Fine Print
Book reviews by independent reviewers

 

Angel Dogs With a Mission: Divine Messengers in Service to All Life
Allen Anderson and Linda Anderson
$14.95 QP, 288 pages, 6" x 7", 9781577316022, New World Library, www.newworldlibrary.com

In Angel Dogs with a Mission, authors Allen and Linda Anderson speak of dogs as “souls that have accepted and embraced a mission of giving service to all life.” The book focuses on stories that show different service missions: to serve, to inspire, to heal, to protect, to teach, and to bring joy and hope. Encouraged by the Andersons, the dog owners who tell these stories reflect upon the spiritual significance of what becomes their dogs’ purpose in life. For example, Tuffy, a spaniel, works in partnership with a grief counselor, knowing just how to approach people frozen in trauma and aid in their healing. Zoom, a corgi, assists his owner in helping school children with learning disorders to become active, successful students. Each of the twenty accounts includes an introductory quote, a picture of the dog, and a brief meditation suggestion for readers who wish to relate the story’s message to their own lives.

The authors explain that they call dogs angels “because they respond to human need and suffering with astounding specificity, providing exactly what people need when they need it.” General readers as well as animal lovers will find these accounts both moving and inspiring. -- Richard D. Wright, Tranquil Things, Derby Line, Vt.

Shapeshifting With Our Animal Companions: Connecting With the Spiritual Awareness of All Life
Dawn Baumann Brunke
$16 QP, 272 pages, 6" x 9", 9781591430834, Bear & Company, www.bearandcompanybooks.com

Dawn Baumann Brunke’s earlier books, Animal Voices and Awakening to Animal Voices, showed readers the how and why of animal communication. This book describes the three stages of her apprenticeship and mastery of shapeshifting: letting go of old ideas and habits of perception, experiencing different forms of consciousness, and realizing other modes of existence. Her primary teacher is her dog Barney, both during and after his final months on this plane of existence. Shapeshifting becomes a means of experiencing life beyond illusions and projections of reality, so that she and her teachers become true companions sharing one great reality.

As she talks with different animals, the author learns that shapeshifting is moving “our normally contained shapes of consciousness beyond the constraints of who we think we are.” One may then visit different times, places, bodies, and lives, and ultimately be led to understand that shapeshifting is about opening to the oneness of all existence. -- Richard D. Wright, Tranquil Things, Derby Line, Vt.

Science and spirituality


Measuring the Immeasurable: The Scientific Case For Spirituality
Daniel Goleman, Bruce H. Lipton, Candace Pert, Gary Small, Lynn McTaggart, Gregg Braden, and Jeanne Achterberg
$24.95 HC, 552 pages, 6" x 9.5", 9781591796541, Sounds True, www.soundstrue.com

This collection of 29 studies, articles, and essays address some of the fundamental issues of why so-called new age arguments for the existence of unseen phenomena have failed to convince most in the scientific community. Much of the skepticism of those in science and other analytic disciplines such as logic stems from the problem of distinguishing between objectivity and subjectivity and measuring and moreover replicating the conditions and results of specific research. Divided into three pertinent sections, the authors represented cover general human potential topics in ten offerings in Part I. Part II provides some of the meatier areas such as quantum physics and biology in eight topical writings. Part III consists of seven studies that attempt to bridge the balance between what humans appear to be optimally capable of and how to explain and share tangible evidence for others to see and peer review.

If it did nothing other than to say to skeptics: “look, there are credible people in the scientific community with high levels of training and skill who are asking relevant questions, designing worthy research, and exploring and suggesting results that need to be examined”, this book would serve a valuable purpose. But, the book goes beyond that measure of communicating with fellow scientists. A fine example of a “hard-minded” scientist with impeccable credentials who is trying to make sense of the inexplicable is William Tiller (Part II, Article Eight). Tiller’s piece is entitled, “Toward a Reliable Bridge of Understanding Between Traditional Science and Spiritual Science”. He is no lightweight. Credentials include being a Fellow of the AAAS, Professor Emeritus at Stanford’s Department of Materials Science, and over 250 scientific papers in respected journals. This short 25-page essay contains the essence of his attempt to speak to the issue of how matter and consciousness are coupled inasmuch as physical reality is a metaphor not merely for what happens in the seen universe, but also so much that is not easily observed or experienced. If that has the scent of ephemera to the skeptic, such a person should be reminded how much all science has been dependent on two inventions that have added huge dimensionality to how we see today: the microscope and the telescope. The more one focuses on Tiller’s diagrams and grasps his understanding of the “material” world, the more credit one has to give to his pioneering attempts to see matter and conscious spirit as part of a plausible whole.

