A Return To Innocence

Return to Innocence Elizabeth Roane Sometimes the keys to our future are held in the past, in things ignored but not silent. When war ended in Europe, Roger, like most young men, returned to his life in Newcastle, married his sweetheart, and began his life of peace after years of turmoil and danger. Then night terrors started, and the distant carnage of World War II invaded his home, his marriage, and his mind. Roger Whitehead's story continues in this long-awaited sequel to In Search of Honor. It maps his journey with God as he wades through war's debris of fragmented memories and half-truths. Riddled with unanswered questions about the family he knows and the one he stumbled into in France, he returns to the continent in search of answers and to silence his ghosts. Join Roger as he faces life's great conflicts between love and hate, life and death, justice and forgiveness, heaven and hell. Travel with him as he unearths his lost history, revealing its beautiful story of lasting love and divine purpose. Witness miraculous convergences between heaven and earth interlocking his past, present, and future into a testimony of ordained destiny. Then experience triumph as a victorious messenger alters the lives of all his loved ones. 1

Note: This book contains some M/M sexually explicit material. If you choose to buy this book then you are consenting that you are over the age of 18. Escaping an abusive relationship, Andy runs away to his home town of Longton in Stoke. Being able to start again is just the boost he needs to start getting his life back on track after such a tragic past. Jay, an accountant from Fenton, likes the look of Andy when he sees him in the club Crash one night. Can Andy start the new life he has always wanted? Or will a dark shadow from the past come back to haunt him in a very unique way?

On the verge of a new millennium, in an age of unprecedented affluence, personal freedom and scientific power, millions of us--young and not so young--find ourselves emotionally and morally adrift. Even as our mastery of the material world reaches new heights almost daily, mastery of the inner world--of our own actions, emotions, and deepest hopes--often tragically eludes our grasp. As families come apart, adults become bitter and emotionally detached. Children fall prey to a "culture" of sex and drugs, cynical materialism, and self-destructive nihilism. It increasingly seems that, in the piercing words of Jesus, we have "gained the whole world, and lost our own souls." In A Return to Innocence, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Jeffrey M. Schwartz--a Jewish student of both Buddhist meditation and Christian philosophy--combines 3,000 years of wisdom with cutting edge brain and behavioral research to guide us in recovering our souls, our safety, our integrity and our capacity to love. After a 35-year experiment in unbridled self-gratification that has left a burden of tremendous suffering in its wake, at last we are ready to understand that innocence--in its original meaning of "not harming"--is actually the highest and most difficult of human achievements. The lost art of self-command that empowers us not to harm ourselves or one another is the core teaching of humanity's greatest spiritual masters, including Moses, Jesus, and Buddha. If we value our children, our culture, even our very freedom, we must return to true innocence as our source of inner lightness, clarity and spiritual power. A practical path to this wellspring of inner purity was mapped out 2,500 years ago by Gotama Buddha--in Dr. Schwartz's view the greatest psychologist who ever lived--whose still-fresh insights into human nature can serve as a bridge joining the wisdom of the Bible to the discoveries of 21st century science. A deeply felt, thought-provoking exchange of letters between "spiritual coach" Dr. Schwartz and sixteen-year-old Patrick Buckley, the son of a single mother, frames this fascinating, powerful code for living that shows how the best in each of us can thrive. Spiritual and philosophical ideas become hands-on tools for dealing with real-life dilemmas as Dr. Schwartz addresses Patrick's urgent questions about morality, responsibility, and freedom of choice. This book offers an empowering combination of hope, inspiration, accurate information about the biology of human nature, as well as desperately-needed guidance for keeping that nature on a life-affirming path. To everyone--young and old--A Return to Innocence offers dynamic, concrete solutions for the pain in our hearts, the fear in our streets, and the cynicism that has corroded our ideals. It speaks directly to our longing for a decent, meaningful, and fulfilling life. The traditional values that made civilization possible were thought to be outrageously radical and daring when they were first introduced by revolutionaries like Moses, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed. . . . Yet those codes of behavior became "traditional"--that is, they got handed down from generation to generation--for one simple reason: they work. And they work because they're based on a highly sophisticated and deeply wise understanding of human nature. We often hear the phrase "Knowledge is power"--but nowhere is it truer than when it comes to knowledge of ourselves. Are we humans primarily driven, or "drivers"? Are we blameless puppets of our genes, our hormones, our childhoods, or do we have the power, and so the responsibility, to choose what we will do? In our day and age, everyone wants to be, or at least appear to be, streetwise, experienced, cool, and cynical. What people don't realize is that the source of the word "innocent" is a place of great power. It comes from the Latin words for "not" and "to harm." True innocence is the highest of human accomplishments. Not doing harm requires the utmost in awareness, effort, and courage. The state of the world begins right here--in the state of your mind.

In this comical and magical novel, a young swordswoman learns that, sometimes, going home is the most dangerous adventure of all!

Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794) is William Blake's best-known work, containing such familiar poems as 'London', 'Sick Rose' and 'The Tyger'. Evolving over the author's lifetime, the collection was printed by Blake himself on his own press. This Reader's Guide: - Explains the unique development of Songs as an illuminated book - Considers the earliest reactions to the text during Blake's lifetime, and his gathering posthumous reputation in the nineteenth century - Explores modern critical approaches and recent debates - Discusses key topics that have been of abiding interest to critics, including the relationship between text and image in Blake's 'composite art' Insightful and stimulating, this introductory guide is an invaluable resource for anyone who is seeking to navigate their way through the mass of criticism surrounding Blake's most widely-studied work.

In this next installment of the Manifestation trilogy, renowned channel Paul Selig shares the words of The Guides as they offer a glimpse of a world that transcends our own limited understanding. The Guides, otherworldly beings with deep spiritual insight, speak directly through Paul, and their message has been transcribed word for word in this revolutionary new volume. The Book of Innocence invites readers to explore a new vision of themselves and the lives they lead—one that is pristine, fundamental, and innate. Instead of being blinded by spiritual and physical distractions, The Guides offer a return to the primal simplicity of a deeper knowing. This powerful book welcomes readers into a paradigm shifting experience of renewal and rebirth, shedding cynicism and conceit in favor of authentic, life-changing innocence.

Offers a feminist theory of ignorance that sheds light on the misunderstood or overlooked epistemic practices of women in literature. An Ethic of Innocence examines representations of women in American and British fin-de-siècle and modern literature who seem “not to know” things. These naïve fools, Pollyannaish dupes, obedient traditionalists, or regressive anti-feminists have been dismissed by critics as conservative, backward, and out of sync with, even threatening to, modern feminist goals. Grounded in the late nineteenth century’s changing political and generic representations of women, this book provides a novel interpretative framework for reconsidering the epistemic claims of these women. Kristen L. Renzi analyzes characters from works by Henry James, Frank Norris, Ann Petry, Rebecca West, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and others, to argue that these feminine figures who choose not to know actually represent and model crucial pragmatic strategies by which modern and contemporary subjects navigate, survive, and even oppose gender oppression. Kristen L. Renzi is Associate Professor of English at Xavier University.