Some of the West's foremost spiritual teachers share their thoughts on aging and the end of life process. Comprehensive and original interviews with Ram Dass, Michael Eigen, Norman Fischer, Joan Halifax, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sister Chan Khong, Frank Ostaseski, Rodney Smith, and John Wellwood provide new perspectives and offer comfort and support. This accessible, thought-provoking, and unique book is an invaluable resource for individuals, classrooms, hospice or home care settings, and for anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one. Journeying East also features a comprehensive resources section with an annotated bibliography, guidelines for general reading and study, information on the training of hospice employees and volunteers, and suggested at-home activities. Victoria Jean Dimidjian is professor of education at Florida Gulf Coast University. She began her study of Buddhism at the Zen Studies Society in Manhattan in 1974 and is a founding member of the Naples Community of Mindfulness. "An important and life-changing book." - Diane Cox, CEO, Hospice of Naples, FL
After the death of her son and the end of her 30-year marriage, Nan Watkins decides on her 60th birthday to travel the globe alone. What begins as a trip to renew connections with friends across Asia and Europe becomes a powerful journey of body, mind, and spirit.
It was one of the great encounters of world history: highly educated European priests confronting Chinese culture for the first time in the modern era. This “journey to the East” is explored by Brockey as he retraces the path of the Jesuit missionaries who sailed from Portugal to China.
In this brilliant mix of political journalism and travel writing, Helen Winternitz and fellow journalist Timothy Phelps witness what few Westerners have: life in the ecologically rich but financially impoverished American-backed dictatorship of Zaire, the former Belgian Congo.
The United States faces no greater challenge today than successfully fulfilling its new ambition of helping bring about a democratic transformation of the Middle East. Uncharted Journey contributes a wealth of concise, illuminating insights on this subject, drawing on the contributors' deep knowledge of Arab politics and their substantial experience with democracy-building in other parts of the world. The essays in part one vividly dissect the state of Arab politics today, including an up-to-date examination of the political shock wave in the region produced by the invasion of Iraq. Part two and three set out a provocative exploration of the possible elements of a democracy promotion strategy for the region. The contributors identify potential false steps as well as a productive way forward, avoiding the twin shoals of either reflexive pessimism in the face of the daunting obstacles to Arab democratization or an unrealistic optimism that fails to take into account the region's political complexities. Contributors include Eva Bellin (Hunter College), Daniel Brumberg (Carnegie Endowment), Thomas Carothers (Carnegie Endowment), Michele Dunne (Georgetown University), Graham Fuller, Amy Hawthorne (Carnegie Endowment), Marina Ottaway (Carnegie Endowment), and Richard Youngs (Foreign Policy Centre).
The Classic Story of a Family's Pilgrimage into the Orthodox Church Veiled in the smoke of incense, the Eastern Orthodox Church has long been an enigma to the Western world. Yet, as Frederica Mathewes-Green discovered, it is a vital, living faith, rich in ritual beauty and steadfast in integrity. Utilizing the framework of the Orthodox calendar, Mathewes-Green chronicles a year in the life of her small Orthodox mission church, eloquently illustrating the joys and blessings an ancient faith can bring to the worshipers of today.
When Edward P. Djerejian arrived in Beirut for his first Foreign Service assignment, the city was a thriving metropolis, a nexus for a diversity of religious beliefs, political ideas, and cultural practices. More than forty years since, the broader Middle East region is undergoing significant change in the face of a deep-rooted con-frontation between the forces of reaction and modernity in the rapidly growing Muslim populations. Serious deficits in education, political participation, economic progress, and human rights are exacerbated by unresolved conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kashmir, and between Arabs and Israelis. Djerejian, an American diplomat who served eight presidents, both Democratic and Republican, from John F. Kennedy to William Jefferson Clinton, publicly shares for the first time intimate details and colorful anecdotes of his service in the Middle East. During his tenure, he developed close professional relationships with many of the region's secular and religious leaders and was a key advisor to Washington's highest-ranking officials and political leaders. He was instrumental in formulating U.S. policy in the region, and participated actively in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon, and the formation of the U.S.-led coalition against Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. A leading expert on the Middle East, Djerejian asserts that Americans are confronted with one of the most important challenges of our time: the struggle of ideas between the forces of extremism and moderation in the Arab and Muslim world. Mistakenly assuming that radical political ideologies fell with communism at the end of the Cold War, policy makers are employing insufficient strategies to promote the important political, economic, commercial, cultural, and security interests that the United States -- and the rest of the world -- have in the region. Djerejian explains what has gone wrong with U.S. policy and suggests a way forward for future admin-istrations. The United States must learn to deal with the complex religious, ethnic, and cultural factors at play in the Middle East. We must not impose our own political structure on the Arab and Muslim world, but we can help marginalize the radicals and champion a democratic way of life in conformity with the cultural context of the region's own mainstream values and ideals. In his captivating and illuminating book -- the only one of its kind to address the full scope of issues that U.S. leaders face in the Middle East -- Djerejian outlines specific coherent strategies necessary to respond effectively to the imminent danger and dynamic opportunity presented by the struggle within the Islamic world.
- Exploring the ancient Indian connection to the Occident - Discovering the unity in diversity of cultures connected by the 2,000 miles of the Silk Road and separated by 2,000 years of history - A unique spiritual sojourn into China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Mongolia On the Trail of Buddha - A Journey to the East is a unique sojourn in search of the richness, depth, and breadth of the spiritual, philosophical, and cultural linkages that bind India to the East Asia civilizations of China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. From the wandering monks of Asia to the temples and monasteries they visited; from the statues and frescoes in grottoes and temples to those in the museums; from the emperors who embraced Buddhism to the relics of Buddha spread far and wide; from the diverse ethnicities of the people to their common gods and goddesses - the book touches upon the entire gamut of the East-Asian culture and its deep-rooted linkages with the Indian civilization, which will be an eye-opener for many.
