An elite forces ranger must keep his dark secret at bay to unravel the mystery of a nameless evil.

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The young master of the Godless Palace in the Western Regions had once bullied him, and the successor of the Martial Union was his rival in love. One after another, his opponents forced him to become strong, to have a strange background, to have a strange bloodline, to become the core of the human race during the battle of the God's Annihilation. [Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]

The Indian Subcontinent has been at the centre of folklore inquiry since the 19th century, yet, while much attention was paid to India by early scholars, folkloristic interest in the region waned over time until it virtually disappeared from the research agendas of scholars working in the discipline of folklore and folklife. This fortunately changed in the 1980s when a newly energized group of younger scholars, who were interested in a variety of new approaches that went beyond the textual interface, returned to folklore as an untapped resource in South Asian Studies. This comprehensive volume further reinvigorates the field by providing fresh studies and new models both for studying the “lore” and the “life” of everyday people in the region, as well as their engagement with the world at large. By bringing Muslims, material culture, diasporic horizons, global interventions and politics to bear on South Asian folklore studies, the authors hope to stimulate more dialogue across theoretical and geographical borders to infuse the study of the Indian Subcontinent’s cultural traditions with a new sense of relevance that will be of interest not only to areal specialists but also to folklorists and anthropologists in general. This book was originally published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.

When we think of "heaven," we generally conjure up positive, blissful images. Heaven is, after all, where God is and where good people go after death to receive their reward. But how and why did Western cultures come to imagine the heavenly realm in such terms? Why is heaven usually thought to be "up there," far beyond the visible sky? And what is the source of the idea that the post mortem abode of the righteous is in this heavenly realm with God? Seeking to discover the roots of these familiar notions, this volume traces the backgrounds, origin, and development of early Jewish and Christian speculation about the heavenly realm -- where it is, what it looks like, and who its inhabitants are. Wright begins his study with an examination of the beliefs of ancient Israel's neighbors Egypt and Mesopotamia, reconstructing the intellectual context in which the earliest biblical images of heaven arose. A detailed analysis of the Hebrew biblical texts themselves then reveals that the Israelites were deeply influenced by images drawn from the surrounding cultures. Wright goes on to examine Persian and Greco-Roman beliefs, thus setting the stage for his consideration of early Jewish and Christian images, which he shows to have been formed in the struggle to integrate traditional biblical imagery with the newer Hellenistic ideas about the cosmos. In a final chapter Wright offers a brief survey of how later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions envisioned the heavenly realms. Accessible to a wide range of readers, this provocative book will interest anyone who is curious about the origins of this extraordinarily pervasive and influential idea.

THE BOOK: The book is an open-eyed journey through the mystic world of faith. It is an intellectually stimulating account of the birth of religions. As animal, for definite, have no religions and intelligence is the dividing line between man and animal, it should be amply clear that religions have risen out the thinking faculty of man. These are about God and His creation alright, but not from God, though human brain itself is a gift from God. The book traces the story of religions from the earliest times and tries to reach to the core of all major belief systems of the world. Towards the end, it draws a sort of balance-sheet of the religions to form an idea what good and bad these have done to the mankind. An effort has also been made to have a peep into their future.

"My mother is dead. My grave will be opened six months later. I was born in her grave. I am a ghost." I was born with a yin constitution and was destined to be a Taoist my whole life. Otherwise, I would definitely not live past the age of thirteen. Don't ask me if there are any ghosts in this world. If you want to see a ghost, burn the paper, write down the name of the dead soul in your blood, and I'll have it come straight to you.

A remarkable change is taking place that will profoundly influence the way we see ourselves and our world. The dominant materialistic, separatist worldview-a perspective that leads individuals to value their own needs over the good of the whole-is giving way to a humanitarian-spiritual orientation. This shift will revolutionize both the way humanity interacts on a global scale and how we live on a day-to-day basis. Global Shift, co-published with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), explores the roots of such current planetary crises as climate change, diminishing resources, poverty, and disease, and explains how a new convergence of scientific research and spiritual insight is propelling us toward a more enlightened future. It also presents a call to actions we can implement now, such as voluntary simplicity, nonviolent communication, caring for our bodies, and inclusive global thinking, that can foster personal healing and bring our lives into alignment with the needs of the planet and a conscious universe.

"Join me in this book as I stumble my way across das Mutterland to learn all I can about my maternal and paternal surnames, Karle & Kaiser, and my other forty-five ancestral surnames (Adolf, Andreas, Arp, Arnst, Becker, Bopp, Burbach, Dagenheim, Foht, Freund, Geringer, Grun, Hart, Heiland, Hermann, Hess, Heylmann, Hieronymus, Horn, Ikstadt, Kohler, Kramer, Lieders, Maurer, Michel, Neumann, Nicolausen, Nillmayer, Popp, Roth, Rudolph, Schaeffer, Scherer, Schiller, Schmiedt, Schneider, Schutz, Simon, Steitz, Trieber, Trippel, Vogt, Werner, Will, Zeichmann). Read how the Black Death, and the 30 Years and 7 Years Wars plagued them. Learn of the Catherine the Great "Scam" and its effect on the Volga Germans. Share their fear as the Russians close in. Travel with them to their new homeland in the Americas." Traces the origins of Karle & Kaiser from about 50,000BC. Covers DNA tracking, pre-German history, religion, the Volga life and villages, and escape to the Americas. Over 560 pages,200 pictures,80 maps.