Wisdom's Blossoms

Wisdom's Blossoms PDF

Author: Doug Glener

Publisher: Shambhala Publications

Published: 2002-11-12

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 083482938X

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Here is a timeless collection of traditional stories that recount the personal spiritual journeys and true acts of selflessness by saints from various religious traditions indigenous to India, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Sufism. The authors present a diverse selection of these inspirational tales—about both men and women saints, from a variety of time periods, and from all over India—and make them relevant for a modern audience. The stories reveal that, despite their perceived differences, the same spiritual principles underlie all the great religious traditions.

Blossoms of Friendship

Blossoms of Friendship PDF

Author: Vimala Thakar

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 9788120800885

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Blossoms of Friendship captures the timelessness of Vimala thakar's discourses and presents each one aas a savory treat. My favourite is chapter five, The Silence of Meditation, which clearly reminds us of the power,even the necessity, of spiritual practice in today's world.

Blossoms in the Wind

Blossoms in the Wind PDF

Author: M. G. Sheftall

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2023-05-09

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0593472322

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A revelatory and groundbreaking account of Imperial Japan’s kamikaze—the suicide pilots of World War II—as told through the eyes of the survivors In the final year of World War II, a horrific new weapon was unleashed in the Pacific: the kamikaze. Idealistic, young Japanese men had been taught that there was no greater glory than to sacrifice one’s life to defend the homeland. Now, with the war all but lost, thousands of these determined warriors were hastily trained in the basics of piloting an airplane, then sent out in waves to crash into enemy warships, suicide attacks that killed altogether some seven thousand American sailors. But what of those men who took the sacred oath to die in battle and lived? In the wake of 9/11, ethnographer M. G. Sheftall was given unprecedented access to the cloistered community of Japan’s last remaining kamikaze survivors. As an American fluent in Japanese, Sheftall was the only westerner to ever sit face-to-face with these men and hear their stories. The result is a fascinating journey into the lives, indoctrination, and mindsets of the kamikaze, through the eyes of participants who are now lost to time.

Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom

Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom PDF

Author:

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-01-30

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1614293392

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Insightful commentary on a beloved ancient philosopher of Zen by a beloved contemporary master of Zen. Famously insightful and famously complex, Eihei Dogen’s writings have been studied and puzzled over for hundreds of years. In Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom, Kosho Uchiyama, beloved twentieth-century Zen teacher addresses himself head-on to unpacking Dogen’s wisdom from three fascicles (or chapters) of his monumental Shobogenzo for a modern audience. The fascicles presented here from Shobogenzo, or Treasury of the True Dharma Eye include “Shoaku Makusa” or “Refraining from Evil,” “Maka Hannya Haramitsu” or “Practicing Deepest Wisdom,” and “Uji” or “Living Time.” Tom Wright and Shohaku Okumura lovingly translate Dogen’s penetrating words and Uchiyama’s thoughtful commentary on each piece. At turns poetic and funny, always insightful, this is Zen wisdom for the ages.

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms PDF

Author: Kim Hooper

Publisher: Turner Publishing Company

Published: 2018-10-30

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1684421780

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From the author of the critically-acclaimed debut People Who Knew Me comes the story of one man’s determination to abandon his will to live. Jonathan Krause is a man with a plan. He is going to quit his advertising job and, when his money runs out, he is going to die. He just has one final mission: A trip to Japan. It’s a trip he was supposed to take with his girlfriend, Sara. It’s a trip inspired by his regrets. And it’s a trip to pay homage to the Japanese, the inventors of his chosen suicide technique. In preparation for his final voyage, Jonathan enrolls in a Japanese language class where he meets Riko, who has her own plans to visit her homeland, for very different reasons. Their unexpected and unusual friendship takes them to Japan together, where they each struggle to make peace with their past and accept that happiness, loneliness, and grief come and go—just like the cherry blossoms. Haunted by lost love, Jonathan must decide if he can embrace the transient nature of life, or if he must choose the certainty of death.