Delbert Wiens was born during the depression to an ethnic, German-speaking, Mennonite family. As an adult, he became the righteous older sibling who wanted, oddly, to identify with his elders. Returning home to Corn, Oklahoma, with a severe case of culture shock after living in Vietnam, he wrote New Wineskins for Old Wine to tell Mennonites they were succumbing to “evangelical” forms of “modernism.” Unfortunately, the relentlessness of his analysis convinced many that he had a “dangerous mind.” This book tells the story of his recovery of the wisdom of his elders. In response Wiens develops metaphors like concrete and abstract to clarify how civilizations evolve. He centers his attempt to tell stories that, like biblical narratives and parables, evoke traditional attitudes and lifestyles. Phrases like mutual aid and ethnic cliches like Gottesfurcht (honoring God) and Gelassenheit (letting go and letting God) are used to describe their qualities and virtues. The final chapters use a more abstract style to trace some of the positive and negative consequences of “progress.” This book circles around its center (chapters 4–9) that describes the faithfulness and character of his elders. May these meditations better evoke the desire to imitate them.

A beautifully illustrated collection of mindfulness exercises for grounding, relaxation, and finding inner peace, from contemporary mystic Osho All of us have experienced moments of "coming home"--feeling relaxed, grounded, free of the restlessness that characterizes so much of our everyday lives. These moments can arise in nature or in the depths of an activity we enjoy, alone or together with people we love. They show us that we are exactly where we are supposed to be. The meditations in Coming Home to Yourself were selected from Osho's hundreds of public talks and intimate conversations. These passages are designed to be a companion on the journey toward transforming our rare moments of "at-home-ness" into an undercurrent that permeates all aspects of our lives. They offer guidance about meditation and specific techniques to try, insights into the habits that keep us tense and conflicted, and what life might look like if we recognize those habits and let them go. Exercises include activating your awareness, opening the heart, learning to relax and concentrate in order to reap the benefits of meditation, and freeing the brain from mental blocks. Featuring whimsical full color illustrations throughout, Coming Home to Yourself invites the reader to dip into the meditations at any point or read the book in sequence for a true homecoming experience.

Homer’s Odyssey holds a timeless allure. It is an ancient story for every generation: the struggle of a man on a long and difficult voyage longing to return to love and family. Odysseus’s strivings to overcome both divine and earthly obstacles and to control his own impulsive nature hold valuable lessons for us as we confront the challenges of daily life. Sailing Home breathes fresh air into a classic we thought we knew, revealing its profound guidance for the modern seeker. Dividing the book into three parts—“Setting Forth,” “Disaster,” and “Return”—Fischer charts the course of Odysseus’s familiar wanderings. Readers come to see this ancient hero as a flawed human being who shares their own struggles and temptations, such as yielding to desire or fear or greed, and making peace with family. Featuring thoughtful meditations, illuminating anecdotes from Fischer’s and his students’ lives, and stories from many wisdom traditions including Buddhist, Judaic, and Christian, Sailing Home shows the way to greater purpose in our own lives. The book’s literary dimension expands its appeal beyond the Buddhist market to a wider spiritual audience and to anyone interested in the teachings of myth and story.

The gateways to wonder and delight are flung open wide for all to enter. At once a beautiful love song and an encyclopedia of yogic techniques, the cherished text known as the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra shimmers with new effulgence in Lorin Roche's The Radiance Sutras. Lorin brings us his unique perspective on each of 112 Sanskrit teachings, along with his one-of-a-kind guidance in how to meditate with, embody, and practice them—what he describes as "answering the call of the sutras you love." Here is an invitation to experience directly the ecstatic depths of yoga as revealed by the divine partners Shiva and Shakti, through an intimate exploration of: The divinity that is permeating your body at this very moment • The alchemical power of Sanskrit • Yoga meditation—harmonizing all the elements and levels of your being • The depths of your connection to the energies of life Taken as a whole, this teaching is startling in its breadth and the huge range of human experience that it encompasses. This is a book to savor one phrase at a time, over a period of days or years or a lifetime. With The Radiance Sutras, yoga and meditation students everywhere can nurture their own relationship with these living wisdom teachings.

