Vision Books

I think this is a book that every parent would want their son to read. When gang life in Chicago threatens Jimmy, who is almost fourteen years old, he finds a way to convince his mom to move to Oklahoma where his grandparents live. His grandfather is part Indian and he has been a medicine man. Through Indian ritual he guides Jimmy to find the right path in life of worthy goals. Many questions that boys have at this age are answered. They will be inspired to seek high standards in life when they follow Jimmy and his quest. I encourage every parent who cares about their son's future to buy this book. You'll be rewarded!

This is a book that tells story of one boys journey to manhood. Jimmy and his mother go to his grandparents house where his granfather helps him through his journey. One of the reasons they left was because jimmy was in a gang and lieing to his mother about it. On his journey there was alot of tasks to overcome and he overcame them. At the end of the book Jimmy takes the "final exam" except it was pass or fail. His grandfather asked him about his dream and he answered and then gradfather put his arm around jimmy and looked him in the eye and told him he has....

Vision Quests is the story of a woman, EJ, who has suffered a tragic loss in her life and in seeking recovery has an encounter with an alien. This sounds like a story of science fiction but is actually an uplifting story about relationships, emotional maturing and understand, as well as personal discovery. Although it is fiction, it is well grounded in reality and carries the reader with utter believability. It is clearly a book to appeal not only to those who have suffered painful loss but anyone who enjoys fantasy that is totally possible. The story presents possibilities all people may have considered and makes those possibilities even more real.

EJ's grief for her lost son is, more deeply, her search for an answer to the problem of death. Many solve this problem through their faith, but EJ is not only the personification of motherhood but of skepticism. The novel presents the fascinating process of EJ's coming to faith. Through Bardsley's excellent characterization of EJ and through the suspenseful movement of the story, we are at one with the steps of the protagonist's journey from agnosticism to her belief in the final credo of her vision-quest: Mitakuye Oyasin. This novel is a must read for all seekers of ultimate truth.

In this inspiring book author, John Hansen, chronicles the struggles that the Rev. William Tennent faced when trying to live out the call of God on his life. He pastored a Presbyterian congregation in Bucks County, PA and built a log cabin school for the training of ministers. Tennent knew what it was like to face rejection and criticism. His colleagues laughed and scoffed at his "Log College." Several of his parishoners tried to have him removed as pastor of the church. Despite all of his trials he never gave up his vision to train revivalist ministers to spread the gospel. Jesus said that unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. The fruit of his labor was not realized until after his death. His log cabin school gave birth to 63 colleges and universities. The life of William Tennent has much to teach anyone who is struggling to carry out God's vision for their life in the midst much adversity. William Tennent never gave up and neither should we.

My wife read this book before me and commented how amazing this book is. It is not just history and a testamony of a man who shaped history, but it is full of valuable lesson which inspire and can be applied in our lives today. I personally am not such a great friend of reading history, but I highly recommend this book. It is amazing how much I have learned from this book.

Book focuses on Bush presidents

Author Robert Riche finds inspiration in his concern for United States

By Susan Tuz
THE NEWS-TIMES

The News-Times/Wendy Carlson
As a member of the Class of 1947 at Yale University, Robert Riche attended the school at the same time as President George H.W. "Poppy" Bush.
So when Riche read Bush's biography last year, he recalled all he had heard about "Poppy" Bush during his years at Yale and all he'd heard about Poppy's career since then.
Those memories merged with remembrances of Riche's own life as a young man - a liberal, with ties to the Communist Party labor movement in this country - and the political and cultural changes that have occurred in America over the years.
Riche found his creative nature asking what would happen if he and Bush were to meet after all these years. And the end result of that quandary became a novel, "The Vision Thing" - a work in which a liberal narrator is invited to Kennebunkport to a seminar at the conservative-Republican Bush compound.
As he reflects on his life, the narrator also imagines what Poppy's life has been: how both have dealt with issues of the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities in the McCarthy Era; how the narrator has worked to build and strengthen the union movement as compared to how Poppy is perceived to have worked to ingratiate himself to the powers that be in big oil, big business.
"I don't want to come across as unpatriotic," Riche said in a recent interview. "I've had my differences with some of our political leaders but I think that's the extreme of patriotism. I'm very concerned about the state my country is in right now, but this book is no way an attack on either Bush."
Through his reflections, the narrator of "The Vision Thing" comes to terms with his own beliefs and with his own integrity. His wife is urging him to join in a picket line in support of an art work that has been dubbed "unAmerican" by members of their local community.
"The book is meant to be a commentary on the infrastructure of our culture," Riche explained. "Everybody's afraid to let anyone into their home, into their lives. There are homeless people all around. Gangs of hoodlums can be found in any city. Bridges collapse from poor maintenance. And if you drive into New Hampshire, all of the pine trees are brown on the top from acid rain.
"I lay all of that to the political climate of our culture. The book is an acid look at our culture at its present stage," he said.

