"The relations between eastern and western cultures have long been a neglected topic, and this careful and intelligent look at a small but significant part of those relations is most welcome."--Thomas McEvilley, author of The Shape of Ancient Thought "How wonderful that Jacquelynn Baas has seen the light of the Buddha's smile shining from faraway Asia into the realm of the art of modern times in what we think of as the West! . . . Her work reveals how some of our most influential artists explored and expressed the sophisticated perceptions and joyful energy emanating from the realm of Buddhist Asia."--Robert A. F. Thurman "As a Buddhist scholar and artist I welcome this thoughtful and richly detailed study of how many aspects of Buddhism have stimulated, invigorated, and enriched Western arts over the past 150 years."--Stephen Addiss, author of The Art of Zen "A crucial contribution to modern art studies, this high-spirited text surveys Western artists awakened by the wisdom of the East, from Monet and Duchamp to O'Keeffe to Martin. It is a thoughtful book about thoughtful artists, their values and their visions, with a lot to offer general readers and specialists alike."--Charles Stuckey, Associate Professor of Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

The Americans have engineered a coup in Khamla, north of Thailand. Prince Soumidath has been deposed. He can return only under Thai protection. Civil war rages. Against this background of bedlam, Margaret Jones in The Smiling Buddha weaves parallel stories narrated by Gilly Herbert, the Australian wife of English academic David. Gilly's own experiences, events in Khamla and the story of Peter Casement, a mysterious American and Gilly's lover who has emerged as eminence grise to Prince Soumidath, merge in a dramatic, vivid evocation of the horrors of war and the abuses of power. Margaret Jones has worked as a foreign correspondent for Australian newspapers in Europe, North America and Asia. She opened a bureau for the Sydney Morning Herald in Beijing after the Whitlam Government established diplomatic relations in 1972, and has travelled extensively in the region. A former Foreign Editor and later Literary Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, she is the author of The Confucius Enigma and Thatcher's Kingdom, a study of British politics.

A Bewitching Smile Second in the Land of Smiles Trilogy A Bewitching Smile is reminiscent of A Passage to India in the creation of a kind of psychological DMZ, another Shangri-la with its own ephipanies and perils. The tough-sensitive characterization, and the sharp, often aphoristic dialogue, and the irony, combine to create a powerful drama. In this sequel to A Killing Smile, Richard Breach who is a magician, mystic and world-class card player teaches English in Bangkok. Crosby, his former student, has found an assignment for Breach's talents: a rescue mission. Snow is held hostage in a hill tribe village. Snow's plan to become Lahu godman has failed and his life is at risk. Breach has private reasons of his own -- a dying friend in England has requested a set of ritual shaman's. As the journey progresses to the north of Thailand, another mission takes form: Breach is to play in a high stakes card game. The story is about magic, myth and the power to transform the self. A Bewitching Smile, the second A Land of Smiles trilogy -- confirms the novels of Christopher G. Moore are destined to become a Southeast Asia social chronicle of the 90s.

This book explores the possible relations between Western types of rationality and Buddhism. It also examines some clichés about Buddhism and questions the old antinomies of Western culture ("faith and reason," or "idealism and materialism"). The use of the Buddhist notion of the Two Truths as a hermeneutic device leads to a double or multiple exposure that will call into question our mental habits and force us to ask questions differently, to think "in a new key." Double Exposure is somewhat of an oddity. Written by a specialist for nonspecialists, it is not a book of vulgarization. Although it aims at a better integration of Western and Buddhist thought, it is not an exercise in comparative philosophy or religion. It is neither a contribution to Buddhist scholarship in the narrow sense, nor a contribution to some vague Western "spirituality." Cutting across traditional disciplines and blurring established genres, it provides a leisurely but deeply insightful stroll through philosophical and literary texts, dreams, poetry, and paradoxes.

Down the age Zen has conveyed its wisdom through stories. This book is a collection of 50 Zen Stories which will make you smile!

This volume addresses trauma not only from a theoretical, descriptive and therapeutic perspective, but also through the survivor as narrator, meaning maker, and presenter. By conceptualising different outlooks on trauma, exploring transfigurations in writing and art, and engaging trauma through scriptotherapy, dharma art, autoethnography, photovoice and choreography, the interdisciplinary dialogue highlights the need for rethinking and re-examining trauma, as classical treatments geared towards healing do not recognise the potential for transfiguration inherent in the trauma itself. The investigation of the fissures, disruptions and shifts after punctual traumatic events or prolonged exposure to verbal and physical abuse, illness, war, captivity, incarceration, and chemical exposure, amongst others, leads to a new understanding of the transformed self and empowering post-traumatic developments. Contributors are Peter Bray, Francesca Brencio, Mark Callaghan, M. Candace Christensen, Diedra L. Clay, Leanne Dodd, Marie France Forcier, Gen’ichiro Itakura, Jacqueline Linder, Elwin Susan John, Kori D. Novak, Cassie Pedersen, Danielle Schaub, Nicholas Quin Serenati, Aslı Tekinay, Tony M. Vinci and Claudio Zanini.

At the height of China’s Cultural Revolution a powerful general fathered two sons. Tan was born to the general’s wife and into a life of comfort and luxury. His half brother, Shento, was born to the general’s mistress, who threw herself off a cliff in the mountains of Balan only moments after delivering her child. Growing up, each remained ignorant of the other’s existence. In Beijing, Tan enjoyed the best schools, the finest clothes, and the prettiest girls. Shento was raised on the mountainside by an old healer and his wife until their deaths landed him in an orphanage, where he was always hungry, alone, and frightened. Though on divergent roads, each brother is driven by a passionate desire—one to glorify his father, the other to seek revenge against him. Separated by distance and opportunity, Tan and Shento follow the paths that lie before them, while unknowingly falling in love with the same woman and moving toward the explosive moment when their fates finally merge. Brothers, by bestselling memoirist Da Chen, is a sprawling, dynamic family saga, complete with assassinations, love affairs, narrowly missed opportunities, and the ineluctable fulfillment of destiny.

This book is not a replacement for yoga or The Zone; it is a companion – a reminder that hard work and determination really do pay off, and that our bodies are gifts to be cared for and treasured through exercise and healthy living.