Much of the problems associated with “measuring the immeasurable” since the early days of J.B. Rhine’s psychical lab work at Duke University stems from the lack of understanding of how mind-body issues are defined. Design of experiments to measure interactions have often been so difficult because, among other reasons, both components have been thought of as distinctly different. This collection offers a subtler way of seeing the material-spiritual dichotomy as more unified than many had thought before modern science opened paths to interpretation that even a generation ago would have been thought of as the stuff for science fiction. Vibrating sub-atomic strings in as yet-proven String Theory is debated and studied by the planet’s most esteemed Physicists. Although such proof is so far elusive, the range of possible explanations when either verified or abandoned for a more inclusive theory will doubtless include neuroscience, brain-mind medicine, and other bio-phenomenological insights represented by a number of the contributors to this compilation. From the “Reflections on the Mindful Brain” of Dan Siegel, to the work of Garret Yount (and others) on “Biofield Treatments”, this book could be seen as one of the building blocks in the bridge to understanding consciousness.

The book is handsomely bound in jet-black. It consists of a brief 4-page Introduction that takes the reader right into the writings which are then followed by an exceptionally helpful 45-pages of Notes including bibliographical and other citations and references for follow-up by the serious reader. The 29-page Index is equally detailed and valuable. The volume concludes with 15-pages of biographical notes on the authors. This is an important serious collection and should be carried in our Science, Spirituality, and Psychology sections. -- Thomas Peter von Bahr, Pacific NorthWest Group, Lopez Island, Wash.


Transcending The Speed of Light: Consciousness, Quantum Physics, and The Fifth Dimension
Marc J. Seifer
$22.95 QP, 368 pages, 6” x 9”, 9781594772290, Inner Traditions (Bear & Co.), www.innertraditions.com

The relationship between what the author sees as the unified subjects of mind and matter and phenomena like the speed of light and dimensionality have been the subject of Philosophy for millennia. But, there has never been such a substantial body of scientific and technical theories as exists now in the 21st Century from which to draw. Peering back from an imaginary position in the year 2500, what is known today will seem limited in ways that we reflect back upon the Enlightenment and its special figures of scientific renown; that is, however towering these experimental scientists were, much of their work now seems basic but simplistic compared with quantum physics. Seifer has divided his book into 14 chapters with titles such as, “Ether Theory” and “Patterns of Prophecy”. Such choices could likely dissuade scientists and skeptics from proceeding to invest their time in reading through over 300 pages to get at the chapter “Final Thoughts”. But, that would be a grievous error as the author has made a serious effort at combining theories of science with his own field of Psychology and its limited dualistic focus on brain and mind. The beauty of this dissertation lies in its courage in trying to sort through enormous quantitative as well as subjective material not only from hard science but from the bleeding edges of metaphysics. Sometimes this leads to dense prose such as, “…the direction of the spin of the elementary particle and the other somehow linked to the process of precessing, which would be at right angles to the primary spin”, and “…the change of dimensions is associated with an orthorotation and movement out [which] suggests that elementary particles interface dimensions from a prephysical etheric one out to the physical one” (page 244). But, in other chapters, Seifer covers aspects of the History of Science, a review of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, and even Einstein (“Another Look at E=MC2”) (Chapter 13) with skill and creativity.

Marc Seifer has tackled the essential question for thinking people everywhere: what is consciousness and how is it manifested in ordinary everyday life? He approaches the problem not as a physicist or quantum mathematician. While borrowing perspective from those disciplines, he takes a novel view of time, space, and events and how they intersect and combine into possibilities and probabilities (page 238). To humans, with our advanced perceptive and conceptual systems, consciousness appears to be a continuum, but the author posits instead that the flow of time does not account for why a given set of events that occurred today happened in the sequence they did. Such an unfolding requires a view of the Universe in five and six dimensions. Why? Because events or human choices taken or not taken ALL have consequences or effects, however small they may appear to us. He gives the example: “if [past]Peruvian inhabitants of [a] region prosper because of incoming tourists”, then it follows there was a connection to times past which, “…left some trace in the [current] physical dimension”. This viewpoint is consistent with Mohatma Gandhi’s claim that the breeze of a butterfly’s wafting wings might be felt by a sensitive adept half a world away. Further, any number of possible present-futures might occur. Almost universally, humans are not trained to perceive and conceive in such ways, and thus they are unable to effectively mobilize and move between these dimensions of reality with predictable consistency.