ROBERT RICHE - THE VISION THING
Book review by D.J. Kirkbride

(...)

Robert Riche's book The Vision Thing inserts former U.S. President Poppy Bush and his lil' son, current President Georgie(as well as a slew of other politician types-- many I've never heard of) into this fictional story of a fairly regular, non-politician named Bill Brock getting a surprising invitation. He and his wife are asked by Dubya to attend a think tank of prominent Americans in Kennebunkport, Maine. Big wigs like Dick Cheney and Henry Kissinger are going to be there. Poppy Bush is hosting. And Bill Brock has no idea why he's been invited-- other than the fact that Bush, Sr. and he attended Yale at the same time (but weren't real friends or anything).

This interesting set-up kicks off a satirical and sometimes heartbreaking look at American life as Brock ponders if he should go. Funny bits like an incident involving Barbara Bush's underwear are inter-cut with memories of McCarthyism and thoughts on the war on terror. Brock tries to understand what Bush, Sr. uneloquently called "the vision thing" and his own vision of American life.

I'm not the most political guy around, but the human elements of this story, told in a reader-friendly and often funny manner made The Vision Thing more enjoyable than I imagined looking at the cover.

I am an OT student and this book was recommended to me as a good reference book by an OT I was volunteering for. I was required to purchase this book for a Cognition and Perception course I currently am taking. It is easy to read, very detailed and a well organized.

a must have for health care providers especially OTs and PTs. excellent format and content

I have had the opportunity to look at most of Luis Royo's books, and this is my favorite. If I had to give away all of my Royo books but one, this would be the one I keep.

Now don't get me wrong, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with any of his other books--some are stronger than others but I really don't think there is a weak one out there. This is my favorite primarily because I think the artwork is some of his best. The girls are prettier, their curves are rounder, the colors are richer, and the background hazes are more mysterious. The other main reason I like this book so much is that many of the finished pieces are accompanied by the concept sketches that preceded them. It's a great mix of painting, drawing, and even narrative that all come together to bring a Royo fantasy to life.

Royo's figures are amazing to me--with a few strokes of a pen and a thin wash with a brush, he creates a beautiful figure, and voila--his piece is done. None of his figures are overworked--they all remain fresh. It's hard to find an artist who can scratch out a figure with so few lines, but it makes for a beautiful rendering, and Royo does it well.

If you're shopping for your first Royo book, this would be a great choice. If you're adding to your library, oh yeah--you need this collection. Enjoy.

This is one of the best Royo books. It is a good mixture of everything: sketches (both plain and colored) and finished paintings; futuristic sci-fi and ancient to medieval fantasy; unhappy/worried characters and powerful/confident ones; dark/mysterious pictures and bright pictures; fully clothed and mostly nude; cover arts and independent art; men and women. Still, the works don't get as dark as, say, III Millennium. But it shows much of what Royo is capable of and I recommend it.

Anything by Clive Barker is worth having. This calendar can be displayed anywhere in the house and will definitely provoke comments.

From the mind of Clive Barker to your home... a little rare piece of Clive to brighten your walls for 16 months. Whether or not you are a fan of his art this is a remarkable collection with a choice of two different covers. I had a hard time choosing! The creatures and humans (?) depicted are beyond anything my own imagination could conjure. I look forward to being inspired by these paintings - and for over a year! - in my own art. I just hope they don't affect my dreams...

If you've ever wondered what C-town was like before you got there, this is the book for you.

This book has a huge collection of pictures that chronicle thehistory of Clemson University. It is a must have for any Clemsonfanatic or those who truly enjoy learning about the old days at Clemson.

