The Thunderous Silence of Love narrates the experience of Lulu, a vivacious teenager whose life is transformed by an experience in a far away country. The story of the protagonist captures the impulsive and tumultuous emotions of youth from the pedestal of artistic suspense and a lucid language. The writer takes the reader on a memorable journey not just into the life of a down-to-earth and willful character, but importantly into various cultures, faiths and attitudes. Lulu soon personifies the challenges inherent in missionary work, the terrors of being captured and tortured, the sweetness of escape and the humbling realization of the awesome power of a benevolent Creator. In spite of her religious upbringing and in spite of leading a life she believed was consistent with the tenets of her faith, she eventually encounters the beacon of her life in an unexpected way that confounds the reader's imagination.
Thunderous Silence throws light on the Heart Sutra--a pithy encapsulation of the essence of Perfection of Wisdom literature--using stop-by-step analysis and an easy, conversational voice. Dosung Yoo examines the sutra phrase by phrase, using rich explanations and metaphors drawn from Korean folklore, quantum physics, Charles Dickens, and everything in between to clarify subtle concepts for the reader. This book invites us to examine the fundamentals of Buddhism--the Four Noble Truths, emptiness, enlightenment--through the prism of the Heart Sutra. Both those new to Buddhism and longtime practitioners looking to revisit a core text from a fresh perspective will find this work appealing.
Norman Fischer's Experience is the fruit of forty years of thinking on experimental writing and its practice, both as an investigation of reality and as a religious endeavor, by a major figure in contemporary Zen Buddhist practice and theology.
This edited collection focuses on the ethics, politics and practices of responsiveness in the context of racism, inequality, difference and controversy. The politics of difference has long been concerned with speech, voice and representation. By focusing on the practices and politics of responsiveness—listening, reading and witnessing—the volume identifies vital new possibilities for ethics and social justice. Chapters focus on the conditions of possibility, or listening as ethical praxis; unsettling or disrupting colonial relationships; and ways of listening that highlight non-Western traditions and move beyond the liberal frame. Ethical responsiveness shifts some of the responsibility for negotiating difference and more just futures from subordinated speakers, and on to the relatively more privileged and powerful.
This collection of essays is the first to address this often obscured dimension of modern and contemporary poetry: the secular Jewish dimension. Editors Daniel Morris and Stephen Paul Miller asked their contributors to address what constitutes radical poetry written by Jews defined as "secular," and whether or not there is a Jewish component or dimension to radical and modernist poetic practice in general. These poets and critics address these questions by exploring the legacy of those poets who preceded and influenced them--Stein, Zukofsky, Reznikoff, Oppen, and Ginsberg, among others.
In Everyday Dharma, Willa Miller, an authorized lama in the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition, reworks ancient Buddhist techniques and adapts them for western readers seeking personal transformation. Becoming a Buddha, Lama Miller explains, means observing the mind and actions and then doing the physical, psychological, and spiritual work to move closer to one’s wisdom nature. Dharma is spiritual practice; it’s what one does every day to make one’s mind and world a better place to live. Each chapter includes a passage to read, an exercise of the day that relates to each week’s topic, a quote from a sage, and tips on how to make daily practice a little easier. The book shows that it’s not necessary to subscribe to a particular — or any — belief system to benefit from this program. "It’s only necessary," says Lama Miller, "to believe one deserves to live a more fulfilling and meaningful life."
Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre contains seven carefully-selected ethnodramas that best illustrate this emerging genre of arts-based research, a burgeoning but evident trend in the field of theatre production itself. In his introduction to ethnodrama and to the plays themselves, Salda-a emphasizes how a credible, vivid, and persuasive rendering of a research participant's story as a theatrical performance creates insights for both researcher and audience not possible through conventional qualitative data analysis. With their focus on the personal, immediate and contextual, these plays about marginalized identities, abortion, street life and oppression manage a unique balance between theoretical research and everyday realism.
A broad range of diverse voices in architecture discuss issues of equity, access, and social justice embedded in and related to the built environment. Margin and Text is a collection of essays, interviews, and personal stories, as well as historical and current writings and lectures, contributed by BIPOC and female practitioners and educators in architecture. Each piece offers reflections on architecture’s troubled past, commentary on its fluid present, and visions of possible futures, all set amid today’s context of broad social activism, divisive politics, and the devastating toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. Edited by architecture educators Betsy West, Kelly Carlson-Reddig, and José L.S. Gámez, Margin and Text draws together contributors who are widely diverse in gender, ethnicity, age, religion, culture, point of view, and the nature of their work. Each chapter features an introduction by one of the editors, followed by essays from names in the field that include: Meejin Yoon (Höweler+Yoon) on the multicultural aspirations of architecture Chris Cornelius (University of New Mexico) on indigenous place and space Jack Travis (Jack Travis Architect) on a Black aesthetic Aneesha Dharwadker (University of Illinois) on America's architectural diaspora Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman (Estudio Teddy Cruz+Fonna Forman) on the Mexico border And more Accessible, compelling, and thought-provoking, these pieces are combined with personal snapshots, individual projects, and an overview of benchmark events such as Whitney M. Young’s historic 1968 keynote address at the AIA National Convention, the Pritzker Prize petition for Denise Scott Brown, the Alcatraz Proclamation of 1969, and the #NotMyAIA response to AIA’s pledge to work with Donald Trump following the 2016 election. Richly illustrated with more than 100 photographs throughout, this timely volume offers unique perspectives on systemic racism in the architecture and design space, making it an invaluable resource for architecture students, academics, and professionals.
Jacob and Esau is a profound new account of two millennia of Jewish European history that, for the first time, integrates the cosmopolitan narrative of the Jewish diaspora with that of traditional Jews and Jewish culture. Malachi Haim Hacohen uses the biblical story of the rival twins, Jacob and Esau, and its subsequent retelling by Christians and Jews throughout the ages as a lens through which to illuminate changing Jewish-Christian relations and the opening and closing of opportunities for Jewish life in Europe. Jacob and Esau tells a new history of a people accustomed for over two-and-a-half millennia to forming relationships, real and imagined, with successive empires but eagerly adapting, in modernity, to the nation-state, and experimenting with both assimilation and Jewish nationalism. In rewriting this history via Jacob and Esau, the book charts two divergent but intersecting Jewish histories that together represent the plurality of Jewish European cultures.
The toppling of Hosni Mubarak marked the beginning of a revolutionary restructuring of Egypt’s political and social order. Jeannie Sowers and Chris Toensing bring together updated essays from Middle East Report—the premier journal covering the region—that offer unrivaled analysis of the major social and political trends that underpinned these tumultuous events. Starting with the momentous eighteen days of street protest that compelled Mubarak’s resignation, the volume moves back in time to plumb the state’s strategies of repression and examine the mounting dissent of workers, democracy advocates, anti-war activists, and social and environmental campaigners. Leading analysts of Egypt detail the demographic and economic trends that produced wealth for the few and impoverishment for the many. The collection brings clear-headed, first-hand understanding to bear on a moment of intense hope and uncertainty in the Arab world’s most populous nation.
