Inprint - New Books of interest by Jeanne Spiro

The Invisible Garment: 30 Spiritual Principles that Weave the Fabric of Human Life by Connie Kaplan. (Jodere Group, $24.00, Hardcover.)

The title The Invisible Garment introduces a metaphor which flows throughout this book. We each wear an unseen garment, woven in divine threads, which holds us, shrouds us, veils us, protects us, and simultaneously connects us to every other being in the universe. Through the general tenets of quantum physics, most of us now intellectually know that life is a holistic experience, that every being, organic and inorganic, is a unique thread in a galactic interwoven fabric. Each of us is not only a fiber in this tapestry, but we are also embedded in its weave.

But intellectual knowing is not enough. We long to experience our connection. In a tapestry, when one thread is either missing, faded, or damaged, a hole exists in the whole. When we feel ourselves unraveling, we want to be reminded of our connection to something greater than our small, separate realities. The Invisible Garment outlines a practical way for you to chart the soul’s purpose for your lifetime and therefore to understand your own spiritual wardrobe. It shows you how we each are simultaneously unique and one with the One. Because we are each integral aspects of an awesome cosmic weaving, it is not only to one’s personal benefit, but also to the benefit of the universe for each person to understand his or her life’s purpose.

Wabi Sabi Simple: Create Beauty. Value Imperfection. Live Deeply
by Richard R. Powell. (Adams Media, $9.95, Paperback.)

Wabi sabi is an ancient Japanese aesthetic that emphasizes the value of simple things as a path to harmony. It values the imperfect and the handmade. Richard Powell explains this Eastern philosophy in easy to understand terms to help you find the peace and truth throughout nature and apply it to all facets of your life—at work, at home, and in your relationships. Akin to voluntary simplicity, living the wabi sabi life means living in the moment and accepting one’s beautifully imperfect life while embracing the simple things we often rush past.

A guide for contemporary westerners, Wabi Sabi Simple explores all aspects of this way of life. For example, wabi sabi working means doing what you love but not overdoing it. Wabi sabi eating values the humble and familiar while savoring the exotic. Wabi sabi creativity enriches one’s life by valuing individual moments

Bring Me the Rhinoceros and Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy by John Tarrant. (Harmony Books, $16.00, Hardcover.)

Bring Me the Rhinoceros is an unusual guide to happiness and a can opener for your thinking. For fifteen hundred years, Zen koans have been passed down through generations of masters, usually in private encounters between teacher and student. This book retells fourteen traditional koans, which are partly paradoxical questions dangerous to your beliefs and partly treasure boxes of ancient wisdom. Koans show that you don’t have to impress people or change into an improved, more polished version of yourself. Instead you can find happiness by unbuilding, unmaking, throwing overboard, and generally subverting unhappiness.

John Tarrant brings the heart of the koan tradition out into the open, reminding us that the old wisdom remains as vital as ever, a deep resource available to anyone in any place or time.

Altars of Power and Grace by Robin and Michael Mastro. (Balanced Books, $19.95, Paperback.)

Altars of Power and Grace offers a revolutionary approach to creating personal altars. This unique system combines the holistic and creative traditions of whole Systems Design with the potent aspects of Vastu Shastra. Vastu, an ancient science from India, was the original teaching on which Feng Shui is based. This enlightening and informative book demystifies these principles, making them accessible for the Western mind. Altars created for the home or office are a beautiful reminder of the sacred in everyday life. With easy and concise instructions, you will learn tools to maximize potential and attract Universal Support. Your altars can feature items or icons from any religious or spiritual practice, and will beautify your surroundings while transforming your life.

Altars of Power and Grace teaches you how to create specific altars that fulfill your individual desires. It features beautiful color photographs and contains an extensive resource appendix.

A Book of Angels: Reflections on Angels Past and Present and True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives by Sophy Burnham. (Balantine Books, $16.95, Hardcover.)

A Book of Angels, an update of the best-selling classic, tells the extraordinary true stories of present-day encounters with angels, but also traces the study of angels throughout history and in different cultures. Sophy Burnham writes about the powerful male angels of the Old Testament, Zoroastrian angels, Budhist bodhisattvas, Islamic angels, Hindu apsaras, the mysterious angels of the Jewish Kabbalah, cherubim, seraphim, guardian angels, the angel of death and others.

