Other books that might interest you

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  Buddhist Aids To Daily Conduct

  Edward Greenly

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  This is an audiobook of Bodhi Leaves No. 6 by Edward Greenly, 'Buddhist Aids To Daily Conduct' found in the Pariyatti Edition of Collected Bodhi Leaves Vol. I, narrated by Christa Michel. 
   
  Excerpt: 
  ...The first thing to be observed is that Buddhism does not make what we may perhaps call a “frontal attack” upon evil. There is in it no “commandment,” no “thou shalt” or “thou shalt not,” but merely an “it is good to” or “it is not good to:” and that always for the reason “such and such a thing helps or hinders sorrow’s ceasing.” 
   
  Again, the system being not faith but knowledge, evil is, in its eyes, not “wickedness,” but a “not-understanding,” a mental blindness, a failure to see things as they really are. The remedy, then, evidently, must be “right understanding,” sane and unclouded mental vision, a coming to see things as they really are....

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  Leviathan

  Thomas Hobbes

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  Leviathan is a book written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. It is one of the most important works in political philosophy and is considered a cornerstone of modern political thought. 
  The main argument of Leviathan is that humans are fundamentally selfish and violent, and that without a strong government to control them, they would inevitably descend into a state of chaos and conflict. Hobbes famously characterized this state as "the war of all against all." 
  In order to avoid this scenario, Hobbes argued that individuals must surrender their natural rights to a sovereign authority. This sovereign, which Hobbes called the Leviathan, would have absolute power to enforce its will upon the people, and in exchange would provide them with security and protection. 
  Hobbes believed that the ideal form of government was an absolute monarchy, where the sovereign's power was not limited by any laws or institutions. He argued that any attempt to limit the power of the sovereign would be doomed to failure, as it would only lead to the re-emergence of the state of nature and the breakdown of society. 
  Leviathan is also notable for its contributions to social contract theory, which argues that individuals enter into a contract with their government in order to protect their rights and maintain order in society. Hobbes' social contract theory was influential in the development of political thought and continues to be studied and debated today.

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  Debunking the Lourdes Miracles...

  Joseph McCabe

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  Lourdes is a town in south-western France which in 1858 became the site of one of the most famous Marian apparitions. The recipient of the vision, Bernadette Soubirous, was directed to start digging in a cave, and a spring was uncovered. The waters of the spring gained the reputation of possessing healing properties, and subsequently Lourdes has become one of the most popular Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. 
      
  Currently, Lourdes is visited by between four and six million pilgrims annually, and it is estimated that over 200 million people have visited the site since 1858. 
  In 1905 Pope Pius X directed that the Lourdes Medical Bureau be established to assess claims of miraculous healing.  To date only 70 instances of healing following visits to Lourdes have been officially declared as miraculous, although anecdotal evidence of several thousand more has been claimed. 
  In the opening essay of this collection, celebrated skeptic and scholar Joseph McCabe turns his acerbic investigative eye on these events and challenges the validity of many of the healings.  This collection also includes three other short essays on other religio-political issues and an article about McCabe by J.V. Nash. 
  Contents 
  Debunking the Lourdes Miracles  
  The Church in Mexico 
  England's Religious Census 
  The Cowardice of American Scientists 
  The Views and Philosophy of Joseph McCabe By J. V. Nash

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  Swoon - Fangirls Their Idols and...

  Bea Martinez-Gatell

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  Swoon is a prehistory of the fangirl. From the Byromaniacs of Regency London to the screamers of Beatlemania, it revisits six defining moments in book, film and music history through the eyes of the girls and women who gave birth to pop culture as we know it today.
  Far from passive consumers, these women were tastemakers, visionaries and cultural disruptors. Their obsessions shaped literary canons, built Hollywood icons and turned musicians into messiahs – long before social media came along. But with power came panic, especially when female fans and male stars were involved. Fandom became a moral and cultural battleground. What was at stake was women's right to want things they weren't supposed to want, feel things they weren't supposed to feel and express all these things loudly, shamelessly and in public.

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  Pride and Conceit

  Dr. Elizabeth Ashby, Brian Fawcett

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  This is an audiobook of Bodhi Leaves No.14 by Dr. Elizabeth Ashby and Brian Fawcett, "Pride and Conceit" narrated by Christa Michel. The print edition can be found in the Pariyatti Edition of Collected Bodhi Leaves Vol. I (https://store.pariyatti.org/collected-bodhi-leaves-vol-1). 
   
  Excerpt: 
  "Pride in all its forms devolves from self-esteem, which is in reality “ego-worship.” It stems, so they say, from Greed, the first of the Roots of Evil. The thought here is rather subtle: when the ordinary person thinks of greed he thinks first of what one puts into one’s stomach—that second helping of plum-pudding, or eating a pound of candies in a single evening. The commentators of old were much more drastic. Greed is “delight in one’s own possessions.” Hence we can be greedy about anything to which we have affixed the label “mine.” My car, my table, my cat, my best beloved. The greedy aspect of conceit is when we “take delight” in our own good qualities or capacities.. 
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  "Few of us are free from pride in one form or another. We know that in the interests of spiritual development it must be eradicated. We are taught as much, and accept the teaching without question. But the method by which pride may be eliminated is a problem not easy to solve, and the indirect, sweeping precepts of the sages are of little practical help to us. It is all very well saying: “Eradicate this, and eradicate that,” but what we want to know is, “How may we go about it?” 
  In the first place: what is pride?"

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  Crassus - The First Tycoon

  Peter Stothard

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  The story of Rome's richest man, who died a humiliating desert death in search of military glory 
   
   
   
  Marcus Licinius Crassus (115–53 BCE) was a modern man in an ancient world, a pioneer disrupter of finance and politics, and the richest man of the last years of the Roman republic. Without his catastrophic ambition, this trailblazing tycoon might have quietly entered history as Rome's first modern political financier. Instead, Crassus and his son led an army on an unprovoked campaign against Parthia into what are now the borderlands of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, losing a battle at Carrhae which scarred Roman minds for generations. 
   
   
   
  After Crassus was killed, historians told many stories of his demise. Some said that his open mouth, shriveled by desert air, had been filled with molten gold as testament to his lifetime of greed. His story poses both immediate and lasting questions about the intertwining of money, ambition, and power.

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