The Flame And The Lotus

In a twinkling, the blood fog stopped spreading, the bone spears were all resisted by a thin film, and the blood and bones all retracted, turning into two blood energy balls with a size of two meters, and explosions kept ringing inside.

In 1995, Jim Bedard, a martial artist and Zen student, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and given ten days to live. This is the story of how he used his spiritual strength to bring himself into full contact with a death sentence as well as with painful medical treatment, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. It is also the inspiring story of how the faith of his family, Zen teacher, close friends, and the Buddhist community helped him. Bedard's story introduces us to Zen practices that can help us cope with emotional turmoil and physical pain. His words on compassion, on karma, on gratitude, on impermanence and the inevitability of death—all from a nonsmoking, meditating, aerobically fit vegetarian who became suddenly and "terminally" ill—are inspiring and sometimes funny. He explores, too, the fundamental question of suffering, its cause, and how the teachings of karma can help us accept illness, ultimately using it as an opportunity to deepen our spiritual lives.

At a time of climate emergency, Zen koans show us how crisis itself can reveal the regenerative openness of life, mind, and being. Zen koans are a tradition of holistic inquiry based on “encounter stories” from East Asia’s most radical Buddhist tradition. Turning this form of inquiry toward the climate crisis, Susan Murphy contends that koans can help us enter the mind of not-knowing, from which acceptance and possibility freely emerge. Koans reveal intimate, mythic, artful, playful, provocative, humorous, and fierce ways to engage the work of protecting and healing our world. The koans point firstly at ourselves—at the very nature of "self." Until we hold “self” as a live question rather than its own unquestioned answer, we’re stuck looking on from the “outside,” hoping to engineer change upon a problem called “climate crisis,” all the time oblivious to the fact that we’re swimming in a reality with no outside to it, an ocean of transformative energy. Do we dare relinquish our wish for absolute control and fearlessly surf the intensity of our feelings about the suffering earth? In addition to her use of dozens of traditional and new koans, Murphy illuminates the little-known Zen resonance with the oldest continuous body of indigenous wisdom on earth, summed up in the subtle Australian Aboriginal word Country. Murphy draws from her study and coteaching with Uncle Max (Dulumunmun) Harrison, a distinguished Yuin Elder, to show how this millennia-deep taproot of intelligence confirms the aliveness of the earth and the kinship of all beings.

This book explores the philosophy and teachings of the ancient wisdom tradition of the East, focusing on the transformative power of meditation and self-realization. Arundale draws on his extensive knowledge of Hindu and Buddhist texts to illuminate the path to spiritual enlightenment, offering practical guidance and insights for seekers of all levels. A timeless classic for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the spiritual journey. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The new book "Mian of Yin and Yang" can be said to be the longest preparation work of Xiao San. Before Douro started writing, this book "Mian of Yin and Yang" had been conceived with Douro. Just because the setting of Douro was made first, Douro was created first. At that time, Yin Yang Mian completed the outline first, and was temporarily named Dionysus. In the year of creating Douluo, Xiao San kept collecting all kinds of materials for Yin and Yang Corona, perfecting his outline and setting.