Empfehlungen basierend auf "Mystic’s Musings"

Stephen Mitchell is widely known for his ability to make ancient masterpieces thrillingly new, to step in where many have tried before and create versions that are definitive for our time. His celebrated version of the Tao Te Ching is the most popular edition in print, and his translations of Jesus, Rilke, Genesis, and Job have won the hearts of readers and critics alike. Stephen Mitchell now brings to the Bhagavad Gita his gift for breathing new life into sacred texts.The Bhagavad Gita is universally acknowledged as one of the world's literary and spiritual masterpieces. It is the core text of the Hindu tradition and has been treasured by American writers from Emerson and Thoreau to T. S. Eliot, who called it the greatest philosophical poem after the Divine Comedy. There have been more than two hundred English translations of the Gita, including many competent literal versions, but not one of them is a superlative literary text in its own right.Now all that has changed. Stephen Mitchell's Bhagavad Gita sings with the clarity, the vigor, and the intensity of the original Sanskrit. It will, as William Arrowsmith said of Mitchell's translation of The Sonnets to Orpheus, "instantly make every other rendering obsolete."

Many centuries ago, in a kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, a miraculous child was born to the king and queen. The young prince, Siddhartha, was raised in the greatest luxury, sheltered from all pain and ugliness. But one day Siddhartha left the palace and saw, for the first time, human suffering and death. He knew then that he must relinquish everything-- his family, his wealth, his position-- to discover the Truth of life and death. With only a few humble possessions, he began a remarkable spiritual journey that ended many years later under a bodhi tree. There he finally discovered the Truth and became an Enlightened One, a Buddha. The Buddha taught the Truth and the path to inner peace for forty-five years, attracting thousands of disciples. Today millions of people around the world live by his teachings.Demi's exquisite illustrations, inspired by the paintings and sculptures of several Asian cultures, are layered with meaning; each brush stroke has a special significance. Demi, herself a Buddhist, brings her devotion to the teachings of the Buddha and her vast knowledge of his life to this comprehensive picture-book biography of an extraordinary spiritual leader.

The greatest Indian epic, one of the world's supreme masterpieces of storytellingA Penguin ClassicA sweeping tale of abduction, battle, and courtship played out in a universe of deities and demons, The Ramayana is familiar to virtually every Indian. Although the Sanskrit original was composed by Valmiki around the fourth century BC, poets have produced countless versions in different languages. Here, drawing on the work of an eleventh-century poet called Kamban, Narayan employs the skills of a master novelist to re-create the excitement he found in the original. A luminous saga made accessible to new generations of readers, The Ramayana can be enjoyed for its spiritual wisdom, or as a thrilling tale of ancient conflict.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

One of the largest rivers in the world, the Indus rises in the Tibetan mountains, flows across northern India and then through Pakistan. For millennia it has been worshipped as a god, for centuries used as a tool of imperial expansion; today it is the cement of Pakistan's fractious union. This recounts a journey along the Indus, upstream and backwards in time, through two thousand miles of geography from the sea to the source; travelling back historically, from the moment that Pakistan first came into being in Karachi, to the time, millions of years ago in Tibet, when the river itself was born.

A restlessness born of guilt and despair leads Ravi to embark on a journey that ends in the remote village of Khasak in the picturesque Palghat countryside in Kerala. A land from the past, potent with dreams and legends, enfolds the traveller in a powerful and unsettling embrace. Ravi is bewitched and entranced as everything around him-the villagers; their children whom he teaches in a makeshift school; the elders who see him as a threat; the toddy-tappers; the shamans-takes on the quality of myth. And then reality, painful and threatening, begins to intrude on the sojourner's resting place and Ravi begins to understand that there is no escape from the relentless dictates of karma... Often poetic and dark, always complex and rich, The Legends of Khasak, O.V. Vijayan's much-acclaimed first novel, translated into English by the author, is an extraordinary achievement

"A rich and fascinating study of Tibetan monastic life, from an author who is not only a leading scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, but who spent many years as a Buddhist monk."—Donald Lopez, author of Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West"Georges Dreyfus, extraordinary person and writer, gives us crucial insights into the structure and practices of higher Tibetan education as well as his own fascinating journey leading to his becoming the first Westerner to achieve the highest rank in Tibetan education. This book both peals away myths and reveals the true depths of Tibetan techniques to train the mind."—Jeffrey Hopkins, author of Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism"A remarkable tour de force. Georges Dreyfus merges personal memoir and outstanding scholarship to draw us into the intellectual life of the Tibetan monastic college, and in so doing he transforms forever our understanding of education and the cultivation of reason in traditional and pre-modern societies. If you read no other book on Tibetan Buddhism, immerse yourself in this one and applaud."—Matthew T. Kapstein, author of The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism

An essential novel about the 1947 Partition in a newly revised translation by Booker Prize-winning translator Daisy Rockwell A Penguin ClassicBhisham Sahni’s 1973 novel is a chronicle of the sectarian violence that ultimately led to the devastation of the Partition. It drew immediate and universal critical acclaim for its poignant and striking depiction of the anatomy of a bloody conflagration that comes to engulf an entire region. In a northwestern city in pre-Independence India, Nathu, a tanner, is hired to kill a pig by a shadowy figure who haunts the novel. When the animal’s carcass is discovered on the steps of the local mosque the next morning, simmering tensions explode into riots and massacre that grip cities and villages across the region of Punjab. The incident is the linchpin in a British plot to divide and conquer the local population by planting seeds of mistrust and hatred among many who, until the day before, had been close friends and neighbors. Tamas is a chilling reminder of the consequences of colonial rule and the consequences of religious nationalisms.

Here are the chief riches of more than 3,000 years of Indian philosophical thought-the ancient Vedas, the Upanisads, the epics, the treatises of the heterodox and orthodox systems, the commentaries of the scholastic period, and the contemporary writings. Introductions and interpretive commentaries are provided.

Continuing the exciting adventures of The Celestine Prophecy and The Tenth Insight, this new book takes you to the snow-covered Himalayas, in search of the legendary Tibetan utopia of Shambhala. As you follow a child's instructions, are pursued by hostile Chinese agents, and look for a lost friend, you will experience a new awareness of synchronicity...and discover, hidden among the world's highest mountains, the secrets that affect all humanity. For Shambhala not only actually exists, but is destined to be found in our time-and will reveal powerful truths that can transform the world.

This special gift edition brings together Devdutt Pattanaik's lavishly illustrated and immensely popular retellings of India's greatest epics - the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.Jay- An Illustrated Retelling of the MahabharataIn this entralling retelling, Devdutt Pattanaik seamlessly weaves into a single narrative plots from the Sanskrit classic as well as its many folk and regional variants. Richly illustrated with over 250 line drawings by the author, the 108 chapters abound with little-known details such as the names of the hundred Kauravas, the Mahabharata version of the Ramayana, and the dating of the war based on astronomical data. Jayareveals the eternal relevance of the Mahabharata, the complex and disturbing meditation on the human condition that has shaped Indian thought for over 3000 years. Sita- An Illustrated Retelling of the RamayanaDevdutt Pattanaik approaches Ram by speculating on Sita- her childhood with her father, Janaka, who hosted sages mentioned in the Upanishads; her stay in the forest with her husband, who had to be celibate ascetic while she was in the prime of her youth; her interactions with the women of Lanka, recipes she exchanged, emotions they shared; her connection with the earth, her mother, and with the trees, her sisters; her role as the Goddess, the untamed Kali as well as the demure Gauri, in transforming the stoic prince of Ayodhya into God.