Reiko Ohnuma offers a wide-ranging exploration of maternal imagery and discourse in pre-modern South Asian Buddhism, drawing on textual sources preserved in Pali and Sanskrit. She demonstrates that Buddhism in India had a complex and ambivalent relationship with mothers and motherhood-symbolically, affectively, and institutionally. Symbolically, motherhood was a double-edged sword, sometimes extolled as the most appropriate symbol for buddhahood itself, and sometimes denigrated as the most paradigmatic manifestation possible of attachment and suffering. On an affective level, too, motherhood was viewed with the same ambivalence: in Buddhist literature, warm feelings of love and gratitude for the mother's nurturance and care frequently mingle with submerged feelings of hostility and resentment for the unbreakable obligations thus created, and positive images of self-sacrificing mothers are counterbalanced by horrific depictions of mothers who kill and devour. Institutionally, the formal definition of the Buddhist renunciant as one who has severed all familial ties seems to co-exist uneasily with an abundance of historical evidence demonstrating monks' and nuns' continuing concern for their mothers, as well as other familial entanglements. Ohnuma's study provides critical insight into Buddhist depictions of maternal love and maternal grief, the role played by the Buddha's own mothers, Maya and Mahaprajapati, the use of pregnancy and gestation as metaphors for the attainment of enlightenment, the use of breastfeeding as a metaphor for the compassionate deeds of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the relationship between Buddhism and motherhood as it actually existed in day-to-day life.

In the midst of the many hardships we endure in our daily lives, it can be difficult to define the true meaning of love, let alone find it. Yet living without such love can leave us empty and unfulfilled. Consolatus C. Okorondu can help. Drawing on her personal relationship with God and many of her life experiences, Okorondu explores the supreme definition of love and how it can offer us liberation from the darkness within our souls. With an in-depth look at scriptures from the Holy Bible, Okorondu shares how true love will always lead you to peace and harmony toward God, others, and yourself. Learn how the fruits of love-patience, understanding, acceptance, consideration, honesty, forgiveness, and communication-are the key to successful relationships with others, whether it be your family, your spouse, your friends, or even your co-workers. Okorondu also shares different personal interpretations of love from others to reveal how the common human experience unites us all. But at its heart, Discover the Secret of True Love shows the awesome love that God has for each of his children. Find inner peace with the love from our almighty Father and renew your spirit!

It has been nearly fifty years since Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Appraisals of King's contributions began almost immediately and continue to this day. The author explores a great many of King's chief ideas and socio-ethical practices: his concept of a moral universe, his doctrine of human dignity, his belief that not all suffering is redemptive, his brand of personalism, his contribution to the development of social ethics, the inclusion of young people in the movement, sexism as a contradiction to his personalism, the problem of black-on-black violence, and others. The book reveals both the strengths and the limitations in King's theological socio-ethical project, and shows him to have relentlessly applied personalist ideas to organized nonviolent resistance campaigns in order to change the world. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Barbara Dawson Smith Writing As Olivia Drake Too Wicked to LoveHe is Ethan Sinclair, the Earle of Chasebourne, the most notorious rogue in all of England. She is Miss Jane Mayhew, the keen-witted spinster Ethan had never even noticed. But when Jane discovers his love child abandoned on her doorstep, she is determined to see him face responsibility.If it weren't for the baby she claims is his, Ethan would have nothing to do with her. The last thing he wants is to become involved with the prim and proper Jane. But sometimes, the last thing you want is the one thing you need.

This is a comprehensive clinical resource for addiction counselors who want to learn about the psychological components of the problem, for individual therapists—dynamic, cognitive, and behavioral—who want to understand systems approaches in order to draw on a broader repertoire of useful interventions, and for couple and family therapists who want to learn more about the intrapsychic, biological, and pharmacological aspects of addiction. Dr. Jerome D. Levin takes the reader down the parallel paths of addiction treatment and individual and family therapy until they meet on the bridge of actual clinical practice. Practitioner, professor, prolific author, and respected authority in the field, Dr. Levin uses approaches to the treatment of alcoholism as a model for illustrating how theory, research, technique, and flying by the seat of the professional pants can integrate into a therapeutic style to help substance abusers and their partners and families.