Mountain Path

Masterfully wrought and keenly observed, Mountain Path draws on Harriette Simpson Arnow’s experiences as a schoolteacher in downtrodden Pulaski County, Kentucky, deep in the heart of Appalachia, prior to WWII. Far from a quaint portrait of rural life, Arnow’s novel documents hardships, poverty, illiteracy, and struggles. She also recognizes a fragile cultural richness, one characterized by “those who like open fires, hounds, children, human talk and song instead of TV and radio, the wisdom of the old who had seen all of life from birth to death,” and which has since been eroded by the advent of highways and industry. In Mountain Path, Arnow exquisitely captures the voices, faces, and ways of a people she cared for deeply, and who evoked in her a deep respect and admiration.

Mrs. Badger, an avid collector and naturalist, takes a weekly journey up to Sugarloaf Peak, greeting her friends on the way and sharing her discoveries with them. One day she meets Lulu, a very small cat, who wants to go with her to the top of the mountain. On the way, Lulu learns to take care of the natural world, help those in need, and listen to her intuition. Rich in wisdom and beautifully illustrated, Up the Mountain Path offers a profound story full of lessons about love, generosity, and following one's heart.

'All I wanted to do was go to sleep. And I was certain that if I did drift off, it would be for the last time.' In 1998, Paul Pritchard was struck on the head by a falling rock as he climbed a sea stack in Tasmania called the Totem Pole. Close to death, waiting for hours for rescue, Pritchard kept himself going with a promise that given the chance, he would 'at least attempt to live'. Left hemiplegic by his injury, Pritchard has spent the last two decades attempting to live, taking on adventures that seemed impossible for someone so badly injured while plumbing the depths of a mind almost snuffed out by his passion for climbing. Not content to simply survive, Pritchard finds ways to return to his old life, cycling across Tibet and expanding his mind on gruelling meditation courses, revisiting the past and understanding his compulsion for risk. Finally, he returns to climb the Totem Pole, the place where his life was almost extinguished. The Mountain Path is an adventure book like no other, an exploration of a healing brain, a journey into philosophy and psychology, a test of will and a triumph of hope.

The story unfolds of a modern day Siddhartha; though it is a fictional work, the feelings, experiences and revelations are autobiographical. It is a fascinating, moving and amusing journey of one man's profound search for truth.

Mankind has proven that it is able to make great progresses in science and technology. Now it is time to prove its ability for social progress alike.Starving children, wars, environmental pollution and destruction, the use of animals as material, the countless problems of the people even in the best situated regions of the globe - people could protest against all of that for generations, could demand reforms and help some randomly picked of the suffering directly, but all in all nothing would really change.Only a social transformation can solve all of these problems.- with 49 illustrations -Read the first 15 pages of the book

Shugendō has been an object of fascination among scholars and the general public, yet its historical development remains an enigma. This book offers a provocative reexamination of the social, economic, and spiritual terrain from which this mountain religious system arose. Caleb Carter traces Shugendō through the mountains of Togakushi (Nagano Prefecture), while situating it within the religious landscape of medieval and early modern Japan. His is the first major study to view Shugendō as a self-conscious religious system—something that was historically emergent but conceptually distinct from the prevailing Buddhist orders of medieval Japan. Beyond Shugendō, his work rethinks a range of issues in the history of Japanese religions, including exclusionary policies toward women, the formation of Shintō, and religion at the social and geographical margins of the Japanese archipelago. Carter takes a new tack in the study of religions by tracking three recurrent and intersecting elements—institution, ritual, and narrative. Examination of origin accounts, temple records, gazetteers, and iconography from Togakushi demonstrates how practitioners implemented storytelling, new rituals and festivals, and institutional measures to merge Shugendō with their mountain’s culture while establishing social legitimacy and economic security. Indicative of early modern trends, the case of Mount Togakushi reveals how Shugendō moved from a patchwork of regional communities into a translocal system of national scope, eventually becoming Japan’s signature mountain religion.

* Completely redesigned for easier use * Includes five new hikes, more photos, and expanded route descriptions * "The best book for trail descriptions in the Olympics." - The San Francisco Chronicle With its moss-draped rain forests, alpine meadows brimming with wildflowers, and snow-capped mountains, the Olympic Peninsula is a hiker's paradise. Explore the Cat Creek Way Trail, a high-country route to a view of Oyster Lake, or trek along the Appleton Pass Trail where you might spy a fat marmot perched on one of the boulders along the path. This new edition of a tried-and-true classic to hiking the Olympic Peninsula contains all the facts for both day hikes and overnight backpack trips. You'll find information on 177 hikes in the Olympic Mountains and extensive material on history, geology, native plants, and wildlife. Also find in this hiking guidebook numbered hikes for quick reference; detailed information blocks for each trail; and weather information for each section of the Olympic Mountains.