In a groundbreaking approach to today’s tough spiritual and social dilemmas, God Without Religion offers an intelligent and compassionate bridge from dogmatic belief systems to progressive spirituality. The son of self-exiled Iraqi Jews, Sankara Saranam shows why organized religion has long been the cause of humanity’s worst wars and most acute suffering--then guides us beyond our divisive history into more expansive perceptions capable of creating a unified, peaceful future. Through a series of penetrating inquiries and practices, readers are invited to examine their beliefs, turn inward, and develop a direct understanding of God.
Bold, blunt and blazing with rebel spirit, former monk Sankara Saranam leaves no stone unturned in this compelling critique of organized religion.
Sankara Saranam, writer and researcher, world traveler and lecturer, also plays classical guitar, composes music, and writes poetry. An ascetic and mystic, he was initiated in the advanced techniques of Kriya Yoga Pranayama as a monastic in the Self-Realization branch of the Swami Order founded by Paramahansa Yogananda. He now devotes his life to making pranayama techniques available worldwide at no cost.
Born in 1968 to Iraqi Jewish parents who had fled their homeland years before, Sankara was raised in the Midwest and New York City. He received his bachelor of arts degree in Religion from Columbia University, where he graduated magna cum laude, and his master’s degree in Eastern Texts from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He currently resides in a log cabin in northern Georgia with his wife and their young son.
Sankara writes a weekly online column that is read by students in over seventy countries. For information about his speaking engagements and teachings, please visit The Pranayama Institute’s Web sites: www.pranayama.org and www.godwithoutreligion.com.
Eckhart Tolle is a renowned contemporary spiritual counselor and bestselling self-help author. At the core of his simple yet profound teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution.
Two leading thinkers engage in a landmark conversation about human emotions and the pursuit of psychological fulfillment
At their first meeting, a remarkable bond was sparked between His Holiness the Dalai Lama, one of the world’s most revered spiritual leaders, and the psychologist Paul Ekman, whose groundbreaking work helped to define the science of emotions. Now these two luminaries share their thinking about science and spirituality, the bonds between East and West, and the nature and quality of our emotional lives.
In this unparalleled series of conversations, the Dalai Lama and Ekman prod and push toward answers to the central questions of emotional experience. What are the sources of hate and compassion? Should a person extend her compassion to a torturer—and would that even be biologically possible? What does science reveal about the benefits of Buddhist meditation, and can Buddhism improve through engagement with the scientific method? As they come to grips with these issues, they invite us to join them in an unfiltered view of two great traditions and two great minds.
Accompanied by commentaries on the findings of emotion research and the teachings of Buddhism, their interplay—amusing, challenging, eye-opening, and moving—guides us on a transformative journey in the understanding of emotions.
Tenzin Gyatzo, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and is the temporal and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. The author of The Art of Happiness, among many other books, he is the head of the Tibetan government in exile and resides in Dharamsala, India.
Paul Ekman is the world’s foremost expert on facial expressions and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. He is the author of fourteen books, including Emotions Revealed and lives in northern California.
An informed, challenging, and engaging collection of essays on the new
choices in lifestyles and community as we begin the countdown toward the year
2012.
This fresh and thought-provoking anthology draws together some of
today's most celebrated visionaries, thinkers, and pioneers in the field of
evolving consciousness- exploring topics from shamanism to urban homesteading,
the legacy of Carlos Castaneda to Mayan predictions for the year 2012, and new
paths in direct political action and human sexuality.
Toward 2012 highlights some of the most challenging, intelligent pieces published on the
acclaimed website Reality Sandwich. It is coedited by Daniel Pinchbeck, the
preeminent voice on 2012, and online pioneer Ken Jordan, and features original
works from Stanislav Grof, John Major Jenkins, and Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky);
interviews with Abbie Hoffman and artist Alex Grey; and a new introduction by
Pinchbeck.
Here are ideas that trace the arc of our evolution in
consciousness, lifestyles, and communities as we draw closer to a moment in time
that portends ways of living that are different from anything we have expected
or experienced.