The author goes to great length to encourage the reader to connect the dots between phenomena understood and occurrences and relationships more abstruse. It is provocative and thoughtful and it should be showcased for its colorful cover in the Psychology, Science, and Philosophy areas of our stores. -- Thomas Peter von Bahr, Pacific NorthWest Group, Lopez Island, Wash.

The Secret Life of the Universe: The Quest for the Soul of Science
Amy Corzine
$17.95 QP, 276 pages, 5" x 8.5", 9781905857791, Watkins Publishing (Dist. by Sterling Publishing), www.watkinspublishing.co.uk

The Secret Life of the Universe offers the general reader a wide-ranging overview of many strands and networks that connect us. Our planet, the author says, is filled with people who have different perspectives on the world and so find themselves in conflict, but the most serious conflicts may be those that are within us. One purpose of her book is to suggest ways in which we can manage our own part of earth in a manner that will continue to support and maintain life.

The book begins by discussing how science, along with many world traditions, in exploring the essence of reality, has discovered that we are unified at infinitesimal levels. Subsequent sections examine the interrelatedness of the human community, the inner universe of the mind and its present and potential powers, and modalities of healing, including music, chakras and sound healing, subtle energies, homeopathy, and light. The book then moves to ecology, farming, ecological communities, and nature-based architecture before looking at alternative technologies involving water, medicine and healing, crystals, sound, consciousness, and subtle energies. The final section covers concepts of death and dying and returns the reader to the opening exploration of essential unity. -- Richard D. Wright, Tranquil Things, Derby Line, Vt.

Meditation


Trance-Portation: Learning to Navigate the Inner World
Diana L. Paxson
$19.95 QP, 304 pages, 6” x 9”, 9781578634057, Weiser Books, www.redwheelweiser.com

Trance-Portation is an ideal guidebook for anyone who has tried—and failed—to still the mind and achieve a meditative state. Diana Paxson writes that she can help “teach those who, like me, find their spirits too well armored, but to slow down the process for people who are shaken by every psychic breeze.” She speaks from experience: Although a spiritual leader for many years (as well as author of many spiritual nonfiction and fiction books, including the Marion Zimmer Bradley Avalon series), there was a time Paxson had trouble reaching altered states herself. Trance-Portation starts with the basics (“Travel Planning”), including shielding, balancing, and grounding; how to cross the threshold and get back safely; and where to “go” (even how to achieve going “nowhere”). Subsequent chapters cover how to communicate with animal totems, spirit guides, ancestors, and gods; perform healings; and investigate other lifetimes; as well as how to use Trance-Portation as a textbook to teach others. Exercises in each chapter help the reader master every step. -- Jayne Denker, Dragon Droppings, Caledonia, N.Y.

Dreamwork | Parenting


Dreamguider: Open the Door to Your Child’s Dreams
Denyse Beaudet, Ph.D.
$16.95 QP, 208 pages, 7" x 9", 9781571745934, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, www.hrpub.com

Dreamguider adds a new and valuable aspect to parenting. Dreamguiding is a skill learned from the Senois of Malaysia, a tribe that teaches its children, practically from infancy, to value their dreams and apply information from them to situations in “awake” life. Senoi parents take dreams very seriously, and author Denyse Beaudet encourages modern day parents to do the same.

Denyse Beaudet, a researcher and lecturer in the fields of developmental psychology and children’s dreams, was inspired by the studies of British anthropologist Herbert (Pat) Noone who went to Malaysia in 1934 and became fascinated with the way this peaceful tribe worked with dreams, making dream study an important part of their everyday life. Dreamguiding inspires creativity in children, as they are encouraged to draw, write or speak the contents of their dreams and to develop problem-solving skills with respect to the dream content. Observing a child’s dreams can also alert parents to the shifts in a child’s life that indicate growth and maturing.

