Download or read book Hidden and Visible Realms written by and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese culture of the Six Dynasties period (220–589) saw a blossoming of stories of the fantastic. Zhiguai, “records of the strange” or “accounts of anomalies,” tell of encounters with otherness, in which inexplicable and uncanny phenomena interrupt mundane human affairs. They depict deities, ghosts, and monsters; heaven, the underworld, and the immortal lands; omens, metamorphoses, and trafficking between humans and supernatural beings; and legendary figures, strange creatures, and natural wonders in the human world. Hidden and Visible Realms, traditionally attributed to Liu Yiqing, is one of the most significant zhiguai collections, distinguished by its varied contents, elegant writing style, and fascinating stories. It is also among the earliest collections heavily influenced by Buddhist beliefs, values, and concerns. Beyond the traditional zhiguai narratives, it includes tales of karmic retribution, reincarnation, and Buddhist ghosts, hell, and magic. In this annotated first complete English translation, Zhenjun Zhang gives English-speaking readers a sense of the wealth and wonder of the zhiguai canon. Hidden and Visible Realms opens a window into the lives, customs, and religious beliefs and practices of early medieval China and the cultural history of Chinese Buddhism. In the introduction, Zhang explains the key themes and textual history of the work.
Download or read book Hidden Realms Lost Civilizations and Beings from Other Worlds written by Jerome Clark and published by Visible Ink Press. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The secrets of mystical and legendary places—revealed! Have you ever wondered about mythical and legendary worlds such as the lost continent of Atlantis? Have you ever heard of Mu and the Lemurians, who some say still exist among us? Respected researcher of unexplained phenomena, Jerome Clark, provides a comprehensive and trustworthy look at ancient mysteries, fictional fantasy lands, and extraterrestrial civilizations in his book, Hidden Realms, Lost Civilizations, and Beings from Other Worlds. Claims of supernatural realms, parallel worlds, and legendary, lost civilizations are put to the test in this well-researched guide to the unexplained. Firsthand accounts and historical documents are explored, and in-depth coverage is provided on the mysteries of imagination, culture, perception, consciousness and more. Beliefs, doctrines, experiences, and places are described and explored in this truly comprehensive guide to the wacky, weird, and otherworldly, including: The hollow earth populated by a rich natural world and inhabited by an advanced civilization The amazing powers of psychic healer Edward Cayce, who gained healing and prophetic abilities by connecting with “The Source” Encounters with peoples of the alternate solar system, and the amazing worlds of Meton, Lanulos, Nibiru, Clarion, Maldek, and Kazik Richard S. Shaver’s personal experiences in an underground hell—replete with demons and ghouls The evil plots of the Snake people to destroy our planet Witnesses testimony of meeting fairies, goblins, and other mythical folk Ancient Celtic seers Life on Mars and encounters with Martians Alien worlds Parallel universes Mystery airships And much more! With many photos, illustrations, and other graphics, this tome is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness. Highlighting news articles, historical accounts, and first-person interviews,Hidden Realms, Lost Civilizations, and Beings from Other Worlds will leave you wondering what is and isn’t real!
Download or read book The Unseen Realm written by Heiser, Michael S. and published by Lexham Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Unseen Realm, Dr. Michael Heiser examines the ancient context of Scripture, explaining how its supernatural worldview can help us grow in our understanding of God. He illuminates intriguing and amazing passages of the Bible that have been hiding in plain sight. You'll find yourself engaged in an enthusiastic pursuit of the truth, resulting in a new appreciation for God's Word. Why wasn't Eve surprised when the serpent spoke to her? How did descendants of the Nephilim survive the flood? Why did Jacob fuse Yahweh and his Angel together in his prayer? Who are the assembly of divine beings that God presides over? In what way do those beings participate in God's decisions? Why do Peter and Jude promote belief in imprisoned spirits? Why does Paul describe evil spirits in terms of geographical rulership? Who are the "glorious ones" that even angels dare not rebuke? After reading this book, you may never read your Bible the same way again. Endorsements "There is a world referred to in the Scripture that is quite unseen, but also quite present and active. Michael Heiser's The Unseen Realm seeks to unmask this world. Heiser shows how important it is to understand this world and appreciate how its contribution helps to make sense of Scripture. The book is clear and well done, treating many ideas and themes that often go unseen themselves. With this book, such themes will no longer be neglected, so read it and discover a new realm for reflection about what Scripture teaches." --Darrell L. Bock, Executive Director for Cultural Engagement, Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Howard G. Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Engagement "'How was it possible that I had never seen that before?' Dr. Heiser's survey of the complex reality of the supernatural world as the Scriptures portray it covers a subject that is strangely sidestepped. No one is going to agree with everything in his book, but the subject deserves careful study, and so does this book." --John Goldingay, David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament, School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary "This is a 'big' book in the best sense of the term. It is big in its scope and in its depth of analysis. Michael Heiser is a scholar who knows Scripture intimately in its ancient cultural context. All--scholars, clergy, and laypeople--who read this profound and accessible book will grow in their understanding of both the Old and New Testaments, particularly as their eyes are opened to the Bible's 'unseen world.'" --Tremper Longman III, Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies, Westmont College
Download or read book Hidden Current written by Sharon Hinck and published by Enclave Publishing. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *** WINNER: Christy Award, Visionary *** The dancers of the Order direct their floating world of Meriel with their movement... but are they steering it toward destruction? Calara spent her life learning dance patterns and seeking to become the perfect servant to her people. When she discovers the work of the Order is built on lies, she flees with a rough-edged herder, Brantley of Windswell. Pursued by soldiers, her journey through the suffering villages of the rim leads her to encounter a truth that sends ripples through her world--and through her soul. As she seeks clues to her forgotten family, Calara discovers newfound courage in the face of danger, while her quest awakens a growing but forbidden affection for Brantley. Yet even his support can't fully be trusted, since he'd rather destroy the Order than bring reform. She is a lone woman facing opposition from rim villages and treachery from the all-powerful Order. Can she restore the dance to its true purpose and bring freedom and hope to her people?
