In this impassioned work, utilizing both poetry and prose, Elsa de Visser recreates the faith of William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Wordsworth for the modern believer and unbeliever alike. As refreshing as Anne Morrow Lindbergh's A Gift From the Sea, this spiritual odyssey could easily be subtitled, "A gift from the earth and heavens." With overtones of Thomas de Quincy and Kahlil Gibran, as well as the more religious and sagacious works of Allen Ginsburg, Elsa de Visser's The Arisen Flame lights the path to true knowledge of God, world, and self. Combining both Cartesian logic and Gnostic mysticism, the author takes us from revelation to revelation, from insight to insight, putting life under the microscope of her fantastic vision and faith. We find ourselves outside of our normal world, looking within, into an apocalyptic picture of the supreme mystery: not through a glass darkly, but through an ethereal space, so bright that it blinds the inner as well as the usual eye. This is not a voyage for the fainthearted or the easily deterred reader: those in search of easy answers, and painless paths to truth had best look elsewhere. However, those that choose to take to the hardy, brilliant waves encountered on this trip will certainly be the better for it: their spirits uplifted, and their minds at peace with the sublime "at oneness" celebrated herein.

In the Noble Great Dharani, Buddha pledged that those who take up, retain, recite, and memorize it will be protected from all infectious diseases, fear, and harm, including from fires, poisons, and persecution. Furthermore, “they will not turn away from bodhicitta”. Thus, it was one of the practices that Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended for the sangha to recite during the Covid outbreak at Kopan Monastery and Kachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery in May 2021. Upon the translation of the Noble Great Dharani, for which he had requested, Rinpoche said, “Now that it is available in English and other languages, it is something that is best for sentient beings, for healing, and whatever [purposes].” 2021 Edition.

The concluding volume of a critical English edition of the monumental Indian epic The seventh and final book of the monumental Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, the Uttarakāṇḍa, brings the epic saga to a close with an account of the dramatic events of King Rāma’s millennia-long reign. It opens with a colorful history of the demonic race of the rākṣasas and the violent career of Rāma’s villainous foe Rāvaṇa, and later recounts Rāma’s grateful discharge of his allies in the great war at Lankā as well as his romantic reunion with his wife Sītā. But dark clouds gather as Rāma makes the agonizing decision to banish his beloved wife, now pregnant. As Rāma continues as king, marvelous tales and events unfurl, illustrating the benefits of righteous rule and the perils that await monarchs who fail to address the needs of their subjects. The Uttarakāṇḍa has long served as a point of social and religious controversy largely for its accounts of the banishment of Sītā, as well as of Rāma’s killing of a low-caste ascetic. This seventh volume in the critical edition and translation of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa includes an extensive introduction and describes the complex reception history of the Uttarakāṇḍa, as well as exhaustive notes and a comprehensive bibliography.

An anthology offering a chronological assessment of a whole range of technical documents on art written by and for clerks, laymen, churchmen, lawyers, city magistrates, and guilds, this text reveals differences in milieu, customs , resources and psychology during different periods. First Published in 1971 by Prentice Hall.

The splendor and pagan excesses of Roman society are confronted by the life-changing faith of Christianity in this historically accurate fiction work. Guaranteed fiction!