While it is written for parents, the information is equally valuable to anyone interested in where dreams come from, how dreams of children and adults differ, and how dreams can reveal physical and emotional problems that might otherwise remain unspoken and undetected. -- Arlene Shovald, Ph.D., Fresh Start Therapies, Salida, Colo.

Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening
Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard, and Marco Morelli
$19.95 QP, 416 pages, 6.5" x 9", 9781590304679, Integral Books/Shambhala Publications, www.shambhala.com

Ken Wilber is known for his serious attempt to explain consciousness for his readers over several decades.  Combining his efforts at understanding the workings of the mind with a disciplined approach to living is what this manual is all about.  Written in a collaborative effort with three others who have been involved with Wilber’s Integral Life Institute, it provides a step-by-step framework for achieving optimal living.  Typical of Ken Wilber’s work, the reader is encouraged to adopt his model for self-actualization, starting with the body, but being inclusive of the mind, spirit, or ‘shadow’.  The idea behind the handbook is to give people a chance to achieve freedom of thought and action through an awakening or blossoming, but there is no quick fix, which is the reason for a series of practices (p. 22).  However, the key that runs through all the daily actions is Wilber’s “AQAL” (all quadrants, all levels) theory of everything.  This can be found in all of the literature of the Integral Life Institute because it is Wilber’s exclusive formulation that is his map of consciousness. 

This is a very tightly arranged and organized body of modules from which people can extract enough of the Integral Life principles to raise their worldview and maintain a higher consciousness through select exercises, physical and mental.  Perhaps the most succinct breakdown of the authors’ way of training people can be found on page 70.  Quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types are all defined and enable the student to grasp how the framework of AQAL provides a new way to see one’s upbringing beyond the adolescent attempt to please or acting out through rebelling.  The new way is to be on one’s own terms with the world, free to decide without the pull of psychological habituation.  As with any human behavior modification, one can read a book, attend a seminar, listen to lectures, but the reinforcement seldom sticks.  The value of this book is that all mindset changes and growth is constantly bolstered by exercises until the change has been fully imprinted.

The Body Module (Chapter 6) provides numerous physical movements that together contribute to well-being and back-up changes in consciousness.  The “Integral approach to bodily practice aims both to establish a baseline of health and well being”, but it also by taking a page from Maslow’s theory, seeks to “…open up potentials for extraordinary health” (page 127-8).  The idea is to take the practitioner not only from adequacy but into a thriving and vital bodily state.  This section is rich in practical exercises and movement, from aerobics to “chi” kinds of exercise and gentle movements and one-minute body workouts.  This component is a necessary complement to the intricate and exhaustive different activities found in the other practices: spiritual, mental, relational.

Many aspects of the principles found in the rather extensive explanatory Table of Contents (8 pages) can be nibbled in bits and pieces in a myriad of self-help books.  Few manuals for optimal human functioning provide such a comprehensive approach as have the authors in this book.  Normally, a theory such as Aurobindo’s super-mind or Maslow’s self-transcendence are presented in black and white print without whole body-mind integration.  This book excels in that it presents bullet-point exercises, interaction between the writers and the reader through the use of a “Weekly Tracking Log” (pages 343-46), and many dozens of illustrative diagrams and illustrations.  Coupled with a concise six-page Index, this book should be welcomed by our clientele and kept on shelves in Health, Psychology, and Self-Improvement sections of our stores. -- Thomas Peter von Bahr, Pacific NorthWest Group, Lopez Island, Wash.

Reiki | Healing


Sacred Path of Reiki: Healing as a Spiritual Discipline
Katalin Koda
$19.95 QP, 288 pages, 7.5" x 9”, 9780738714455, Llewellyn Publications, www.llewellyn.com

As the practice of reiki in the West matures, more and more individual perspectives on this unique healing system emerge. Author Katalin Koda, merging her background in Wicca and Buddhism with her reiki practice, brings us a very interesting one. Any healing practice is well served by the guidelines of a spiritual philosophy, and Koda has used Wicca and Buddhism to help her students avoid many of the pitfalls to which healing practitioners are susceptible.
Building on Carlos Castanada’s warrior archetype (one who chooses a spiritual path and walks it with courage and mindfulness, empowering others rather than fighting them), Koda outlines a course of study that is both practical and informed.. She also pulls together the many histories of Reiki in the East and West and makes a thorough, very coherent recounting of reiki’s development. The detailed information she offers in her description of her own Reiki lineage (the people through whom the teachings have been passed down) filled in a few blanks for me with regard to where certain practices began.