Download or read book An Immense World written by Ed Yong and published by Random House. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong “One of this year’s finest works of narrative nonfiction.”—Oprah Daily ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, People, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Slate, Reader’s Digest, Chicago Public Library, Outside, Publishers Weekly, BookPage ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Economist, Smithsonian Magazine, Prospect (UK), Globe & Mail, Esquire, Mental Floss, Marginalian, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved. Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called “the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes.” WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON AWARD
Download or read book Shinto in History written by John Breen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the only book to date offering a critical overview of Shinto from early times to the modern era, and evaluating Shinto's place in Japanese religious culture. In recent years, a few books on medieval Shinto have appeared, but none has attempted to depict the broader picture, to examine critically Shinto's origins and its subsequent development through the medieval, pre-modern and modern periods. The essays in this book address such key topics as Shinto and Daoism in early Japan, Shinto and the natural environment, Shinto and state ritual in early Japan, Shinto and Buddhism in medieval Japan, and Shinto and the state in the modern period. All of the essays highlight the dynamic nature of Shinto and shrine history by focusing on the three-way relationship, often fraught, between local shrine cults, Shinto agendas and Buddhism.
Download or read book Gershom Scholem written by Paul Mendes-Flohr and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early part of the twentieth century, Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) founded the academic discipline of the study of Jewish Mysticism. In so doing, he not only broke new scholarly ground; but he also revolutionized the field of Judaic Studies as a whole and left an indelible mark on the study of religion. This book presents essays by several of Israel's eminent scholars, reflecting on Scholem's impact on the academic and Jewish worlds, and his life as a scholar, a Jewish thinker, and an activist. The editor has provided an intellectual and spiritual biography of Scholem, which complements the papers by Ephraim Urbach, Joseph Ben-Shlomo, Isaiah Tishby, Rivka Schatz, Malachi Beit-Arié, Nathan Rotenstreich, and Joseph Dan. Together, they highlight the enduring signficance of Scholem's work, which has remained the touchstone for all further scholarship on Jewish Mysticism and Kabbala. This volume thus sets the context for the current debate conducted by a new generation of scholars, who have introduced fresh ideas, new methodologies—and radical critique of the man they still revere as their master.
Download or read book Things Seen and Unseen written by Harry D. Harootunian and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1988-03-15 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This long-awaited work explores the place of kokugaku (rendered here as "nativism") during Japan's Tokugawa period. Kokugaku, the sense of a distinct and sacred Japanese identity, appeared in the eighteenth century in reaction to the pervasive influence of Chinese culture on Japan. Against this influence, nativists sought a Japanese sense of difference grounded in folk tradition, agricultural values, and ancient Japanese religion. H. D. Harootunian treats nativism as a discourse and shows how it functioned ideologically in Tokugawa Japan.
Download or read book Dreaming and Self Cultivation in China 300 BCE 800 CE written by Robert Ford Campany and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-09-09 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practitioners of any of the paths of self-cultivation available in ancient and medieval China engaged daily in practices meant to bring their bodies and minds under firm control. They took on regimens to discipline their comportment, speech, breathing, diet, senses, desires, sexuality, even their dreams. Yet, compared with waking life, dreams are incongruous, unpredictable—in a word, strange. How, then, did these regimes of self-fashioning grapple with dreaming, a lawless yet ubiquitous domain of individual experience? In Dreaming and Self-Cultivation in China, 300 BCE–800 CE, Robert Ford Campany examines how dreaming was addressed in texts produced and circulated by practitioners of Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian, and other self-cultivational disciplines. Working through a wide range of scriptures, essays, treatises, biographies, commentaries, fictive dialogues, diary records, interpretive keys, and ritual instructions, Campany uncovers a set of discrete paradigms by which dreams were viewed and responded to by practitioners. He shows how these paradigms underlay texts of diverse religious and ideological persuasions that are usually treated in mutual isolation. The result is a provocative meditation on the relationship between individuals’ nocturnal experiences and one culture’s persistent attempts to discipline, interpret, and incorporate them into waking practice.
