Ross Books

As far as I'm concerned, this book does an excellent job detailing China's foreign policy. From relations with the West to African affairs, Nathan and Ross are able to concisely explain the importance of each relationship and the dangers confronting China. Furthermore, they also touch on the internal security concerns that the Chinese government must confront. This is a great book to read for people interested in China's foreign policy and what impacts it has on the world.

This book should be mandatory reading for anybody interested in China, or in world politics. Nathan and Ross explain China's place in the international political arena, both froom Chinese perspective and from western point of view.

Excellent!

Nathan and Ross have constructed an excellent book discussing the vulnerability of China. The book goes into great depth discussing issues such as: Taiwanese independence, nuclear proliferation, the strength of the chinese military, the necessity of U.S. intervention in Asia, the relationships existing between China and Japan or the two Koreas, Tibetan freedom, technological exchange with Pakistan. Ultimately, Nathan and Ross conclude that China is a weak and vulnerable country that is more concerned with maintaining its borders and internal stability than initiated a policy of imperialism. This book is a great edition for any student of Asian Politics. Easy to read.

Andrew J. Nathan and Robert S. Ross's THE GREAT WALL AND THE EMPTY FORTRESS is a clearly and tightly written presentation of Chinese foreign policy and defense issues. It is as reliable in its treatment of aspects of the pre-modern Chinese state and society that impinged on the course of modern Chinese affairs as it is authoritative (and well documented) in its analysis of the contemporary Chinese situation. With books on contemporary Chinese affairs, one must be concerned with material becoming dated, but though this book is some four years old in content, nearly its entirety is nevertheless very relevant. Its treatment of Chinese-Taiwan relations, for instance, is still on the mark. Since the book was written before the restoration of Hong Kong to China, the reader will not be able to glean anything new about that situation here. However that may be, this book remains as "must reading" for any student of contemporary China. The reader will happily discover that the style is eminently readable.

National security is a term we're used to hearing in the United States, but with rare exception "security threats" are in fact threats to America's vast informal empire abroad (military bases, troop deployments, the security of client regimes and business interests). As Ross and Nathan ably show, this is emphatically not the case for China. Even though "China is stronger today and its borders more secure than at any other time in the last 150 years", it continues to face a bewildering array of vulnerabilities -- from internal unrest to border insecurity to economic instability.

This book is a good corrective to the growing right-wing trend of playing up the "China threat". Ross and Nathan make clear that China's goals are not particularly ambitious and their capabilities so limited that even if the sinister cabal of Communists plotting against America's beneficent reign were real, it would be hard pressed to act out its evil intentions. Chapter 8, in particular, demolishes the idea that China's military will any time soon provide a real challenge to Japan, much less the USA.

Despite the great service Ross and Nathan provide in refuting the containment school's arguments, this book also has basic problems. Because it is a survey, the authors can only superficially treat each of the many issues raised. They do a good job of integrating history and current events, and the book should be quite useful for those mostly unfamiliar with its topics, but for those with more detailed knowledge it will often by unsatisfying.

Second, the authors use the national security paradigm to orient their analysis, but seem unaware of the drawbacks to such an approach. "National" security indulges the false idea that all groups and individuals within a nation can share the same interests and that national leaders act, fundamentally, on behalf of the whole population. In reality security policies generally hurt the interests of some groups while advancing those of others, and China's leaders act to perpetuate their own power and the power of the Communist Party, and to protect the interests of the increasingly influential business elite. The authors' inability to consider such matters leads them to seriously downplay the ruling class's increasing economic exploitation of workers and its violent domination of ethnically non-Han peoples in East Turkestan/Xinjiang, Tibet/Xizang, and Inner Mongolia.

And finally, the authors approach the subject from the perspective of the engagement school, which has both strengths (discussed above) and very serious weaknesses. Proponents of engagement are ideologically incapable of seeing that the current global economic system is based on inequality, exploitation, and the denial of people's basic needs (food, health care, shelter) and that it is upheld by American military domination of other people. Ross and Nathan's ultimate recommendation, then, is that China be safely integrated into this system -- not because doing so will help the Chinese people, but because doing so removes a threat to the safe operation of a fundamentally unjust world order.

Healing the Rift is a tour-de-force confronting and reconciling the most important yet under studied subjects of all times. Dr. Leo Kim has boldly turned his personal struggles of his life dedicated to science and passion towards humanity into a page turning masterpiece for the benefit of everyone who has ever contemplated and been intimidated by the `big questions'. His background as a chief executive in a life science fund, lend invaluable insights and foresight into life and science and the mutually inclusive relationship between the two. Healing the Rift tears down the wall between natural and spiritual creating a poetic platform for discussing what is spiritually natural and naturally spiritual!

Recently there has been a lot of attention paid towards healing the rift in politics, race and between religions whilst one of the most paralysing divisions that has arrested progress for centuries have gone on unaddressed. "Healing the Rift, Bridging the Gap between Science and Spirituality" may turn out to be the most important task of our time.



Leo Kim's phenomenal championship of this cause not only makes for a stimulating and fascinating read but hopefully will also ushers into the spotlight the importance of these matters for the future of everyone of every political, religious and ethnic background. We live with 21st century technologies but carry the prejudices of the 17th century. This will be a work of paramount importance especially if this book can help us overcome historical misunderstandings and stop the perpetuation of the belief that reason is at war with spirituality.