What are angels? What do they look like? Whom do they choose to visit? Why do they appear sometimes and not others, and would you recognize them if they did come? With great feeling, Burnham offers an eloquent report from the place where earth and heaven meet. A Book of Angels is a quest into the mystery of angels and a song of praise to life.

30-Day Essentials for Career by Jyotish Novak. (Ballantine Books, $11.95, Hardcover.)

Many of us spend more of our waking hours at work than at any other activity in our day. Frequently, however, we find ourselves feeling dissatisfied with our careers and yearning to improve this most important aspect of our lives.

Whether you are looking for a new job, want to improve your current situation, or simply want to clarify you career goals, 30-Day Essentials for Career will help. Special emphasis is given to helping you develop the attributes and mental skills necessary for breathing new life into your career by showing you how to become a happier, more effective boss, manager, or employee. Featuring one inspiring piece of advice and one practical exercise per day, this book, filled with beautiful color photographs, is a useful and enjoyable guide for improving your working life now.

The Quantum Doctor: A Physicist’s Guide to Health and Healing by Amit Goswami, Ph.D. (Hampton Roads, $15.95, Paperback.)

For Amit Goswami, Ph.D., a leading quantum physicist, medicine is a timely area of application for the new science based on primacy of consciousness. This yields a spectacular ability to integrate conventional science, spirituality, and healing. If any field needs integration, says Goswami, it is medicine and healing.

The Quantum Doctor boldly reinterprets the leading methods of alternative medicine—homeopathy, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and Ayurveda—and of conventional medicine from the viewpoint of quantum physics. He shows that these seemingly different models can be integrated into a new multi-tiered system based on the new “science within consciousness.”

At the heart of all illness and healing is consciousness, Goswami says. The Quantum Doctor gives physicians and patients a whole new way of applying medicine, with a greater likelihood of healing. Goswami calls it Integral Medicine, and says this new approach can be the legitimate basis for a paradigm shift in medicine. You may remember that Dr. Goswami was one of the scientists featured in the movie, What the Bleep Do We Know?

If You Hear the Message Three Times, Listen by Patricia Heller, Ph.D. (Hampton Roads, $15.95, Paperback.)

This is a book about listening. It’s also about seeing, feeling, and sensing. When one learns the language the universe speaks, one can hear, see, feel, and sense the message and discover that everything happens in our lives for a reason.

Patricia Heller’s journey of discovery can help anyone searching for answers. While overcoming a chronic, debilitating condition, she discovered how to heal illness by finding what she repressed from herself and the world. She found the meditations, tools and encouragement to accept that it is never too late to live a magical life. She also identified Four Insights for achieving even the most challenging of goals.

Heller says there is no right way to approach change, just as there is no right age, teacher, or doctrine. With laugh-out-loud anecdotes, she shows that while a transformational journey can be awe-inspiring and command reverence, a little irreverence now and then keeps things balanced. Our lives are guided by intuition, synchronicity, and coincidence. If we listen, we can hear messages that are always there, helping us on our way.

Effortless Pain Relief: A Guide to Self-Healing from Chronic Pain by Ingrid Bacci, Ph.D. (Free Press, $24.00, Hardcover.)

Dr. Ingrid Bacci was a successful, young college professor when she was stricken with chronic disabling pain. She endured years of medical tests and procedures, all of which failed to help her recover form fibromyalgia, a musculoskeletal syndrome that eventually left her bed-ridden. After years of suffering, and countless doctors claiming she would just have to live with the chronic pain, she refused to give up and, using body self-awareness techniques, became a pioneer in her own healing. Amazingly, today Dr. Bacci is living a vibrant, active, and pain-free life, and has become an acclaimed alternative health-care practitioner who helps others overcome their chronic pain.

In Effortless Pain Relief, Dr. Bacci shares the same techniques that transformed her life, making them accessible to the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic pain, the leading cause of doctor visits, hospitalization, and surgery. Through her guidance and own moving story, she spreads her essential message: chronic pain does not have to define your life.