In That We May Be One: Christian Non-Duality by Thomas Keating points to the ultimate destination of the spiritual journey. One of the chief architects of the Centering Prayer movement, Keating has guided countless people of all walks on the contemplative path toward wholeness. He speaks to the inner transformation experienced through daily silent meditation practice: Centering Prayer establishes the letting go of self, making room for the gradual development of consciousness beyond rational thoughtand into what some spiritual traditions call non-duality.Keating reflects on Eastern philosophies of enlightenment and awakening as he presents core teachings of mystical Christianity. Drawing parallels to advances in science and technology, as well as to teachings found in the Gospel of John and the letters of Paul, Keating invites us to become who we already are: It is a simple program, but hard to do. All you have to do is do nothing. It does not mean that you actually do nothing...Emptiness is not nothingness, but emptiness with an openness to becoming everything.
Industrial culture casts humans as parasites: devouring our living home. Yet endless metaphors exist. Other cultures and species widening spirals of abundance show us we are also fruit: gifts from the Earth to our future. Whether the edge of our lives, civilization, and species is a cliff to catastrophe or a bridge to our higher selves will depend on the seeds we sow in the soil of this moment. The quality of our seeds does not arise from wealth or technology, but through the unending labor of personal and cultural transformation.
Can Buddhists Wear Mascara? features narrative poems deeply informed by the author's life. Through an unapologetic exploration of her own contradictions, Anderson highlights dualities that live in all of us. Her humor (and occasional irreverence) softens the edges of truths that otherwise cut too close to bone. In the abundance of poems exploring the human condition, her voice is both singular and compelling.
"And This House is Only a Nest begins with an abuelo-a grandpa-who is not the gentle sort but one that conjures up fear, anger, work, stubbornness, and resilience. Then a peek at the poet's father, his mother, the mocosos on his street, classmates, locos sparking up joints, misinterpreted Bible passages, soccer as metaphor-realistic scenes rendered like Dutch paintings. One of the best poems references the Los Angeles Dodgers, the late innings, with 'three kids, two strikes... while visiting his imprisoned father. Surrounded by troubles in the initial poems, the last poems soften into a coda that is something like a sigh, a sigh of relief leaving that 'lopsided' house called childhood. Having searched for an adult man to emulate, the poet discovers, to his surprise and ours, that he has become that man, a husband, a father, a contemplative figure."-Gary Soto, author of Baseball in April and Other Stories
Disillusioned by the Vietnam War and their troubled pasts, Kate and Andy leave New York City for a remote Nova Scotia fishing village. In this barren place, they are swept into the rogue wave of change, a love triangle and a tragic accident.Shoal water is a treacherous place. Not out on the deep water, and not on land, it's in a place in between, full of unexpected hazards-submerged sandbars, diffracted waves, counter currents.Shoal Water is also the unflinching account of a woman's passage out of dependence into self-possession as she navigates dangerous waters and gains the power to redeem loss and find forgiveness.
With pieces from Gunilla Norris, Frank Inzan Owen, Heidi Barr, Stephen Trimble, Emily Grandy, Theodore Richards, Arianne Richards, Iris Graville, Gail Collins-Ranadive, Thomas Lloyd Qualls, and others...
After nearly thirty years living in the Salish Sea's San Juan Archipelago, Iris Graville felt compelled to write about the threats to its interwoven lattice of beauty, wildness, fragility, and relationship. In 2018-19, Graville served as the Washington State Ferries' first Writer-in-Residence on the "Interisland" route, traveling only among Lopez, Shaw, San Juan, and Orcas Islands. As a result, this storytelling lover of the Salish Sea presents Writer in a Life Vest, thirty-six essays that explore climate change and endangered Southern Resident killer whales, while leading readers to ask questions and find resilience, inspiration, and hope.
