Spirituality and the human
“What are we even talking about when we talk about love? What is it?” So asks Lamott on the first page of her latest book, and she goes on to answer the question in a similar manner to her many previous books: Love is Jesus, but also each other, and also, sometimes, chocolate. In these varying anecdotes, the author plumbs familiar ground, including family and her church community, the adorable malaprop-prone kids in her Sunday school class, and her unhoused neighbors near her Bay Area home.
Too often, our society appears to be about consumption to the point of excess, even while we know that splurging and bingeing do not offer lasting fulfilment. There is another way, suggests Oakes, in this interesting book. Fasting, the decision to temporarily abstain from eating or radically reduce one’s intake of food, can bring a new appreciation of life, as long as it’s done sensibly.
What are African religions? African Religions: A Very Short Introduction answers this question by examining primarily indigenous religious traditions on the African continent, as well as exploring the impacts of Christianity and Islam. It focuses on the diversity of ethnic groups, languages, cultures, and worldviews, emphasising the continent’s regional diversity.
A Very Short Introduction: Spirituality by Philip Sheldrake
An overview of ‘What is Spirituality’, its origins, definitions, the emergence of contemporary spirituality, spiritual types in practice and attending to this day, this age: secular spirituality. Is religious spirituality in the process of being replaced? What is the value of spirituality? How do we deal with different kinds of spirituality such as Engaged Buddhism, Cyberspace and Spirituality, and the forms of mysticism? All this is examined in this small tome.
Cutting the Ties that Bind – the work of the late Phyllis Krystal – focuses on a core method of releasing people – and their minds – from experiences, matters and issues that restrict their growth as healthy individuals. The problem Mrs Krystal addresses in some depth is the collapse of age-old puberty rituals and rites of passage into adulthood: those all-important stepping stones to human maturity. This is a most valuable work, comprehensive in its detail.
A Very Short Introduction: Jewish Literature by IIan Stavans
The story of Jewish literature spans the globe as well as the centuries, from the marrano poets and memorialists of medieval Spain, to the sprawling Yiddish writing in Ashkenaz (the “Pale of Settlement’ in Eastern Europe), to the probing narratives of Jewish immigrants to the United States and other parts of the New World. It also examines the accounts of horror during the Holocaust, the work of Israeli authors since the creation of the Jewish State in 1948, and the “ingathering” of Jewish works in Brazil, Bulgaria, Argentina, and South Africa at the end of the twentieth century. This kaleidoscopic introduction to Jewish literature presents its subject matter as constantly changing and adapting.
Judy Carroll is an Australian who has written of her encounters with beings from higher dimensions, what some would call “extra terrestials”. Her encounters have principally been with the Zeta Reticulans, commonly known as “Greys”. Judy Carroll calls these beings her teachers. What have they come to teach? That humans are members of a galactic whole, races birthed by the love of the Source of the All. These beings teach that we are on a journey of return to the Oneness of Divinity. God is love, and our path through life ought be a Path of Peace.
Atmasiddhi Shastra (Six Spiritual Truths of the Soul) is the work of Srimad Rajchandra of India. It is a simple question-and answer work that engages a conversation between a doubter and a teacher (a guru) about the nature of the soul. Rajchandra was guru to Mahatma Gandhi. The book has forewords given by the XIV Dalai Lama and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
In her autobiography, Josie Lacey tells of a remarkable life and the influence her ancestors had upon her. Some of her family were trapped in the Holocaust; others, like Josie, migrated to Australia. Here, Josie tells of her almost breathless life, with no time to lose.
The modern life has its pressures and demands. One must use the wifi – the wireless networks in order to be connected, to work, to find work, to chat with friends, to pay bills, to share photos and friendships. What of seeking for the Divine in this day and age? How do we feed our souls when modern line makes so many demands upon us? How do we even come to know about the Divine when the mind flits from one thing to another and we cannot keep it still? Here is one book, the teachings of Swami Shivananda of the Belur Monastery in Western India – he is the leader of the Ramakrishna Order and is giving guidance daily to those who seek it.
The Forgotten Promise is the work of a lady who has been a UFO contactee since 1968. The Master Jalarm has shared the the Universe is literally teeming with life in the many different constellations, galaxies, universes and multiple universes. This book shows just how far back the foundation for Ascension of the Earth to the 5th and higher dimensions was laid down – and the roles humans have in this process.
Nudges from Grandfather is a personal account of the author’s discovery of assistance from the spirit realm when information is needed in the dimension of healing, growth and living an embodied spirituality.
Ready Player One was released on the Easter Weekend of 2018 instead of December 2017 when it would have been released against The Last Jedi. It had a production budget of $175 million and eventually grossed $582 million worldwide. Ready Player One does a lot of things, such as 1980’s pop nostalgia, re-entry into the fantasy world of computer games and introduces the viewer to life in Virtual Reality in a way that The Matrix does not aspire to. It is an at-times challenging movie with an important message for the future of humanity. Virtual Reality is on the way.
What is the nature of ‘The Force’ in the Star Wars films? Are there higher dimensional abilities depicted by characters in The Last Jedi? Are the Jedi ideas and use of The Force something that is ultimately destructive, not useful? These questions – and more – begin to be explored…
Templar Heresy is a imaginative re-creation of the times of the Templars and the Crusades centred around several characters – leadership of the Templars, the Nizari Ismailis and a romance. It spells out the stark choices that face all people with regard to religion and the discovery of the presence of the divine within.
