The Buddha and the Terrorist

Satish Kumar
Algonquin Books 09/06 Paperback $14.95
ISBN 1565125207

Satish Kumar made an 8,000-mile peace walk around the world and later founded the London School for Nonviolence. Now he has come up with a very timely contribution to the cause of peace and reconciliation — a compelling retelling of an ancient parable about the Buddha and the terrorist. In his foreword, Thomas Moore sets it alongside the Gospel of Jesus, the Tao of Lao Tzu, and the way of love in Sufism as a renunciation of violence and a plea for "restoring the holiness of life's power."

A Code of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1: You Shall Be Holy

Joseh Telushkin
Bell Tower 03/06 Hardcover $29.95
ISBN 1400048354

A Code of Jewish Ethics is the first book of a three-volume set. It covers Jewish laws and suggestions on "how to improve our character and become more honest, decent and just people." A tall order you say? Well Rabbi Telushkin has plenty of help from the Torah, the Prophets and the later books of the Bible; the Talmud and Midrash; the medieval codes of Jewish law; the teachings of the Mussar and Chasidic movements; and the writings of contemporary Jewish scholars. The ambitious author covers a lot of territory with chapters on judging others fairly, gratitude, repentance, forgiveness, humility, anger, envy, hatred, fair speech, leading a holy life, and much more.  

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy , India and Indonesia

Elizabeth Gilbert
Viking 02/06 Hardcover $24.95
ISBN 1670034711

Elizabeth Gilbert has already proven herself to be a multi-talented writer of short stories (Pilgrims), a novel (Stern Men), and nonfiction (The Last American Man). Now, she has written a spiritual memoir that is creatively constructed in three parts, each consisting of 36 short segments, matching the 108 beads on the traditional Indian prayer necklace. Gilbert was 31 when her marriage and prosperous lifestyle crashed and burned in a grueling divorce, followed by a passionate love affair with a guy named David that ended in heartbreak. No wonder she snapped up the opportunity to fly to Bali to write a story about Yoga vacations. There she met Ketut, a ninth-generation Indonesian medicine man who told her that she worried too much and was desperately in need of something different in her life. Gilbert decided to spend a year abroad — four months each in Italy , India , and Bali.

The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things: Fourteen Natural Steps to Health and Happiness

Larry Dossey
Harmony Books 02/06 Hardcover $24.95
ISBN 030720989X

The author's own most profound healing event came before he entered medical school. He was in the hospital coming out from anesthesia after an appendectomy. He recalls awakening with large doses of pain and anxiety. The surgeon who performed the operation was not around but "the nurse's lingering touch conveyed to me — silently, powerfully, unequivocally — that everything was going to be all right. It was, and the occasion is seared into my memory." Since then he has been entranced by simple, ordinary health interventions that we take for granted or consider to be not worthy of serious consideration.

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions

Karen Armstrong
Alfred A. Knopf 03/06 Hardcover $30.00
ISBN 0375413170

This magisterial work fits right in with Karen Armstrong's bold mission to explore the place and purposes of religions in the modern world. It follows in the stream of her books on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. She contends that during a period from about 900 - 200 BCE, four regions created the religious and philosophical traditions that have transformed the world: Confucianism and Daoism in China , Hinduism and Buddhism in India , monotheism in Israel , and philosophical rationalism in Greece . Out of the early seeds of the Israelite faith, the flowers of Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam bloomed. She presents a chronological and in-depth assessment of the sages of this incredible "Axial Age" with portraits of the Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Confucius, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the mystics of the Upanishads, Mencius, Euripides, and well as the later sages in their lines, including Jesus and Muhammad.  

Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

Matthieu Ricard
Little, Brown and Company 04/06 Hardcover $22.95
ISBN 0316057835

Happiness in the West is still seen in material terms, as having the most toys and perks. Some people have cynically given up on the whole happiness project and are only willing to acknowledge moments of joy, elation, or bliss. Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk and internationally known author, translator, and photographer takes another approach: "By happiness I mean here the deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind. This is not a mere pleasurable feeling, a fleeting emotion, or a mood, but an optimal state of being. Happiness is also a way of interpreting the world, since while it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we look at it." The author was trained as a scientist and has also mastered Tibetan meditation techniques. This enlightening volume is filled with helpful insights into the way our minds and emotions work, two key aspects in Ricard's guide to the development of this crucial skill.

