"Though I didn't know it at the time, I heard the Siren's song within my mother's womb. Even before I was born, I was being drawn to my death."Thus begins the true story of a gifted photographer's quest for inner peace. Beautifully illustrated with over 75 fine-art, B/W images, "Fading Toward Enlightenment" takes the reader on a modern-day hero's journey. From the anguish of self-loathing, through the confusion of the search, past the traps of the mind - photographer and author, Wayne Wirs leads the reader on an epic tale of his personal quest for tranquility in the midst of today's fast-paced world.Following no particular school of thought or religious practice, the author recounts his journey from a typical, normal, solid life to one that is dynamic, flowing and at times filled with the Divine. Students of meditation, eastern philosophy, and the esoteric - as well as fans of "The Celestine Prophecy", "The Power of Now", and "The Tao Te Ching" - will find a voice that resonates True in the author's poetic words and inspiring images."Fading Toward Enlightenment" is one of the most honest and beautifully illustrated accounts of the modern spiritual search to date. Its powerful images, inspiring quotes and compelling text harmonize subtly to immerse the reader in this heart-felt and moving narrative.

Today, the long-assumed belief in the permanence of an enlightened world is suddenly open to challenge. Human rights, participatory government, and social justice are losing global influence, and the world of ordinary people is pushing back against Enlightenment conceits. Accumulated anger links Taliban, Tea Party, and Trump, threatening women's rights, social justice, and democracy. To understand and counteract the threat to these ideas, we must set aside embedded explanations and embrace a new frame of observation and tolerance grounded in the power of belief, legend, and tradition. In Rebuilding an Enlightened World, Bill Ivey explores how folklore offers a unique and compelling new way to understand the underlying forces disrupting the world today. If we are to salvage the best of the Enlightenment dream and build a better future, we must begin to listen, patiently and inquisitively, in order to interpret the customs, norms, and traditional practices that shape all human behavior.

The forgotten story of Central Asia's enlightenment—its rise, fall, and enduring legacy In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds—remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia—drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America—five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.

A humorous and honest collection of Buddhist wisdom from a Western beginner'­s perspective. Instead of promising a straight and clear path to enlightenment, author and teacher Geri Larkin shows us that even stumbling along that path can lead to self-discovery and awakening, especially if we prize the journey and not the destination. With candor, affection, and earthy wisdom, Larkin shares her experiences as a beginning and continuing Buddhist. This spirituality classic shows any seeker that it's possible to stumble, smile, and stay Zen through it all.

The intimate personal journals of two occultists practising western magick to achieve “The Great Work” (also known as “awakening” or “enlightenment”). With its humour, honesty, and down-to-earth approach, extending beyond the cult following it gained after its original publication in the late noughties, The Baptist's Head Compendium has proved itself a seminal text and indispensable guide to anyone suspicious of or disillusioned by magick purely as a tool for personal power or material gain. Sharing the details of their discoveries – and mistakes – in the process of making them, Chapman and Barford demonstrate how magick is a genuine spiritual tradition leading to enlightenment. They have their minds blown and the strangest experiences of their lives! By holding nothing back, but sharing all results and methods, the reader is equipped to embark on their own exploration of magick as a path to spiritual awakening. Originally published as a trilogy, but long since out-of-print, these books are now available for the first time in a single volume, revised and updated with new introductions by the authors.

From Here To Here is a guidebook for the spiritual seeker. It invites you to look at your spiritual path from a perspective that few consider and gives you the keys to understanding what few will ever realize. Its underlying message is that enlightenment's only complication is its devastating simplicity. Rich with metaphors, examples, and teaching stories, the book also offers important, easy-to-understand concepts from psychology, brain science, and common sense.

Open your eyes, open your mind. Realize so much of freedom comes from inside. Read it, think about it, let it open your mind.

Does the thought of planning a party feel overwhelming, intimidating, or like one more thing you have to do? Have you ever wondered how to create a fun and memorable party? The Enlightened Party Planner: Guides to Creating Parties from the Heart is a series of books based on the notion that being of service and coming from the heart will not only make for an amazing party your guests will remember for a lifetime, but will also leave you feeling happy and fulfilled.Book two in the Enlightened Party Planner series, Decade Parties: A Blast from the Past, is dedicated solely to decade parties from the 1920s through the 1980s. Each chapter offers historical references and myriad ideas to spark your imagination to creating wonderfully authentic decade experiences.

This book is an invitation to you to find completion and wholeness, to work through second stage recovery fully, including a necessary descent to let go of the separate self, and embrace third stage recovery and abide in non-dual being.

This volume offers a complete translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, the third of the four great collections in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon. The Samyutta Nikaya consists of fifty-six chapters, each governed by a unifying theme that binds together the Buddha's suttas or discourses. The chapters are organized into five major parts. The first, The Book with Verses, is a compilation of suttas composed largely in verse. This book ranks as one of the most inspiring compilations in the Buddhist canon, showing the Buddha in his full grandeur as the peerless "teacher of gods and humans." The other four books deal in depth with the philosophical principles and meditative structures of early Buddhism. They combine into orderly chapters all the important short discourses of the Buddha on such major topics as dependent origination, the five aggregates, the six sense bases, the seven factors of enlightenment, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the Four Noble Truths. Among the four large Nikayas belonging to the Pali Canon, the Samyutta Nikaya serves as the repository for the many shorter suttas of the Buddha where he discloses his radical insights into the nature of reality and his unique path to spiritual emancipation. This collection, it seems, was directed mainly at those disciples who were capable of grasping the deepest dimensions of wisdom and of clarifying them for others, and also provided guidance to meditators intent on consummating their efforts with the direct realization of the ultimate truth. The present work begins with an insightful general introduction to the Samyutta Nikaya as a whole. Each of the five parts is also provided with its own introduction, intended to guide the reader through this vast, ocean-like collection of suttas. To further assist the reader, the translator has provided an extensive body of notes clarifying various problems concerning both the language and the mean