Bøger af Douglas J Penick

Wishes and longings to the contrary, the wanderer does not find lasting rest. Movement is continuous. Worlds, words, experiences coalesce. A moment engulfs. In such landings, in such intensities, all is now intimately real. Duration of such inadvertent residing is not in the wanderer's control. The wanderer waits, is attentive, and surrenders in chance encounters, tales and songs. THE WANDERER is made up of 11 poems, prose and hybrid pieces, most of which have appeared in small magazines and online journals over the past four years.

The Gesar epic encompasses a vast range of ancient Central Asian cultural and spiritual traditions. At its center, Gesar, King of Ling battles tirelessly in a world riven by greed, confusion, fear, and religious ambition to open pathways to an enlightened society. The Warrior Song of King Gesar follows the unbroken heritage of that warrior tradition and presents the saga of Gesar's life, from the hardships of his youth through his great battles against the demonic enemies of the four directions. This ever evolving epic tradition continues to inspire people in diverse societies by showing that, despite failures, an unsparing spiritual journey is integral to a secular life and that, despite defeats, such a quest is inseparable from working towards true social harmony. The Venerable Tulku Thondup's introduction is uniquely valuable for its profound scholarship and contains the only account in English of King Gesar's mind teachings. * "I hope that the wisdom, imagination, and humor with which Douglas Penick has conveyed both Gesar's story and the energy of his being will rouse unconditional confidence throughout the world." Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, head of Shambhala International, author of Making the Mind into an Ally, and Ruling Your World. "The Warrior Song of King Gesar maintains traditional Asian epic genres and conventions while simultaneously transforming them into a completely contemporary vehicle of expression. The book captures in a remarkable way the nomadic warrior traditions from which Gesar's inner life emerged while uncovering the personal reality hidden within them. This work then is not a 're-telling' of the Gesar saga, but an authentic continuation of that tradition which thus becomes available to modern audiences in new and provocative ways." Kidder Smith- former Professor of Chinese History at Bowdoin College, author of articles on the East Asian classics, lead translator in the Denma Translation Group's Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Two ancient scrolls, The Secret Annals, are discovered in the 1950's in a Tokyo bombsite. They purport to be the history of an unknown 15th-Century Japanese spiritual teacher who, in a time of social chaos, sets out to establish enlightened society. He begins his teaching saying: "Abstinence is no path at all. We are gambling on true love. It is an untested path." In documents from students and spies, the Annals then give an intimate portrait of a charismatic leader, his teachings and the transformative journey he shares with his eccentric band of followers. The scrolls are unmasked as forgeries, but ten years later, a retired professor becomes obsessed. Who created this hoax? And why? To the professor the Annals offer new possibilities from a kind of parallel reality. On his deathbed, he makes his American assistant promise to continue searching and to translate the scrolls. The assistant moves to New York. It is the time of the Vietnam war and the counter-culture. He has doubts about the professor, but the world of the Secret Annals begins to seep into his life. He finds within the Prince's teaching a path through this world of trackless uncertainty. Tantalized, he senses a new world of passionate intensity just within reach. **************************************** "A compelling, passionate evocation, an ethos of the imagination, a new kind of metaphoric history, DREAMERS AND THEIR SHADOWS channels a chorus of intimacies in a chronicle of age-old conflicts." - Gaetano Kazuo Maeda, Founding Director - International Buddhist Film Festival and Festival Media *************************************** "This incredibly beautiful and unique. DREAMERS AND THEIR SHADOWS entices the reader into rich new worlds of understanding and enjoyment." - William Osborne, composer, author, journalist and, with Abbie Conant, founder of The Wasteland Company.

CROSSINGS ON A BRIDGE OF LIGHT is a tale of boundless compassion as it inspires the journey through the joys and sorrows of life and death. Tibet's great warrior hero, Gesar of Ling discovers that his mother has lost her way and fallen into the torments of hell. Riding his magic horse, the primordial power of mind itself, he then travels though all the hallucinations of existence to liberate her. His journey reaches its apex in four visions of the enlightened rulers of the Kingdom of Shambhala. Thus he establishes a path of awakening for all beings. Gesar's inner journey, his encounters with a panoply of beings embodying the spontaneous presence of the awakened state, enable him to heal the doubts and divisions that have come to threaten his kingdom. This tale of how the vision of an enlightened society can be realized on this earth has inspired people for many centuries; it is equally powerful today.

THE BRILLIANCE OF NAKED MIND tells of the secret visions of the legendary warrior, Gesar, King of Ling. It is a collection of stories and invocations that are the ground for Gesar, King of Ling's pursuit of enlightened society. The texts include vivid biographies of Tilopa, embodiment of lineage; Kukkuripa, embodiment of compassion; the sisters Mehkhala and Kanhala, essence of unified devotion and prajna; and King Indrabhuti, exemplar of enlightened sovereignty. These are followed by an extensive account of all the rulers of the Kingdom of Shambhala which concludes: "Shambhala opens, In the unchanging now of heart-light. To which you always return." The texts are loosely bound together in a retelling of Gesar's conquest of the Demon Lord, Satham, King of Jang. They are aspects of the myriad worlds he passes through. Each world contains its own wakefulness for Gesar and for us to discover.

The Age of Waiting by Douglas J. Penick is a personal memoir enriched by the history of Buddhism and a re-telling of foundational Buddhist tales. Penick confronts not only his own mortality, but also that of the planet. This eloquent, impassioned investigation links our contemporary reality - with its medical, economic, and ecological emergencies - to an inner landscape which may prove more constant, durable, and transformative than we realize. "In this illuminating work, Penick explores contemporary crises using the frame of a classic story from Buddhism... By reflecting on personal as well as global issues, Penick models an unflinching but also compassionate orientation toward life." - Publisher''s Weekly A brilliant, compassionate, heart-breakingly written, woven, acknowledgement of the unimaginable Anthropocene rolling toward us. Douglas Penick Writes with insight and wisdom, with Buddhist stories, with the life of the Buddha, with turning points in his life with his Teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche, and with touching, telling alightings from his own life from childhood until his aging (slightly) now. Well worth anything you can give to its reading, musing, in this vast humming, in this "Ocean of Buddhas." - Zentatsu Richard Baker