Healing the Rift has challenged my mental model! I begin to perceive for example `alternative medicine' in a different way: as `complementary medicine'. Once we overcome the prejudices we open the door to monumental new category innovations. There is a great Einstein quote in the book but here another which tells why for me this book is so important: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

Healing the Rift deserves a rating well above 5 stars! This outstanding text addresses the seeming divide between spirituality and science. It is a "must read" for those in areas of science, medicine, health services, spirituality, metaphysics and philosophy as well as by any person seeking to bridge the understandings of the rapidly-to-explosively unfolding fields of science and the spiritual world.

This is a book for persons of any age. It is without reservation and with the highest esteen that I recommend Healing the Rift to all potential readers. I eagerly await the next book by the author, Dr. Leo Kim!

Leo Kim writes in a voice that is both entertaining and easy to understand. Kim really answers my questions and what is so refreshing is that he is a scientist, so his perspective is very "real." I enjoyed his logic and completely relate to his conclusions. If you are seeking answers to the question: Does God Exist, you must read this book. Five Stars.

Using quantum theory to challenge our perceived illusions, Dr. Leo Kim masterfully reconstructs the universe into a world permeated by immaterial substances he calls upixels, miraculously entangled, and incompletely understood by 19th and 20th century ideas. With the recent revelation that 96% of the universe is not perceivable by astrophysicists, he suggests we rethink our understanding of reality beyond the old materialistic assumptions. After dealing with the mysteries of physical "reality," the author weaves in his own search for truth and meaning, including explorations of death, near-death and after-death and spirituality through the ages. Using simple language and metaphors to tell a new story, Leo Kim will delight, enlighten and challenge you in amazing and unforgettable ways. This is a perfect book for both scientific and spiritual seekers.

My daughter is 27 months and still nursing. She loves to read this book with me and see pictures of other babies and toddlers nursing and then to see that the animals nurse too - from land, to trees, and even in the ocean.

The illustrations are great and it is a good quality book. The story is pleasant and rhymes a bit. A lot of thought was put into this book and it reads well. I have bought several books about nursing and extended nursing and so far, this is the best quality book I have found. Also, at the end there are little facts about how long each animal nurses and found this very interesting. Elephants nurse for 2-5 years! Something I did not know :)

I think it's important for mom's who are practicing extended nursing to be reminded that it's such a natural and wonderful thing and important too for the toddler to see other children thier age nursing as well. It helps to balance out some of the negative things we see in our culture or hear from well meaning friends and family. Enjoy!

Our family loves this book. It is a great way of educating children on breastfeeding and how it is a part of human nature. It helped my toddler understand why mom was nursing the baby.

I really really like this book, and my daughter loves seeing all the animals drinking their mommy's milk. I like that it has all the animals on the two pages in back too, so we can go over all the animals again together.

This is an especially beautiful book to share with a child you are nursing or the sibling of one. The pictures and words are precious and the message is so sweet - mothere and their children have a special bond!

I love finding books that normalize breastfeeding to children, but a lot of them are too "nipply" to me -- as natural as it is, and as much as I might nurse a baby in public without a care, I don't like the books with nipples all over the pages. Maybe I just feel self-conscious if someone else should see the books, or maybe it's just me being prudishly American. Regardless, this book is quite tastefully done. Even those who think babies should be nursed under a cover and only until they are 6mo old couldn't object to it.

Wish it was a boardbook, as most kids who are nursing are still ripping up paper pages, but it's a high quality printing on thicker than average paper.

I've personaly been to Mata Ortiz and everything the book contains is acurate! Go ahead and buy it, of course there is no substitute to actualy going there but this will give you a great idea of how things are.
Thanks!

We just visited Mata Ortiz, and it is great to be able to connect all the faces and stories with the beautiful objects these humble artists create.

This is a great book for all that are curious about Mata Ortiz pottery and the people who make it. If you want to start collecting, it's a great book to have for a reference source. All artists mentioned in this book are of high caliber, as good, some even better than the Native American potters of the Southwest. At this time, these wares are also less expensive and affordable to most people. Hopefully they will be a good investment for the future.

Susan Moesch

A wonderful collection of photographs combined with dialoge about this remote village in Mexico. It describes the journey to get there, then details the lives of the talented people who live there. The photogtaphy is outstanding. A must for any person collecting or thinking of collecting pottery from this village.

"The Many Faces of Mata Ortiz" is a treasure trove of information about the treasures that are the Mata Ortiz people and pottery. It is well laid-out, well written, and well...wonderful!! The only thing that would make my copy better are autographs by Juan Quezada himself and every other potter in the book.

Unfortunately for whatever reason, Juan's son Alvaro is not featured in the book. He is indeed an exceptional artist.

I was able to meet Alvaro and Juan Quezada in Nov 2006 in their family gallery in Mata Ortiz and found them and their entire family to be humble friendly and genuinely thrilled that people love their wonderful creations.

If you have not had the opportunity to visit Mata Ortiz, "The Many Faces of Mata Ortiz" will inspire you to go. If you have, it will make you pine for it and it's people.

I was lucky enough to stumble across a copy of this in a new and second hand music store on the Gold Coast some years ago. It was in 'as new' condition and I picked it up for a song. By chance, I met the guy who had parted with it just a couple of weeks later. I had to thank him for selling the book and now I sort of feel sorry for him for getting rid of what I beleive is the most unbeleivable music book around. Each and every photo represents a specific moment in the life of a band that never seem to age. The photos, like their music, look as though they were taken yesterday. Absolutely timeless! Thanks Ross Halfin.