This is the first authoritative book devoted exclusively to the lacquer ware of Burma (Myanmar). I am an importer of Asian antiques, tribal, and folk art primarily from S.E. Asia, including Burma, and was delighted with the thoroughness of this books content. The range of lacquer ware discussed is quite thorough, the discussion on inscriptions is invaluable and the photographs are excellent. If the chapter on lacquer ware in Sylvia Fraser-Lu's Burmese Crafts Past and Present seemed too short, this is the next book to get. For the very knowledgable and very serious Burmese lacquer collector some of the examples used in the book may be dissapointing. I highly recommend this book.

The British Museum, London, should be applauded for launching the first significant exhbition of Burmese art in a major European institution. The catalogue is well-researched, well-written and presents provocative questions. A pioneering section pertaining to inscriptions on Burmese lacquer is especially interesting. Furthermore, the installation in London at the museum was stunning.

For anyone interested in Dogen and/or the Lotus Sutra Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra by Taigen Dan Leighton is a must have. Too many people think that Zen eschews the sutras, but this actually not the case. In this book Taigen Dan Leighton (a Zen Master and translator of Dogen's Eihei Koroku and other writings) shows that Dogen not only valued the Lotus Sutra but modeled his rhetorical style on it and, as the name of this book indicates, found in chapters 15 and 16 of the sutra inspiration for his visions of time and space (and earth) as intrinsically involved in our own awakening experience. It is not that we awaken at a certain time and in a certain place on this earth. Rather, earth, time, and space are all dynamically expressive of awakening and our own awakening is a part of this universal awakening. The nodualistic vision of Dogen and the Lotus Sutra has many deep implications for ethics and ecology that Taigen brings out by the end of the book. Though this is a very scholarly book (this is not by any means Zen Lite) it is also a book written by a practitioner with an eye towards how Dogen and the Lotus Sutra can inspire the actualization of awakening in our own lives.

Taigen does not restrict the book to Dogen, however, but also discusses the greater Mahayana context for the view of time, space, and earth shared by Dogen and the Lotus Sutra. He also provides a review of how several seminal East Asian Buddhist teachers have been inspired by the Lotus Sutra - notably Daosheng, Zhiyi (Great Master T'ien-t'ai), Zhanran (aka Great Master Miao-lo), Saigyo, Myoe, Ippen, Nichiren, Hakuin, Ryokan, and Shunryu Suzuki. Also, many of the points made in this book about the interpretation and meaning of chapters 15 and 16 of the Lotus Sutra that describe the emergence of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth and Shakyamuni Buddha's attainment of awakening in the unquantifiably remote past would be of great interest to anyone studying or, better yet, practicing East Asian Mahayana Buddhism. Though the focus is on Dogen, this book addresses issues that would be relevant to a wide range of Buddhist scholars and practitioners.

I would also like to note that for those Nichiren Buddhists who have found Jackie Stone's Original Enlightenment or Gen Reeve's anthology A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra to be helpful will get a lot out of this book as well. There are not a lot of Buddhist books (whether popular or academic) published that address issues important to Nichiren Buddhism, but this is one of the few that does. It gets right to the heart of things with its focus on chapters 15 and 16 and how different Buddhists have understood those chapters. The sections on Zhiyi and Zhanran and the extensive section on Nichiren's reading of those chapters would of course be particularly helpful. There are also other positive and illuminating evaluations of Nichiren Buddhism throughout the text, connecting it to important themes and forms of practice that emerged in East Asian Buddhism. It is rare to find a non-Nichiren Buddhist scholar/practitioner who gives Nichiren the importance that he deserves in the study of East Asian Buddhism, and even rarer to find someone who writes about Nichiren accurately and sympathetically as Taigen does. Taigen has done a great service to American Buddhism in showing the similarities and differences between Dogen and Nichiren in their respective appropriations of the core story of the Lotus Sutra.

An informed and fascinating exploration of the cosmology underlying Dogen's Zen.

Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra, by Taigen Dan Leighton, is a wonderful exploration of the worldview informing the teachings of the thirteenth century Zen master, Eihei Dogen.

Taigen Dan Leighton, a Soto Zen priest and Dharma heir, reveals how Dogen's teachings are thoroughly grounded in classic Mahayana Buddhist Sutras, primarily the Lotus Sutra, as well as the classic Zen records, including the great koan collections and their related literature.

