But now that the Imperium Titus has taken over, every ship sails on the edge of a knife. Young airman Cyprian Fields isn't one to turn away from danger. During his service as the deckmaster of an old freighter named Philomena, the arrival of mysterious young physician Basil Black and alluring stowaway Veronica Stromm turn the intrepid boy officer's world upside-down. Suddenly, Cyprian and Philomena's ragtag crew are thrown into a wonderful and perilous adventure that will take them to the furthest reaches of air, land, and sea. In the midst of whispering Silverspoons and murderous admirals, printing presses and aetherolabes, fleets and fortresses, Cyprian, Veronica, and Basil must decide whether they will face down the might of the Imperium or allow the doom descending on Cor Nova to overwhelm them all.

    True religion is the highest Way, the absolute Way: zazen."Here, Deshimaru, the author of True Zen, offers practical suggestions for developing unitary mind-body consciousness through the principles of zazen (translated literally as "seated meditation"). Advice is given on posture, breathing, and concentration, and concepts such as karma and satori are clearly explained.

    Smiling, the palm reader tells Nina that she has a long lifeline, as she traces it on her hand. As soon as the words are uttered, the palm reader's facial expression turns to one of fear. In broken English, she whispers, "Break - very bad break in middle of life. Maybe you die."Nina does come close to death at age thirty-four when she and her family are involved in a serious auto accident. She assumes she has successfully cheated the death that the palm reader prophesied. Unfortunately, the sinister and tragic break in the lifeline and its deliverer are yet to be revealed.

    He did not claim he was God’s agent. Did he believe in God? Did he look for a sign when he was desperate? Did he follow the Divine Will? Many believers are not followers; many followers are not believers. Is he a believer or a follower or both?

    No cliff-hangers. Although each book can be read as a stand-alone, the reader’s experience is enhanced by reading the books in order. The Chocolate Magic Café – The beginning. - Successful chocolatier Magda Caraganic decides to convert an old stable into a chocolate shop and café. The work sparks off spirit activity marked by the appearance of a mysterious ghost cat. At the same time Magda’s beautiful Birman cat, Crystal, starts to act strangely. This is a story of friendship, friendly ghosts, cats, chocolate and true love. Spirit Magic - Spirit Magic is a light-hearted, entertaining tale with a happily-ever-after ending! - When Magda decides to make some extra-special truffles using imported whisky, strange events start to occur. Her cat, Crystal, always seems to sense when things aren’t quite right. As Magda and her fiancée Sam plan their wedding, they are plagued by a strongminded Scottish spirit. Celtic Spirits - A honeymoon in Ireland! What more Magda and her husband ask for? - When Sam’s aunt Alison contacts them about the possibility of Sam buying her cottage, it’s an easy decision to spend their honeymoon in romantic Ireland. Once there, they find themselves immersed in family history and mystery. The discovery of an old well stirs up trouble, murder and witchcraft. Add in a magical pendant, hidden places, new friends … and of course, a mysterious cat … for another delightful story from the pen of Olivia Swift!Lonesome Spirits - Join Sam and Magda on their latest adventure! A must-read about chocolates, a psychic cat, séances, a ghost town … and murder! - While helping their friends Merle and Branston plan a feature for their dude ranch, they are visited by the spirit of a young woman. Never ones to let things be, they rally their psychic friends for a séance to try and determine who she is and why she’s so sad. Meanwhile, Magda’s cat, begins to act strangely … well, not so strange for this cat! Christmas Spirits - It’s Christmas at the Chocolate Magic Café! - Part of Magda’s Christmas plan are to install a model train in the café. Trains seem to be a theme as Crystal keeps giving clues which include trains. When one of the customers says she hears noises in her house, naturally Magda and her friends need to investigate. They encounter the spirit of a sad little girl and her dog. Will Magda, Sam and their friends be able to enjoy the holiday spirit of the café and the glitter of the Christmas dance at the ranch, especially when there’s a robbery, murder and some very naughty elves!Kindred Spirits - Nothing stays buried forever. - Magda, Sam, and their friends pool their resources to purchase an old bank building. Problems arise with an angry spirit during the renovations. Meanwhile, Magda’s cat keeps pushing a magazine to the floor – opening to a page about family ancestry. To their surprise, the spirit appears again when Magda and Sam take a trip to Ireland and the spirit’s mood hasn’t improved. Painted Spirits - Cowboy dreams, séances, painted horses, a rodeo and a mystery . . . they all happen in a new adventure for Magda Barnes and friends of The Chocolate Magic Café. - Magda’s best friend Rula seems to have a cowboy spirit in her stable. Imagine the surprise when an artist paints the same cowboy, which he has seen in his dreams. Will the friends be able to determine the connection between the two when they come together for a séance? Meanwhile, in her usual manner, Crystal is knocking books to the floor opening to pages providing hints about family . . . and danger.