This book is phenominal...brilliant...breathtaking. Sections are arranged by photographer - each exhibiting his or her own unique style and lending their contribution to a very multilateral and (according to Jimmy Page) accurate depiction of Led Zeppelin's career.

Just found this book in Argentina record store"Musimundo"... Worth everycentavo. The pic's from behind the various concert stages looking out into audience brings chills to my spine! A must have for every Zoso fan!

Hi! I won a copy of the Photographer's Led Zeppelin- I entered the contest originally, because I'm a fan of Ross Halfin. I was pleased to win it, because coming from Ireland, I can't get any of his books. It was the best representation of Zeppelin I've ever seen! Thanks to Ross Halfin, I've discovered photographers I never knew existed! The photos displayed have been an inspiration to my own work-I'm working in music- and it looks good. Thanks, Kerrang! for giving me this book!

I cannot speak highly enough of this publication. A lavishly produced, superbly presented and packaged 335 page book, divided into 23 chapters each of which features a different photographer's work. The pictures themselves, both colour and black/white, are of a consistenty high quality. Covering the entire span of the band's existence, the rare and often-candid images effectively capture the group on and off stage. In particular, several detailed shots of Zeppelin in front of massive stadium audiences are simply stunning - a true reflection of their immense popularity. Thank you Ross Halfin, and good luck to anyone else lucky enough to obtain a copy!

Another great book in the series. Brings up things one wouldn't necessarily have attended to in the beginning. Good for general driving, too.

If you are looking for books on racing driving techniques then at least start with books by Ross Bentley.I bought this book and book 1 and they are books that go together.

This book covers more detail and starts where book 1 left off.Things like computer racing/simulations games are good too.

I highly recommend this book and book 1 for anyone interested in racing.

As the author of "Go Ahead - Take the Wheel" which discusses how to begin racing, the Speed Secrets series is what I recommend to people as the next purchase in their racing libary. This book is written in a very friendly manner and does not get too bogged down in very technical discussions that might be challenging for a novice to racing. When looking at the various racing books I own, these always stand out. I guess that's why this is one of only a very few I recommended in the "Additional Resources" section of my book.

The first few chapters didn't tell you much in the way of coaching you to be better. I think 1/4 into the book, the information is very helpful in isolating and working the different components within a practice session towards driving faster (i.e. work on the entry speed, work on the driving line, work on traction sensing, etc...) I gave it 4 stars, because the book could have deleted the first few chapters.

In the second book of the Speed Secret Series, it goes in racing learning more in depth than the first book, it starts with preparing the racer to be a Complete Race Driver, it shows what racers should have, such as Racing Skills, Physical Skills, Career Skills, Marketing Skills, Mental Skills and Testing Skills.
Also it talks in depth about car preparing and learning new driving techniques and tricks.

All of Speed Secrets Books are well written and easy to be understood by new racers.

I recommend reading the first Speed Secrets Book, then practice the techniques in test days and real races, after the driver understand the book well, he should get the second book to learn more about racing gradually.

This was an incredibly exciting and informative book. Although absolutely authentic, the biography at times read like a fictitious thriller. I would highly recommend this account of the Mossad to anyone who studies this region or anyone interested in spy novels. The imagery is terific, and Ross does a terrific job of placing his work in the context of world history between 1990 and 2002. I would have enjoyed more details on his different excursions, but then again much of his story is confidential.

This Book is simply AMAZING! I've read lots of books regarding Israel and Mossad, and this is one of the BEST!.

It's a Must!

Long Live Israel!.

This is such an incredible (and true!) spy-story. The writing is sharp, and keeps you turning the page. I usually don't read non-fiction narratives, but I loved this book. It is such a great story, and it is so well written, that you can't do anything but be caught up in this tale.

Unlike the obvious fiction of "Vengeance" (the pseudo-history on which the movie Munich was based) this one was indubitably written by one who really has "been there, done that." It's a fine book unencumbered by the sort of purple prose that often infects memoirs of first-time authors, though it does contain an inexplicable howler about the thoroughly mythical supposed efficacy of Black Talon ammunition.

As for the Publisher's Weekly review, it's politically-correct drivel that disgraces the Amazon web site.

Anyone who is interested in what really went on should buy this book.

"Volunteer" is the story of Michael Ross. He was formerly a Canadian citizen who had served in the Canadian Army. He went on a hitchhiking tour and wound up in Israel. He moved into a kibbutz and married an
Israeli girl. He then served in the Isareli army(IDF). After his service in the IDF he was recruited by Mossad. He describes in detail the hard
training he had to endure. His first assignment was the Caesarea. During
the Gulf War he had a hand in marking a ship that was shipping scuds from
North Korea to Syria. On his next assignment he slipped into Iran to make
an assessment of the Iranian nuclear program. The book points out the deep
hatred that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadine jad has for Israel. It also
points out the Hezbollah-Iranian connection. Ross was next sent to Khartoum in Sudan to target Hezbollah members. Khartoum was known as Terror Central. Osama bin-Ladin used to be part of the network in Sudan.
Ross was next promoted to the Tevel Department in the Mossad. He had a role catching a Hezbollah agent named Ramez who was based in the Detroit area. There was also a section concerning Jonathan Pollard. Ross also was
active in catching the terrorists who set off truck bombs in Nairobi,Kenya,and Oar Es Salaam. This proved to be a very informative book by an actual spy.

Caroline Graham is a wonderful author and makes the English countryside come to life. Or death as it is for someone in all her books. She's a great read!