"Gunilla Norris is now at the height of her powers as a poet. The poems in this new collection are sublime--one after another and another. Reading them, I can hardly catch my breath. The work is full of what I might call sorrowful joy. Ms. Norris observes life so closely and opens ordinary moments into what I can only call the divine realms. Truly, as much as any collection I've ever read, this group of poems makes me want to write poetry myself, and makes me want to see life as Ms. Norris sees it." -Stephen Cope, Scholar Emeritus, Kripalu Center for Yoga and HealthBest-selling author of The Great Work of Your Life, and Soul Friends
Based on Gail Straub's critically acclaimed book The Rhythm of Compassion: Caring for Self, Connecting with Society, these short meditations are designed to help you learn to find and follow your own unique rhythm of compassion. Circle of Compassion uses the powerful metaphor of the rhythmic nature of breathing to show you how to help yourself while helping others. The series of meditations is an ongoing exercise for getting to the root of healing, developing compassion, and putting compassion into action-to heal ourselves, others, and the world around us.
Agapanthus was kidnapped when she was only two years old, but she doesn't remember it. In fact, she doesn't remember her home planet at all. All she knows is Deeyae, the land of two suns; the land of great, red waters. Her foster-family cares for her, and at first that's enough. But, as she grows older, Agapanthus is bothered by the differences between them. As an Exchanger, she's frail and tall, not short and strong. And, even though she was raised Deeyan, she certainly isn't treated like one. One day, an Exchanger boy completes the Deeyan rite-of-passage, and Agapanthus is inspired to try the same. But, when she teams up with him, her quest to become Deeyan transforms into her quest to find the truth-of who she is, and of which star she belongs to.
"...There's never a moment when the writing is not totally true to his understanding of the lines, and how every line that follows is trustworthy in its attachment to the elemental truth of the place." -David Ferry, author of Bewilderment
Hard-living tricksters, backwoods queers, and vengeful scoundrels collide with Southern-gothic history, religion, and apocalypse, pushing the boundaries of time-tested traditions in Songs on the Water, a story collection set in south Georgia. From teenagers swiping moonshine and trespassing in the swamp despite its dangers, to desperate linemen facing both their jobs and existentialism, to troublesome ghosts and a trip through hell itself, these characters must face the very real and the mystical trials that the land and its history put before them. Sure, there are moments of blessing and glory, but only after raging fires and the haunted shadows of the cypresses.
It felt like an emotional crucifixion-a dark year in which a father figure passed, a friend and mentor suffered a terminal illness, one child entered psychosis, another child took his life, a 14-year marriage ended.As a new life began, an ancient pilgrimage called from across an ocean. Would it hold any answers? Were there any answers to be had? Questions are always temporal, but it seems pilgrimage follows the designs of the eternal.Join in a transcendent journey of the body, heart, mind, and spirit from the French Pyrenees Mountains, crossing northern Spain for 500 miles to the city of Santiago de Compostela, and beyond to the coastal town of Finisterre. Share the experience of walking a thousand-year-old road, the Camino de Santiago, the Way of Saint James, and its miraculous, mysterious ways.In parts a travelogue, a love letter to Spain, and a chronicle of change under the influence of grace, this is a story told in the language of the soul. Suffused with resilience, it is a dialogue between humanity and its spirit. It calls.
"Verdict: Reading this expressive and beautifully written memoir is to experience one's own quest toward self-discovery."-Library Journal, *Starred Review"Hiking Naked shows us the possibilities that appear if we take the risk."-Margery Post Abbott, author of To Be Broken and Tender"Narrated with candor and compassion, Hiking Naked reveals as much about marriage, family, and community, as it does about the meaning of vocation."-Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe"This memoir is chock-full of heartfelt reflection and lyrical prose, wisdom and grace, humor and humility. It is a pure delight to read."-Ana Maria Spagna, author of Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness "Iris writes with directness and honesty about her journey of self-reinvention. The snowy peaks sparkle around her, and her prose sparkles too,with accuracy, honesty, and a warm, willing heart."-David Oates, author of The Heron Place and What We Love Will Save Us
In his first collection of poetry Quinn Bailey has crafted a book that is meant to live in your backpack, to be carried with you, as companion, field guide and friend as you traverse the rich wilderness of life. Inspired as much by the words of poets like Mary Oliver and Jim Harrison as by the songs of the trees and the birds, the poems within arise from a deep love of the natural world and call attention to the power an outer landscape has to be, all at once, mirror, compass, and divination tool for our inner landscape.
