Seven Stairways

Despite being happily married for forty years, Rajeshwari still feels unsettled, enduring a storm that is raging in her heart mysteriously. She is never without the shadow of her childhood sweetheart, Rochak, who seems to be reaching out for her beyond the realms of the living. In this spellbinding conclusion to the romantic saga, we follow Rajeshwari on her journey once again as she tries to come to peace and go back to the place where it all started.

Contributions by 34 scholars are brought together here to create a volume in honor of the long and fruitful career of Guenter Kopcke who is the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Articles pertain to various topics on the ancient art, architecture, and archaeology of the greater Eastern Mediterranean region: from Pre-Dynastic Egypt to the Bronze Age Aegean and Anatolia, Cyprus and the Near East, and Etruscan Italy.

The Essential City Walking Guide for Over 30 Years Hundreds of public stairways traverse San Francisco’s boundless hills, revealing scenic vistas and linking colorful, diverse neighborhoods. Since 1984, Stairway Walks in San Francisco has been helping urban explorers discover the best of the City by the Bay via riser and handrail. Now in its ninth edition, this beloved guidebook by Mary Burk with Adah Bakalinsky includes three new walks, updates of classic favorites, and many new photographs. The amazing routes invite you to explore 35 featured walks that incorporate San Francisco’s magnificent stairway network, from Marshall Beach and Noe Valley to Lands End and Telegraph Hill. Lively route descriptions, at-a-glance Quick-Step summaries, and easy-to-read maps—as well as parking and public-transportation information—provide all the details you want to know. Plus, a comprehensive appendix lists all 600-plus stairways. Whether you want to learn about the city’s history and architecture, elevate your exercise routine, or just let your feet lead the way to new adventures, Stairway Walks in San Francisco has something for everyone.

James B. Apple examines one of the formative subjects in traditional Buddhist studies, the Twenty Varieties of the Saṃgha. The Saṃgha (community) is one of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha) universally revered by all Buddhists. While the Saṃgha is generally understood as the community of Buddhist ordained monks and nuns, along with lay adherents, the Twenty Varieties of the Saṃgha concerns an exemplary community of the twenty types of Noble Beings (ārya-pudgala) who embody the Buddha's teachings. Focusing on the interpretation of the Saṃgha given by the fourteenth-century Tibetan scholar Tsong kha pa, Apple provides a comprehensive typology and analysis of the stages through which Noble Beings pass in their progress toward enlightenment through multiple lifetimes in various cosmological realms. He explains the cosmographic formations and complex structures of Buddhist spiritual cultivation, illustrating how Tibetan and Indian Buddhists conceptualize all possible states on the path to enlightenment.

Delve into world of folklore fiction. Marachi, the high priest over the five coupled kingdoms of Nrì have been tainted with the bracelets of wisdom and power, which was bestowed unto him by the FATHER OF ALL; NNA-NIILE. In an era of great campaign waged against the five allied nations, a paragon must rise up to take on this great terror, born of deception—from the fallen prince of the sky; GHANTO NKE-DARA. Famine! In the four corners of the earth; ỤWÀ. 3047 B.D. IN THE AGE OF THE FALLEN ONE; GHANTO NKE-DARA. THE PRINCE OF THE FALLEN now holds claim over the sky-throne of ỤWÀ, and with its authority, he plagued the nations of her inhabitants with drought and hunger. For his inherent antipathy towards them. Decades passed, ỤWÀ suffered barrenness under the oppression of her spurious prince. Then, a time ensued, ỤWÀ and her inhabitants cried up to the gates of URIUN, to put an end to this monstrosity for which the fallen prince of the sky had placed upon them. To aid ỤWÀ in her unprecedented adversity. NNA-NIILE: THE FATHER OF ALL THINGS, and the Chí-nà-ékè [THE CREATOR] over the universe, offered Humanity the bracelets of WISDOM AND POWER, to harness HIS 7 VIRTUES, for which together are called—THE FORCE OF NNA-NIILE. The FORCE OF NNA-NIILE is a cosmic energy from which his universe emanated from. And like two faces of a coin, the FORCE OF NNA-NIILE is good and evil—[THE COMFORTER and NEMESIS]. One can only possess either, but neither both, except the divine nature—NNA-NIILE and his LIGHT OF GLORY. And so it began. The end of the Fallen one, and the vindication of humanity.