I love the books by Caroline Graham. I like all the books on which the Midsomer Murder series are based.

I am a big fan of Caroline Graham, and I love her characters - Barnaby and Troy. This book has a pretty good puzzle. Some of the characters were quite well drawn, but I found the book faintly depressing. I wonder if the whole side bar with Brian was really necessary to the story? I found that part of the book quite distasteful actually. There comes a time when storylines like that one can be thought of as sensationalizing since they do not really add to the story. But other than that I enjoyed this book. The dust jacket says that Caroline Graham shows humour and pathos in her stories, and I think that is really true. Barnaby is a really appealing main character, and I want to continue to read in order to get to know him better.

Caroline Graham has never let me down. I'd put this book right up alongside "The Killings at Badgers Drift" as the best of a brilliant series. A reviewer thinks the loathsome Brian got too much print, but I loved every word of it. I've known men like him and I just knew he was going to get his in the end, and what a beautiful ending it is. It's hard to recommend one Graham mystery over another but don't miss this one.

I have loved Caroline Graham's books for some time now and I think this is her best. The characters are expertly drawn; Graham has a way of making you feel as if you are in amongst them and yet watching from a safe distance. The roller coaster ending was a complete surprise to me and I highly recommend this book to mystery readers.

Refreshing perpective about the non profit world. A truly global book. I enjoyed very much!

Imagine your fundraising abilities as a human toolkit: thoughts, beliefs, skills, experience, creativity, and intelligences. Now imagine that someone offered you a foolproof book to completely enhance your toolkit and revolutionize your thinking by combining the use of your tools in new and unexpected ways to expand your creativity and its results exponentially. Would you buy it for $28.00?

Bernard Ross and Clare Segal, co-directors of THE MANAGEMENT CENTRE (=MC) in the United Kingdom, offer just such an enhancement in Breakthrough Thinking for Nonprofit Organizations: Creative Strategies for Extraordinary Results (Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2002) with their commitment "to inspire managers and board member managers in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to believe they can achieve extraordinary results, and to give practical strategies and techniques for achieving such results."

Leonardo da Vinci wrote: "Small rooms discipline the mind. Large rooms distract it." Drawing upon their extensive experience in working with nonprofits in the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, and South America, Ross and Segal animate their strategies with persuasive examples that not only articulate the process of "re-tooling" outmoded ways of thinking, they also provide working examples of how different organizations have applied these techniques in order to achieve astonishing results. The discipline they teach is the "small room" eurekas of breakthrough thinking by making learning more creative, more collaborative, and more fun.

Is breakthrough thinking magic? Is it only for gifted individuals? Ross and Segal don't think so: "The lesson from our experience is that many breakthroughs-even if they are apparently from out in left field-are often the result of simple hard work and simple rules applied consistently and methodically...you need to create a culture and business structure that strongly reinforces innovation as well as creativity."

This joy of this book is that it outlines in clear, applicable language how different people are creative in different ways, how to stimulate personal and organizational creativity by simply challenging habits, attitudes, environments and work roles, and why innovation plays a crucial role in turning creative thinking into long-term organizational results. Refreshingly, Ross and Segal's practical strategies are easy to understand, enjoyable to read, and actually do work once you give them a try:

· Second Wave Thinking anticipates organizational decay by restructuring resources in advance of predictable future change and the inevitable decline in results

· Kaizen and Horshin Planning helps you to differentiate between programs that will benefit from incremental growth and programs that will support sudden, exponential growth to create new heights of sustainable development

· Mind Tiles allow you to create a radically new concept simply by building on the combination of two existing concepts

· Gardner's Seven Intelligences conceptualizes individual strengths and weaknesses as being related to physical/kinetic, logical/mathematical, spatial/visual, linguistic, creative/musical, emotional/interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences

· The Learning Cycle relates how individuals and organizations go through a common process of reflection, theorizing, planning, and action before change is possible and how each of these different learning styles needs to change in order to accomplish its own breakthrough

· Creative Mindmapping organically links strategies or issues through creative planning that helps isolate new ideas and opportunities for growth

· The Matrix Analysis helps position your organization against key competitors to assess its direction and the potential fate of its programs

· The Ladder of Implication demonstrates how the same information can be interpreted by different mind-sets to reach different conclusions and strategies

· Reframing is a simple and useful technique for taking a negative mind-sets and restructuring their positive attributes and potential

· The Five C's teaches you how to deal with champions, chasers, converts, challengers, and changephobics in the workplace when your organization undergoes transformational change

Not all of these ideas are new and not all of them will apply to any one individual or organization. But if reading this book gives you one breakthrough technique that leads you to that one amazing idea that transforms your job, your organization, or even your life, then your investment will prove immeasurable.

Throughout their presentation, Ross and Segal talk candidly about both their successes and failures. In fact, they differentiate between failing because of poor ideas and failing because of poor performance. They give a number of constructive tips on how to communicate openly within organizations in ways that allows individuals the freedom to disagree without causing personal recrimination.

My favorite tips are their suggestions to hold "sacred cow barbecues," during which participants are encouraged to articulate the "unthinkable thoughts" about an organization's most cherished beliefs which can then be either "saved or cooked," and invoking "champagne rules" for private group discussions on difficult topics so that anyone can feel free to say what they think, personal attacks are discouraged, and nothing is repeated or recorded outside the group's discussion except by agreement.

