A tangled web of lies characterizes the life Laura Mabry has built for herself and her son after the tragic death of her husband. But Laura's carefully constructed world slides off its axis when she stumbles upon the body of a young college student on the recreational trails of Raleigh's Greenway. What's worse, Detective Jon Locklear is Laura's worst nightmare...and her dream come true. Jon has spent years trying to forget Laura. Past experience has taught him that he can't trust her, but old habits—like old loves—die hard. When the killer turns his attention on Laura, Jon may be the only one who can save her. Truth and murder lurk just around the corner for Laura. Can she find the courage to face her deepest fears and unravel the lies of her past before she and her son become the Greenway Killer's next victims?

"A collection of short talks by Jakusho Kwong-roshi, a successor in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, exploring the profound beauty of Zen history and practice, nature, and the philosophy of the ancient Zen master Eihei Dogen. Includes photos of Kwong-roshi with his various teachers, as well as selections of his calligraphy. In Zen meditation, anything that comes in your mind will eventually leave, because nothing is permanent. A thought is like a cloud moving across the blue sky. Nothing can disturb that all-encompassing vastness. This is the Dharma. In a collection of short talks and anecdotes, Jakusho Kwong-roshi, a Dharma successor of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, presents his approach to Buddhist teaching. With an elegant simplicity, Kwong-roshi shows how Zen is experiential rather than intellectual. And with persistent practice, realization is already ours. With photos of Kwong-roshi and his various teachers, along with a selection of his vibrant calligraphy"--

Entangling Vines is a translation of the Shumon Kattoshu, the only major koan text to have been compiled in Japan rather than China. Most of the central koans of the contemporary Rinzai koan curriculum are contained in this work. Indeed, Kajitani Sonin (1914–1995)—former chief abbot of Shokoku-ji and author of an annotated, modern-Japanese translation of the Kattoshu—commented that “herein are compiled the basic Dharma materials of the koan system.” A distinctive feature of Entangling Vines is that, unlike the Gateless Gate and Blue Cliff Record, it presents the koans “bare,” with no introductions, commentaries, or verses. The straightforward structure of its presentation lends the koans added force and immediacy, emphasizing the Great Matter, the essential point to be interrogated, while providing ample material for the rigors of examining and refining Zen experience. Containing 272 cases and extensive annotation, the collection is not only indispensable for serious koan training but also forms an excellent introduction to Buddhist philosophy.

Zen Buddhism is perhaps best known for its emphasis on meditation, and probably no figure in the history of Zen is more closely associated with meditation practice than the thirteenth-century Japanese master Dogen, founder of the Soto school. This study examines the historical and religious character of the practice as it is described in Dogen's own meditation texts, introducing new materials and original perspectives on one of the most influential spiritual traditions of East Asian civilization. The Soto version of Zen meditation is known as "just sitting," a practice in which, through the cultivation of the subtle state of "nonthinking," the meditator is said to be brought into perfect accord with the higher consciousness of the "Buddha mind" inherent in all beings. This study examines the historical and religious character of the practice as it is described in Dogen's own meditation texts, introducing new materials and original perspectives on one of the most influential spiritual traditions of East Asian civilization.

Life is better at the lake—but you already knew that. Capture the sweetest parts of lake life with 100 peaceful devotions and gorgeous photography in Devotions from the Lake. This beautiful book offers insight into how God meets us through rest and play, and how to bring all the best parts of “lake life” to everyday life. Life has a way of slowing down and simplifying when you’re by the water. Enjoying long walks, ice cream cones, and watercolor sunsets with your family and friends is a way of life on lake days . . . wouldn’t it be a dream to live like that year-round? Devotions from the Lake includes 100 devotions and beautiful photography.It is a wonderful way to start each day at the lake with quiet devotional time as you gain deeper insight into how God meets us through rest and play and how to bring all the best parts of “lake life” to everyday life. It’s the perfect gift for any lake lover or a happy way to keep a little piece of the lake with you at all times.

This book has three major goals in critically examining the historical and philosophical relation between the writings of Dōgen and the Zen koan tradition. First, it introduces and evaluates recent Japanese scholarship concerning Dōgen's two Shōbōgenzō texts, the Japanese (Kana) collection of ninety-two fascicles on Buddhist topics and the Chinese (Mana) collection of three hundred koan cases also known as the Shōbōgenzō Sanbyakusoku. Second, it develops a new methodology for clarifying the development of the koan tradition and the relation between intellectual history and multifarious interpretations of koan cases based on postmodern literary criticism. Third, the book's emphasis on a literary critical methodology challenges the conventional reading of koans stressing the role of psychological impasse culminating in silence.