The second part of the book is aimed at Reiki II practitioners and deals thoroughly with healing others (including things like setting “compassionate boundaries”), while the third section covers teaching reiki, including elements such as meeting spirit guides, working with dreams, and understanding past lives.

Koda stresses the need for a balanced approach, acknowledging the importance of both the spiritual and material realms. She also offers responsible guidance about the limitations and legal constraints associated with energetic healing, in addition to exercises for visualization, meditation, and ritual work. -- Anna Jedrziewski, Spirit Connection New York, New York, N.Y.

Afterlife


Postcards From Heaven: Messages of Love from the Other Side
Dan Gordon
$19.95 HC, 128 pages, 5.5" x 8.5", 9781416588290, Free Press, www.simonandschuster.com

Postcards from Heaven presents a comforting connection for anyone who has lost a loved one. It is a personal history of author Dan Gordon’s family and their Jewish heritage, a journey through several generations of the life of a family. Gordon, as a professional in the entertainment industry, applies his craft of screenwriting in the storytelling. He skillfully draws the reader into the lives of his family and the anticipation of their otherworldly contact, beginning with the ordeal of his brother’s brain cancer, a story that portrays great courage, a strong will to live, and a sense of humor in the face of tragedy.

Gordon provides examples of messages that he calls postcards, which are subtle experiences such as his dying father stating that his brother who had departed before him has visited and bestowed a kiss. There is comfort in the report of his aged mother dying peacefully after a day of experiencing her grandchildren. His son’s death, the greatest loss of all, is a testament to Gordon’s belief in the never ending connection between life, death, and love. Every postcard is a unique and personal experience.

Gordon is ever attentive to the reader of his book. At the end, the reader is encouraged to participate and share in the postcard theme online at www.postcardsfromheavenonline.com. -- Susan LosCalzo, Lofty Notions, Rutherfordton, N.C.


Inspirational Fiction


The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer
Sergio F. Bambaren
$8.95 QP, 96 pages, 5" x 7", 9781401918965, Hay House, www.hayhouse.com

This light, easy novel has a story line similar to the classic Jonathan Livingston Seagull. While the language is simple and relatable to young and old alike, the uplifting message is clear: have the courage to follow your dream, no matter what anyone says.

The story starts with a young dolphin named Daniel living in a pod in a safe lagoon. The law of the pod says that, for safety’s sake, none of them can ever leave. All the dolphins spend their days fishing and resting. Daniel likes to surf and feels that by doing so, he will find his higher purpose. He struggles with choosing between being a normal dolphin in his safe pod and doing what he knows is right, which is finding his purpose by surfing the biggest and best waves, wherever they may be. The sea speaks to him and gives him confidence to follow his dream, which he does, encountering other animals and eventually humans along the way. Ultimately, he finds and surfs the perfect wave, then returns home to spread his knowledge—a more confident, peaceful, and happy dolphin who brings greater wisdom to his pod. -- April Miles, Bellingham, Wash.

Prosperity | Law of Attraction


The Science of Getting Rich: Attracting Financial Success Through Creative Thought
Wallace D. Wattles
$6.95 QP, 112 pages, 5” x 8”, 9781594772092, Destiny Books, www.destinybooks.com

Financial success didn’t come easily to Wallace Wattles. It was only after years of failure, study, and trial and error experimentation that he formulated the success strategy that made him a prosperous man. He wrote The Science of Getting Rich in 1910 to share his discovery with the world. His words still ring true today and the time is certainly right to make people aware of this 100-year-old gem, touted in this edition as the “secret behind The Secret.”
Wattles begins by giving people permission to be rich: “You can render God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.” He then puts forth three fundamental statements that he says must become habitual thought. Unlike many of the recent prosperity how-to’s, Wattles follows up his statement of principles with common-sense discussion of the pitfalls and problems that the reader may encounter trying to put the system into action. Thought must be cemented by action, he says, in order to be effective. He also makes it clear that while the system he recommends has been reduced to a very simple formula, the execution of that formula is not necessarily easy.
Perhaps the most important thing that separates Wattles’ success strategy from many other systems is his emphasis on spiritual philosophy rather than self interest.

