Nothing To Grasp

This book points relentlessly to what is most obvious and impossible to avoid: the ever-present, ever-changing, nonconceptual actuality of the present moment that is effortlessly presenting itself right now. This book is an invitation to wake up from commonplace misconceptions and to see through the imaginary separate self at the root of our human suffering and confusion. Nothing to Grasp is a celebration of what is, exactly as it is.

Scholars of Gregory of Nyssa have long acknowledged the centrality of faith in his theory of divine union. To date, however, there has been no sustained examination of this key topic. The present study fills this gap and elucidates important auxiliary themes that accrue to Gregory's notion of faith as a faculty of apophatic union with God. The result adjusts how we understand the Cappadocian's apophaticism in general and his so-called mysticism of darkness in particular. After a general discussion of the increasing value of faith in late Neoplatonism and an overview of important work done on Gregorian faith, this study moves on to sketch a portrait of the mind and its dynamic, varying cognitive states and how these respond to the divine pedagogy of scripture, baptism, and the presence of God. With this portrait of the mind as a backdrop we see how Gregory values faith for its ability to unite with God, who remains beyond the comprehending grasp of mind. A close examination of the relationship between faith and mind shows Gregory bestowing on faith qualities which Plotinus would have granted only to the `crest of the wave of intellect'. While Gregorian faith serves as the faculty of apophatic union with God, faith yet gives something to mind. This dimension of Gregory's apophaticism has gone largely unnoticed by scholars. At the apex of an apophatic ascent faith unites with God the Word; by virtue of this union the believer takes on the qualities of the Word, who speaks (logophasis) in the deeds and discourse of the believer. Finally this study redresses how Gregory has been identified with a `mysticism of darkness' and argues that he proposes no less a `mysticism of light'.

Insightful commentary on a beloved ancient philosopher of Zen by a beloved contemporary master of Zen. Famously insightful and famously complex, Eihei Dogen’s writings have been studied and puzzled over for hundreds of years. In Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom, Kosho Uchiyama, beloved twentieth-century Zen teacher addresses himself head-on to unpacking Dogen’s wisdom from three fascicles (or chapters) of his monumental Shobogenzo for a modern audience. The fascicles presented here from Shobogenzo, or Treasury of the True Dharma Eye include “Shoaku Makusa” or “Refraining from Evil,” “Maka Hannya Haramitsu” or “Practicing Deepest Wisdom,” and “Uji” or “Living Time.” Tom Wright and Shohaku Okumura lovingly translate Dogen’s penetrating words and Uchiyama’s thoughtful commentary on each piece. At turns poetic and funny, always insightful, this is Zen wisdom for the ages.

Within the compass of this substantial volume, a major study work, Dr. J. Sidlow Baxter points out the marvel of the structural design of the Scriptures. First examining the “architecture” of the Bible, he suggests the basic approach to, and expectation of what is to be gained by the study of Scriptures. He then makes clear how a certain fitness for delineating the spiritual truths of the Bible may be acquired - and so he leads the reader to understand the structure of the Bible as a whole. In the second part of his book, Dr. Baxter points to the two dispensations defined in John 1:17 and offers stimulating comparisons between the Old and New Testaments. Further chapters lead toward a clear understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Church, and the entire New Testament. Included in the text are useful outlines and tables to summarize key factors, figures, pronouncements and turning points which have pivotal or crucial significance in the total message of the Bible.

'Eden: An Episode' is a novel written by Edgar Saltus. The story begins with a rumor and the man in the center of it all: John Usselex. After his engagement to Miss Menemon is made public, people gossip about him—spreading tales of him having a different name and a past tending geese in Bavaria to being an outlaw and fleeing from the death penalty in Denmark, to having fled from creditors in Vienna. Nobody is quite sure about the truth, and Usselex himself seems to have no interest in setting the records straight.

What kinds of pleasure do we take from writing and reading? What authority has the writer over a text? What are the limits of language's ability to communicate ideas and emotions? Moreover, what are the political limitations of these questions? The work of the French cultural critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915-80) poses these questions, and has become influential in doing so, but the precise nature of that influence is often taken for granted. This is nowhere more true than in poetry, where Barthes' concerns about pleasure and origin are assumed to be relevant, but this has seldom been closely examined. This innovative study traces the engagement with Barthes by poets writing in English, beginning in the early 1970s with one of Barthes' earliest Anglophone poet readers, Scottish poet-theorist Veronica Forrest-Thomson (194775). It goes on to examine the American poets who published in L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E and other small but influential journals of the period, and other writers who engaged with Barthes later, considering his writings' relevance to love and grief and their treatment in poetry. Finally, it surveys those writers who rejected Barthes' theory, and explores why this was. The first study to bring Barthes and poetry into such close contact, this important book illuminates both subjects with a deep contemplation of Barthes' work and a range of experimental poetries.

In the 'Tantric Transformation' we are introduced to the sacred and ancient tradition of Tantra by a contemporary Tantric master, Osho. We are given a detailed map of Tantra: inner man, inner woman; the meeting of man and woman; the transformation of energy through sex, love and meditation. Based on the Royal Song of Saraha, we are not just introduced to an Asian sex tradition but with Osho we enter the higher levels of transformation. Here we find Tantra as a door to freedom: freedom from all mind-constructs, mind games; freedom from all structures and freedom from the other. Love and meditation merge and provide a path to liberation.'Tantric Transformation' is a very alive, concrete book for exploration of our own energy, of our own inner space. You don't just read Osho, you undefine yourself.

Though it is simple and obvious, you may not understand the incredible importance of the way of nothing. When you do see the way, you will wonder, "Can it really be this easy and simple?" And seeing that there was never anything in the way of freedom can almost be embarrassing. "How could I have never seen it?" you’ll ask. The Way of Nothing: Nothing in the Way explores the obstacles that stop you from reaching your highest desires: enlightenment, eternal peace, or simply ordinary contentment. These obstacles are nothing more than concepts you have that seem real, yet they vanish with insight into the way. It is a wonderful surprise to discover that there has always been nothing in the way of what you want. Best of all, there is really nothing to it! ,