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TALKING TO SELF

Name: TALKING TO SELF
Author: Dillip Kumar Dash
ISBN: 978-1482801576

by Dillip Kumar Dash ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 17, 2013

A motley sheaf of sometimes-absorbing, sometimes-baffling spiritual stanzas.

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Internal dialogue is the key to communing with the divine, according to this rapturous but often murky volume of mystical devotions.

Dash, an Indian psychiatrist, dispenses his philosophical teachings in a series of short, one- or two-paragraph prose poems that center on august, thematic figures. One figure is the ineffable Almighty, an entity of love and righteousness that subsumes the individual: “No act is mine; no thought is mine, and no name is mine, neither is any personification,” Dash writes. Another figure, almost as awesome but more down-to-earth, is the author’s mother, a being of “sanity and saintly love” who is “closer to [him] than each drop of blood in [his] arteries.” Dash evokes his mother in tenderly specific terms, departing from his usual abstract tone: “Before dawn she would clean the utensils left dirty from the previous night…giving me some cold rice and curry to eat…do[ing] aarti [, a Hindu ritual,] around a Tulsi plant.” Soon, a “Master” emerges to impart Buddhism-inflected philosophy—“Mind is just a function, and you can make it no mind”—to a vaguely Christ-like “son of the Lord…who is hungry, hunted and weeping.” Dash further elaborates on Yogic-Buddhist principles of happiness, enjoining readers to “attain the value of nothingness,” renounce worldly desires (“sexual and sensual urges are slavery, while celibacy is freedom”) and emulate his own inward meditative journey of “talking to self.” Dash’s loose, free-associational prose shifts through a number of registers, sometimes intimately prayerful, sometimes caustically prophetic—“I shall destroy the world of cruelty, dishonesty, and of massacre”—and includes sketchy stories reminiscent of Kahlil Gibran’s parables. However, the text strains for grand, cryptic pronouncements that often misfire (“In silence the human race slowly progresses towards the time zone, moving relentlessly”). At its best, however, Dash’s poetic imagery feels vivid and fresh: “This moment is like a child carrying a lit candle and progressing towards the church, like the silence of the blue sky in the summer afternoon.”

A motley sheaf of sometimes-absorbing, sometimes-baffling spiritual stanzas.

Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013

ISBN: 978-1482801576

Page Count: 182

Publisher: PartridgeIndia

Review Posted Online: March 18, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

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ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

by Timothy Paul Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2005

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

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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 â€œHow 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

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955

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This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.