Other books that might interest you

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  History Decoded - The Ten...

  Keith Ferrell, Brad Meltzer

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  Adapted from Decoded, Meltzer’s hit show on the HISTORY network, History Decoded explores fascinating, unexplained questions. Is Fort Knox empty? Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman ‘Spear of Destiny'? What’s the government hiding in Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? And did Lee Harvey Oswald really act alone? Meltzer sifts through the evidence; weighs competing theories; separates what we know to be true with what’s still—and perhaps forever—unproved or unprovable; and in the end, decodes the mystery, arriving at the most likely solution. Along the way we meet Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Nazi propagandists, and the real DB Cooper.

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  Karma - Finding Freedom in This...

  Dzigar Kongtrul, Pema Chödrön

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  Two Master Teachers Illuminate the Mysteries of KarmaOf the many Eastern wisdom teachings to have found their way westward, the notion of karma may be the most misunderstood—and most transformative. American-born teacher Pema Chödrön is renowned for making the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism accessible, practical, and relevant for Westerners from all walks of life. But to bring us an understanding of the fundamental concept of karma, Ani Pema called on one of her own guides. On Karma, she is joined by Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche to present a two-part teaching session on this challenging subject.What is karma? Is it superstition? Do you have to believe in reincarnation to understand it? How do I get rid of “bad” karma? In a dialogue both illuminating and provocative, Pema and Kongtrül Rinpoche address the most common questions of Western students, discussing karma on the level of the individual, relationships, and the community and world at large. Session two then brings us an inspirational dharma talk with Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche, exploring the roots of positive and negative karma, how your “good heart” will shape this life and the next, service versus self-attachment, and much more.A mature view of karma empowers us to steer our lives through conscious choice rather than conditioned behaviors. Karma gives us a guiding light for living life at the level of cause, not effect, with responsibility and compassion.Course Objectives:  •  Discuss karma on the level of the individual, relationships, and the community and world at large  •  Examine the most common questions of Western students on the subject of karma such as, "What is karma?" Is it superstition?" "Do you have to believe in reincarnation to understand it?" and, "How do I get rid of 'bad' karma?"  •  Define Karma through exploring the roots of positive and negative karma, how your “good heart” will shape this life and the next, service versus self-attachment, and much more  •  Recognize how a mature view of karma empowers us to steer our lives through conscious choice rather than conditioned behaviors  •  Discuss how Karma gives us a guiding light for living life at the level of cause, not effect, with responsibility and compassion

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  Frontier Wars and the New...

  Editors Charles River

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  Inevitably, as the British settled in Australia and New Zealand, they entered into conflicts with the indigenous people, and they would learn quite quickly that the Māori were quite bellicose. As such, the New Zealand Wars would last over 30 years.  
  	The history of the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, known in contemporary anthropology as the “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia,” is a complex and continually evolving field of study, and it has been colored by politics. For generations after the arrival of whites in Australia, the Aboriginal people were disregarded and marginalized, largely because they offered little in the way of a labor resource, and they occupied land required for European settlement.  
  	At the same time, it is a misconception that indigenous Australians meekly accepted the invasion of their country by the British, for they did not. They certainly resisted, but as far as colonial wars during that era went, the frontier conflicts of Australia did not warrant a great deal of attention. Indigenous Australians were hardly a warlike people, and without central organization, or political cohesion beyond scattered family groups, they succumbed to the orchestrated advance of white settlement with passionate, but futile resistance. In many instances, aggressive clashes between the two groups simply gave the white colonists reasonable cause to inflict a style of genocide on the Aborigines that stood in the way of progress. In any case, their fate had largely been sealed by the first European sneeze in the Terra Australis, which preceded the importation of the two signature mediums of social destruction. The first was a collection of alien diseases, chief among smallpox, but also cholera, influenza, measles, tuberculosis, syphilis and the common cold. 

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  Lenses of Humanity - How...

  PhD Kyle A. Reyes

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  Reframing Our Impact on Humanity
  
  Are you finding it difficult to positively engage with people who view the world differently than you do?
  
  Do you feel the heaviness of our societal and political divides?
  
  Have you seen evidence of the erosion of humanity?
  
  The important work of human and cultural understanding has been nested in thorny political agendas that often don’t invite healthy exchange. Rather than feed into the political divide, Dr. Kyle Reyes presents an approach to understanding differences that prioritizes humanity.
  
  The framework and structure of this book are born from the belief in lens development—the deliberate effort to see things anew—because when we see things anew, a change in our behavior follows. Humanity requires work unique to the individual and the collective, and Dr. Reyes introduces a new framework that invites us to improve how we show up in the world and engage with others.
  
  Personal growth and transformation come from honest reflection and self-analysis. In Lenses of Humanity, Dr. Reyes illustrates how we can improve and develop more human understanding, embrace humane practices, and find deeper connections across differences so we can be more deliberate in living our lives with greater humanity.

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  Natural Freedom - The Dharma...

  Alan Clements

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  Spiritual Strength for a Life of Action and the Power to Transform the WorldThe Dalai Lama once said, “We must find a new spirituality … one that addresses human issues … and human needs.” On Natural Freedom, spiritual activist Alan Clements gives voice to what may very well be this new spirituality. He calls it “natural freedom,” the essence of spiritual life common to all people.  
  Not a doctrine, but an intuitive process that comes out of your own inquiry and self-honesty, natural freedom is a way of “feeling into” your heart to uncover the truth in your daily life—a truth that will empower you to live with courage, compassion, and radical self-responsibility.  
  Through seven guiding principles, highlighted by Clements’ real-life stories as an activist and former Buddhist monk in Burma, this Western visionary will help you ignite a passion for life that results in full, spontaneous engagement in the world. In four sessions, you will learn specific steps you can take to transform your day-to-day encounters into vehicles of liberation for yourself and others. 
  If you are searching for deeper meaning and purpose in all aspects of your life, you will find the method—and the courage—to follow your heart on Natural Freedom.

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  Who Owns This Sentence? - A...

  David Bellos, Alexandre Montagu

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  Copyright is everywhere. Your smartphone incorporates thousands of items of intellectual property. Someone owns the reproduction rights to photographs of your dining table. At this very moment, battles are raging over copyright in the output of artificial intelligence programs. Not only books but wallpaper, computer programs, pop songs, cartoon characters, snapshots, and cuddly toys are now deemed to be intellectual properties—making copyright a labyrinthine construction of laws with colorful and often baffling rationales covering almost all products of human creativity. 
   
   
   
  It wasn't always so. Copyright has its roots in eighteenth-century London, where it was first established to limit printers' control of books. But a handful of little-noticed changes in the late twentieth century brought about a new enclosure of the cultural commons, concentrating ownership of immaterial goods in very few hands. Copyright's metastasis can't be understood without knowing its backstory, a long tangle of high ideals, low greed, opportunism, and word-mangling that allowed poems and novels (and now, even ringtones and databases) to be treated as if they were no different from farms and houses. Principled arguments against copyright arose from the start and nearly abolished it in the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, countless revisions have made copyright ever stronger.

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