Featuring 17 poets and writers from around the world in a setting devoted to the contemplation of Rumi's long-standing importance, this collection offers a series of dynamic essay-reflections from the US, Iran, Mexico, Afghanistan, Syria, Sweden, France, Turkey, and Pakistan.

A new translation of one of the great koan collections--by the premier translator of the Chinese classics--that reveals it to be a literary and philosophical masterwork beyond its association with Chan/Zen. A monk asked: “A dog too has Buddha-nature, no?” And with the master’s enigmatic one-word response begins the great No-Gate Gateway (Wu-Men Kuan), ancient China’s classic foray into the inexpressible nature of mind and reality. For nearly eight hundred years, this text (also known by its Japanese name, Mumonkan) has been the most widely used koan collection in Zen Buddhism—and with its comic storytelling and wild poetry, it is also a remarkably compelling literary masterwork. In his radical new translation, David Hinton places this classic for the first time in the philosophical framework of its native China, in doing so revealing a new way of understanding Zen—in which generic “Zen perplexity” is transformed into a more approachable and earthy mystery. With the poetic abilities he has honed in his many translations, Hinton brilliantly conveys the book’s literary power, making it an irresistible reading experience capable of surprising readers into a sudden awakening that is beyond logic and explanation.

Mellissa Carlisle is soon to be Custos. But will there be a world for her to protect? Actions in the middle, and far east, result in a catastrophic event which obliterates Mecca. The world destabilizes rapidly as the destruction triggers a fleet of huge mother ships, which have lay dormant for millions of years. The Apocalypse Gate Protocol is initiated. The ships begin to systematically extinguish humankind. Mellissa Carlisle, and an old friend are mankind's only hope of survival. The abort code is lost, and the supercomputer is preventing them from stopping the cleansing of the planet. It comes down to one of them making the ultimate sacrifice.