Download or read book The Chinese Dreamscape 300 BCE 800 CE written by Robert Ford Campany and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-03-07 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dreaming is a near-universal human experience, but there is no consensus on why we dream or what dreams should be taken to mean. In this book, Robert Ford Campany investigates what people in late classical and early medieval China thought of dreams. He maps a common dreamscape—an array of ideas about what dreams are and what responses they should provoke—that underlies texts of diverse persuasions and genres over several centuries. These writings include manuals of dream interpretation, scriptural instructions, essays, treatises, poems, recovered manuscripts, histories, and anecdotes of successful dream-based predictions. In these many sources, we find culturally distinctive answers to questions peoples the world over have asked for millennia: What happens when we dream? Do dreams foretell future events? If so, how might their imagistic code be unlocked to yield predictions? Could dreams enable direct communication between the living and the dead, or between humans and nonhuman animals? The Chinese Dreamscape, 300 BCE – 800 CE sheds light on how people in a distant age negotiated these mysteries and brings Chinese notions of dreaming into conversation with studies of dreams in other cultures, ancient and contemporary. Taking stock of how Chinese people wrestled with—and celebrated—the strangeness of dreams, Campany asks us to reflect on how we might reconsider our own notions of dreaming.
Download or read book Quran Is Allah s One Religion Book written by Al Masri and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2020-02-21 with total page 917 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Miracles have happened in the past that we’ve heard about but did not see. Here are ones that you can see. This is a challenge for every one: especially the ATHEISTS. To open their minds for second birth into eternal life.,. The number of times these words, or NUMIRACLE MIRACLE, appear in Allah’s Book: (Day: 365 / Month: 12 )(Life:115 / Hereafter :115)( Angel:88 / Devil, Evil, Satan:88) (Men:24 / Women:24)(Hot:4 /Cold:4) There are 114 chapters in this holy book. Divide this by two to get the center and you get 57. The chapter of the center is named (Iron). 57 is the atomic weight of Iron and the center of the earth is Iron, too. The speed of light can be calculated by the distance of the moon circulating around the earth over a thousand years which equals one day in Allah’s time. 22:47 Any author can make a book like that except the creator, Allah. Furthermore, the Quran, Allah’s Book, is a miracle document and proves all the new and previous miracles (5:48). We have now received the long awaited answers to our most urgent questions: who we are, the purpose of our lives, how we came into this world, where we go from here, which Faith that leads to the One Religion is the right one, was it evolution or creation, etc. 1- ADAM IS THE ONE THAT MADE THE MISTAKE AND ATE FROM THE TREE, NOT EVE. 2- MONKEYS WERE HUMAN, NOT HUMANS WERE MONKEYS. IT IS THE OPPOSITE OFDARWIN’S THEORY. 3- 2.5% TAXES, NOT 30% or 40%, (TIDING OR ZAKAHT) SHOULD VOLUNTARILY BEGIVEN FROM YOUR WEALTH. 4- THERE SHOULD NOT BE INTEREST ON ANY LOANS OR INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS. 5- NO EXTREME CAPITALISM OR COMMUNISM, ONLY ALLAH’S SYSTEM. 6- ABRAHAM WAS INSTRUCTED BY ALLAH TO FEED THE ATHEIST. 7- MARY’S STORY AND JESUS’ BIRTH AND HIS UNIQUE DNA WHEN HE COMES BACK. 8- MOSES SPEAKING NICELY TO OPPRESSOR PHARAOH SHOULD BE THE MODEL FOR OUR DIALOGUE. 9- THE STORY OF JOSEPH WITH HIS BROTHERS AND HIM RESISTING TO COMMIT ADULTERY WITH THE WIFE OF THE KING; THE CAVE PEOPLE DIED OVER 300 YEARS AGO AND THEN THEY CAME BACK TO LIVE; NOAH’S FLOOD, THE GOLDEN-YELLOW COLORED COW, ETC.
Download or read book D H Lawrence s Language of Sacred Experience written by C. Burack and published by Springer. This book was released on 2005-11-20 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates how D.H. Lawrence's prophetic ambitions impelled him to create novels that would radically transform the consciousness of his readers. Charles Burack argues that Lawrence's major novels, beginning with The Rainbow , are structured as religious initiation rites that attempt to break down the reader's normative mindset and to evoke new, numinous experiences of self and world. Through careful analysis of narrative structure, literary technique, and sacred discourses, Burack shows that Lawrence tries to initiate the reader into his own version of religious vitalism. Unlike most initiations that conclude with powerful affirmations, Lawrence's novels generally end with an attempt to subvert the formation of new religious dogmas and to encourage sacred-erotic exploration.
