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A richly illustrated retrospective of the life and work of noted furniture designer Geoge Nakashima examines the original furniture creations of the acclaimed artist, his influence on contemporary design, his work as an architect, and his remarkable craftsmanship and emphasis on the organic use of the natural lines and grain of wood.
"I want to share with you what I find when I make art and to guide you to find your own way there." Anyone can make art. Finding one's spiritual center can come of making art. Making art can come of finding one's spiritual center. Nancy Azara has been teaching the making of art, art-making as a spiritual practice, and other spiritual practices for thirty-five years. She has developed a system that combines her lifelong spiritual practice with techniques designed to help anyone get and stay in touch with their own inner artistic souls. Spirit Taking Form is a practical book. It offers lists of materials to work with and exercises and meditation techniques to help everyone bring out their inner voice. It includes specific meditations for healing the inner critic, cultivating imagination, and finding one's artistic heart. Its meditations and exercises can be done many times, and each time they can bring the reader new and richer experiences and deeper insights. Throughout the book Azara shares her own story and the inspirations that have made her a successful artist. Using an old Sicilian folk tale taught to her by her grandfather, she has always sought to look at life with one eye open out to the world and the other closed, or turned inward. It is this skill more than any other that she seeks to engender in the reader through exercises such as "The Visual Diary." Learning and teaching about art from a place of spirit calls us to a challenge, a challenge to look at something very familiar, yet distant and remote. Spirit Taking Form offers insight into artistic expression and how it can be applied to life as a catalyst for growth, change, and expression.
In "Islam, Spirit, and Form" by Shaykh Osman Nuri Topbas, a profound exploration unfolds, delving into the essence of Islam beyond mere ritualistic practice. In an era where the mechanical repetition of religious customs often overshadows the true spirit of Islam, this book serves as a beacon, aiming to reignite the spiritual radiance inherent in Islamic worship. With a unique blend of historical narratives, tales of prophets and their companions, and the lives of exemplary Sufis, Shaykh Osman Nuri Topbas weaves a tapestry that seeks to illuminate the profound connection between the spiritual essence of Islamic practice and its ritual form. Drawing inspiration from the poetry of Rumi, Yunus Emre, and other Sufi luminaries, the author endeavors to infuse passion into the spiritual journey. The book meticulously dissects the Five Pillars of Islam, offering insights into faith, belief in angels, books of Allah, prophets, the Hereafter, and destiny. The author provides an eloquent exploration of prayer (Salat/Namaz), unraveling its prerequisites, its significance in congregation, and its role as a unique refuge in the journey toward spiritual fulfillment. The chapters on Zakat and Infaq (Poor-Due and Spending for Others) not only elucidate the economic philosophy integral to Islam but also exude a captivating beauty in their exploration of the etiquette of spending and the requirements of Zakat. As the narrative unfolds to the pilgrimage to Mecca and the holy month of Ramadan, Shaykh Osman Nuri Topbas provides rich insights into the construction of the Ka'aba, the significance of the Lesser Pilgrimage (Umrah), and the profound spiritual journey of fasting during Ramadan. "Islam, Spirit, and Form" is not just a book; it is a guide that invites readers to rediscover the profound spiritual dimensions of Islamic practice. Shaykh Osman Nuri Topbas navigates the intersection of faith and ritual, providing a compelling roadmap for those seeking to imbue their religious journey with genuine spiritual essence.
