A reader-friendly guide to Zen Buddhist ethics for modern times In the West, Zen Buddhism has a reputation for paradoxes that defy logic. In particular, the Buddhist concept of nonduality — the realization that everything in the universe forms a single, integrated whole — is especially difficult to grasp. In The Other Side of Nothing, Zen teacher Brad Warner untangles the mystery and explains nonduality in plain English. To Warner, this is not just a philosophical problem: nonduality forms the bedrock of Zen ethics, and once we comprehend it, many of the perplexing aspects of Zen suddenly make sense. Drawing on decades of Zen practice, he traces the interlocking relationship between Zen metaphysics and ethics, showing how a true understanding of reality — and the ultimate unity of all things — instills in us a sense of responsibility for the welfare of all beings. When we realize that our feeling of separateness from others is illusory, we have no desire to harm any creature. Warner ultimately presents an expansive overview of the Zen ethos that will give beginners and experts alike a deeper understanding of one of the world’s enduring spiritual traditions.

A moving exploration of family, friendship, and how far we are willing to go for the ones we love, The Other Side of Nothing is a powerful read about loss, self-determination, and second chances. 2024 IPPY Awards Gold Medalist for Popular Fiction 2024 Zibby Summer Reads Selection? The day after her eighteenth birthday, Julia Reeves checks herself into a psychiatric facility, longing to find a way out of the grief and guilt that have engulfed her since her father’s untimely death. What she finds is fellow suicide attempt survivor Sam Lorenzo, a brilliant twenty-three-year-old photographer. Sam brings beauty and light back into Julia’s life, so when he asks her to escape with him on a cross-country odyssey, she agrees. Before Julia can process what she’s done, the two young lovers are on the run. When Julia’s mother, Laura, learns Julia has disappeared and authorities will do nothing to help find her, Laura forms an uneasy alliance with the sole person who has as much to lose as she does: Sam’s mother, Arabella. Armed with only a handful of clues, the two mothers embark on a journey of their own, desperately hoping to save their children before they are lost forever.

Hilda M. Valentine grew up on a small farm, attended college, and moved to New York for a better life. Working in insurance claims for more than twenty years, she climbed the ranks to a claims management position and finally landed her dream job as a supervising case manager for a structured settlement company. Her office was located on the 100th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade center in Manhattan. The position started in August of 2001. But one month later, on September 11th, everything changed. In The Other Side of Nothing, she shares her survival story. It’s the story of being at her desk when the first plane hit the North Tower. It’s the story of being in the stairwell, on the seventy-fifth floor, just below the impact as the second plane struck the South Tower. But most importantly, this is the story of the long road of healing that followed. This memoir offers insight into the aftermath of a 9/11 survivor and how God’s word and his grace and his mercy sustained her throughout the journey.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Zen Buddhism is a form of Buddhism that emphasizes meditation. It was started by a group of Buddhists who wanted to get back to the basics of what the Buddha had taught, dropping most of the dogmas and rituals. #2 Zen Buddhism is not a set of beliefs and dogmas, but a way to learn to see what reality actually is beyond all beliefs and dogmas. We can’t see the true nature of reality, but we can discover it. #3 The nature of time and reality hides the truth of universal oneness from us. But we can see it if we know how to look. The understanding of universal oneness is not like that. It’s not something we can own. #4 Because you are everything and everyone in the universe, it makes no sense at all to act unethically. To act unethically is the same as punching yourself in the face. Anything unethical you do to someone or something else, you are really doing to yourself.

The future ain't what it used to be... Jensen interceptor is a man on a mission. Promoted to the lofty ranks of government spy - though he's not quite sure why - his first assignment is to monitor the Martin Martinists, a suspected terrorist cult who believe that, way back in 2008, a TV psychic called Martin Martin was the saviour. As Jensen infiltrates the cell he finds his ideas about life and love being challenged, and when he starts to receive bizarre visions which may or may not be coming from Martin Martin himself, his world is turned literally upside down...

An argument that what is usually dismissed as the “mystical shell” of Hegel's thought—the concept of absolute knowledge—is actually its most “rational kernel.” This book sets out from a counterintuitive premise: the “mystical shell” of Hegel's system proves to be its most “rational kernel.” Hegel's radicalism is located precisely at the point where his thought seems to regress most. Most current readings try to update Hegel's thought by pruning back his grandiose claims to “absolute knowing.” Comay and Ruda invert this deflationary gesture by inflating what seems to be most trivial: the absolute is grasped only in the minutiae of its most mundane appearances. Reading Hegel without presupposition, without eliminating anything in advance or making any decision about what is essential and what is inessential, what is living and what is dead, they explore his presentation of the absolute to the letter. The Dash is organized around a pair of seemingly innocuous details. Hegel punctuates strangely. He ends the Phenomenology of Spirit with a dash, and he begins the Science of Logic with a dash. This distinctive punctuation reveals an ambiguity at the heart of absolute knowing. The dash combines hesitation and acceleration. Its orientation is simultaneously retrospective and prospective. It both holds back and propels. It severs and connects. It demurs and insists. It interrupts and prolongs. It generates nonsequiturs and produces explanations. It leads in all directions: continuation, deviation, meaningless termination. This challenges every cliché about the Hegelian dialectic as a machine of uninterrupted teleological progress. The dialectical movement is, rather, structured by intermittency, interruption, hesitation, blockage, abruption, and random, unpredictable change—a rhythm that displays all the vicissitudes of the Freudian drive.

Blood is thicker than water, but nothing is sweeter than revenge. Exiled from her family and thrust into the harsh spotlight of fame, Solaris James has always fought to survive. Now, on her eighteenth birthday, a shocking revelation makes her the sole heir to the James family fortune. But with wealth comes the ghosts of her past and a thirst for vengeance that cannot be quenched. Her return brings her face-to-face with Silas O’Conner, the man she’s loved since childhood. Their connection is as dangerous as it is undeniable, a forbidden love tangled in a web of dark family secrets and painful pasts. As they delve deeper into their quest for justice, their passion ignites, threatening to consume them both. With their sight set on vengeance, Solaris and Silas are ready to expose the darkest secrets of the James family. But as old wounds reopen and new betrayals emerge, Solaris finds herself spiraling into a darkness that threatens to destroy their love. Will Solaris reclaim her life and exact her revenge, or will the shadows of her past destroy the forbidden love that could be her salvation? Dive into the scandal, passion, and danger of "Nothing Sweeter." Buy your copy today and uncover the secrets that lie behind the gates of the James Estate!