This book describes a man's late life journey to Spiritual Awakeness and Unwavering Forgiveness. In fact, forgiveness changed the book's unfolding during the writing of it. The author began the book's writing with the desire to review a memory troubled life in a way that some degree of peace could be found within it. Forgiveness absolutely began to take over the book very early; forgiveness became the way of seeing the life rather than an end result. The author learned that forgiveness is not only cleansing and healing in retrospective, it completely changes the way we look at things. For the author, a lifetime previously perceived largely in ugliness was transformed into beauty. Prior unsavory scenes took their true places within auras of ignorance; eyes of forgiveness exposed ignorance as the true culprit in all unhappiness. Thus, things previously seen in contempt and blame became innocent of all charges. The author found total, Unwavering Forgiveness and Universal Love, gateways to God Consciousness.

This book began as the response to a wondrous feel good moment experienced by its author. He described it as such a wonderful glow that seemed like disclosure of an amazing secret he had always kept even from himself. It was a rare moment which the author felt as Beautiful NOW, wherein there was no guilt, no blame and no shame. There was only "Beautiful ME" within that Beautiful NOW, the author realized. He set out to attempt to describe the moment, as well as to attempt to review the long, widely eventful life that had brought him to "Beautiful NOW, Beautiful ME." The author had sought self love for a lengthy lifetime, and came to know he had attained that realization, even if only in a brief instant. Free at Last, was the joyful response.

"Life's Greatest Treasures are Found in Things to Forgive. What a Rich Man I Have Found Myself to Be." Such is the realized Joy of the author as he has chosen to look back at an often troubled life from early childhood through late adulthood. He chose to try to look at his life through Eyes of Compassion, Forgiveness and Love, believing such eyes could see his life framed only within those qualities. Secure in his sense that all persons, experiences and circumstances could and would be forgiven and embraced with love, he surrendered to letting his entire life flow into his conscious awareness, "bad" times as well as "good" ones. The author began to see Things to Forgive as treasures filling a wondrous Forgiveness Treasure Chest. Even the most severe of early life difficulties were allowed to flow into that "chest" to be embraced with forgiveness and love. The author found his own self in that Forgiveness Treasure Chest, the greatest treasure of all to be embraced with forgiveness and love.

This book is very much about The Gospel of Thomas - that much-too-little-understood "alternative" gospel which the early Christian church condemned and banished into virtual obscurity for nearly 2000 years. But mostly, the book is about Jesus. Thomas's gospel acts as our guide as we go through the book delving into what the author feels Jesus is trying to convey to us. So much of that is about Awareness - Consciousness - of God's Kingdom as ever-presence NOW, the author contends. Above all, this book is about precisely that which the author wished to convey in the book's title: Jesus As I Have Come To Know And To Deeply Love Him. The author has come to know a very approachable and human Jesus, as well as a courageous spiritual and social rebel who faced-up to both Rome's Empire and the Jewish aristocracy without blinking. The universal love of Jesus was increasingly experienced by the author as the book progressed, deepening the author's own love for Jesus.

n this unflinching look at depression and the human struggle to find hope in its midst, acclaimed author Tim Farrington writes with heartrending honesty of his lifelong struggle with the condition he calls "a hell of mercy." With both wry humor and poignancy, he unravels the profound connection between depression and the spiritual path, the infamous dark night of the soul made popular by mystic John of the Cross. While depression can be a heartbreaking time of isolation and lethargy, it can also provide powerful spiritual insights and healing times of surrender. When doctors prescribe medication, patients are often left feeling as if part of their very selves has been numbed in order to become what some might call "normal." Farrington wrestles with profound questions, such as: When is depression a part of your identity, and when does it hold you back from realizing your potential? In the tradition of Darkness Visible and An Unquiet Mind, A Hell of Mercy is both a much needed companion for those walking this difficult terrain as well as a guide for anyone who has watched a loved one grapple with this inner emotional darkness.

In this landmark guide to the spiritual journey, respected Zen teacher and psychotherapist John Tarrant brings together ancient Eastern traditions and the Western passion for the soul. Using real-life stories, Zen tales, and Greek myths, The Light Inside the Dark shows how our darkest experiences can be the gates to wisdom and joy. Tarrant leads us through the inevitable descents of our journey--from the everyday world of work and family into the treasure cave of the interior life--from which we return with greater love of life's vivid, common gifts. Written with empathy and a poet's skill, The Light Inside the Dark is the freshest and most challenging work on the soul to he published in years.

Before Dan opened his door to find a wounded woman who had escaped from the tormentors in the mountain, his life had become rather quiet. He and the eight other people in the mostly abandoned town had become friends. They spent peaceful evenings around the campfire and even made vague plans to journey east one day and leave the ominous mountain behind. But the woman's arrival changes everything. Who is she? How does she know so much about Dan's brother, who is still held captive in the mountain? Why are long-forgotten memories rising to the surface? And why does Dan feel so compelled to keep her presence in his house a secret? Visionary writer Shawn Smucker is back with an unsettling story that invites us to consider two challenging questions: To what lengths will we go to assuage our own guilt? and Is there a limit to the things we will do for the people we love?

"Echoes from a Child's Soul: Awakening the Moral Imagination of Children presents remarkable poetry inspired by aesthetic education methodology created by children that were labelled academically, socially, and/or emotionally at-risk. Many children deemed average or below-grade level composed poetry beyond their years revealing moral imagination. Art psychology and aesthetic methodology merge to portray the power of awakening children's voices once silenced. The children's poetry heralds critical and empathic messages for our future. This book proposes an overwhelming need for change in America's public-school education system so that no child is ignored, silenced, deemed less than, or marginalized"--