Nonprofit organizations face the constant challenge of accelerating rates of change, demand for new services, and competition for scarce donor resources. The key for any organization in meeting these challenges it to answer the following questions:

· Do we know what our organization's mission is and where it needs to go in the future?
· Do our programs and our practices measure up to the needs we serve and the resources we expend?
· Are we, both individually and organizationally, as creative and cooperative as we need to be in order to ensure that our planning can achieve breakthrough results?

Only a poor workman blames his tools. In an age of accelerating change and increasing competition for scare resources, true breakthrough results can only be achieved if we look inwardly at our skills and outwardly at our organizations in new and creative ways. You don't have to be an expert to achieve transformational results: you only have to aim higher, think better, and work smarter.

If you are comfortable with your human toolkit, you can write your own book. If not, buy this one.

Imagine your fundraising abilities as a human toolkit: thoughts, beliefs, skills, experience, creativity, and intelligences. Now imagine that someone offered you a foolproof book to completely enhance your toolkit and revolutionize your thinking by combining the use of your tools in new and unexpected ways to expand your creativity and its results exponentially. Would you buy it for $...?

Bernard Ross and Clare Segal, co-directors of THE MANAGEMENT CENTRE (=MC) in the United Kingdom, offer just such an enhancement in Breakthrough Thinking for Nonprofit Organizations: Creative Strategies for Extraordinary Results (Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2002) with their commitment �to inspire managers and board member managers in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to believe they can achieve extraordinary results, and to give practical strategies and techniques for achieving such results.�

Leonardo da Vinci wrote: �Small rooms discipline the mind. Large rooms distract it.� Drawing upon their extensive experience in working with nonprofits in the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, and South America, Ross and Segal animate their strategies with persuasive examples that not only articulate the process of �re-tooling� outmoded ways of thinking, they also provide working examples of how different organizations have applied these techniques in order to achieve astonishing results. The discipline they teach is the �small room� eurekas of breakthrough thinking by making learning more creative, more collaborative, and more fun.

Is breakthrough thinking magic? Is it only for gifted individuals? Ross and Segal don�t think so: �The lesson from our experience is that many breakthroughs�even if they are apparently from out in left field�are often the result of simple hard work and simple rules applied consistently and methodically�you need to create a culture and business structure that strongly reinforces innovation as well as creativity.�

This joy of this book is that it outlines in clear, applicable language how different people are creative in different ways, how to stimulate personal and organizational creativity by simply challenging habits, attitudes, environments and work roles, and why innovation plays a crucial role in turning creative thinking into long-term organizational results. Refreshingly, Ross and Segal�s practical strategies are easy to understand, enjoyable to read, and actually do work once you give them a try:

· Second Wave Thinking anticipates organizational decay by restructuring resources in advance of predictable future change and the inevitable decline in results

· Kaizen and Horshin Planning helps you to differentiate between programs that will benefit from incremental growth and programs that will support sudden, exponential growth to create new heights of sustainable development

· Mind Tiles allow you to create a radically new concept simply by building on the combination of two existing concepts

· Gardner�s Seven Intelligences conceptualizes individual strengths and weaknesses as being related to physical/kinetic, logical/mathematical, spatial/visual, linguistic, creative/musical, emotional/interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences

· The Learning Cycle relates how individuals and organizations go through a common process of reflection, theorizing, planning, and action before change is possible and how each of these different learning styles needs to change in order to accomplish its own breakthrough

· Creative Mindmapping organically links strategies or issues through creative planning that helps isolate new ideas and opportunities for growth

· The Matrix Analysis helps position your organization against key competitors to assess its direction and the potential fate of its programs

· The Ladder of Implication demonstrates how the same information can be interpreted by different mind-sets to reach different conclusions and strategies

· Reframing is a simple and useful technique for taking a negative mind-sets and restructuring their positive attributes and potential

· The Five C�s teaches you how to deal with champions, chasers, converts, challengers, and changephobics in the workplace when your organization undergoes transformational change

Not all of these ideas are new and not all of them will apply to any one individual or organization. But if reading this book gives you one breakthrough technique that leads you to that one amazing idea that transforms your job, your organization, or even your life, then your investment will prove immeasurable.

Throughout their presentation, Ross and Segal talk candidly about both their successes and failures. In fact, they differentiate between failing because of poor ideas and failing because of poor performance. They give a number of constructive tips on how to communicate openly within organizations in ways that allows individuals the freedom to disagree without causing personal recrimination.

My favorite tips are their suggestions to hold �sacred cow barbecues,� during which participants are encouraged to articulate the �unthinkable thoughts� about an organization�s most cherished beliefs which can then be either �saved or cooked,� and invoking �champagne rules� for private group discussions on difficult topics so that anyone can feel free to say what they think, personal attacks are discouraged, and nothing is repeated or recorded outside the group�s discussion except by agreement.

Nonprofit organizations face the constant challenge of accelerating rates of change, demand for new services, and competition for scarce donor resources. The key for any organization in meeting these challenges it to answer the following questions:

· Do we know what our organization�s mission is and where it needs to go in the future?
· Do our programs and our practices measure up to the needs we serve and the resources we expend?
· Are we, both individually and organizationally, as creative and cooperative as we need to be in order to ensure that our planning can achieve breakthrough results?

Only a poor workman blames his tools. In an age of accelerating change and increasing competition for scare resources, true breakthrough results can only be achieved if we look inwardly at our skills and outwardly at our organizations in new and creative ways. You don�t have to be an expert to achieve transformational results: you only have to aim higher, think better, and work smarter.

