Description Details
volunteers bring you 13 recordings of Pillow and Stone by Abram S. Isaacs. This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 24, 2011. Abram S. Isaacs (1851-1920) was an American rabbi, author, and professor. Isaacs received his education at the New York University, from which he was graduated in 1871. He became a Rabbi at Barnett Memorial Temple at Paterson, New Jersey. For thirty-five years he occupied a chair at the New York University, first as Professor of Hebrew, then of Germanic languages, and later of Semitics. (summary from Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Instruction, Philosophy, Religion, Poetry

Description Details
In Books 3 and 4 of Leviathan , Thomas Hobbes elaborates on the political philosophy set forth in the first two books, by considering the nature of a Christian commonwealth. Book 3 begins with a wealth of biblical scholarship, directed at establishing the authority of Scripture while at the same time undermining modern claims to supernatural revelation that would subvert civil law. Hobbes concludes that we cannot be sure of anyone else's divine revelation, and that religious authority is therefore subordinate to civil power. Book 4, titled “Of the Kingdom of Darkness,” sets forth the various ways in which Scripture has been misinterpreted by the church, according to Hobbes, in mixing pagan elements with Christianity. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Leon Mire)...

Excerpt Details
Philosophy, Politics, Religion

Description Details
Thomas Troward was a divisional Judge in British-administered India. His avocation was the study of comparative religion. Influences on his thinking, as well as his later writing, included the teachings of Christ, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. After his retirement from the judiciary in 1896, Troward set out to apply logic and a judicial weighing of evidence in the study of matters of cause and effect. The philosopher William James characterized Troward’s Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science as far and away the ablest statement of philosophy I have met, beautiful in its sustained clearness of thought and style, a really classic statement. According to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) archivist Nell Wing, early AA members were strongly encouraged to read Thomas Troward's Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science. In the opening of the 2006 film The Secret , introductory remarks credit Troward's philosophy with inspiring the movie and its production....

Excerpt Details
Psychology, Philosophy

Description Details
The writings listed here represent books about Soren Kierkegaard. A fragment of his work, On the Dedication to That Single Individual, has made it to the public domain. Who was Soren Kierkegaard? He was a Danish philosopher and religious author; b. Copenhagen May 6, 1813; d. there Nov. 11, 1855. His father, Michael, a clothing merchant, once cursed God when he was young. This one incident caused him so much distress that it affected him with a deep melancholy, which he transferred to poor Soren. Michael was an evil man. He tricked Soren into thinking that the whole world existed in his own living room by taking him for imaginary walks about the neighborhood, or anywhere Soren wanted to go, as long as it existed in his imagination only. Later in life, when Soren was on his own, he rarely left Copenhagen, but he did walk about the streets and greet passersby, discussing events of the day. After 6 years of “splendid inactivity” he obtained his degree in Theology from the University of Copenhagen with the submission of his thesis paper in 1841, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates. Just before graduation he fell ...

Excerpt Details
Philosophy, Religion

Description Details
Walden by Henry David Thoreau is one of the best-known non-fiction books written by an American. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau’s life for two years, two months, and two days around the shores of Walden Pond. Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised. Along with his critique of the civilized world, Thoreau examines other issues afflicting man in society, ranging from economy and reading to solitude and higher laws. He also takes time to talk about the experience at Walden Pond itself, commenting on the animals and the way people treated him for living there, using those experiences to bring out his philosophical positions. This extended commentary on nature has often been interpreted as a strong statement to the natural religion that transcendentalists like Thoreau and Emerson were preaching. (Description amended from Wikipedia)....

Excerpt Details
Nature, Philosophy

Description Details
The Light of Egypt will be found to be an Occult library in itself, a textbook of esoteric knowledge, setting forth the wisdom Religion of life, as taught by the Adepts of Hermetic Philosophy. It will richly repay all who are seeking the higher life to carefully study this book, as it contains in a nutshell the wisdom of the ages regarding man and his destiny, here and hereafter. The London and American first edition, also the French edition, Vol. I, met with lively criticism from Blavatsky Theosophists, because it annihilates that agreeable delusion of Karma and Reincarnation from the minds of all lovers of truth for truth's sake. The Tablets of Aeth is a great and mighty work, as it contains the very quintessence of Occult and Hermetic philosophy, as revealed by spiritual law. Penetralia is a new revelation, and invaluable to Occult students, as it is the personal experience of a developed soul. (Summary taken from the Publishers Preface)...

