This book sheds light on the greater tradition and teachings of yoga, providing readers with an important approach to the practice that can harmonize their existence both individually and collectively. Yoga provides all students with a new appreciation of their dicipline's universe.

    They also produced much of the country's best literature. Three of these amazing ladies wrote these diaries, among them the highly skilled writer Murasaki Shikibu (ca. 973-1025 a.d.). A lady-in-waiting to the Japanese Empress, she became very adept at observing the daily activities and attitudes of the upper classes. Her diary is a remarkable record of events staged with rare and exquisite taste. The Sarashina Diary, filled with an appreciation of nature, begins with a nine-year-old girl's dreams and ends with the grown woman's account of her husband's funeral (1009-1059 a.d.). Izumi Shikibu's diary is a delicately written work, with poetic thoughts characteristic of the lady's shy reserve. Brimming with poetry and understated social observations, all three provide an extraordinary glimpse of court life in old Japan. Unabridged republication of the edition originally published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1920. 2 color illustrations. 12 black-and-white illustrations. Appendix.

    The best collection of Zen wisdom and wit since "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones": koans, sayings, poems, and stories by Eastern and American Zen teachers and students capture the delightful, challenging, mystifying, mind-stopping, outrageous, and scandalous heart of Zen.

    Martin, Charlaine Harris, Chuck Palahniuk, Neil Gaiman, H.P. Lovecraft, Joe R. Lansdale, Angela Carter, David J. Schow, Kathe Koja, Bentley Little, and more. Skipp provides fascinating insight and details, through two nonfiction essays, into the history and presence of shape shifting in popular culture.  Resources at the end of the book include lists of the genre's best long-form fiction, as well as movies, websites, and writers.

    Unlike Japan with its long tradition of women writers, poetry by women did not become fashionable in China until the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911), although poems from earlier centuries that do in fact survive will quickly dispel any stereotyped views. Included here are samplings from the legendary earliest poetry of courtesans, palace women, and Tao priestesses to works by contemporary Chinese women living in both the East and West. Appendixes include notes on the poems, an introductory essay on Chinese women and literature, a table of historical periods, and a bibliography.

    Yet remarkably, the setting for this classic of spiritual literature is an ancient Indian battlefield. At the last moment, the great warrior Arjuna begins to wonder about the real meaning of his life. In the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krsna brings His disciple from perplexity to spiritual enlightenment. Bhagavad-gita As It Is is the largest-selling, most widely used edition of the Gita in the world.

    Now considered the standard canon of modern Japanese writing translated into English, Modern Japanese Literature includes concise introductions to the writers, as well as a historical introduction by Professor Keene. Includes: Growing Up by Ichiyo, a lyrical story of pre-adolescence in the 90s; Natsume’s story of Botchan, an illustarred and ineffectual Huck Finn; Nagai’s The Sumida River; Kokomitsu’s Kafkaesque Time; Kawabata’s The Mole; Firefly Hunt; a glimpse into Tanizaki’s masterpiece Thin Snow; and the postwar work of such writers as Dazai and Mishima.

    Jacques Philippe develops themes relating to prayer, freedom, the Holy Eucharist, and man’s constant struggle for contentment amid the stresses of everyday life. Through spiritual insights of amazing women of the Church—Etty Hillesum, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Teresa of Avila—Fr. Jacque’s essays examine topics such as:Why look for interior peace?Knowing God through MaryTouching God through prayerThe theological virtues and the Eucharist

    A fascinating look at the man behind the myth.

    until he started a new job and a new life at a high school in downtown Tokyo. Here he discovered the real Japan, not the version sold to tourists, and realized that it was far more thrilling, heartbreaking, and beautiful than anything he had ever experienced. Over the course of one year in Tokyo, Garett navigates the perilous waters of 21st-century Japan, where love and laughter are as common as violence and tragedy. From love hotels to sumo, yakuza gangs to hostess bars, and a Shinto wedding to a KFC Christmas, discover what Tokyo is really like for its 38 million inhabitants. A travel book, a tale of sex and romance, and a love letter to a maddening, wonderful place, Lost in Tokyo provides a new perspective on living, working and playing in the world's most vibrant city.

    

    Kpop Why? contains various unknown stories about k-pop stars. The author, who has been working as a k-pop journalist since 2010 gives you answers to various questions about k-pop idols such as “Why did they disband their team?”, “Why did they deny their romantic relationship?” and “Why are they so popular?”.

    Eliot's critical writings. Tracing the rise of literary self-consciousness from the Elizabethan period to his own day, Eliot does not simply examine the relation of criticism to poetry, but invites us to "start with the supposition that we do not know what poetry is, or what it does or ought to do, or of what use it is; and try to find out, in examining the relation of poetry to criticism, what the use of both of them is." Eliot begins with the appearance of poetry criticism in the age of Dryden, when poetry became the province of an intellectual aristocracy rather than part of the mind and popular tradition of a whole people. Wordsworth and Coleridge, in their attempt to revolutionize the language of poetry at the end of the eighteenth century, made exaggerated claims for poetry and the poet, culminating in Shelley's assertion that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of mankind." And, in the doubt and decaying moral definitions of the nineteenth century, Arnold transformed poetry into a surrogate for religion. By studying poetry and criticism in the context of its time, Eliot suggests that we can learn what is permanent about the nature of poetry, and makes a powerful case for both its autonomy and its pluralism in this century.

    The “haiku moment,” as it is called, refers to a heightened awareness of the world around us and how, in that small, transient period, the greater essence of our lives is reflected. As our culture speeds up and our personal lives feel overbooked and busy, haiku can offer an easy way to slow down, appreciate the simple things around us, and give us a moment to reflect on our lives. In Haiku Mind, Patricia Donegan presents 108 haiku that offer a larger lesson on how we can approach our lives. With themes such as honesty, transience, and compassion, Donegan offers haiku and commentary as a form of meditation—a moment where we can slowly and naturally discover what is simply here.

    The translators have balanced faithfulness to the Japanese with an appreciation of the unique spirit of each poem to create English versions that evoke the joy and wonder of the originals with the same astonishing economy of language. An introduction by the translators and short biographies of the poets are included. Reproductions of woodblock prints and paintings accompany the poems.