If you are comfortable with your human toolkit, you can write your own book. If not, buy this one.

Good performance is no longer enough for nonprofits; nonprofits must set and achieve breakthrough goals. Managers and board members need to think in new and creative ways about how they define and meet the challenges they face and the strategies and techniques required to achieve extraordinary performance in fundraising, service delivery and overall results. Almost all nonprofits are affected to some extent by nine change drivers. There are five internal change drivers: organizations need a new mission or vision or they will run out of steam; the speed of business requires more decisions made faster; rising costs require new ways to deliver service from a distance; high profile service failure may require drastic measures such as clearing out top management to win back public confidence; new technology may make a nonprofit redundant or may offer opportunities to improve ways of doing business. There are also four external drivers of change: changes in public perception may result in being dropped from people's consciousness or require 24/7 availability; rapid public awareness of disasters quickly changes priorities; competition for funds has increased as distinctions between nonprofits, the public sector and the private sector has blurred; technology change can make old solutions redundant. Nonprofits that fail to answer two fundamental questions: where do we want to go? and how do we get there? may find themselves wandering in a fog, not knowing how they got into their current situation and wondering what is the right way to go. The decision to go for breakthrough is a strategic one involving risk and asking questions such as 'what is the worst thing that can happen if breakthrough goes wrong?' and 'how likely is it that the worst thing will happen?' and 'what can we do to minimize the risk of the worst thing happening?' and 'should we have a Plan B to cope with problems?' After appraising the risks and challenges and adopting a strategy you still need to decide on the approach required to encourage the people and innovation needed and the leadership required. Even then you need to ask 'to what extent do the improvements and changes made match up to what is needed?'

Once an organization has decided to transform its performance to have an impact on the need/performance gap or to achieve its potential, plotting the position on a life cycle chart can be very helpful. Organizations decide to change at various points in their life cycle and for different reasons. The challenge with the most common change point - just past the peak - is that the organization has to break out of its comfort zones and one way is to think about a dramatically improved level of performance. To drive that change a vision of the new performance level has to be agreed together with positive and negative drivers to provide pleasure and avoid pain. Two words have proved exceptionally useful in setting new goals - kaizen and horshin - because they describe not only the nature of the goals but the change process. Kaizen is slow, incremental change that leads, over time to significant improvement in performance. After the second world war Japan applied kaizen to a whole range of activities, including their car industry by setting a long-term world class performance goal and breaking it down into small, achievable chunks. Horshin is about sudden, exponential, discontinuous and radical change that leads to dramatically improved performance in a relatively short period of time. This process resulted in Sony's Walkman becoming one of the most widely used personal electronic devices on the planet. It was used by the National Trust in raising $7.5 in 200 days to save Mt. Snowdon in Wales for public use. In practice most organizations need a mixture of both kaizen and horshin as some areas of work need the stability and methodical progress of kaizen while others need the drive, transformation and vision implicit in horshin. An organization could have ten goals as part of a three-year strategic plan of which six might be kaizen and four horshin. Balance is important as you cannot transform everything overnight and you need to focus and emphasize a small number of key areas to transform quickly.

Engaging a horshin goal can be very stimulating such as Kennedy's "This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth" or Fords " My vision is to build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be at so low a price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one". Many nonprofits build on Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" to express mission as an overarching, simple, concrete horshin goal while others are more specific such as "To become a world-class center for research of childhood diseases and to radically reduce their incidence." To achieve breakthrough, language is important as it helps people to shift into a different mindset, distinguish breakthrough goals from ordinary goals and to think creatively about 'how to' as well as 'what'.

The remaining eight chapters of 'Breakthrough Thinking for Nonprofit Organizations' deal with unlocking potential, releasing creativity, creating a smart organization, mapping the possibilities, balancing creativity and innovation, challenging mind sets, driving change and working in a breakthrough organization. It is difficult to imagine than anyone connected with a nonprofit could not profit from this book.

Good book. I liked it! It was easy to read. Each chapter had a summary section so I could read the summaries before tackling the book as a whole. If you are managing a not-for-profit, or sitting as a board member to a nonprofit, and you believe your nonprofit could be doing things better, then consider getting a copy of this book and give it a read.

Back in July I read and reviewed "Managing Business Change for Dummies," by Beth Evard (ISBN: 0764553321), which focused on how managers successfully deal with employees who resist change in an organization. This book on the other hand focuses on how YOU, the manager, must deal with YOUR resistance to change so you can improve your organization's performance in the process.

The author lists nine "change drivers:"

1. New Mission or Vision
2. Speed of Business
3. Cost Reduction
4. Service Failure
5. New Technology
6. Change in Public Perception
7. Change in Priorities
8. Competition for Funds and Resources
9. Change in Technology

When your organization is hit by one or more of the above events you are going to have to implement change at your organization. This book provides examples of best practices as to how to do this. Also, the authors include exercises from their workshops on this subject. Both the best practices and exercises are very helpful to help us grasp what the authors are talking about.

If you are like me you can examine the Table of Contents for this book online and after doing so you will probably say: Wow, what is this book really about. The chapter titles are kind of weak is what I'm really trying to say. It's the chapter summaries, best practices examples, and exercises that make the book a worthwhile investment of your time.