Deep down, our hearts always long to embody more awareness, kindness, and presence. Here is a little book of heart-full ways to grow. Over time a practice can become an intimate companion on the way, one that helps us to inhabit and express our essence and so to live authentic lives with joy and gusto.
"Looking for a spiritual practice simple enough to fit a busy life, yet deep enough to help you grow? 'For ninety consecutive days,' writes Gunilla Norris, 'light a match with a purpose, a feeling or a desire in mind,' and if you miss a day, start the count again. That daily moment of persistent attentiveness to whatever is calling you from within will kindle new warmth, new light, new life. It's simple-but it's the simplicity on the other side of complexity. Illumined by the lifetime of wisdom Norris shares in yet another beautifully written book, Match describes a life-giving practice toward transformation." Parker J. Palmer, author of Healing the Heart of Democracy
To have the deep love of a friend is to have the shelter in which to embody more and more of the essence that we each are. In her book, Norris shows how in holding each other with trust and compassion, our shells fall away, and we emerge into the world as freer beings. Participating in a true friendship is profound and holy work. This book is a gift for the journey.
"Timeless wisdom, poetic and true, to return to again and again as you journey on the path. Hints for the Heart is a beautiful invitation to enter the flow of our lives and discover the boundless mystery of who we really are."-Tara brach, author of Radical Acceptance"Living ordinary life with extraordinary love is the key to the contemplative journey. Norris takes the ordinary forgotten actions of each day and helps us celebrate them in a way that intensifies our awareness."-Father Carl J. Arico"If by acclamation a spiritual master of the quotidian could be announced surely the name Gunilla Norris would sound uncontested. No one illumines the mysteries of the moment as she does-the gifts of every-day grace, of familiar sacraments, of veiled divinities awaiting our discovery. Throughout her exceptionally rich and numerous corpus of offerings, she teaches us to witness and celebrate the blessed abundance spilling over from the smallest things."-Kathleen Noone Deignan, Director the Institute For Earth and Spirit At Iona University"Hints from the Heart is an invitation to discover God through the simple gifts of sense and self. Through the gifts of breath, touch, taste, sight, and smell she invites us to awaken to wonder and oneness-and in the process to become love, the only real hope for our hurting world."-The Rev. Matthew Wright
"Throughout my life," writes Jeff Darren Muse, "manhood has been a kind of topographic map. Yet it's peer pressure or social norms telling me which route to follow: Smile, Jeff, have a beer. Make babies. Make lots of money. Buy yourself a leaf blower. Hang out at parties. Lighten up."So begins this unflinching look at a fifty-one-year-old environmental educator torn by restlessness and regret. Part Generation X travelogue, part love letter, part reflection on White male identity, Dear Park Ranger searches for purpose, companionship, a lost father, and home. Muse must break trail to find his way. From the farms and football fields of central Indiana, to snowy West Coast wildlands, from desert canyons, to meandering rivers, to a city built by slavery, he interrogates his younger years shaped by insecurity and wanderlust, as well as later choices such as marrying "Ranger Paula" and pursuing a tree hugger's career. The book opens in South Carolina, where Muse works as a historical interpreter at a former cotton plantation, a situation demanding not only new skills, but also discomforting awareness. Race, gender, age-all must be examined.Dear Park Ranger is for anyone who loves fiercely and falls hard, who tries and tries again to get the important things right: handholding on long walks, a swift paddle stroke, a lighter backpack, and never giving up hope that better days lie ahead. At turns humorous and self-deprecating, redemptive and resolute, this is one man's stirring gut check through inner and outer terrain.
We are the only beings on earth who intrinsically wonder about our own end. But is there a way to elicit more elegant, gentle questions? Maybe something finer can be imparted, a way to bring the inevitable grief this life holds, into the love it really is. In this lyrical essay, poetry and the beauty of dreams mingle with remembrance. Journey from a child's view of life's end to a perspective in time much closer to that end, and something as familiar as an old friend comes into focus, greets us, and teaches us its ways.
