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BUDDHA STANDARD TIME

AWAKENING TO THE INFINITE POSSIBILITIES OF NOW

Exhilarating and profound food for the timeless soul.

Western Buddhist offers transcendent life instructions regarding time, space, peace and love.

Das, an otherworldly sage, cultivates and activates “time’s natural expression” in language that resonates and penetrates wholeheartedly. Each chapter yields wisdom with fresh, focused aptitude. Meditation and mindful intent, ever present, deliver the imminent “now” in each paragraph. “Everything we seek and long for—including joy, holiness, divinity, inner peace, and happiness,” he writes, “can be enjoyed in every moment, anytime, anywhere.” Das drives the reader through the altering speeds of time, providing a manual for subconscious and unconscious exploration to manipulate and harness the self within time. The concepts of past, present and future fall to the wayside. The author provides countless dichotomies which exhibit the notion that our natural rhythms are at odds with societal structure of time and its constriction. Das renders these conflictions masterfully, demonstrating to the reader easy and practical means of time-control practice. From Siddhartha's transformation into the Buddha, to Gandhi's teachings and legacy, to the unfolding of the Buddha's noble Eightfold path to Enlightenment, the author carefully evokes the power of perception and the creation of space within time and all of its vast infinities. Das weaves together intricacies of living in the moment, sensing inherently the overwhelming power of now.

Exhilarating and profound food for the timeless soul.

Pub Date: June 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-06-177456-0

Page Count: 224

Publisher: HarperOne

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011

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ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.

This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005

ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

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MASTERY

Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...

Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.

The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.

Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.

Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012

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