I would have liked the book much better if the authors had organized it so it did not feel like just another book put together by a management consulting group. Yeah, it felt like one of "those" to me. And after you read 2 of them, they all start to sound the same. But since this book is informative, well written, and not too long I'm inclined to give it 5 stars.

a wonderful little book. inspiring. it is clear in these verses that perception... which exists even without the i is the root of all mental/physical processes. loving kindness is advocated though attachment discouraged. an interesting and no doubt attainable goal. i myself value attachment, but without clinging. another paradox/conflict. to me caring reqires a degree of attachment.

the wisdom in this book 'is' profound. awareness, the ability to see and to hear, is something we all have. this seeing is normal and yet when practiced in the humdrum of modern life it is unusual, this is since most of us are thinking so much that we never have time to see, hear, smell or taste anything deeply. and yet all of this is about engaging the heart through the mind. since it is the heart that is touched by perception and not the mind (recepticle of thought). the grass is green in shepherds bush, the busses are bussy driving the roads, the pigeons are happy. they are well fed. when it snows it snows, even in the spring, when the sunshines it is warm. all of this is real, it is thouroughly real, and yet it defies existence. full and yet empty. what is is what is, even what isnt... this is perception.

ive been giving perception a look at this past couple of weeks, and break it down like this:

perception/awareness = understanding, without understanding there can be no perception, since perception is understanding.

understanding = thought + process + speed.

thought = mental cognition + time + effort.
process = time + function + action.
speed = certainty + time + function.

function = understanding + speech + listening.
time = clarity + vision + express.
express = form + function + action.

the above is a way of breaking down perception. but after all this it teaches us only that through the effort of looking into things we see them more clearly... my favourite tools here are action and function, both very important in developing understanding/perception. it is through action and the elements in function that we give and it is through giving that we receive. there is wisdom in both speaking and listening, and these two are intimately linked to understanding. with action it is our physical prescense and active participation in the world that engenders understanding.

"preceded by perception are mental states" and yet mental states engender perception, it works both ways, a circle, one side giving to the other.

what isnt is what isnt, except what is and this too is what isnt. whatever you seek for you find. perception writes what it 'wants' to write when it 'wants' to write. in other words it is what we want that deifnes or filters what we percieve. if we wish to be an optimist we filter everything through the lense of optimism. if we wish to be a pessimist we filter everything through the lense of pessimism. and therefore i say that what we want defines our perception. if we did not want to see the world as 'not such a bad place' then we would not seek to see it as such, and not seeking such we dont find such.

infact what he wants can make a man happy in a cell, or miserable in a palace. we must become aware of what we want, knowing such we will filter reality seeking for this thing we want and as such we shall end up perceiving (finding) it.

perception is 'truth'(understanding). if one seeks emptiness then one finds emptiness, if one seeks form then one finds form. if one seeks both as one 'empty form' then that is what one finds, but these are things and are not 'truth' itself. so in order to find truth one must want truth... not emptiness nor form. wanting truth one will seek truth, seeking truth, one will find it. truth is 'understanding'. do you understand truth or do you understand a thing? you may think that a thing is true, therefore this is an aspect of understanding truth, if you can understand how you are understanding!

take time to disengage the thought process, stop thinking for a while and start feeling (this too requires understanding). start sensing, seeing, feeling... how do all things affect your emotions. a painting. the radiant green of the grass. but you will see if you practice that throughout this emotional engagement thoughts play an integral part within the feeling process, ie judgements are involved..

are you awake? yes... and no. when you know that you are awake... really awake this truth will come to you. for many years i was not awake... but when you know that the only thing you do know about yourself is that you are awake and that this is. then you are awake... there is a process that leads to this point. it cannot be without a process of searching... seek and ye shall find.

oh well, enough of my patronising nonsense, see things as they are, as they are not.

love, snow-flake. xxx

ps. "he who delights in awareness goes burning like a fire the fetters subtle and gross". the first thing is to be 'aware' of a blemish - negative feeling or thought. secondly one praises the negative thought for its subtlety and cleverness, its craft and for the goodness it will become, then one talks to it -first listening to what it has to say. then you project feelings of love at the blemish, then you bless it for the goodness it will be and bless it with blessings of loving kindness, happiness and permanence by the power of ones own present, past and future virtue and if you want... the love of the one true God, who is loving kindness himself. the final stage is to bless the person or thing against which the negative thought or feeling has arisen.

by this process one sweeps and cleans away blemishes "the one who has arrived at the destination, free from fright, craving and 'blemish', has broken the knives of existence". love. tc.

This is one of the finest versions of the classic Theravada text out there. Carter and Palihawadana managed to strike the perfect balance of getting the timeless message of the Buddha's teaching across while at the same time presenting it in a straight foward, easy to understand manner. Those who are unfamiliar with The Dhammapada will find this translation very accessible while those who are will greatly appreciate beautiful wisdom-filled verses that Carter and Palihawadana have so eloquently preserved. The Introduction and explanatory notes throughout the text also provide a great deal of rich knowledge which adds even more depth to this most cherished of work of Buddhist literature.

The Dhammapada is a deeply-inspiring religious text and the best-known work of the Theravada Buddhist canon. It consists of 423 short verses arranged in 26 chapters which cover, in brief form, the major aspects of the Buddha's teachings from the most mundane to the deepest. About 25 percent of the verses appear elsewhere in the Theravada Buddhist canon. In many Buddhist countries, children memorize this text which has much to teach both the learned and the simple. In its combination of simplicity and depth, the closest analogue to the Dhammapada in the Jewish-Christian Scriptures is the book of Psalms.

