory over day. What few human beings are left cower in a last village awaiting the eventual death of the world. Two Hunters struggle for supremacy over a female of a nonhuman race. A noah builds a sailing ship to escape to the stars in an attempt to evade the end of the Universe. And then a miracle; no one remembers the last time a child has been born, but here is one, a girl. She is beautiful, but strange, given to dancing weird rituals beneath the Moon and painting self-portraits in the nude. One of the two Hunters, Adam Winter, dares to confront her with his love, with disastrous consequences. The other Hunter, Ikaros, consumed with rage, teams up with a noah to build an Ark -- and it sails into space seeking a new world where humanity might yet live. But there is no miracle for Ikaros; again and again they come back to the same tired world and its darkening Sun.