In Part One, we join him on an engaging, often hilarious, and compelling personal journey.... through decades of tasting from a banquet of spiritual approaches. Through his direct experience, fierce exploration, and scintillating discernment, Brown exposes the fragmented, ungrounded and dissociative notions of spirituality that have imprisoned our consciousness and obstructed our awakening since time immemorial. In his cuttingly straight style, he reveals that much of what we have been calling "spirituality" is actually a patriarchal, emotionally bereft construct that perpetuates our self-avoidance. He then proves to us--point by brilliant point--that true spirituality is a whole-being awakening, one that wonderfully embraces our entire human experience. In many spiritual practices, emotional healing processes (blockage clearing, issue resolution, the working through of the shadow) have been bypassed and trivialized, as though the 'real' spiritual realm exists independent of our feelings. Brown makes no distinction between these realms, revealing that emotional maturity and spiritual maturity are synonymous, and that any spirituality that desacralizes our selfhood is not enlightenment at all. It is a bypass of that which is fundamentally human: our feelings, our stories, our bodies, our relationships with each other and the earth that houses us. In his words, "Detachment is a tool- not a life. If you can't find your transformation in the village, you haven't found a thing." In Part Two, Brown engages in a riveting dialogue with an ungrounded seeker named "Michael." Their dialogues unfurl in warmth, humor, playfulness, personal story, threaded with challenging confrontation and cutting truth. Hands-on exercises are dispersed throughout--providing readers with a direct experience of a new, inclusive model. Here the author lays down the tracks for a more balanced, heartfelt and relational spirituality- one that leaves us "enrealed," integrated, and purposeful. Not awakened, but awakening. Not escaping our humanness, but finding our meaning and spirituality deep within it. Out of the ashes of old ways of being, a bright new paradigm comes into view. An inclusive, self-honoring, and healing spiritual perspective that will be a welcomed relief for any seeker.In the author's words, "It's one thing to briefly detach from story in the hopes of gaining a different perspective--it's quite another to deny our storied roots altogether. What will we stand in, then? At a time when our personal stories have been shamed and shunned in the spiritual community, it is all the more imperative to revive them and makes luminous their sacred, transformative properties. The past is not an illusion, as many would suggest. It is the ground of our being, the karmic field for our soul's transformation- the mystery that threads right through our history. Story is where we come from. Story is what roots us in the present. Story is how we arrive at the next place intact. A spirituality without story is like a body without breath. Dead to the world." What we need now are models that lead us back into our hearts, into relatedness, into a deep and reverential regard for the self's journey through time. In this magnificent book, Brown endeavors to hearticulate one such path, reminding us that heaven on earth begins and ends deep within the recesses of our enlivened humanness. At long last, we can lay down our weary heads, burdened by the impossibility of transcending our human experience. Back to our roots, back into our bodies, back into all that makes us marvelously human. Home at last.

    Often considered his masterpiece, it follows the desertion of everyday life of an army conscript who escapes his intolerable existence through dreams, hallucinations, drug orgies, a pursuit of his double and finally madness.

    It includes texts written about her, by figures such as socialist leader Eugene V. Debs and Mark Twain. "Her liberal views and wide sympathies ought to shame those who have physical eyes, yet do not open them to the sorrows that encompass the mass of men."—New York Call (1911) -------------- "We were born into an unjust system. We are not prepared to grow old in it."—Bernadette Devlin Rebel Lives books feature writings both by and about individuals who have played significant roles in humanity’s ongoing fight for a better world. The series shows the not-so-well-recognized political views of some well-known figures and introduces some not-so-famous rebels. Strongly representative of race, class and gender, these books are smaller format, inexpensive, accessible and provocative.

    In these essays, Einstein views science as the basis for a "cosmic" religion, embraced by scientists, theologians, and all who share a sense of wonder in the rationality and beauty of the universe. In the course of his career, Einstein wrote more than 300 scientific and 150 nonscientific publications. These essays date from the 1930s and 40s. In direct, everyday language the author develops a coherent view that transcends both the antiquated religion of fear and the modern religion of ethics. His concept of cosmic religion combines science and religion, with science forming the basis for a more enlightened religion. In these essays and aphorisms, Einstein also reflects on pacifism, disarmament, and Zionism. In addition to a brief biography of the author, this volume includes a warm appreciation by George Bernard Shaw.

    Translation of: Orphee noir, originally published 1948 as the preface to Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie negre et malgache de langue francaise, edited by Leopold Sedar Senghor.

