Ocean Of Light

We first started writing our story for those who have not yet arrived on the scene, unborn generations who are destined to make their appearance in our family and in the family of man. Our aim was to narrow the gap for those who were too little or not even in this world, to have known or appreciated Grandpa Chuck. Then we thought about a wider audience - our close friends and beyond. Grandpa’s legacy to us all is about faith, love, courage and fortitude in accepting the vicissitudes of life and mysteries of death. Perhaps our readers, especially children and youth who are experiencing the sudden or gradual loss of someone they cherish dearly, will discover between these pages a gentle ray of hope. What could be brighter or more comforting than to imagine our loved ones that have passed from us, immersed in an ocean of light?

Lujjatun-Nur [The Ocean of Light] was written by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah(as) and its purpose was to convey the message of the revival of Islam to the Arab and Persian world. Lujjatun-Nur is a timeless writing. It depicts the condition of the Muslims and the turmoil the Muslim Ummah faces. The Promised Messiah(as) outlines his claim and the need for a reformer, presenting arguments in support of his holy person being the Messiah of the Latter Days. When we read this writing and reflect upon the Muslim world today, we find a robust analysis that holds true even after 120 years: events have unfolded exactly as the Promised Messiah(as) foretold.

For people drawn to a life of contemplation, the dawning of luminous awareness in a mind full of clutter is deeply liberating. In the third of his best-selling books on Christian contemplative life, Martin Laird turns his attention to those who are well settled in their contemplative practice. An Ocean of Light speaks both to those just entering the contemplative path and to those with a maturing practice of contemplation. Gradually, the practice of contemplation lifts the soul, freeing it from the blockages that introduce confusion into our identity and thus confusion about the mystery we call God. In the course of a lifetime of inner silencing, the flower of awareness emerges: a living realization that we have never been separate from God or from the rest of humanity while we each fully become what each of us is created to be. In contemplation we become so silent before God that the "before" drops away. Those whose lives have led them deeply into the silent land realize this, but not in the way that we realize that the square root of 144 is 12. Laird draws from a wide and diverse range of writers--from St. Augustine, Evagrius Ponticus, and St. Teresa of Avila to David Foster Wallace, Flannery O'Connor, Virginia Woolf, and Franz Wright--to ground his insight in an ancient practice and give it a voice in contemporary language. With his characteristic lyricism and gentleness, Laird guides readers through new challenges of contemplative life, such as making ourselves the focus of our own contemplative project; dealing with old pain; transforming the isolation of loneliness and depression into a liberating solidarity with all who suffer; and the danger of using a spiritual practice as a strategy to acquire and control.

The story continues in the second book of Peter Warner's trilogy -Ocean of Light. This book covers Peter Warner's 30 years living in The Kingdom of Tonga and moving around the Pacific. It includes the famous rescue of castaways on a remote island in the Pacific and his relationship with the Royal Family. Peter also writes about building artificial islands, investigating religions and helping to establish schools. He includes the island way of operating a fleet of small freighters around the Pacific and bringing up a young family in The Kingdom of Tonga. This is an exciting yarn giving a nice insight into living and working in the Pacific.

For people drawn to a life of contemplation, the dawning of luminous awareness in a mind full of clutter is deeply liberating. In the third of his best-selling books on Christian contemplative life, Martin Laird turns his attention to those who are well settled in their contemplative practice. An Ocean of Light speaks both to those just entering the contemplative path and to those with a maturing practice of contemplation. Gradually, the practice of contemplation lifts the soul, freeing it from the blockages that introduce confusion into our identity and thus confusion about the mystery we call God. In the course of a lifetime of inner silencing, the flower of awareness emerges: a living realization that we have never been separate from God or from the rest of humanity while we each fully become what each of us is created to be. In contemplation we become so silent before God that the "before" drops away. Those whose lives have led them deeply into the silent land realize this, but not in the way that we realize that the square root of 144 is 12. Laird draws from a wide and diverse range of writers--from St. Augustine, Evagrius Ponticus, and St. Teresa of Avila to David Foster Wallace, Flannery O'Connor, Virginia Woolf, and Franz Wright--to ground his insight in an ancient practice and give it a voice in contemporary language. With his characteristic lyricism and gentleness, Laird guides readers through new challenges of contemplative life, such as making ourselves the focus of our own contemplative project; dealing with old pain; transforming the isolation of loneliness and depression into a liberating solidarity with all who suffer; and the danger of using a spiritual practice as a strategy to acquire and control.

A cloth bag containing ten copies of the title.

The Ocean of the Soul is one of the great works of the German Orientalist Hellmut Ritter (1892-1971). It presents a comprehensive analysis of the writings of the mystical Persian poet Far d al-D n At t r who is thought to have died at an advanced age in April 1221 when the Mongols destroyed his home city of N sh p r in the north-east of Iran. The book, which resulted from decades of investigation of literary and historical sources, was first published in 1955 and has since remained unsurpassed not only as the definitive study of At t r's world of ideas but as an indispensable guide to understanding pre-modern Islamic literature in general.Quoting at length from At t r and other Islamic sources, Ritter sketches an extraordinarily vivid portrait of the Islamic attitude toward life, characteristic developments in pious and ascetic circles, and, in conclusion, various dominant mystical currents of thought and feeling.Special attention is given to a wide range of views on love, love in all its manifestations, including homosexuality and the commonplace s f adoration of good-looking youths. Ritter's approach is throughout based onprecise philological interpretation of primary sources, several of which he has himself made available in critical editions.