Louis Bouyer examines the underlying principles and teachings of the 16th century Protestant reformers. These topics include Scripture alone as source of Christian belief, justification by faith alone, God's free gift of unmerited salvation, the sovereignty of God, and the Christian responsibility toward good works. He also presents certain problematic areas of Protestant thought, such as the denial of the efficacy of the sacraments, a conflict between various interpretations of Scripture and the Tradition of the Church, and the rejection of Church authority. He then shows how these same principles gradually weakened the various forms of Protestantism, while, at the same time, provided impetus for later reforms and renewals. Written in 1956, The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism by Louis Bouyer still challenges both Catholics and Protestants to better understand the issues that both separate and unite them. Topics include the Protestant teachings of: The Free Gift of Unmerited SalvationThe Sovereignty of GodJustification by Faith AloneThe Authority of Scripture Alone as a Source of Christian DoctrineThe Responsibility of Christians Believers Toward Good Works
Forewords by Jaap van der Wal and Marcy Axness Spirit into Form invites you to explore with mindful, embodied awareness your earliest experiences in this life with curiosity, compassion and creativity. It guides you through developmental milestones, starting with pre-conception, through conception, coming into physical form as an embryo, negotiating the birth canal and hopefully being welcomed at birth. Each stage offers details of embryological development in simple, accessible terms with hand-drawn illustrations, elaborating potential challenges and lifelong effects of having met them. More than a traditional book on embryology, Spirit into Form includes psychological and spiritual aspects and the original embryological potential of this early time.This book is for anyone who wonders about the origins of human life and bodies, as well as personality, relationship and behavioral tendencies. Therapists and practitioners of many types, particularly those with somatic/body-centered or psychological approaches, bodyworkers, movement practitioners, birth practitioners, and also new parents and parents-to-be, can benefit from the gentle, mindful guidance in exploring your earliest beginnings, roots of many issues and strengths, and how to access potential that may have become occluded by challenges and conditions life presents. Cherionna Menzam-Sills's book, Spirit into Form, is based on her long experience as a craniosacral therapist and somatic prenatal and birth therapist. Cherionna takes you on a tour of important developmental stages during gestation. But in addition to that she has much to say about the larger fields of Love, Spirit, and Soul and how they are connected to the body. The scope of the material is wide, broad and encompassing. Cheronna's message is that when we come to understand our early experiences and how they establish in us lifelong patterns, habits, addictions and tendencies, we can begin to integrate, let go, and make new choices. Her book is a subtle distillation of wisdom, stylistic grace, and excellent advice for pregnant or soon-to-be pregnant persons. Highly recommended. -- Thomas R. Verny MD, DHL (Hon), DPsych, FRCPC, FAPAAssociate Editor, Journal of Pre and Peri-natal Psychology and Health (JOPPPAH), Past President APPPAH, Author of The Secret Life of the Unborn Child with John Kelly and Pre-Parenting with Pamela Weintraub. This is an absolutely necessary contemporary creation story that is integrative rather than reductionistic. Cherionna writes a narrative that helps us to enter the mystery of conception, birth and death. It is a narrative that points to a solution found in front of us and in us - our body. Marie-Louise Von Franz, a preeminent Jungian analyst says in her book Creation Myths, that any creation story that unfolds in stages is the "best" creation story. Cherionna unfolds our collective story, which is my story, chapter by chapter with her expert guidance. It is an unfoldment of our embryo as humanity and as embodiment. This is a book that inspires self-compassion, love and altruism as the necessary remedy for healing as a body and a body politic in the context of our planet now. She shows us the steps to recover and make meaning of our embryo - our lived perpetual embryo. Contained herein is the most genuine and authentic nature of her embodied experience. Simultaneously, it is a fountain of authoritative knowledge referencing relevant science superseding all such attempts that have come before yet holding perfectly all its predecessor's. This beautiful and spellbinding book must be required reading to become a full human being inherently complete from a single celled conceptus through the moment of death. -- Michael J. Shea, PhDFounder of SheaHeart.com, A Center for the Study of the Human Heart and Author of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volumes 1-5.
Highly illustrated with colour photos throughout, this guide takes a look at the origins of Chi and the wide range of practices that focus on Chi, our living essence. It teaches us ways to awaken this energy and fulfill our true potential.
A critique of both classical humanism and dominant trends in posthumanism that formulates the ultimate form of intelligence as a theoretical and practical thought unfettered by the temporal order of things. In Intelligence and Spirit Reza Negarestani formulates the ultimate form of intelligence as a theoretical and practical thought unfettered by the temporal order of things, a real movement capable of overcoming any state of affairs that, from the perspective of the present, may appear to be the complete totality of history. Intelligence pierces through what seems to be the totality or the inevitable outcome of its history, be it the manifest portrait of the human or technocapitalism as the alleged pilot of history. Building on Hegel's account of Geist as a multiagent conception of mind and on Kant's transcendental psychology as a functional analysis of the conditions of possibility of mind, Negarestani provides a critique of both classical humanism and dominant trends in posthumanism. The assumptions of the former are exposed by way of a critique of the transcendental structure of experience as a tissue of subjective or psychological dogmas; the claims of the latter regarding the ubiquity of mind or the inevitable advent of an unconstrained superintelligence are challenged as no more than ideological fixations which do not stand the test of systematic scrutiny. This remarkable fusion of continental philosophy in the form of a renewal of the speculative ambitions of German Idealism and analytic philosophy in the form of extended thought-experiments and a philosophy of artificial languages opens up new perspectives on the meaning of human intelligence and explores the real potential of posthuman intelligence and what it means for us to live in its prehistory.
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, this brilliantly reported and beautifully crafted book explores the clash between a medical center in California and a Laotian refugee family over their care of a child.
