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In this highly original study of sexuality, desire, the body, and women, Liz Wilson investigates first-millennium Buddhist notions of spirituality. She argues that despite the marginal role women played in monastic life, they occupied a very conspicuous place in Buddhist hagiographic literature. In narratives used for the edification of Buddhist monks, women's bodies in decay (diseased, dying, and after death) served as a central object for meditation, inspiring spiritual growth through sexual abstention and repulsion in the immediate world. Taking up a set of universal concerns connected with the representation of women, Wilson displays the pervasiveness of androcentrism in Buddhist literature and practice. She also makes persuasive use of recent historical work on the religious lives of women in medieval Christianity, finding common ground in the role of miraculous afflictions. This lively and readable study brings provocative new tools and insights to the study of women in religious life.
Ma Barker and Pretty Boy Floyd once shot their way across the state, and Bonnie and Clyde were known to travel within its borders. Between 1933 and 1938, thirty bank robberies occurred in Kansas, while livestock thefts also grew at an alarming rate. Little wonder, then, that pressure was brought to bear on the state legislature to create a Kansas counterpart to the Texas Rangers or FBI. Larry Welch, tenth director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, now provides readers with the first history of that agency, spanning the years 1939-2007. His account includes, among other things, detailed case studies of the KBI's participation in the high-profile arrests of serial killers Francis Donald N...
Emotional Intelligence Coaching examines the vital role emotions and habits play in performance. Emotional intelligence can help leaders and coaches recognize how attitudes - both their own and those of the people they coach - prevent individuals from reaching their potential. Replacing these with more useful feelings and thoughts can provide a powerful means of improving performance. This book explains the principles of emotional intelligence and how these relate to coaching for performance. It includes practical activities for those seeking to identify and adapt their behaviour in order to achieve more. Never before have emotional intelligence and coaching been brought together in this way to help you develop your own and other people's performance.
“Well-researched and original” essays on the intersection between food and adventure (Publishers Weekly). Culinary Tourism is the first book to consider food as both a destination and a means for tourism. The book’s contributors examine the many intersections of food, culture, and tourism in public and commercial contexts, in private and domestic settings, and around the world. The contributors argue that the sensory experience of eating provides people with a unique means of communication—whether they’re trying out a new kind of ethnic restaurant in their own town or the native cuisine of a place far from home. Editor Lucy Long explains how and why interest in foreign food is expanding tastes and leading to commercial profit in America, but the book also shows how tourism combines personal experiences with cultural and social attitudes toward food and the circumstances that allow for adventurous eating. “Contributors to the book are widely recognized food experts who encourage readers to venture outside the comforts of home and embark on new eating experiences.” —Lexington Herald-Leader
Violence has always played a part in the religious imagination, from symbols and myths to legendary battles, from colossal wars to the theater of terrorism. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence surveys intersections between religion and violence throughout history and around the world. The forty original essays in this volume include overviews of major religious traditions, showing how violence is justified within the literary and theological foundations of the tradition, how it is used symbolically and in ritual practice, and how social acts of violence and warfare have been justified by religious ideas. The essays also examine patterns and themes relating to religious violence, suc...
This practical guide shows how to facilitate collaboration among diverse individuals and organizations to navigate complexity and create change in our interconnected world. The social and environmental challenges we face today are not only complex, they are also systemic and structural and have no obvious solutions. They require diverse combinations of people, organizations, and sectors to coordinate actions and work together even when the way forward is unclear. Even so, collaborative efforts often fail because they attempt to navigate complexity with traditional strategic plans, created by hierarchies that ignore the way people naturally connect. By embracing a living-systems approach to o...
Fasting An Exceptional Human Experience Since prehistory, fasting has been used in various ways as a means of transformation. As a spiritual practice, it is the oldest and most common form of asceticism and is found in virtually every religion and spiritual tradition. In psychology, studies have suggested that fasting can alleviate the symptoms of some psychiatric conditions, including depression and schizophrenia. In medicine, fasting is one of the most promising therapies, with research suggesting that fasting can cause certain drugs, such as chemotherapy, to work better while reducing drug side-effects. Hunger striking, sometimes called political fasting, may be the most powerful applicat...
Silas is ten years old when the headaches start. When the diagnosis arrives, his parents are told they have until Christmas... maybe. And so begins Sarah Pullen’s battle to save her son, against doubting doctors and insurmountable odds. This story about love and loss traces her family’s journey from that first day at the hospital, battling a tumour they named ‘Bob’, through Silas’s death and beyond. This profoundly moving and honest account shows that it is possible to find the strength for a journey that no mother should ever go on; that it is possible to find a new way to live, even when death is knocking on the door. It is about confronting grief – raw, ugly, incomprehensible grief. It is a book about wrapping a small boy in love, but still letting him get grubby knees. It is about learning to savour every moment of the here and now, yet also learning to let go. At its heart, A Mighty Boy is a story of the love between a mother and a son. It is a book about seizing the moment and somehow managing to survive the death of a child. But most of all it is a book about a small, mighty, smiling boy.
Since 1978 Jim Davis’ sarcastic, orange tabby cat has entertained millions of people appearing in newspapers, books, cartoons and even his own films. Why has a lazy, coffee drinking, lasagna loving feline become a worldwide sensation loved by millions of people? From his small-town beginnings in Muncie, Indiana, The History of Garfield explores our relationship with Garfield, Jon and Odie and how Davis’ characters have become such an integral part of American pop culture over the decades.