    In The Thing Itself, Todd attempts to discover for himself a new way of thinking by asking the simple question: What is true in ourselves and the world around us? With an exquisite eye for detail and an inquisitive spirit, Todd launches into an involving and elegantly crafted investigation of what makes an authentically lived life. As he focuses on an array of exchanges with people, objects, places, and ideas?from the banal to the emotionally poignant?Todd shows us that there?s a great distance between what we can touch, feel, and see, and what interactions mean in our lives. Mining a rich and multifaceted store of modern philosophy and personal experiences, he inches closer to seeing himself and the world through a clearer set of eyes. Engaging and readable, The Thing Itself offers unexpected insights into the very human search for meaning in our lives.

    Neuroscience can now begin to unlock the key to the self. Our knowledge of the brain has progressed so rapidly that it will change the way we think of ourselves as human beings. It will change our notion of understanding. This is a revolution which will have impact on all our lives. Neuroscientists are gathering new empirical evidence about consciousness and human nature; they are picking up where the great earlier thinkers like Freud, Darwin, Charcot and others began. This evidence begins to give substance to some of the grand statements and intuitive leaps made in the nineteenth and early twentieth century about the nature of the self.

    In his witty way, Mr. Safire enlightens us concerning proper usage, correct pronunciation, the roots of our daily discourse, and the vacuous vogue lingo in which "subsume" is co-opting "co-opt," wood-burning stoves become "energy systems," and stores that sell eyeglasses squint out at us as "vision centers."He is aided in his campaign for precision and clarity in language by a legion of word buffs, language lovers, and learned eccentrics--many of them world-class wordsmen in their own right.Here are Mr. Safire's delightful, crotchety, subtly informative, and awesomely informed comments, decisions, and advisories--the best of his famous column in The New York Times. Plus scores of letters written by enthusiastic or furious readers, who glory in nailing an expert to the wall.

    First published in 1937.

    This complex work, composed of hundreds of aphorisms of varying length, explores many themes to which Nietzsche later returned and marks a significant departure from his previous thinking. Here Nietzsche breaks with his early allegiance in Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner, and establishes the overall framework of his later philosophy. In contrast to his previous disdam for science, now Nietzsche views science as key to undercutting traditional metaphysics. This he sees as a crucial step in the emergence of free spirits who will be the avant-grade of culture." This is an essential work for anyone who wishes to understand Nietsche's incisive critique of such diverse aspects of Western culture and values as the idea of good and evil, the roles of women and children in society, and the concept of power and the state.

    Comprehensive explanations of their secret rituals and symbolism. Including alchemy, astrology, Kabbalism, ceremonial magic, animal magnetism and more.

    This is a presentation of the essential teaching of this direct path to freedom that focuses on the recognition and realization of the True Self. This book identifies the root cause of suffering as the identification with the mind and the belief that the psychological construct that is considered the "person" is actual. It is shown that this idea we have of who we are is an illusion that has been taken to be real and thus creates all forms of psychological suffering and confusion. The freedom from this illusion is shown to be available to anyone who is willing to recognize and realize the truth of who they are. This is a non-dual approach to psychological treatment that is becoming a new approach that has the potential to bring an end to all psychological disorders.

    The collected teachings of The Golden One.Dauntless: The Wild Hunt Edition (2021) is a greatly updated version of this book.

    We want to know! We want to know the purpose of our life, why we are here on earth, where we came from, whether there is a God, who this God is, whether there is an afterlife, and so much more! These most basic and fundamental questions are hopefully in the forefront of our minds. And if they are not, it's never too late to start! This book offers some of the answers to these questions. It offers the answers found is our Creed. At first, the Creed can seem dry and unimpressive. It can even seem confusing and overly academic. But when properly understood, the Creed holds the answer to the questions we so deeply seek.

    Now at your fingertips. The Mahabharata is the world's longest epic. It contains within it numerous fables, anecdotes and pieces of practical wisdom that make up what we today call Indian culture.Two thousand tales from this ocean of Vedic literature are now being retold for your reading pleasure. Crisp, comprehensive, contextual.In this volume you will find stories such as:- The three disciples of Dhaumya the sage- The strange adventures of Uttanka- The tortoise that fought with an elephant over years by a lake- How Sesha came to become the supporter of Mother Earth- Who the second Indra was and how he was 'defeated'And many more. Whether you're a casual reader of mythology or a die-hard fanatic, this is a must-read.