The Buddhist philosophical tradition is vast, internally diverse, and comprises texts written in a variety of canonical languages. It is hence often difficult for those with training in Western philosophy who wish to approach this tradition for the first time to know where to start, and difficult for those who wish to introduce and teach courses in Buddhist philosophy to find suitable textbooks that adequately represent the diversity of the tradition, expose students to important primary texts in reliable translations, that contextualize those texts, and that foreground specifically philosophical issues. Buddhist Philosophy fills that lacuna. It collects important philosophical texts from each major Buddhist tradition. Each text is translated and introduced by a recognized authority in Buddhist studies. Each introduction sets the text in context and introduces the philosophical issues it addresses and arguments it presents, providing a useful and authoritative guide to reading and to teaching the text. The volume is organized into topical sections that reflect the way that Western philosophers think about the structure of the discipline, and each section is introduced by an essay explaining Buddhist approaches to that subject matter, and the place of the texts collected in that section in the enterprise. This volume is an ideal single text for an intermediate or advanced course in Buddhist philosophy, and makes this tradition immediately accessible to the philosopher or student versed in Western philosophy coming to Buddhism for the first time. It is also ideal for the scholar or student of Buddhist studies who is interested specifically in the philosophical dimensions of the Buddhist tradition.

The Vine is not an apologetic. It is not a self-help book, nor is it about saving others. It may be a declaration - an amalgamation of thoughts knit together with the motif of a vine - a theological algorithm leading to the Church's destiny as the Bride of Christ. The major premise of The Vine is that of God's overarching plan and purpose for the church, the Bride of Christ. It follows a minor motif of the nature and husbandry of a grapevine. The Vine explores God's covenants, dispensations, and revelations, upon which the life of the faith-vine depends-a novel approach to the beginning, growth, and destiny of the church. Combining the two premises leads to a fulfilling conclusion.

Metaphysics and Mystery: The Why Question East and West is a critical analysis, comparison and evaluation of philosophical answers, Western and Asian, to the question: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” The question, first posed by the 17th C. philosopher, Leibniz, was reintroduced in the 20th C. by Heidegger. Volume One begins with an introduction that lays out the issues raised by the Why question. It then analyzes contemporary Western philosophers who provide either cosmological-metaphysical or existential-ontological answers to the question. It also considers transitional answers that bridge the two. Volume Two examines Asian philosophers, classical and contemporary, who, though rejecting the assumptions behind the question, put forward nondualist answers that have a direct bearing on it. It concludes with an argument for a revised understanding of the Why question that draws on the strengths and weaknesses of these Western and Asian philosophies and explores implications for ethics and religious thought

The first book of this two-volume set consists largely of an annotated translation of the Record of the Transmission of Illumination (Denkōroku 傳光録) by Zen Master Keizan Jōkin 瑩山紹瑾 (1264–1325), presented together with the original Japanese text on which the English translation is based. That text is the recension of the Denkōroku published in Shūten Hensan Iinkai 宗典編纂委員会, ed., Taiso Keizan Zenji senjutsu Denkōroku 太祖瑩山禅師撰述伝光録 (Tokyo: Sōtōshū Shūmuchō 曹洞宗宗務庁, 2005). The Shūmuchō edition of the Denkōroku includes some items of Front Matter from earlier published editions, which are included in the English translations. Volume 1 also contains an Introduction that addresses such matters as the life of Keizan, the contents of the Denkōroku, the provenance of that work, and the textual history of its various recensions. In addition, Volume 1 includes a Bibliography that lists many works of modern Japanese- and English-language scholarship that are relevant to the academic study of the Denkōroku. The second volume contains a Glossary in two parts. Part One explains all of the Buddhist technical terms and Zen sayings that appear in the annotated translation of the Shūmuchō edition of the Denkōroku, found in Volume 1. Part Two treats all of the people, places, and texts that are named in that annotated translation. The Glossary also contains a wealth of material pertaining to the study of Chinese Chan, Japanese Zen, and East Asian Buddhist traditions at large, providing a broader historical context for understanding Keizan’s Denkōroku. Published in association with Sōtōshū Shūmuchō, Tokyo.