Death of a Guru

Author: Rabindranath R. Maharaj
Publisher: Hodder Faith
ISBN: 9780340862476
Category : Christian converts from Hinduism
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
Rabindranath R Maharaj was descended from a long line of Brahmin priests and trained as a Yogi. He meditated for many hours each day, but gradually disillusionment set in. In DEATH OF A GURU he describes vividly and honestly Hindu life and customs, tracing his difficult search for meaning and his struggle to choose between Hinduism and Christ. At a time when Eastern mysticism and religion fascinate many in the West, Maharaj offers fresh and important insights from the perspective of his own experience. DEATH OF A GURU has long been an excellent seller on HCB's backlist. It is the best-known Hindu to Christianity conversion story and has been used widely for evangelistic purposes. This edition carries an exciting new cover.

Death

Author: Jaggi Vasudev (Sadhguru)
Publisher: Penguin/Ananda
ISBN: 9780143450832
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Whether a believer or not, a devotee or an agnostic, an accomplished seeker or a simpleton, this is truly a book for all those who shall die!

Death Blossoms

Author: Mumia Abu-Jamal
Publisher: South End Press
ISBN: 9780896086999
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
The author, a prisoner on death-row for killing a police officer, presents a series of essays and reflections on his life and his spirituality.

Death

Author: Mary Ann G. Cutter
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780268100520
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Book Description
Despite the fact that we all die, humans do not share the same view of death. In Death: A Reader, Mary Ann G. Cutter explores prominent themes that emerge and reemerge in the history of ideas regarding the nature of death from prominent global perspectives that span ancient to contemporary discussions. Thirteen themes are presented in order to convey a sense of major views of death that are found in the philosophical and sacred literature of Asia, the Near and Middle East, and the West. Each chapter contains the context of the theme, primary source selections, reflections, and suggestions for further reading. Four features of this volume distinguish it from other philosophical texts on death. First, Cutter provides a culturally diverse selection of primary source readings on the nature of death. Second, along with the more traditional discussions of death, she provides discussion on emerging topics in death studies--namely, medical immortality and digital immortality. Third, she presents some of the key ethical issues regarding death, notably suicide, treatment refusal, and physician-assisted suicide, through the lens of the nature of death. Finally, she offers engaging practical exercises that challenge readers to think through their own personal and legal wishes regarding death and dying.

A Death on Diamond Mountain

Author: Scott Carney
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 069818629X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 307

Book Description
An investigative reporter explores an infamous case where an obsessive and unorthodox search for enlightenment went terribly wrong. When thirty-eight-year-old Ian Thorson died from dehydration and dysentery on a remote Arizona mountaintop in 2012, The New York Times reported the story under the headline: "Mysterious Buddhist Retreat in the Desert Ends in a Grisly Death." Scott Carney, a journalist and anthropologist who lived in India for six years, was struck by how Thorson’s death echoed other incidents that reflected the little-talked-about connection between intensive meditation and mental instability. Using these tragedies as a springboard, Carney explores how those who go to extremes to achieve divine revelations—and undertake it in illusory ways—can tangle with madness. He also delves into the unorthodox interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism that attracted Thorson and the bizarre teachings of its chief evangelists: Thorson’s wife, Lama Christie McNally, and her previous husband, Geshe Michael Roach, the supreme spiritual leader of Diamond Mountain University, where Thorson died. Carney unravels how the cultlike practices of McNally and Roach and the questionable circumstances surrounding Thorson’s death illuminate a uniquely American tendency to mix and match eastern religious traditions like LEGO pieces in a quest to reach an enlightened, perfected state, no matter the cost. Aided by Thorson’s private papers, along with cutting-edge neurological research that reveals the profound impact of intensive meditation on the brain and stories of miracles and black magic, sexualized rituals, and tantric rites from former Diamond Mountain acolytes, A Death on Diamond Mountain is a gripping work of investigative journalism that reveals how the path to enlightenment can be riddled with danger.