    Life was beautiful but war devastates everything. The story runs through her joy, pain, anguish, struggle and wisdom. For most birds life is simply eating, drinking and raising their chicks. This bird finds a higher purpose which turns to a mission in her life. Through the nightmare of war, she comes to the realization that she needs to do something for healing the soul of humanity. With the help of her guide Yashir, she follows her dream to spread peace on earth. This is a fable about the healing and raising the human consciousness on earth for peace on our planet. We are not helpless, each of us has a role and the story shows us the way.

    There are classical logic puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, “who am I?” riddles, mathematical brain teasers, word ladders, ditloids, and a large selection of illustrated pen and paper, coins, cups, and toothpicks puzzles (please view the preview of this book for a full listing). This is the first time a collection of such breadth has been compiled and formatted especially for Kindle devices. The puzzles have been carefully organized into 25 chapters, and each question is hyperlinked to its solution, to provide utmost ease of navigation. Alongside the world’s most famous riddles, are some lesser known gems, and some brand new puzzles, in print here for the first time. Our aim was to create a definitive compendium of riddles and puzzles to bring enjoyment to people of all ages. We hope you will enjoy unraveling them as much as we enjoyed creating and editing them. Here are a handful of sample riddles: Outside the Box Riddles: You need to divide a round birthday cake into eight pieces, so each of your guests will have something to eat. How can you do this by making only three straight cuts with a knife, and without moving any of the pieces? The king’s two bodyguards developed an ingenious method for assuring the king’s safety. With the king standing between them, they would face in opposite directions; one looking to the west and the other to the east, but at the same time, and without the use of any reflective surfaces, they would both be able to observe the king clearly. How was this possible? Pure Logic Riddles: There are two glasses. One contains water, and the other contains an equal quantity of wine. A teaspoon of water is removed and mixed into the glass of wine. A teaspoon of the wine-water mixture is then removed and mixed into the glass of water. Which of the mixtures is now purer? The sorcerer’s tower was enchanted in such a way that it was able to build itself. Bricks, slates, tiles, and panes of glass, all flew to it of their own accord and danced into position. The tower doubled in size every day until after 100 days it reached a height that provided fine views over the entire realm. How many days did the tower take to reach half its full height? Lateral Thinking Puzzles: Five men are going to church. It starts to rain, and four of the men begin to run. When they arrive at the church, the four men who ran are soaking wet, whereas the fifth man, who didn’t run, is completely dry. How is this possible? Think Twice Riddles: If you are running a race, and you overtake the person in second place, what place do you move into? Word Riddles: SOS is read the same forwards, backwards, and even upside-down. What four-letter word also shares these properties? Number Puzzlers: How many letters are there in the answer to this question? You have an opportunity to buy a hen. In fact, you have been offered a choice between two quite remarkable animals. One of the hens produces six dozen dozen eggs per month, and the other produces a half dozen dozen. Admittedly, both seem impressive. Does it matter which hen you choose? Traditional Poetic Riddles: Five creatures cross a field of snow; But leave a single track behind Whose loops and bows are soon, I know, Unravelled by the mind. Coins, Cups, and Toothpicks Illustrated Riddles: A coin is dropped into an empty bottle and a cork is then inserted in the neck of the bottle. How is it possible to remove the coin without taking out the cork, or breaking the bottle?

    In his travels through India, Burma, Japan, and Thailand, he encounters luminous teachers such as Krishnamurti, Maharishi, and D.T. Suzuki. Ultimately, his search for peace of mind and liberating insights comes to fruition in Yangon—also known as Rangoon—under the tutelage of the great Vipassana meditation master Sayagyi U Ba Khin.

    Prather subtitled the book, "My struggle to become a person." It was the deeply felt record of his journey to a state of heightened self-knowledge and spiritual flowering. It became a perennial best-seller, and continues to enlighten, comfort, and amuse to this day.Notes to Each Other bravely explores the heart of a relationship that has lasted for 35 years—the relationship between Hugh and Gayle Prather. With remarkable candor, one couple traces the emotional route traveled to reach the coveted place where genuine communication, cooperation, and compassion dwell. First published 10 years ago, the book has here been updated and enlarged by the greater wisdom that comes with the experience of raising children and growing older together.Although drawn from two hearts, the book speaks with one voice, asking the questions all couples ask, from "Did I choose the right person?" to "How can you stand me?" Let it speak to you.