Download or read book Hidden Mutualities written by Michael Mitchell and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hidden mutualities link the work of major postcolonial writers with Christopher Marlowe’s drama of the Faustian pact – the manipulation of the material world in exchange for the soul – written as the ‘scientific’ world-view was emerging which accompanied the imperial expansion of Europe and has determined the economic and social structures of the colonial and postcolonial world. This fascinating study brings together researches in widely different fields to show how Doctor Faustus reflects a Gnostic / Hermetic tradition marginalized within the dominant European power structures. Rediscovered in the Renaissance, and combined with occult arts such as alchemy and magic, this living tradition informs the work of ‘Magus’ figures such as Pico della Mirandola, Marcilio Ficino, Trithemius, Johannes Reuchlin, Agrippa of Nettesheim, Paracelsus and John Dee, who are reflected in the Faust tradition and in Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The second part investigates the dual legacy of the Magus. A counterpoint between a law-governed objective material world and an occult visionary pursuit of the divine potential of the human imagination is traced through the examples of Johan Kepler, Robert Fludd, Isaac Newton, William Blake, Rudyard Kipling, Aleister Crowley, W.B. Yeats, Wolfgang Pauli and C.G. Jung. In the third part, textual analysis reveals how attention to these Faustian themes opens new and exciting critical perspectives in appreciating the works of postcolonial writers, in particular Dimetos by Athol Fugard, Disappearance by David Dabydeen, Omeros by Derek Walcott, and the novels of Wilson Harris.
Download or read book The Qur an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English written by Ali Ünal and published by Tughra Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 1410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literal translations of the Qur'an may often sound irrelevant and fail to correspond to the original meaning. Therefore, many scholars recommend studying the Qur'an through interpretations with commentaries that deal with the reasons for revelation (asbab an-nuzul) and notes for specific references. This book is a comprehensive source that combines interpretation and commentary with extensive notes of explanation.
Download or read book Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus written by William L. Craig and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2024-02-22 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the sequel to its companion volume The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus during the Deist Controversy. It comprises a thorough examination of the New Testament materials undergirding the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, focusing on Jesus’ empty tomb, his post-mortem appearances, and the origin of his disciples’ belief in Jesus’ resurrection. This revised edition includes Appendices in response to the competing views of J. Robinson, J. D. Crossan, G. Lüdemann, and D. Allison.
Download or read book Spiritual Gems of Islam written by Imam Jamal Rahman and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Refine your heart and mind with the wisdom of Islamic spirituality "To live a meaningful life—one that brings us joy, contentment and fulfillment—we have to do the inner spiritual work of becoming a more complete human being." —from the Introduction Over the centuries, Islamic sages have gleaned timeless spiritual insights and practices from sacred texts, meditation and knowledge of the heart—gems that have been passed down from generation to generation. This book invites you—no matter what your practice may be—to access the treasure chest of Islamic spirituality, particularly Sufism, and use its wealth to strengthen your own journey. The riches include guidance drawn from the Qur'an, sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and Sufi poets such as the thirteenth-century Rumi on cultivating awareness, intentionality and compassion for self and others. This book also features entertaining wisdom teaching stories, especially those of Mulla Nasruddin, Islam’s great comic foil, to expand the mind and heart. It breaks down barriers to accessing this ancient tradition for modern seekers by dispelling myths about the Muslim faith concerning gender bias, inclusivity and appreciation for diversity. Regardless of where you are on your spiritual journey, you will find these gems worthy additions to your own treasure chest within.
Download or read book Our Violent World written by Kevin McDonald and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can the analysis of violence and terror tell us about the modern world? Why is violence often used to achieve religious, cultural or political goals? Can we understand the search for the extreme that increasingly shapes violence today? From 1960s student movements to today's global jihad, this text explores the factors and debates shaping violence and terrorism in our contemporary society. Each chapter confronts examples of disturbing terrorist acts and events of mass violence from recent history and uses these to examine key questions, theories and concepts surrounding this sensitive and controversial topic. In particular, the book: - Identifies core tools for the analysis of public violence - Explores the processes that mutate social movements into violent groups - Describes the cultural, embodied, experiential and imagined dimensions of violence - Highlights different periods and varying forms of terrorist violence - Examines the role of globalization, media, technology and the visual in violence and terror today. Our Violent World shows how the social sciences can contribute to an understanding of violence and responses to terror, as well as the construction of a social world less dominated by fear of the other. It is a must-read for students and citizens.