Excerpt Details
Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Science

Description Details
Dole briefly sketches the history of life, and shows how it has a definite direction - toward the survival of the kind and gentle people. It's a challenging, and quite persuasive argument, and also a much needed one in light of the dog-eat-dog theories out there. Dole shows that in our evolving society, our traditional understanding of survival of the fittest needs to be updated. A book that was way ahead of its time, yet so suited to it. Some may argue that - since he was writing The Coming People before the first two world wars - that he was obviously wrong. However, his argument remains valid given current scientific evidence cited in such books as Evolution and Empathy, and The Age of Empathy, and it's noteworthy that he wrote another book after World War I (see, A Religion for the New Day, 1920, where he states that while society is still quite barbaric, he retains his powerful conviction that it is improving and improvable. ). Also, Dole points to the many flaws of his time (and ours too), and stresses the need to fix them in a peaceful, intelligent manner. Many of the issues he grappled with remain just as strong today, and h...

Excerpt Details
Advice, Philosophy, Politics, Religion

Description Details
Our struggles in this society constrict the flow of our natural thoughts that have led us far away from our divine principles in life as human beings. Our struggles are from within ourselves and in our mind, taunted by social deviations that involve the rules of life in our society today. Facing these struggles are just part of our daily burden to find contentment and self worth in order to be happily accepted in the society that we live on. It is a battle against our mind from within our consciousness to find “contentment” rather that pursue the fabricated joys of social living. This e-book will guide you on how to achieve weight loss without using any kind of supplement whether that be natural or synthetic, but, it does recommend the use of natural organic health supplements to help you in dealing with psychological downsides or mood swings which frequently occur when undergoing a diet program. Remember dear readers, it is all in the mind on how we perceive our understanding of the concept of fulfillment, happiness and contentedness from a simple point of view....

Excerpt Details
We always question life and it's purpose and despite of all that we think we have achieved to understand the meaning and purpose of it, we still find it rather hard to contemplate the dynamics and struggle to find a singularity as to how to be content with the never ending chaos that we created in pursuing acceptable answers in why life goes the way it does. Ever since we learned to think and started to question things that concern our existence, we have looked for answers around and within our minds in why we live life with such turmoil despite advancement in improving our selves as human beings. Most important of all, why we behave so irrational when it comes to understanding our fellow human beings. With the dawning of the Age of Reason, human society has been brutalized with war and conflict within the foundation of it's culture. It seems that human beings are easily intimidated by its own kind despite coming from one gene pool. No matter how hard we try to understand ourselves in this society we still lack rationality and may have overlooked the simple meaning of “peace” despite devising ways to fully utilize our mental facu...

Table of Contents Details
Chapter I Need or Want p4 Chapter II Natural Organic Health Supplements p6 Chapter III The Natural Way to Loose Fats p9 Chapter IV The G.M.O. (Genetically Modified Organisms) Syndrome p11 Chapter V Who We Really Are p13 Chapter VI The Zen of Life p15 Chapter VII Your Health is You're Only Wealth p17 Chapter VIII Things to Come p19 Chapter IX The Ugly Truth p22 Chapter X The Rise and Fall of Two Empires ...

Description Details
The answers cover such topics as: - why livestock are critical to food security - why free trade and markets can't solve food shortages - why aid shouldn't insist poor countries follow our model - how to reconcile science and commerce with popular ideals - how grass domestic happiness can be a serious topic - how more food can be produced with less land and fertilizer - why labels like Buddhist and vegetarian confuse life - what traditional wisdom is critical to development - how misrepresentation fuels fears about climate change - why small farmers and foreign agribusiness must coexist...

Excerpt Details
Question and Answer How to reprise lost paradise, where clansmen were always content? On this we ever ask advice, not noting our command’s contempt. Replies arise if we ask right, as sages’ sayings still console, except when wished as black or white, thus missing their integral whole. Each answer’s angst makes us ask more – thus are our suspect lives sustained, supremely sure if we spark war, for our ideals are deep ingrained. We’re punished by our primal rites, wedding hubris with hoarded wealth, monopolizing basic rights, and molding ethics in our stealth. Blinded by our biased questions, we trust faith as truth we squander, never knowing our great fortune – blind in paradise we wander. ...

Table of Contents Details
Question and Answer Acknowledgements Author’s Preface The 10 Questions Chapter 1 Introducing Food Security Seeing Livestock Correctly Who is Food Insecure? Animal Products in Food Security Animal Production in a Food-insecure World Animal Production Systems Future Animal Production in Food Security Answering the Question Chapter 2 The West is not the Context Defining ‘Food Insecurity’ Food Security Planning National Policy Implications for Food Security Regulations on Sustainability and Climate Change How Government Meets the Challenge Answering the Question Chapter 3 The Success of the West Balancing the Bias Aid to Do What? Facing Some Facts Famine in the West 20th Century Famine in Europe Answering the Question Chapter 4 What are we Feeding? Language in Religion, Science and Spirit Feeding the Spirit Scientia and Sapientia Answering the Question Chapter 5 The Nebulous Concept of GDH Global Fears and Small Farmers Smallholder Self-Sufficiency What is Wellbeing? Explaining the Sufficiency Economy Idea Implementing Wellbeing Answering the Question Chapter 6 ‘Sustainin...