Inprint - New Books of interest

How to Ruin Your Financial life by Ben Stein. (Hay House, $14.95, Hardcover.)

Bookstores are filled with books about how to get rich. It takes Ben Stein, economist, finance expert for Barron’s, commentator on finance for Fox News, and successful investor to write a book called How to Ruin Your Financial Life. Written with a tongue-in-cheek cheekiness, this book is a humorous road map showing you how to make something useful of the money that comes in and out of your life. Follow the rules as they’re written and you’re likely to wind up in bankruptcy court. Follow the rules in reverse and you’re bound to be a lot better off than you are now.

Some of the rules are: Collect as many credit cards as you can and use them frequently. Compete with your friends to see who can own the most expensive and high-status possessions. Remember that retirement is a l-o-o-o-n-n-n-g way off and don’t even think about it right now. Don’t bother to own your own home because home ownership is a hassle.

Stein is the author of two previous books: How to Ruin Your Life, and How to Ruin Your Love Life. He has seen the biggest (Richard Nixon) and the most famous (many Hollywood stars) ruin their lives. He has also seen how some seemingly ordinary people made something great of their lives by doing the opposite of what he sees as ruinous acts and modes of thought. This book is a laugh-out-loud way to educate yourself, your children, and your friends about how money really works, and a way to smile while you’re straightening out that mess you call your financial life.

Mystic’s Musings: by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, $20.00, Paperback.)

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is a realized master, yogi, and mystic from southern India. He is the founder of the Isha Foundation which is an international non-profit service organization. Sadhguru works among the world’s spiritual leaders and institutions to foster peace, global understanding and international cooperation.

This is a collection of his words spoken to close disciples over a period of ten years at various occasions and settings. Covering topics that he seldom addresses otherwise in public, these words were spoken to foster the growth of those few who had the good fortune of being with him for a long time. To the casual reader it can shock, provoke, amuse, intrigue and entertain. But when approached with the openness and innocence of one who seeks, it can start a powerful process within, a journey and a pilgrimage into the very core of existence.

Written in a question and answer format, Mystic Musings includes explanations of life, death, rebirth, suffering, karma, and the journey of the self. Sadhguru shatters conventional definitions of morality, religion, and spirituality, and provokes readers to move beyond the trap of our conditioning and self-imposed limitations.

Focusing the Whole Brain: Transforming Your Life with Hemispheric Synchronization edited by Ronald Russell. (Hampton Roads, $15.95, Paperback, includes CD

Imagine a technique that would allow you to conduct your own explorations into consciousness. Imagine that this technique is safe, inexpensive, easy to use, and endlessly versatile. Focusing the Whole Brain opens up new realms of consciousness exploration. Based on the work of Robert A. Monroe, it details the practical applications of Hemi-Sync, synchronizing the functioning of the two hemispheres of the brain using audio technology.

Ronald Russell has updated Monroe’s 1993 book, Using the Whole Brain. For more than three decades, people have been finding more and more uses for Hemi-Sync including: personal growth and development, medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy, autism, sleep training, education, and in nursing homes to name but a few.

Focusing the Whole Brain provides an introduction to a whole new world of abilities greater than you thought possible. It includes first-person accounts of its uses and comes with a CD so you can begin your own Hemi-Synch experience.

Cellular Wisdom: Decoding the Body’s Secret Language by Joan C. King, Ph.D. (Celestial Arts, $24.95, Hardcover.)

Dr. Joan C. King has uncovered a revolutionary and provocative theory that bridges the fields of science and spirituality. We know that physical illnesses often have messages for us, and that our thoughts and emotions affect our health and the way our bodies function. Dr. King takes the mind-body connection a step further. She invites readers to consider that the basic biology of the body contains key truths to creating an authentic, fulfilling life.

After more than twenty years of working in a research lab, neuroscientist Joan King began to see her surroundings as much more than a temple of science, she discovered that they are a temple of the human spirit as well. She realized that the physiological processes of the body, the interactions within and between individual cells, organs, and systems that she’d been studying under a microscope all these years, had significance beyond human physiology. As she demonstrates in Cellular Wisdom, fundamental human truths for living a true and satisfying life are written in the body’s cells, spelled out in the synapses and outlined in the interactions between the body’s organs and organ systems.

Just as a single human cell is orchestrated for a nucleus at its center, each person has a blueprint at the heart of his or her being, an essential purpose in life; when individuals make decisions that are in line with this purpose, they feel vital and fulfilled. It’s only when cells connect with other cells that they fulfill their potential, and the same is true for human beings—they achieve their grandest purposes in relationship with others. Cellular Wisdom shows people how to interpret the truths that their bodies teach and how to use these lessons to live a more exuberant and harmonious life.

Buddha Mom: The Path of Mindful Mothering by Jacqueline Kramer. (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penquin, $13.95, Paperback.)

Most mothers today are feeling the stress of busy schedules and high expectations heaped on them by our culture. Many of these mothers feel as if their lives are not being lived fully, and long for some peace of mind. We all want to be happy, to have our everyday activities be meaningful. In the midst of the everyday challenges of raising children, cooking meals, cleaning, nursing a sick baby, or being bombarded by the advice of relatives, can we find a peaceful mind?

In her book, Buddha Mom, Jacqueline Kramer uses a blend of Eastern and Western perspectives to share a fresh look at taking everyday activities and turning them into opportunities to create more inner calm. As a Buddhist practitioner for over 25 years and the mother of a 22-year-old daughter, Kramer was challenged during her mothering experience to find new says to practice meditation. Raising her child through the ups and downs of single parenthood and a disabling disease, Kramer met life’s challenges by applying her spiritual practice to them. By using the Buddha’s teachings and practices, she became more present, at peace with herself and those around her, and more fulfilled in her everyday activities. She found, counter to her expectations, that mothering is a powerful occupation and that the difficult situations in her everyday life could be used to develop her spirituality and happiness, and that housework could be a joyful centering activity.

Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. (H.J. Kramer/New World Library, $12.95, Paperback.)

Way of the Peaceful Warrior has become one of the most beloved spiritual sagas of our time. In it, Dan Millman journeys into realms of magic and romance, darkness and light, body, mind and spirit while training with the old gas station warrior he calls Socrates.

Now, in Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior, Millman reveals his adventures during an eight-year time span in which he attempts to live the lessons he has learned with his teacher. In spite of his previous training, he soon loses his way, falls off the path, and finds himself in a failing marriage and facing many personal dilemmas. Disillusioned with his life, unable to bridge the gap between knowing and doing, he sets out on a worldwide quest to rediscover his sense of purpose and source of inspiration.

Thus begins the first step on his sacred journey, the search for a nameless woman in Hawaii whom Socrates has identified as the one who can direct him to rediscover the secret of the peaceful warrior. On his journey, he meets unforgettable characters and faces inner and outer tests, shocking revelations, and mortal challenges as he ascends the warrior’s mountain to wisdom and peace. This is the sacred journey we all share, the journey to the light that shines at the heart of all of our lives. In his compelling tale, the author breathes new life into ancient wisdom and reminds us that all our journeys are sacred, and all our lives an adventure.