The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness: Preparing to Practice

Rami Shapiro
Skylight Paths 06/06 Paperback $16.99
ISBN 1594731519

The Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sharon Saltzberg, and other Buddhists have written beautifully and profoundly about lovingkindness. In this equally beautiful and profound paperback, Rabbi Rami Shapiro bases his presentation on Judaism's Thirteen Attributes of Lovingkindness and broadens it with the wisdom of other religions. He begins with a meditation on the universal human challenge to act in a godly manner since we have been created in the likeness of God. A visualization practice helps us see what this means. Another spur to making our lives more loving and kind is cultivating an appreciation of ourselves as being totally original and beyond all labels and categorizations.

Shamanic Christianity: The Direct Experience of Mystical Communion

Bradford Keeney
Destiny Books 05/06 Paperback $14.95
ISBN 1594770867

Bradford Keeney is a scholar of cultural studies, the author of many books, including Everyday Soul, the editor of the Profiles in Healing series, and the subject of American Shaman: An Odyssey of Global Healing Traditions by Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson. He notes that Christianity has been silent about the marvels of shamans — their practices of mystical communion with God, their special ways of dealing with troubles and trauma, and their awe for the mysterious sources and textures of life. With a bold dash of imagination, Keeney imagines what a shamanic Christianity would look like. He regards Jesus as a shaman who healed people and went about doing good, modeling humility, forgiveness, and loving service. Keeney respects Mary the Mother of Jesus and explores her teachings on silence. In a section on "The Lost Teachings," he covers insights and parables about St. Francis, Hildegard of Bingen, the Celtic saints, The New England Shakers, the Indian Spirits, and more. The Christian shaman, following these examples, is a person of creative daring who breaks all the rules and makes a space in life for play, humor, and dance.

Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer

John Gattuso, editor
Stone Creek Publications 10/06 Hardcover $39.95
ISBN 0065633837

"What a strange and wondrous fellowship the God-seekers in this book are, how rich the chorus of their prayers," writes world religion scholar Huston Smith in the foreword to this visually splendid volume. Editor John Gattuso notes that people of different religions, despite the variety of their devotional practices, all spotlight prayer as something that unites them. More than 100 stunning photographs here make this book a feast for the eyes, creating a global album of individuals and groups talking to God in their own ways in very diverse settings. In her introduction, religion writer and reviewer Phyllis Tickle describes the book as "a great gift for our spirits' instruction." We couldn't agree more. The pictures are riches enough, but there are also fifteen substantive essays by familiar religious and spiritual writers. In the first section, "Every Breath a Prayer," Karen Armstrong writes on faith, Thomas Moore on the instinct for prayer, and David Steindl-Rast on prayers and prayerfuless. In section two on "Praise and Supplication," Harold Kushner considers prayer and modern people, C. S. Lewis ponders the efficacy of prayer, and Carol Zaleski assesses foolish prayer.

Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life

Irwin Kula
Hyperion 09/06 Hardcover $23.95
ISBN 1401301924

We aren't used to thinking about religion and yearning in tandem and yet it is desire that often draws us to God and to others. Our yearning is often stifled by our need for certainty and our fear of mystery; chaos frightens us and we freeze. Yet great truths can be discovered in the messes of life: "The ability to live with seeming contradictions — and the ambivalence and tension these contradictions create — is what gives rise to wisdom. The messes are the point." Kula explores the spiritual practice of yearning in chapters on truth, meaning, the way, love, create, happiness, and transcendence. He mixes in ancient stories from the scriptures and the writings of Jewish sages as well as anecdotes from the lives of contemporaries who find themselves caught in a tangle of hopes, dreams, and desires.