Death and loss are universal. But how do we liberate ourselves from the frustration, grief, and pain of losing a loved one? Echo in the Lotus Land is a narrative philosophical novel exploring themes of grief, loss, and contemplation through the lens of ancient Indian rational philosophy and spiritualism. Drawing on Samkhya texts, a dualistic school of Hindu philosophy, it seeks to help the reader liberate the self through the parable of Chaya. Chaya’s roommate, Karl, has just lost his mother. As the family comes together around the funeral, Chaya reflects on her past experiences dealing with the loss of her own mother, and how this new death brings that history back into focus. Chaya searches for the meaning of life, and how to resolve and take action to move away from the discomfort of loss and into equanimity once more.

Lotusland is one of the most dramatic gardens in the world. This spectacular book eloquently chronicles the gardens and the life story of the eccentric Madame Ganna Walska, the legendary woman who spent more than forty years and untold millions developing these gardens.

A captivating history of one of the world's most iconic and mysterious flowers Bewitched by a lotus which flowered from three-thousandyear- old seeds in his English garden, Mark Griffiths set out to track the origins and significance of this sublime plant in this beautifully-illustrated book. The Lotus Quest takes Griffiths from the headquarters of the Linnaean Society in London to a mountain top in northern Japan. As he travels in search of this ancient flower, Griffiths looks at the lotus's significance in ancient Egypt and India, the plant's medicinal uses and the inspiration it has provided to Western artists. As he tracks the plant, its story unveils a stunning vision of Japan's feudal era with visits to shrines, ruins, gardens and wild landscapes as well as meetings with priests and archaeologists, philosophers and anthropologists, gardeners and botanists, poets and artists. He even dines on the lotus in a Tokyo cafe. By the end of Griffiths' journey, when he reaches the hauntingly beautiful Japanese temple of Chuson-ji, readers will finally understand why the lotus has obsessed people throughout the ages.

Sounding 7 begins with Echo 107 titled CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN EYES ON THE OZ CULTURE-CLASH FRONTIER followed by echoes on BUCKLEY REVISITED, AFTER THE PROTECTORATE CRUMBLED and WHAT OF PROTECTOR ROBINSON? Echoes follow on salvaging tribal ways, the Merri Creek black orphanage, ‘going round the bend’ at the Asylum and Echo 114: THE CELESTIALS OF VICTORIA, being the resented Chinese gold miners. Exploring the contrasting fate of Batman, La Trobe and Derrimut, leads into echoes on fringe-dwelling, cultural resistance and Oz racism, in particular the mass psychology of racist ideology that culminated with World War 2. After the gold rush era, life and right behaviour at the Healesville Coranderrk mission station and re-thinking William Thomas the Aboriginal Guardian lead to the pleasant notion of civilizing British colonies through sport. The life and exploits of Tom Wills is celebrated in Echo 122: THE MAKING & BREAKING OF VICTORIA’S FIRST SPORTING HERO. Turning to political history, Oz class struggles – convicts, capitalism and nation-building asks the question with Echo 124: WHITHER MARXISM [?] and then BRITISH EMPIRE POLICY REFORMS IN THE 1840s to contain a Chartist-led revolution. Facets of Victorian ‘quality of life’ since the land grab are followed by echoes on the astrology of the 1802 Port Phillip Crown possession claim and an echo titled TOWARDS AN ASTROLOGY OF CIVILIZATION. The Sounding concludes with approaches to researching Aboriginal society, an undergraduate essay on the Dreamtime and finally with Echo 130: A RAINBOW SERPENT BRIDGE. Today in the 21s century, I wonder how differently Oz would have developed if the then ruling British government in Sydney and London had not used censorship to delay the gold rush for almost 40 years! Sounding 8 begins with Echo 131: HISTORY DISTORTION & CENSORSHIP and is backed up with a critique of Britannia’s pirate empire that together spawn two more echoes of doubtful but controversial polemics in 1421 – THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED THE WORLD suggesting they were here in Oz many centuries before Captain Cook. Echo 135: THE KADAITCHA SUNG MEETS THE DRUID INHERITANCE pits Palm Islander Sam Watson’s 1990s fiction The Kadaitcha Sung [the ‘clever’ occult Oz Dreamtime] in occult war with the equally ancient European / Celtic / Druid magic in the psyche of the Aryan ‘race’, so to speak. Going even further out on a limb, the focus shifts to recent light shed on ‘dark ages barbarians’ now considered by some historians to have been more culturally refined than the modern city individual. Back in Oz with Echo 137: WHITE MAN’S LAW – BLACKFELLOW LAW and Echo 138: McLEOD’S BUCKET FROM SKULL CREEK brings Western Australia after WW2 into wider awareness with the Pilbara pastoral workers strike of 1946-49 that won half-decent wage rights for Aboriginal stockmen. Moving further north, Echo 141: RECENT ARNHEMLAND CONNECTIONS Part 1: Taming the NT is the stuff of White Australia’s race-based patriotism as depicted in Ion Idriess’s once-mainstream fascist fictions counterpointed by Part 2: James Gaykamangus’s Striving to bridge the chasm: my cultural learning journey. The final echo 142 talks treaty.