Written in pandemic, Rick Benjamin's The Mob Within the Heart, is a poetic witnessing: of illness and loss, of harm to the more-than-human sentient world, of cultural, familial & political conflict, and of deep, enduring, lasting love-of people, & of the planet & everything on it. In this book, it is all happening at the same time: Covid and Black Lives Matter; praise of all sentient life, while also testifying to the damage already done; a fracture-defying inter-connectedness among loved ones, and other "families" (biological, chosen, messed up & made). Benjamin's work is a series of snapshots occurring at once, a commitment to train attention in as many different directions as possible in this particular moment. As Dickinson says in her own poem, it's a crowded heart, but one with a beat no laws can touch, ultimately asking, simply, just the best of us, or, at the very least, so much more.
"A stunning collection that embraces both the sensuality and the profound meaning of small moments." -Kirkus Reviews¿¿"Along the Way seems to follow one softly and simply-stated revelation after another, as if Rivers is tracking a scent rather than blazing a trail. Either way he is an excellent guide, and is comfortable both in and out of form. It's been a long time since I've been so honestly and humbly instructed in a book of poetry."- Rick Benjamin, author of Some Bodies in the Grief Bed, Floating World, and Endless Distances
Many poets write about the natural world - few poets write while acting directly to defend the natural world like environmental activist and attorney Will Falk does in When I Set the Sweetgrass Down. The natural world speaks, Falk insists, in these biophilic poems written from the frontlines of land defense campaigns. These poems are a record of what Falk heard from the natural world in places like Thacker Pass, Nevada where Falk set up a protest occupation in a beautiful mountain pass set for destruction by an open pit mine and Hawaii's Mauna Kea where Falk helped to blockade telescope construction from desecrating the sacred mountain. At a time when the destruction of the natural world is intensifying, When I Set the Sweetgrass Down will help readers find the courage they need to - and remind them why they must - act to defend the source of all life: the natural world.
Beloved Trappist monk Thomas Keating is best known as one of the primary founders of the Centering Prayer movement, which made the contemplative dimension of Christianity accessible through a simple method of silent, still meditation. He is also known as the convener of the Snowmass Interreligious Conference, which helped spawn the global Inter-spiritual movement. Keating's open invitation to people of all walks to embark on a spiritual journey, coupled with his emphasis on the oneness of all creation, made him a 20th-century harbinger of 21st-century ideals."If something is something, it cannot be its opposite-or so it might seem. Not so with God, because God is...beyond opposites." In Thomas Keating's signature wise and whimsical style, this little book invites us to think big. "Think of God in a very big way. And if you do, that is too small." Transcribed from a 2012 keynote address, God Is All in All introduces some mighty themes-including nature as revelation, mystical teachings on interdependence, new cosmologies of religion and science, and evolutionary understandings of what it means to be human-in a much-needed update to theologies Keating describes as "out of date." Outlining a three-part spiritual journey from recognizing a divine Other, to becoming the Other, to the realizing there is no other, Keating boldly states "Religion is not the only path to God." Thoroughly Christian and fully interspiritual, this much-beloved outlier Trappist monk offers a message of "compassion, not condemnation" in a contemplative embrace of the cross as a symbol of humility, inviting those who would become co-redeemers of the world to join him in the kind of meditation and contemplative prayer that allows the transcendent self to emerge. "Be still and you will know, not by the knowledge of the mindbut by the knowledge of the heart, who God is and who you are."
Traveling from the Peruvian Amazon to Beijing, from the Siberian tundra to Oaxacan villages, Ian Ramsey's Hackable Animal explores the metaphysical dimensions of being human amongst the disruptions of the 21st century. This profound collection reads like a scouting report from across the planet, where polar bears, reggaeton, and woolly mammoths collide with cloud computing and wildfires, where assumptions and alignments are turned upside down until we finally emerge, ready to "rummage a new credo." These fierce poems, grounded in ecology, deep time, and paleolithic heritage, lean into the "strafing ultimatums" of rapidly changing climate, globalization, and technology, asking how we might "chase beauty in the newsfeed of tragedy" and reimagine our relationship to the Earth.
River, Amen reclaims religious rituals and resurrects them in the wilderness. What emerges is a deliberate dialogue with rivers, a celebrative creed for rewilding post-industrial landscapes. This immersive, restorative collection offers a new language for understanding our place in relation to the living world and a prophetic warning that we separate the physical and spiritual at our own peril.
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