The Dhammapada has been well-served by many excellent translations. The translation under review here, by John Ross Carter, Professor of Philosophy at Colgate University, and Mahinda Palhawandana, Professer of Sanskrit Emeritus in Sri Lanka, is unique in its care and in the scope of its learning. In addition to the text, this translation includes line-by-line translations of the earliest Sri Lankan commentaries on the Dhammapada. These commentaries were written over the course of many centuries and systematized in about 1000 A.D. There is a separate and later series of commentaries on the text in which stories were written to illustrate the events that gave rise to the Buddha's utterance of each verse. These stories are not included here, but they are summarized in another well-known translation of the Dhammapada by the monk Narada, which I shall mention below.

This edition begins with a scholarly introduction to the text and the commentaries followed by an English rendition of the text of the Dhammapada without commentary. The next section of the book repeats the English translation together with the Pali text with the addition of the extensive commentary. Each chapter is arranged in accordance with the commentarial arrangement in which some verses are considered singly and others are combined in groups. Following the translation of text and commentary, there is a series of notes. Some of these notes deal with points of grammar while others describe in detail points of Buddhist teaching to illuminate the text and commentary.

The goal of this detailed presentation is to make the Dhammapada and its ancient interpretations available so that the interested reader may study the text with his or her own eyes. As Carter and Palihawanana state in their introduction (p. 9):

"It was our endeavor to make this work as much as possible a 'stitching of the centuries'. What this reveals is on the one hand the prodoundly evocative power of the religious sentiments expressed in the text, and on the other the conservatism of the tradition that interprets the text as we see in these documents. ... But from the way we set about it, what is of singular importance is the arrangement of this book: presenting the text itself as a text and presenting the history of its study in the setting of a growing tradition of interpretation....We wanted to make the text, as something in human hands, to point forward from the past through present into the future."

I want to give two brief examples from the translation. First, verse 183 of the Dhammapada is universally regarded as offering the shortest, most basic statement of the Buddha's teaching. Here it is in Carter and Palihawadana:

"Refraining from all that is detrimental,
The attainment of what is wholesome,
The purification of one's mind:
This is the instruction of Awakened Ones."

Note how the translation avoids the use of the word "bad" in line one and "good" in line two. Many might question this. But the point of this translation is to avoid the theistic connotations many Western readers will bring to the words "good" and "bad". Also note the term "Awakened Ones" in the final line rather than the more literal and traditional translation, "all the Buddhas". The difference points in the direction of universalizing the teaching rather than, perhaps, limiting it by sectarianism.

I want to look briefly at verse 1 of the Dhammapada which is basic to much of what follows in the text. It is also perhaps the most difficult verse in the work. Here it is in Carter and Palihawadana:

"Preceded by perception are mental states,
For them is perception supreme,
From perception have they sprung.
If, with perception polluted, one speaks or acts,
Thence suffering follows
As a wheel the draught ox's foot."

Most translation of verse 1 speak in terms of "the mind." Thus, Narada translates the beginning of the verse: "Mind is the forerunner of (all evil) states. Mind is chief: mind-made are they." ... Carter and Palihawadana try to present the text in a way that will not encourage the Western reader to equate it with the idealism of Plato or Berkeley. The verse remains a difficult and deep teaching on any reading.

I have the good fortune to participate in a Sutta Study Group where we read the Dhammapada chapter-by-chapter over the course of about one year. We used Carter and Palihawadana together with several other translations, as we discussed and debated and tried to understand the Dhammapada together.

The reader may not by lucky enough to have access to such a group, but the Dhammapada is a work that will reward individual study at any level. Some readers may find Carter and Palihawandana more than they need to begin. But for those wanting to make a detailed study of this great text, this work is invaluable.

I have previously read classic Max Muller's version and some translations foud at numerous web-pages. I think this is clearly
the best of them. Carter and Palihawadana have retained texts lyric style but still their ambition is to bring autentic text as such to us. Hence reader have to use glossary where most importánt words and referensees are. I may be a bit annoying but
If you really want know exactly what what is in original dhammapada you has to use such method. Some at web "intreprete"
too much, then the text may look easier but It may go also wrong.
Only negative comment is that people to which english is not native language, text may have too mamy many fine but unfamiliar words. I recommend this book. It is one of the classics of Worlds religious teachings.

Carter and Palihawadana have done an excellet job keeping close to the Pali with their 1987 work.

If the chapters sound stilted and harsh to the Western ears, then that may have more to do with the awkwardness of the English language which often fails to simply render the spiritual depths of the heart of the Buddha adequately.

The layout of the book is of three parts:
Introduction, The Text and the Text With Transliteration and Commentary.

The introduction by Jaroslav Pelikan, a noted Yale historian with an academic knowledge of organized religion, notes that this is a long-distance collaboration where the originaly manuscript may have been a lot of ocean voyages on its own.

The Text covers the English translation from Chapters 1 to 26.

If the text is dry in parts, it might be because both authors may not have had the luxury of a long ocean voyage during which such allusions to the spiritual ocean of mercy and love (compassion) may have had time to be realized as the complement of the spiritual wisdom hinted at through the academic knowledge contained in Pelikan's introduction, Carter's invisible hand at the Text, and Palihawadana's translation and philological commentary.

However, the lack of numbered reference notes to match the citations throughout Palihawadana left me eager for the pages that match the numbered references with the proper citations.

Indeed, there are 63 such references awaiting final resolution. Yet the commentaries are very edifying and always delight me with a somewhat greater familitarity with Pali than before I opened the book.