"[Thich Nhat Hanh] shows us the connection between personal, inner peace and peace on earth." --His Holiness The Dalai Lama Nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for a Nobel Peace Prize, Thich Nhat Hanh is one of today’s leading sources of wisdom, peace, compassion and comfort. Exiled from Vietnam over thirty years ago, Thich Nhat Hanh has become known as a healer of the heart, a monk who shows us how the everyday world can both enrich and endanger our spiritual lives. In this book, Jesus and Buddha share a conversation about prayer and ritual and renewal, and about where such concepts as resurrection and the practice of mindfulness converge. In this unique way, Thich Nhat Hanh shows the brotherhood between Jesus and Buddha-- and in the process shows how we can take their wisdom into the world with us, to "practice in such a way that Buddha is born every moment of our daily life, that Jesus Christ is born every moment of our daily life."

A foxhunt saboteur and demonstrator who served time in jail; a former 60-a-day smoker and drug user; a man whose choices almost broke apart his marriage-author Toby Estler knows what real transformation is all about: looking for, discovering, and learning from the opportunities in everything that life brings. His style is so honest, entertaining, and uplifting that, on first reading, you will want to keep reading Running Home straight through to the finish line, before returning again and again to experience the inspiration of the moving meditations.Each chapter in this book offers you opportunities for: .Discovering how to carry the inspiration and joy from running or other sport deeper into your personal and professional life..Enhancing your running efficiency..Finding creative solutions to challenges in any area of your life..Establishing, nurturing, and deepening your relationship with the very best of who you are..Enjoying the peace and calm of your workouts throughout your entire day..Experiencing deeper spiritual awareness, authenticity, and wholeness

A year before Ram Dass's passing, he engaged in an intimate dialogue with his dear friend, Mirabai Bush. Walking Each Other Home presents their extraordinary discussion about loving and dying, sharing their stories, favorite practices, and deep wisdom about the most important, final step on our spiritual journey through this lifetime.

Notions of home are of increasing concern to persons who are interested in the unfolding narratives of inhabitation, displacement and dislocation, and exile. Home is viewed as a multidimensional theoretical concept that can have contradictory meanings; homes may be understood as spaces as well as places, and be associated with feelings, practices, and active states of being and moving in the world. In this book, we offer a window into the distinct ways that home is theorized and conceptualized across disciplines. The essays in this volume pose and answer the following critical and communicative questions about home: 1) How do people “speak” and “story” home in their everyday lives? And why? 2) Why and how is home—as a material presence, as a sense and feeling, or as an absence—central to our notion of who we are, or who we want to become as individuals, and in relation to others? 3) What is the theoretical purchase in making home as a “unit of analysis” in our fields of study? This collection engages home from diverse contexts and disparate philosophical underpinnings; at the same time the essays converse with each other by centering their foci on the relationship between home, place, identity, and exile. Home—how we experience it and what it that says about the “selves” we come to occupy—is an exigent question of our contemporary moment. Place, Identity, Exile: Storying Home Spaces delivers timely and critical perspectives on these important questions.

Theres an old folk tale about a young mother who lost her child and is inconsolable. The wise man of the village tells her to go from house to house to find what everyone sharesand what everyone sharesis loss. Its the universal experience. Although we all will grieve the loss of our loved ones, we can learn how to reconnect with them. Through prayer and meditation, we can shift our awareness from the physical to the non-physical. We can witness firsthand that death is but an illusion. We can heal. We can find joy again. Author Heather Scavetta discovered that reality when she began developing her clairvoyant abilities after the death of her daughter, Elizabeth, in 2004. In The Power of Love, Scavetta shares her personal journey of receiving visions and afterlife communication from her daughter, loved ones, and spirit guides who encourage her to persevere through her grief. Having no previous ability, Scavetta shows that opening up spiritual gifts is accessible to everyone. Through personal examples, she shares how to open your own psychic and mediumistic abilities, and she discusses the many ways spirit can reach us. A story of celebration about the amazing and wonderful experiences that occurred since Elizabeths transition, The Power of Love narrates one familys story of how they opened their spiritual gifts to see, hear, and feeland to know beyond any doubttheir daughter never left their side.