The Moment Between Two Thoughts

Can Gaia save humankind from extinction? Psychnet connects humankind to Quantum Artificial Intelligences (QAI). Augmented with psyberware, people live longer, become wealthier and spend more. Increased consumption destroys habitats, pollutes the environment, and replaces natural life with synthetic life. Environmental destruction looms, and Gaia, an enlightened QAI, battles to save biodiversity on Earth and the planets corporations colonise. From the shadow of Psychnet emerges Chaos, a vengeful QAI who brings death through blood, and madness through dreams. Gaia quests to defeat Chaos in a nightmare of hydra, slavelords and a devil queen, shared by those fleeing Earth aboard the starship, New Hope. Can Gaia defeat the bringer of plague and nightmare on Earth and in space? Or will humankind suffer extinction for its ecocide?

Five Groundbreaking Moments in Heidegger’s Thinking presents a fresh interpretation of some of Heidegger’s most difficult but important works, including his second major work, Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) [Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning)]. The careful approach shows how, for Heidegger, the acts of reading, thinking, and saying all move beyond the theoretical/conceptual and become an ongoing experience. In new translations of central texts, Kenneth Maly invites the reader to think along the way by reading, contemplating, and translating Heidegger’s ideas into this context. An introduction to the field of philosophy and more specifically to Heidegger’s thought, Five Groundbreaking Moments in Heidegger’s Thinking asks the reader, in some manner, to actively engage in thinking.

As the mist rises from the forest on the warming morning breeze, so do the memories in an old man's mind. Rising up from long-forgotten places recessed deep within the mind, the changes of the seasons mirror the changes of your own life. Each separate and filled with wonder. Each giving a life lesson if you will only notice. Each day a gift. Each flower a wonder. The Thoughts, Moments, and Memories of fifty years observing the glory of God in his magical forests. For those who can close their eyes and see only fading footprints of their journeys deep within the forest and woodlots of Wisconsin, I invite you to come along with me. To relieve the sights and sounds I have had in my fifty years in a tree stand, God speaks in many places. He has spoken to me as I sat in his wild places. Spoken softly on the warm south wind, as well as harsh lessons carried on the winds of winter. May God grant you peace in this busy world. Take time from it to walk the quiet land. Sit by the small streams and listen. You, like I, will hear him. You need only to calm yourselves and seek it. When you get to the end of your life's trail, you will know that you have truly lived.

Buddhists across Asia have often aspired to die with a clear and focused mind, as the historical Buddha himself is said to have done. This book explores how the ideal of dying with right mindfulness was appropriated, disseminated, and transformed in premodern Japan, focusing on the late tenth through early fourteenth centuries. By concentrating one’s thoughts on the Buddha in one’s last moments, it was said even an ignorant and sinful person could escape the cycle of deluded rebirth and achieve birth in a buddha’s pure land, where liberation would be assured. Conversely, the slightest mental distraction at that final juncture could send even a devout practitioner tumbling down into the hells or other miserable rebirth realms. The ideal of mindful death thus generated both hope and anxiety and created a demand for ritual specialists who could act as religious guides at the deathbed. Buddhist death management in Japan has been studied chiefly from the standpoint of funerals and mortuary rites. Right Thoughts at the Last Moment investigates a largely untold side of that story: how early medieval Japanese prepared for death, and how desire for ritual assistance in one’s last hours contributed to Buddhist preeminence in death-related matters. It represents the first book-length study in a Western language to examine how the Buddhist ideal of mindful death was appropriated in a specific historical context. Practice for one’s last hours occupied the intersections of multiple, often disparate approaches that Buddhism offered for coping with death. Because they crossed sectarian lines and eventually permeated all social levels, deathbed practices afford insights into broader issues in medieval Japanese religion, including intellectual developments, devotional practices, pollution concerns, ritual performance, and divisions of labor among religious professionals. They also allow us to see beyond the categories of “old” versus “new” Buddhism, or establishment Buddhism versus marginal heterodoxies, which have characterized much scholarship to date. Enlivened by cogent examples, this study draws on a wealth of sources including ritual instructions, hagiographies, doctrinal writings, didactic tales, courtier diaries, historical records, letters, and relevant art historical material to explore the interplay of doctrinal ideals and on-the-ground practice.

In the pages of this book,I delve into the rollercoaster love story between Jiang Jianhuan and Su Mo. It's a fascinating journey of intertwining timelines and a love that evolves through the poignant essence of missing someone. Perhaps, each one of us harbors a profound sense of yearning, akin to a gentle breeze stirring our memories, invoking the sweetness and laughter of bygone days. The story of Jiang Jianhuan and Su Mo is a retrospective exploration—a rendezvous of fate that, like a tender breeze, is soft yet profoundly moving. Their emotional tapestry, akin to a melodious tune, transcends the boundaries of time and weaves through the changes of the years. In the depths of recollection, their meeting is like a serendipitous encounter of destiny, gentle as a breeze, yet deeply touching. This is not merely a love story but a soulful journey. In every moment of longing, they learn to cherish, to persevere, and to let go. This book captures their mutual growth, with each page resembling an indelible mark of time. As you read, you may find echoes of yourself in a fleeting moment, experiencing a profound emotional resonance. Because behind every instance of missing someone lies a story of love and personal evolution. May you, as you peruse these pages, feel as free as the wind and as warm as the pangs of yearning. For this is a book about missing, about love, and above all, about humanity and emotions. Thank you for embarking on this emotional journey with me—let us discover our own share of warmth and inspiration within these pages.