The Eye Of A Smiling Sun

In 100 Days to Better Health, Good Sex & Long Life, Eric Yudelove provided the foundation course in Taoist practice. Now he takes you to the next level, referred to as "Beginning Internal Alchemy." Gather the energies from the five major internal organs, harmonize them, and change them from negative to positive. It's a process of refining yourself so you can absorb energy from nature and the cosmos, thus becoming a universe in miniature.

What could be better than opening a beautiful book on a long, cold, winter evening and allowing oneself to be comfortably transported on the wings of imagination across different areas of the world and to experience its beauties and its dark sides or, for instance, take a walk through a winter forest, heavily laden with soft snow, which is joyously sparkling under the sunrays that are playfully penetrating the spruce tree branches, and follow a walker - explorer and his friend, Bricky, the dog. The two of them are exploring the near and far surroundings of their home, situated in the high, mountain world. The explorer's grandpa lives in that home; in his younger years he was a diplomat, who was sent on important missions throughout the world in order to help solve difficult global problems. Even now, in his old age, he is trying to help the suffering humanity. He is therefore endowed with rich life experience and broad knowledge, which greatly attracts the young explorer. Thus an interesting conversation develops between them, which takes place during the carefree time of winter holidays.

Women are rarely if ever mentioned in commentaries upon Australian Christianity and spirituality. Only exceptional women are recognized as authorities on religious matters. Why is this so? Does it matter? Don't people from the same religious tradition share similar experiences of the divine, regardless of their gender? Rewriting God asks whether women have been writing about the divine and whether their insights are different from those contained in malestream accounts of Australian Christianity and spirituality. An analysis of the writings of popular theologians and religious commentators over the last twenty years suggests that the most popular form of spirituality among Australian theologians is Desert Spirituality. An analysis of women's autobiographical writings, however, suggests that the desert is irrelevant to many women's spiritual experiences. This book, through a close investigation of the fictions of Thea Astley, Elizabeth Jolley and Barbara Hanrahan, attempts to posit alternative forms of women's spirituality and to signal ways in which this spirituality is already being expressed. From the evidence gathered here, it becomes obvious that traditional expressions of Australian Christianity and spirituality are gender-specific and that they have functioned to deny women's religious experiences and to silence their claims to equality in the sight and service of the divine. It becomes obvious, too, that women have been developing their own forms of religious expression and that these may be expected to supplant gradually withering images of Desert Spirituality. Whether this new imagery will strengthen Australian Christianity or whether it merely marks a decline in the authority of Christianity remains a moot point.

Durrell's best-known work fused Western notions of time and space with Eastern metaphysics. Very little has been written about Durrell's work before the Second World War. With A Smile in His Mind's Eye, Ray Morrison seeks to redress this neglect.