A Spoke In The Wheel

It Is 256 Bce. Almost Three Hundred Years After The Death Of The Buddha And Four Since The Terrible Battle Of Kalinga... Upali, A Monk And An Embittered Survivor Of The War That Made The Emperor Ashoka Overlord Of The Whole Of India, Hates The Emperor With All His Heart. Yet It Is To Him That Ashoka, The Self-Proclaimed Beloved Of The Gods, Entrusts The Task Of Putting The Buddha'S Life And Teachings Down For Posterity. For The Emperor Is Set On A New Conquest - That Of Dhamma... And So Begins A Search For The Buddha And A Struggle Over The Past. Ht Really Was The Buddha'S Message? Ascetic Renunciation? Universal Salvation? Passive Disengagement? Tolerance - Even Of Intolerance? If His Message Was A Critique Of Violence, How Did It Come To Be Championed By The Most Successfully Violent Autocrats Of Ancient India? These Are Questions That Begin To Surface Among The Buddha'S Followers, Fearfully And Then Angrily, To Be Viciously Debated Even As Dhamma Rises To Glorious Imperial Patronage, A Patronage That Will Sustain It For Over A Millennium And Reach It To Half The World'S Populace. This Is A Story About The Buddha And His Disciples, Among Them An Ordinary Monk, One Of The Questioners, And An Extraordinary King, Who Seemed To Have All The Answers. It Is Also About How The Movement Called Dhamma Was Born, Spread, Changed Lives And Got Changed Itself. Alternating Upali'S Chronicle - A De-Glorified, Factual Account Of The Life Of Buddha - With That Of Upali'S Own Life During The Reign Of Emperor Ashoka, And Imbuing Both These Parallel Narratives With A Wealth Of Historical Detail And Philosophical Debate, A Spoke In The Wheel Is An Ambitious And Erudite Work Of Historical Fiction - Intricate In Its Craftsmanship, Vital In Its Ideas And Epic In Its Sweep.

Vividly and concisely written, critical as well as appreciative, and containing material never before published in English, this new biography paints a memorable portrait of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian hanged by the Nazis in 1945. Portraying the complexity of Bonhoeffer's personality and the difficult, lonely course his life took, Wind especially brings out Bonhoeffer's early realization of the horror of Nazi treatment of the Jews, and despite misunderstanding by fellow church members, his brave involvement in the resistance against Hitler, his resolve to become "a spoke in the wheel."

Winner of the Herder Prize, Nichita Stanescu was one of Romania’s most celebrated contemporary poets. This dazzling collection of poems – the most extensive collection of his work to date – reveals a world in which heavenly and mysterious forces converse with the everyday and earthbound, where love and a quest for truth are central, and urgent questions flow. His startling images stretch the boundaries of thought. His poems, at once surreal and corporeal, lead us into new metaphysical and linguistic terrain.

The secret to winning at life is one good choice at a time. Are you frustrated with your job, career, or relationships? Are you unsure if what you are doing right now in your life is the right thing? In this revolutionary new book, success and motivation expert Tom Ziglar shares the good news that you can change and that, in fact, you can win at life. Choose to Win shows you how to achieve massive change without massive upset. It all starts with identifying your why, which reveals the how that opens multiple doors of what. His revolutionary plan guides you through making one small choice at a time through a sequence of easy-to-follow steps in seven key areas: mental, spiritual, physical, family, finance, personal, and career. Ziglar also helps you identify the life-killing, unhealthy habits that cause misery, dissatisfaction, and lack of success—and, more importantly, how to implement positive habits through the trinity of transformation: desire, hope, and grit. The result is a more productive, more fulfilling, and more meaningful life. You can take control of your destiny and leave the lasting legacy you've dreamed about and deserve. You simply need to choose to do so.

Written in a funny, charming, and conversational style, Word Origins is the first book to offer a thorough investigation of the history and the science of etymology, making this little-known field accessible to everyone interested in the history of words. Anatoly Liberman, an internationally acclaimed etymologist, takes the reader by the hand and explains the many ways that English words can be made, and the many ways in which etymologists try to unearth the origins of words. Every chapter is packed with dozens of examples of proven word histories, used to illustrate the correct ways to trace the origins of words as well as some of the egregiously bad ways to trace them. He not only tells the known origins of hundreds of words, but also shows how their origins were determined. And along the way, the reader is treated to a wealth of fascinating word facts. Did they once have bells in a belfry? No, the original meaning of belfry was siege tower. Are the words isle and island, raven and ravenous, or pan and pantry related etymologically? No, though they look strikingly similar, these words came to English via different routes. Partly a history, partly a how-to, and completely entertaining, Word Origins invites readers behind the scenes to watch an etymologist at work.

Presents a story of a man riding a unicycle across America. The author tells of his 50-state unicycle trip from the West Coast to the Statue of Liberty and back again. He describes his spoke-by-spoke trek through a Mojave dust storm, past breathtaking, snow-capped Montana mountains, and close to a raging hurricane.

Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization. Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries--the source of the Indo-European languages and English--and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.