The author of the New York Times bestseller Minding the Body, Mending the Mind reveals the power of spiritual optimism: a philosophy that sees life crises as opportunities for personal growth and spiritual transformation.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Though tragic, it is also a story of triumph that scarcely has an equal. It is one of history's great witnesses of the power of faith and sacrifice. Although this story is one of the most frequently told of all Mormon pioneer accounts, it is also among the least understood. This book provides the most comprehensive and accessible account of these pioneers' epic 1856 journey. In addition to painting a broad perspective of the trek, it includes dozens of personal stories from the pioneers themselves. Woven into the larger story of the journey west, these stories inspire, build faith, recount miracles, and reveal how these pioneers were able to endure such adversity. The book also includes chapters on the lives of many of these pioneers after the handcart trek. Immerse yourself in the challenges and miracles of this astounding odyssey as never before!

    It is a collection of essays by Eihei Dogen (1200–1253), founder of Zen’s Soto school. Kazuaki Tanahashi and a team of translators that represent a Who’s Who of American Zen have produced a translation of the great work that combines accuracy with a deep understanding of Dogen’s voice and literary gifts. The finely produced, two-volume boxed set includes a wealth of materials to aid understanding, including maps, lineage charts, a bibliography, and an exhaustive glossary of names and terms—and, as a bonus, the most renowned of all Dogen’s essays, “Recommending Zazen to All People.”

    The Tantric tradition is a unique collection of lesser-known texts, concepts, and meditation practices that are usually made available only to experienced and specially initiated practitioners. The "Vajra World" ( vajradhatu in Sanskrit) is a realm of indestructibility, the level of reality beyond all thought and imagination, all impermanence and change, which a fully realized person knows and inhabits. Used metaphorically, "Vajra World" refers to the traditional culture of Tibet and the unique spirituality that is its secret strength. Topics include:    •  The tantric view of human nature and the external world    •  The special role of the guru, or tantric mentor    •  The preliminary practices that prepare the student for full initiation    •  The major dimensions of Vajrayana practice, including visualizations, liturgies, and inner yogas    •  The tradition of the tulku, or incarnate lama    •  The lore surrounding the death of ordinary people and of saints    •  The practice of solitary retreat, the epitome of traditional Tibetan Buddhism Secret of the Vajra World is the companion volume to the author's earlier book, Indestructible Truth: The Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism. While that book focuses on the history, cosmology, philosophy, and practice of the more public, exoteric side of Tibetan Buddhism, this work treats its more hidden and esoteric aspects as they take shape in Vajrayana. Together, the two volumes provide a broad introduction to the major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.

    The Witch's Altar is an in-depth exploration of altars for covens and solo practitioners. From building and maintaining your altar to exploring the use of mobile and hidden altars, this book offers advice, techniques, and fun for Witches of all ages and skill levels.Learn about the altar's role in history and mythology. Personalize your altar with candles, crystals, sacred tools, magickal objects, statues, pentacles, and symbols. Explore how different altar locations may affect your practice, and discover new ideas for elemental, seasonal, and outdoor altars, as well as altars for the dead. The Witch's Altar also includes fascinating contributions from leading writers, including Jenya T. Beachy, Lilith Dorsey, Lon Milo DuQuette, Angus McMahan, Louis Martini�, Lupa, Gwion Raven, Natalie Zaman, Andrieh Vitimus, and many more. Filled with spells, recipes, and tips, this book provides everything you need to help you create the altar of your magickal dreams.

    Now, Savage gives his audience a look into his religious faith and his ideas about the Judeo-Christian foundation of the American culture he has fought all his life to preserve.But rather than a dry, theological treatise, Savage provides something more akin to an ancient mystery text. Drawing on Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and other spiritual sources, as well as autobiographical material and highlights from his radio show, Savage shares a series of glimpses of God he has experienced over the whole of his life, before and after his groundbreaking radio career.Moving childhood stories, his dinner with an atheist and a Buddhist, an interview with a Jewish gangster and Savage's reflections on selected passages from ancient scriptures are just a few of the eclectic group of experiences and insights Savage shares in what is easily the most unique book on spirituality in decades. From his days as a boy growing up in New York City to many years searching for healing plants in the South Seas to his current incarnation as one of the most popular talk radio hosts in the world, Savage has been haunted by glimpses of the divine and struggled to find their meaning.Rather than trite, orthodox answers, GOD, FAITH, AND REASON presents the reader with one man's perceptions and consideration of the daily presence of God in the world around us and how the search to find God is the finding itself.

