This guide offers a clear and accessible approach to meditation, making it suitable for beginners and those looking to refresh their practice. It emphasizes simplicity and practicality, stripping away any pretentiousness or complexity often associated with meditation. Readers can expect straightforward instructions to help them start or deepen their meditation journey.
The narrative unfolds through a profound encounter with the Divine Feminine, as Clark Strand experiences a vision of a young woman symbolically silenced by black tape. Upon removing the tape, she reveals a message about impending chaos meant to renew the natural world. Inspired by mystical traditions and the Song of Songs, Strand channels his reflections into poetry dedicated to Ma Kali, the Dark Goddess, expressing the transformative power of love and the urgency of reconnecting with nature amidst human turmoil.
Before a vision of a mysterious "Lady" invited Clark Strand and Perdita Finn to pray the rosary, they were not only uninterested in becoming Catholic but finished with institutional religion altogether. Their main spiritual concerns were the fate of the planet and the future of their children and grandchildren in an age of ecological collapse. But this Lady barely even referred to the Church and its proscriptions. Instead, she spoke of the miraculous power of the rosary to transform lives and heal the planet, and revealed the secrets she had hidden within the rosary's prayers and mysteries--secrets of a past age when forests were the only cathedrals and people wove rose garlands for a Mother whose loving presence was as close as the ground beneath their feet. She told Strand and Finn: "The rosary is My body, and My body is the body of the world. Your body is one with that body. What cause could there be for fear?" Weaving together their own remarkable story of how they came to the rosary, their discoveries about the eco-feminist wisdom at the heart of this ancient devotion, and the life-changing revelations of the Lady herself, the authors reveal an ancestral path--available to everyone, religious or not--that returns us to the powerful healing rhythms of the natural world
Is there more to Buddhism than sitting in silent meditation? Is modern Buddhism relevant to the problems of daily life? Does it empower individuals to transform their lives? Or has Buddhism become too detached, so still and quiet that the Buddha has fallen asleep? Waking the Buddha tells the story of the Soka Gakkai International, the largest, most dynamic Buddhist movement in the world today—and one that is waking up and shaking up Buddhism so it can truly work in ordinary people’s lives. Drawing on his long personal experience as a Buddhist teacher, journalist, and editor, Clark Strand offers broad insight into how and why the Soka Gakkai, with its commitment to social justice and its egalitarian approach, has become a role model, not only for other schools of Buddhism, but for other religions as well. Readers will be inspired by the struggles and triumphs of the Soka Gakkai’s three founding presidents—individuals who staked their lives on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and the extraordinary power of those teachings to help people become happy.
"First published in 1997, Seeds From a Birch Tree introduced readers to the only form of poetry in all of world literature that makes nature into a spiritual path. Its message was simple: Haiku teaches us to return to nature by following the seasons-17 syllables at a time. With its mix of poetry and memoir, fallen leaves and birdsong, Seeds From a Birch Tree awakens us to what Bashō called "the life of each thing." Simple instructions guide us to the possibilities for creativity and joy hidden in plain sight in the natural world around us, giving us hope and resilience in the face of life's challenges. This revised and expanded 25th Anniversary Edition includes the complete text of the original classic, plus dozens of new haiku and an Afterword by the author discussing haiku for the 21st century"-- Provided by publisher
"Hidden in the darkness is an ancient secret suppressed by every aspect of our light-drunk modern world-there is a Great Mother from the bottom of time who has always guided us through perils and calamities. Now is the hour of Her return. Is darkness synonymous with ignorance and evil? Or is it the original matrix from which all life emerges, and the Mother to whom it returns? Increasingly high levels of artificial illumination have suppressed our contact with the numinous since the Industrial Revolution, with dire consequences for society, our planetary ecology, and our souls. In Waking Up to the Dark, Clark Strand weaves together paleobiology, memoir, history, science, and spiritual archaeology to lead readers back into the lost mysteries of the dark and diagnoses with urgency and cultural coherence the problems at the heart of modern life. Strand offers penetrating insight into the spiritual enrichment that can be found when we pull the plug on our billion-watt culture. He argues that the insomnia many of us experience as "the Hour of the Wolf" is really "the Hour of God"-a wellspring of rest and renewal, and an ancient reservoir of ancestral wisdom and inspiration. And in a surprising yet powerful turn, he shares an urgent message for the world, received through a mysterious apparition he calls Our Lady of Climate Change, about the challenges that are coming"-- Provided by publisher
Clark Strand zeigt uns auf zugängliche Art und Weise, wie wir durch Meditation diejenige Gelassenheit kultivieren können, die für ein erfülltes und harmonisches Leben unerläßlich ist. Ein Buch für alle, die eine ebenso persönliche wie tiefgründige Form der Meditation suchen, die jedoch niemals zu zeitaufwendig, zu streng oder zu schwer ist.
