may 2020 – good to read

Abide as That. Ramana Maharshi & the Song of Ribhu

Jason Brett Serle
Sri Ramana Maharshi (Venkataraman Iyer) was a Hindu sage and enlightened teacher, born in 1867 in Tamil Nadu, India, where he died in 1950. He left a large body of teachings, often in the form of answers to questions by his students or commentaries on Advaita Vedanta. The Ribhu Gita or Song of Ribhu, was his favorite passage of the Shivarahasya Purana, a mainstay of Shiva and Shaivite worship. “In the same tradition as the Bhagavad Gita or the Ashtavakra Gita, the Ribhu Gita, literally the Song of Ribhu represents the highest declaration of Advaita Vedanta, spoken by the enlightened sage Ribhu to his disciple Nidagha on the slopes of Mount Kedara in the Himalayas.” Jason Brett Serle is an English writer, musician, filmmaker and NLP Master whose love of Ramana Maharshi and his supreme clarity has led him to annotate this classical text. (sgs)
Mantra Books, October 2019

The Buddha’s Wizards. Magic, Protection and Healing in Burmese Buddhism

Thomas Nathan Patton
In Myanmar or Burma, the belief in traditional healing, in wizards, their powers, in cures and curses, is still widespread though the art went underground when strongman Ne Winran ruled the country (from 1962-1988). Witchcraft is rare in Buddhism, The Buddha’s Wizards is a “historically informed ethnographic study that explores the supernatural landscape of Buddhism in Myanmar to explain the persistence of wizardry as a form of lived religion in the modern era.” The author is assistant professor of Buddhist and Southeast Asian studies at the City University of Hong Kong. He does not only discuss the everyday aspects of religious belief but also analyzes the political situation in a country that has remained largely hidden from western view. (sgs)
University Press, April 2020

Notes from an Apocalypse. A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back

Mark O’Donnell
As a father of two young children, Mark O’Connell finds himself worrying whether the times we live in justifies having kids when so many are talking – and expecting – the apocalypse. He decided to visit some of the groups who bank their lives on this gloomy view, following up on people who think about TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) – but only all of the time. O’Donnell didn’t know what was about to happen when he reported on preppers, white supremacists, the death zone of Chernobyl or billionaires who move to New Zealand to avoid the worse. We follow him as he tracks down a diverging posse of people with alternative to extreme worldviews, and he make us laugh, about their conspiracies, their clumsy acronyms, their arsenals of survival and their literal way of coping with life every step of the way to hell. (sgs)
Penguin Random House, April 2020

Entangled Life. How fungi mark our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures

Merlin Sheldrake
“In Entangled Life, the brilliant young biologist Merlin Sheldrake shows us the world from a fungal point of view, providing an exhilarating change of perspective. Sheldrake’s vivid exploration takes us from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that range for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the ‘Wood Wide Web,’ to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision. Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life’s processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms—and our relationships with them—are changing our understanding of how life works.“
Penguin/Random House, May 2020

Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day

Jay Shetty
Shetty writes, “I grew up in a family where you could become one of three things: a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. My family was convinced I had chosen option three. Instead of attending my college graduation ceremony, I headed to India to become a monk, to meditate every day for 4–8 hours and devote my life to helping others.” After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others. Heavily in debt, and with no recognizable skills on his resume, he moved back home to north London with his parents. Shetty reconnected with old school friends—many working for some of the world’s largest corporations—who were experiencing tremendous stress, pressure, and unhappiness, and they invited Shetty to coach them on wellbeing, purpose, and mindfulness.
Simon & Schuster, April 2020

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