There are subtle indications of the age of the text (his use of the masculine pronoun when referring to humankind in general and his references to Christian texts as if they are the universal standard), but I think most people will be able to accept those things in context and realize that the merit of Wattles’ ideas outweigh the minor indications of a less inclusive era. -- Anna Jedrziewski, Spirit Connection New York, New York, N.Y.


Spiritual healing

 

Truth Heals: What You Hide Can Hurt You
Deborah King, Ph.D.
$22.95 HC, 9781401923013, 200 pages, 6" x 9", Hay House, 800/650-5115, www.hayhouse.com

This is not just the story of a survivor of childhood abuse and a recovered alcoholic. It is the story of a wounded healer sharing her secret weapon: truth. Honesty is the core of Deborah King’s healing practice and it is at the heart of her spiritual practice as well. In her words: “There is no story that shocks me, no act that I believe cannot be forgiven or healed. When one of us tells the truth, it heals all of us.”

The contents of Truth Heals are presented uniquely. Each chapter revolves around one of the seven major chakras. Those chapters begin with a piece of King’s story, not maudlin or sensational, but a simple, direct retelling of the event. Then the damaging effect of the incident on the related chakra is discussed in depth, followed by a description of the way that truth and caring can heal the damage.

The clarity and compassion of her words make it seem inconceivable that King sank into dysfunction to the degree that she records.One turns each page hoping to find out more about her return from hell. Luckily she was very aware of the people and things that helped her stop the downward spiral of her youth and begin the journey up the mountain of understanding. King’s years of helping others heal make her the perfect person to describe her journey for us. I have read many books by and about childhood abuse survivors. Recovery is an extremely complex thing. King’s ability to direct our attention to the heart of the matter and tell us what to do next is special.
 
Truth Heals should be a must read for therapists and energy healers working with abuse survivors. I would also feel confident recommending it to survivors as a tool to help them through their recovery. Featuring it in displays about the spiritual aspects of healing trauma would let customers who are confident in their recovery find it. Hand selling (softly) would be a great service to those who are still confused about how to help themselves. -- Anna Jedrziewski, Spirit Connection New York, New York, N.Y.

Buddhism


Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom: The Life and Legacy of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche
Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
$18.95 QP, 350 pages, 6" x 9", 9781559393041, Snow Lion Publications, www.snowlionpub.com

As more of the literature and sacred texts of Tibet are translated, deeper understanding of the great religious culture of high Tibetan life becomes accessible to Westerners. The Samye Translation Group and Snow Lion have given us another crucial work that aids the reader and follower of Tibetan Buddhism to understand yet another key figure of the Twentieth Century. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal’s author’s Introduction is 25 pages that sets the tone and mood and gives important biographical information about Dudjom Rinpoche. Reading it brings us from the mid-twentieth century to current times and puts the great traditions in perspective and makes it clear how complex was the culture of Tibet and how it is being maintained today despite the occupation and exile of all the key spiritual leaders that remain alive.

Dudjom Rinpoche was by any standard as measured by his words and their meaning as wise and talented as those who taught him in his early years. The story of his life is told in ten (or eleven) “heaps of lightbeams” or chapters. Each contains poetry and verse, or as the author calls it, ‘songs” which represent inner truths and perceptions and which reflect elements of Dudjom’s life. The sixth chapter is most interesting since as he became more capable of sharing his knowledge and inspiration, he set out travelling in south central Asia to spread and share not unlike a lecturer today who was in demand for what s/he knew. From the storytelling of Khenpo it becomes clear that the twentieth century was not a time of unity and conciliation between some schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Indeed, Dudjom was confronted and criticized for his establishment of monasteries. He was considered disrespectful and impertinent, although as Khenpo states, “… devotees gathered around him, like swans to a beautiful lake…” (page 101). The personhood of Dudjom was recognized as pure goodness and yet like teachers from Christ to some modern yogis, there were those in the established order that saw such treasured insights and growing legions of followers as outside the fold.