    The explanation for this current fixation seems to lie in the contrary phenomenon—unhappiness. Despite the fact that we have tremendous access to every imaginable form of entertainment, we experience a pervading sense of insecurity, emptiness, and malaise amid sporadic peak experiences.The problem seems to lie less in the external environment than in the internal one. We seem, in the words of Viktor Frankl, to be suffering from an absence of meaning that pervades both individuals and societies, giving rise to a collective emptiness, loneliness, and alienation.Finding True Happiness attempts to provide a way out of this personal and cultural vacuum by helping people to identify and then reach for happiness. As Aristotle noted 2,400 years ago, happiness is the one thing we can choose for its own sake—everything else is chosen for the sake of happiness.After an exhaustive investigation of philosophical, psychological, and theological systems of happiness, author Fr. Spitzer developed the “Four Levels of Happiness”, which he based on the classical thinkers Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas; the contemporary philosophers Marcel, Scheler, Buber, Ricoeur, and Jaspers; and the modern psychologists Maslow, Frankl, Erikson, Seligman, Kohlberg and Gilligan.Finding True Happiness is both a philosophical itinerary and a practical guidebook for life’s most important journey—from the mundane and the meaningless to transcendent fulfillment No other book currently available combines such breadth of practical advice and such depth of philosophical, psychological, and spiritual wisdom.

    Featuring brand new stories and some old favorites, many of these tell-all, gritty tales were originally published on the blog Make It MAD between 2010 and 2012, and have been rereleased in their originality for this special print and digital anthology.

    But our worth isn't defined by society. It's defined by our loving God, who made us and calls us his redeemed daughters. God has a good plan for our beauty, femininity, relationships, and identity and wants to help us thrive in his freeing design.That's what Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal have been sharing in their popular books, videos, podcast, and blog. Now they offer this 60-day devotional to help you find your entire identity in Christ. Beautifully designed and filled with uplifting Scripture, sincere encouragement, questions for reflection, some good laughs, and room to journal, Shine Bright makes a lovely and thoughtful gift--for a friend, a mom, a daughter, or yourself!

    Struggles, discouragement, and John's improper expectations of what God was "supposed" to do for his life caused John to leave his faith and the Lord's body, the church. John went back into every form of sin imaginable: alcoholism, drug abuse, adultery, and pornography - just as a dog returns to its vomit. John's shame and guilt, his failure to provide for his family, and the loss of all hope that God could ever forgive him brings John to a terrifying moment... holding a shotgun to his chin. He starts to pull the trigger. Can God forgive this wretch of a man? Is it possible for John to be restored and to be able to return to Jesus Christ? This raw, gritty, true story grabs the reader from beginning to end. It is a story about the real life of a discouraged Christian, and it is a story of hope, love, and the redemption found through the grace of God!

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    Meet and work with animals as totems and spirit guides by learning the language of their behaviors within the physical world.Animal Speak shows you how to:Identify, meet, and attune to your spirit animalsDiscover the power and spiritual significance of more than 100 different animals, birds, insects, and reptilesCall upon the protective powers of your animal totemCreate and use five magical animal rites, including shapeshifting and sacred danceThis beloved, bestselling guide has become a classic reference for anyone wishing to forge a spiritual connection with the majesty and mystery of the animal world.

    After spending two years in bed with Lyme disease, Steven Kotler had lost everything: his health, his job, his girl, and, he was beginning to suspect, his mind. Kotler, not a religious man, suddenly found himself drawn to the sport of surfing as if it were the cornerstone of a new faith. Why, he wondered, when there was nothing left to believe in, could he begin to believe in something as unlikely as surfing. What was belief anyway? How did it work in the body, the brain, our culture, and human history?Into this mix came a strange story. In 2003, on a surf trip through Mexico, Kotler heard of "the conductor," a mythical surfer who could control the weather. He'd heard this same tale eight years earlier, in Indonesia, but this time something clicked. With the help of everyone from rebel surfers to rocket scientists, Kotler undertakes a three year globetrotting quest for the origins of this legend. The results are a startling mix of big waves and bigger ideas: a surfer's journey into the biological underpinnings of belief itself.

    Some of the prayer practices include creativity, journaling, the general practice of solitude and silence, and the Jesus prayer. The first chapter focuses on the Desert Mothers and Fathers to describe the general practices of solitude and silence. The second chapter describes the practice of Lectio Divina (or praying the scripture). The next five chapters describe prayer practices that focus on the use of the mind to come to know God. Chapters 8 and 9 move beyond the mind to use our bodies in prayer. The last three chapters move readers beyond themselves to show their prayerful interaction with the world. Along with these prayer practices are historical figures. Some of these are Julian of Norwich, The Pilgrim (who described the Jesus Prayer), and Ignatius of Loyola. Wolpert offers an appendix with step-by-step instructions for individuals and small groups to practice each from of prayer.