    Zek lays bare the brutality of life spent behind bars. It is naked. It is ugly. And it is beautiful.Arthur Longworth was born in Tacoma, Washington, was state-raised, and entered prison at the age of 21 with a seventh-grade education. He has written for the Marshall Project, Vice News, and Yes Magazine, and is the recipient of three National PEN awards. Completed in 2005, Zek utilizes the literary structure of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich to tell the story of a day in the life of a prisoner in the United States. It is likely Arthur Longworth’s most widely read work, as it has been passed among prisoners and prison guards for over a decade. Zek is available now for the first time on the outside.

    Over the years it has inspired leading American Zen teachers, students, and practitioners. Its popularity is as high today as ever.Zen Flesh, Zen Bones is a book that offers a collection of accessible, primary Zen sources so that readers can struggle over the meaning of Zen for themselves. It includes 101 Zen Stories, a collection of tales that recount actual experiences of Chinese and Japanese Zen teachers over a period of more than five centuries; The Gateless Gate, the famous thirteenth-century collection of Zen koans; Ten Bulls, a twelfth century commentary on the stages of awareness leading to enlightenment; and Centering, a 4,000 year-old teaching from India that some consider to be the roots of Zen.

    A master storyteller." - Clive Cussler Two men separated by a strict code of honor locked in a lethal game of international terror . . . Jorge Cordoba has schemed and murdered his way to the top of a Colombian drug cartel intent on bankrupting the industrialized nations of the world. But when the freighter delivering the goods that will secure the cartel's - and Cordoba's - future goes missing, he's thrown into a life or death struggle to recover it. Enter Navy Lieutenant Daniel Blake, a former merchant marine officer who's just been ordered to lead a boarding party of seven men and one woman onto an abandoned freighter. In the hull of the freighter are thirty tons of cocaine, $350 million in cash - and half a dozen corpses with their tongues cut out. Separated from his own ship with a typhoon rapidly approaching, Blake and his team are plunged into a battle of terror against not one, but two treacherous enemies - Cordoba's strike force racing to the scene and a savage murderer who is still aboard. At the heart of this electrifying novel are two very different men, separated by their morality and strict code of honor, bound together in a deadly game of power and survival that each must fight to the very end.

    John McNally tells the story of two unlucky people who forge an improbable yet possibly life-saving connection in a world overshadowed by the Patriot Act and No Child Left Behind -- a world in which hulking government bureaucracies and vast corporations join forces to numb the populace into apathy with various standardization and surveillance programs. But McNally sees hope in the daily experiences of his characters: sometimes, haphazardly, by going about their own very particular lives, people circumvent the official program and begin to actively claim lives of freedom and dignity. "America's Report Card" is an arresting and humane portrait of life taking place in the margins, outside the stunted imagination of government and media. As in his critically acclaimed novel "The Book of Ralph", McNally dazzles with characters like Jainey O'Sullivan -- a lonely, confused, purple-and-green-haired sometime truant, Jainey cares so little about high school that on her final standardized test, she writes an essay heaping scorn on the test administrators even as she asks her faceless reader for help. Charlie Wolf leads a fairy-tale graduate student life, with just enough money and clout to keep him in books, vodka, a threadbare apartment, and a beautiful, intellectual girlfriend. But the bohemian dream starts to crumble when Charlie takes a job scoring standardized tests and finds himself surrounded by people who are either plodding blindly along or caught up in wild conspiracy theories.When Charlie and Jainey stumble upon one another, they also stumble upon their own bravery and compassion. They try to protect each other from their habitual bad luck and the shadowy threats lurking at the edges of their lives, and what ensues doesn't follow any prescribed course.The official version of American life today may get the broad strokes and primary colors right, but "America's Report Card" reveals how the government and the media overlook the corners and shadows where our individual realities unfold all too often in chaotic, precarious, and bewildering ways. This wholly original, wildly entertaining novel mirrors our part in the dark but frequently redemptive comedy that is life.

    3 bestseller.Derek Acorah is one of the UK's best known psychics with several regular television shows on the Living TV channel: the hugely successful 'Most Haunted' and ‘Celebrity Most Haunted’, and ‘Psychic Live’.In this book he tells amazing tales of his countless psychic experiences, from public performances to personal readings.Includes exclusive details of Derek’s extraordinary communications with some of Britain's more notorious spirits; a phenomenon often witnessed by thousands of television viewers during his investigations into reputedly haunted historical sites for Living TV.

    The Magic Monastery differs from its predecessors in that it contains not only traditional tales--mostly unpublished--but also stories specially written by Shah to complete the book as 'a course in non-linear thinking.'