According to the author, the 1940’s were not only a time of recovery from a global depression through a world war, but a time of portends in the land of Tibet. As we now know, omens exploded into the invasion and occupation of Tibet by the Chinese at the end of that difficult planetary period. By 1959, Tibetans surrendered their homeland more or less completely. The life of Dudjom was in many ways an unfolding and spreading of wisdom at a time when chaos (and some would say evil incarnate) was afoot on the planet. Along with select disciples he is known to have spread treasure troves of blessing substances in and around the glaciers, lakes, and valleys in secret places. These stashes, when the timing was propitious, would open up and provide yogic instructions to those able to understand. Such empowerment would help the world through future difficult times. Perhaps times such as the world is experiencing now.

Dudjom Rinpoche worked assiduously through the 1960’s, ‘70’s, and ‘80’s to promote and spread the teachings and met periodically with the Dalai Lama to support and assist in preserving the culture from India to France to the western United States through the establishment of centers and monasteries. It was in France in January 1987 that he died, but not until his “lightbeams” of Buddhist teachings had been shared widely around the globe. This book does justice to a seminal figure in modern Tibetan Nyingma traditions and it shines as a tribute to the work of many others who have helped to preserve Tibetan contributions to Buddhism. Khenpo’s writing style and use of verse and songs makes this an Historical work that is deeply enjoyable to read.

There are 34 important pages of Notes, followed by an instructive 14-page Glossary and Index of Personal and Place Names that provides more help for the reader in following this biography. This book should be stocked in Religion and Biography and it will appeal to genuine followers of Buddhist historical thought. -- Thomas Peter von Bahr, Pacific NorthWest Group, Lopez Island, Wash.

The Lotus Still Blooms: Sacred Buddhist Teachings for The Western Mind
Joan Gattuso
$14.95 QP, 208 pages, 5.5" x 8", 9781585426379, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin Group, www.penguin.com

This is a crisp and concise exposition of the Buddhist way using the eightfold path and “right” behavior, coupled with the personal life experience of the author. The book is divided into 21 Chapters ranging from an introduction to the path itself, to what the mindset would be like were we to attain enlightenment (“The Other Shore”, page 188). Joan Gattuso has obviously worked assiduously during her adult life to be able to distill the primary principles of Buddhism and moreover to practice them with such thoroughness. Personal examples of her understanding abound in this little gem of a volume. An instance of this is in the chapter entitled “Right Thought”. The author makes special use of the well-known dictum of the Dhammapada that, “all that I am is the result of all that I have thought”. As an illustration, she notes that our thinking is constantly creating our reality (page 27) and if as a woman she knew from her congregation continued to make faulty assumptions, her conclusions would be (perhaps comically) equally flawed…and they were. This example resonates because often people create a chain of premises which contain inaccurate facts or impressions, continually based on habit that is in itself not helpful for mindful living. By surveying the concept of Right Thought, Gattuso sets the stage for the so-called “Four Immeasurables”: love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, which in turn leads to a beautiful description of the eightfold path as the context for the remainder of this handbook for Westerners.

This intensely personal book, wrapped with skill in the author’s own foibles makes it eminently readable as Gattuso although devoted to Buddhist principles is a contemporary, engaged person. Her outlook is genuinely ecumenical as she is a minister of the Unity church as well. Two further anecdotes will provide the reader with insight. She endured a severe outbreak of shingles during some “…extremely intensive inner soul work…” and was able to work through that medical episode by coming to grips with some vestigial inner warrior qualities of character that interfered with her practice of inner peace (page 150). Lesson: it is impossible to have inner peace when personality traits are creating battles within and without. A second instance is what the author calls ‘entering the threshold of nirvana” (page 177). While attending a session in the presence of the Dalai Lama, she began to sense her entire body vibrating with light, focused between the 2nd and 5th chakras. Needing a quiet place to reflect on this burning energy, she left the auditorium and returned to her hotel room where she was able to process this profoundly altered state and realize that the opening and awakening was a near-nirvana glimpse of bliss.

This special volume, with its attractive almost iridescent-deep blue cover featuring a Lotus belongs in our Religion, Spirituality, and Consciousness sections and should be well-received by our patrons. -- Thomas Peter von Bahr, Pacific NorthWest Group, Lopez Island, Wash.

Fine Print was compiled by the editorial staff of New Age Retailer.