Liberation Through Hearing

Author: Demi
Publisher: Fons Vitae
ISBN: 9781941610084
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Liberation through Hearing, or more fully, The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate States (bar-do thos-grol chen-mo), has become widely known by its descriptive nickname used in the West, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. These secret teachings are attributed to the 8th century Indian Buddhist Master Padma Sambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, and are thought to have then been hidden in Tibet. Such a text is regarded as a "treasure" or terma (gter ma) text to be rediscovered later, as this one was by Karma Lingpa in the 14th century. A number of legends have grown around Padma Sambhava's life and deeds, and he is widely venerated as a 'second Buddha' across Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Himalayan states of India. The Nyingma School considers Padma Sambhava to be a founder of their tradition.

Tibetan Book of the Dead

Author: W. Y. Evans-Wentz
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486845370
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Book Description
Derived from a Buddhist funerary text, this famous volume's timeless wisdom includes instructions for attaining enlightenment, preparing for the process of dying, and moving through the various stages of rebirth.

Life and Death in One Breath

Author: Sadhguru
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
ISBN: 8184954425
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 139

Book Description
For ages, most of humanity has placed “life” and “death” at two ends of the existential spectrum – favoring one, fearing the other and continuously floundering between the two. Only when someone who has consciously traversed between both life and death offers to articulate some aspects of it, does humanity get a glimpse of what lies beyond the horizon of its normal perception. With his extraordinary insights, coming from a profound inner experience, Sadhguru reveals that life and death are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. It is only by embracing both that we can break the shackles of our selfmade struggles and be set free. In his own words, he says: “Death is a cosmic joke. If you get the joke, when you fall on the other side, it will be wonderful. If you don’t get the joke, when you are here you fear the other side, and when the other side comes, you just don’t know what it is about. If death becomes a laughing matter in your life, life becomes an utterly effortless process – there is no need to restrain yourself in the process of life; you can live your life absolutely, totally.” “The distance between your life and death is just one breath, isn’t it?” – Sadhguru

Luminous Emptiness

Author: Francesca Fremantle
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834824787
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 554

Book Description
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a best-seller for three decades, is one of the most widely read texts of Tibetan Buddhism. Over the years, it has been studied and cherished by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Luminous Emptiness is a detailed guide to this classic work, elucidating its mysterious concepts, terms, and imagery. Fremantle relates the symbolic world of the Tibetan Book of the Dead to the experiences of everyday life, presenting the text not as a scripture for the dying, but as a guide for the living. According to the Buddhist view, nothing is permanent or fixed. The entire world of our experience is constantly appearing and disappearing at every moment. Using vivid and dramatic imagery, the Tibetan Book of the Dead presents the notion that most of us are living in a dream that will continue from lifetime to lifetime until we truly awaken by becoming enlightened. Here, Fremantle, who worked closely with Chögyam Trungpa on the 1975 translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Shambhala), brings the expertise of a lifetime of study to rendering this intriguing classic more accessible and meaningful to the living. Luminous Emptiness features in-depth explanations of: • The Tibetan Buddhist notions of death and rebirth • The meaning of the five energies and the five elements in Tibetan Buddhism • The mental and physical experience of dying, according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition

The Death of Sacred Texts

Author: Kristina Myrvold
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317036409
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 183

Book Description
The Death of Sacred Texts draws attention to a much neglected topic in the study of sacred texts: the religious and ritual attitudes towards texts which have become old and damaged and can no longer be used for reading practices or in religious worship. This book approaches religious texts and scriptures by focusing on their physical properties and the dynamic interactions of devices and habits that lie beneath and within a given text. In the last decades a growing body of research studies has directed attention to the multiple uses and ways people encounter written texts and how they make them alive, even as social actors, in different times and cultures. Considering religious people seem to have all the motives for giving their sacred texts a respectful symbolic treatment, scholars have paid surprisingly little attention to the ritual procedures of disposing and renovating old texts. This book fills this gap, providing empirical data and theoretical analyses of historical and contemporary religious attitudes towards, and practices of text disposals within, seven world religions: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Exploring the cultural and historical variations of rituals for religious scriptures and texts (such as burials, cremations and immersion into rivers) and the underlying beliefs within the religious traditions, this book investigates how these religious practices and stances respond to modernization and globalization processes when new technologies have made it possible to mass-produce and publish religious texts on the Internet.