Inprint - New Books of interest by Jeanne Spiro

Going Deeper: How to Make Sense of Your Life When Your Life Makes No Sense by Jean-Claude Koven. (Prism House Press, $24.95, Hardcover.)

This novel takes place in the aftermath of 9/11. Larry, a successful young Los Angeles lawyer, and his dog take a life-changing odyssey that leads them to Joshua Tree National Park. There Larry encounters an array of unlikely teachers including talking trees and stones, white buffalos, and a rap-spouting raccoon. These unorthodox characters mock conventional wisdom with irreverent humor to reveal to him the back-stage mechanics of creation. For the first time, Larry understands who he really is and why he has chosen to be born on Earth at this precise time. He also comes to appreciate the perfection of the Great Experiment and the extraordinary possibilities awaiting the human race—should it awaken before it’s too late.

Going Deeper claims it is a tribute to the 70 million Wanderers who have accepted earthly incarnation to assist with the difficult shift into the next paradigm. None of them, however, anticipated the great difficulty of breaking through the veil of illusion enshrouding this planet, and well over 90 percent of these Wanderers have yet to awaken. The time remaining for the old illusion to play itself out is nearly gone. For those who came to serve, for those who choose to move into the next octave of creation, sleep is not longer an option.

Caught in the Act: Reflections on Being, Knowing, and Doing by Toinette Lippe. (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, $12.95, Paperback.)

We all hold deep-seated beliefs about three essential elements of our lives: what we do (and are not willing to do); what we know (and are certain that we don’t know); and what we are (and are not). We invest each of these activities with our life force and yet we are so close to them we cannot see them clearly.

Caught in the Act illuminates the truth of who we are with wit, a laser sharp eye for detail, and a sense of the comtemplative. It brings us on a journey of awareness so that we perceive how being, knowing, and doing shape our daily existence.

According to Lippe, we are often “caught in the act” of defining ourselves by what we do: when asked, “what do you do?” we respond by stating our profession. As a result, the answer to what we “do”—how we earn our living, the work we spend most of our day trying to complete—is perceived as the key to who we “are.” Yet most of us are scarcely aware of the hundreds of small actions we take each day, and how each of these activities, performed almost unthinkingly, are invested with meaning. Ultimately, Caught in the Act is a journey of surrender. In its pages we learn to give up the illusion of identifying with the thoughts and activities that we call “I”—a vital step on the spiritual path and in the search for an authentic life.

Among Warriors: A Woman Martial Artist in Tibet by Pamela Logan. (Overlook Press, $14.95, Paperback.)

In Tibet there is no place more remote than the province of Kham and no people more elusive than the Khampa, the fierce horsemen who for twenty-five years waged a relentless guerrilla war against the Chinese occupation. In Among Warriors, a different kind of warrior sets out to find the Khampa. Pamela Logan, an American with a Ph.D. in aerospace science and a third-degree black belt in karate, cycles, hitchhikes, and treks across the windswept plateaus and icy mountain passes of eastern Tibet. She drinks tea with monks and herdsmen, dodges Chinese police, and watches as religious pilgrims inch their way toward Lhasa by prostrating themselves at every body length.

Among Warriors is also a personal journey into the warrior spirit and discovery of a spiritual connection between Buddhism and karate. Logan mixes karate lore and scenes from her years of training with Tibetan travelogue. Both her outward and inner journeys are remarkable and propel the reader toward a bittersweet conclusion

Tree of Sapphires: The Enlightened Qabalah by David Goddard. (Weiser Books, $18.95, Paperback.)

Tree of Sapphires offers seekers a working knowledge of the mystical Qabalah, providing the keys to unlock this ancient mystery tradition. Avoiding heavy theory, author David Goddard gives exercises, meditations, and visualizations to help understand and experience the Qabalistic Tree of Life personally and immediately.

He explains that the Qabalah is the root source of all Western mystery traditions—Kabbalist, Rosicrucian and Sufi—as well as the more modern, classic Western systems such at the tarot, alchemy, and ritual magick. This is an experiential guidebook that explores Qabalah as the Yoga of the West, as a methodical system of spiritual enlightenment.

Same Soul, Many Bodies by Brian L. Weiss, M.D. (Free Press, $25.00, Hardcover.)

Noted psychiatrist Brian Weiss made headlines with his pioneering research on the healing power of past-life therapy in his bestseller, Many Lives, Many Masters. He now reveals how our future lives can transform us in the present.

We all have lived past lives. We all will live future ones. What we do in this life will influence our lives to come as we evolve toward immortality. Dr. Weiss encourages this important recognition because recently he has not only regressed his patients into the past, but has progressed them into the future. And what they have discovered is that our futures are variable, so the choices we make now will determine the quality of life when we return. Using dozens of case histories, he demonstrates the therapeutic benefits of progression, just as he has proved that journeys into our past lives can alleviate or cure our physical and emotional wounds in the present.

Same Soul, Many Bodies builds on Dr. Weiss’s discoveries about the past, and the idea that the soul’s primary purpose is to progress towards healing. His message for us, to acknowledge that we are eternal, winds itself throughout the book, and the message of the soul’s immortality being a blessing resonates through each one of his patients who have been healed by experiences of progression. If people can accelerate the healing process in themselves now and quiet present fears, they will feel better about themselves in this life, and they can also heal their future lives at the same time. The potential for widespread spiritual evolution is boundless.

The Power of Belief: Essential Tools for an Extraordinary Life by Ray Dodd. (Hampton Roads, $14.95, Paperback.)

If you want to change your life, right now, there’s nothing more powerful than changing what you believe. Our hidden beliefs can prevent us from obtaining our dreams. And we often don’t even fully know what our underlying core beliefs are. To change your beliefs, you first must know what they are.

Ray Dodd spent years searching through a multitude of motivational and self-help books in an effort to find the secret to success and happiness. None of the strategies or theories he studied ultimately worked. Amazingly, a chance meeting with Miguel Ruiz in Mexico gave him the answer he was looking for. He was able to study Toltec knowledge first-hand with the best selling author of The Four Agreements. Ruiz revealed that change is not a matter of changing your thinking but rather changing what you believe.

Dodd has taken Ruiz’ work and made it’s theories practical. He reveals how hidden beliefs create barriers to success and true happiness. In this accessible guide based on everyday wisdom, he offers four simple steps to re-create any belief that stands in your way and shows you how to accomplish all of your goals and dreams.