Leighton makes clear that because Dogen, like all authentic Buddhist masters, was primarily concerned with the liberation of all beings, his teachings on practice-realization, or enlightened practice can only be appreciated in the context of the cosmology from which Dogen addressed his listeners/readers.

According to the classic teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, the universe itself is not apart from the myriad things. Anyone attempting to understand Dogen, or any Zen master, must be aware of cosmology from which they teach. For the authentic Zen master, each thing, time, and event is itself the full expression of reality, or Buddha nature. As the author explains, "Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing."

Leighton begins his explication by furnishing the reader with an overview of the Mahayana teachings as expounded in the Lotus Sutra. He emphasizes the key passage of that sutra in which myriad Bodhisattvas suddenly emerge from under the ground (a scene he returns to repeatedly throughout his exploration). His discussion moves naturally into an examination of the vital dynamic of Buddhist hermeneutics from a variety of historical Buddhist contexts.

Next, Taigen Dan Leighton presents Dogen's own interpretation of the story from the Lotus Sutra (of the Bodhisattvas emerging from under the ground), by citing Dogen's various references (both direct and indirect) throughout his own massive corpus.

With all of this firmly under the reader's belt, Leighton proceeds to present his grand view of Dogen's cosmology, exposing some surprising implications of time, space, and existence. While using the Lotus Sutra as his primary pivot point, Leighton draws on his own extensive familiarity with Dogen's work as well as the classic literature of Buddhism and Zen. From Dogen's collection of 300 classic koans to the "ten times" doctrine of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Leighton uses language without being used by language to present a wonderful overview of the universe through the eye of Zen master Dogen.

Refusing to fall into the simplistic formulas or twisted dogmatism of many popular sectarians, Leighton transcends those presentations of Dogen as teaching a narrow, rigid practice of 'just sitting' as the be-all of Zen Buddhism. Seeing the nonduality of practice-and-enlightenment not in the myopic 'practice equals enlightenment', but in the continuous ongoing practice of enlightenment, and enlightenment of practice. Rather than dim assertions that 'sitting is itself enlightenment', the author sees Dogen's teaching as a, "complex vision... as multidimensional, dynamic and not separate from or independent of the actual existence, activity, and awareness of each particular being..."

Other areas where he bucks many popular "Soto" opinions includes koans:

* Koans - Leighton sees the role of koans in the same light as Mahayana sutras, "not didactic works presenting systematic doctrines, but rather¡K texts aimed at inciting particular samadhi, or concentration, states and insights..."

* Goals - Rather than asserting that Dogen preached a Zen of "no goal", Leighton insists, "The purpose of Buddhism is liberation from the karmic cycle of suffering via awakening, and the goal of the Mahayana is the awakening of all beings."

* The role of texts - Noting that although many take a narrow view of the dictum of Zen being "outside words and letters", he illustrates how texts and verbal teachings are as important to authentic Zen as wholehearted practice, clearly showing Dogen's teaching that "expression is itself the Buddhadharma."

* Duality - Leighton points out that, contrary to some popular opinions, duality is important to authentic Zen practice-enlightenment, as is nonduality. For instance, "Dogen here profoundly reaffirms the reality of nonduality. Usually nonduality is considered opposed to duality... But... he is clearly talking about the nonduality of duality and nonduality, not about merely transcending the duality of form and emptiness. This deeper nonduality is not the opposite of duality, but the synthesis of duality and nonduality..."

* Sudden enlightenment - Discussing the important work of Jan Nattier, Leighton analyzes the story of the "Bodhisattvas emerging suddenly from under the ground" in the light of what Nattier characterizes as "leap philosophies," Leighton points out that "this story embodies the leap out of the realm systemized stages of accomplishment in practice, based on insight into the fundamental emptiness of all stages."

* Other views that seem to transcend many "modern orthodox" Soto sectarians include, Dogen's implementation and exhortation of a wide variety of practices (not just sitting meditation), the nondual aspect of "practice and ordinary activity", and the importance of textual study.

The Bottom Line:

Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra, by Taigen Dan Leighton, present an inside view of the cosmology, or "worldview" informing the writings of the thirteenth century Zen master, Eihei Dogen. In the process, this book manages to rise above the reductionism of sectarian stereotypes that are all too common among popular writers within the Soto orthodoxy, and restore Dogen's Zen to its proper place as one of the great expressions of Buddhism.