John Baldock – författare

This handsome hardback edition presents the classic Buddhist text, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, featuring silver cover embossing and gilded page-edges.Said to have its origins in the 'treasure texts' that were supposedly hidden away by Padmasambhava, the Lotus Guru, in Tibet in the 8th century, The Tibetan Book of the Dead was traditionally read aloud to the dying or recently deceased as a guide to the afterlife. It explains how to recognize the true nature of the mind so that after death it will be possible to attain enlightenment and liberation from the suffering associated with the endless cycle of death and rebirth. For many, reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead has been a revelatory experience on the path to finding a sense of spirituality and self-knowledge. This deluxe pocket-sized gift edition is presented with an embossed cover design, ivory pages, beautifully designed endpapers and silver gilded page edges. Part of the Arcturus Ornate Classics series, this book makes wonderful gift for any lover of classic literature. ABOUT THE SERIES: Arcturus Ornate Classics are beautifully bound editions of iconic literary works across history. These compact, foil-embossed hardbacks are printed using deluxe ivory paper and make the perfect gift.

Apart from a few women such as Eve, Mary (the mother of Jesus) and Mary Magdalene, the women in the Bible are generally eclipsed by their more famous male counterparts. This state of affairs not only mirrors the general standing of women in Western society over the past two thousand years, it also reflects the patriarchal nature of both the Jewish and Christian religions.

And yet closer study of the Bible reveals that women were once regarded as the equals of men rather than subject to them. We read of women who were priestesses in the Near East, who served as judges and prophets to the early Israelites, and who saved the Israelites from extinction. Even Wisdom, described in the Old Testament as the ''fountain of life'', was personified as a woman.

From Abi to Zipporah, Women in the Bible retells the stories of the women, both great and humble, who people the pages of the Old and New Testaments as well as the biblical books known as the Apocrypha. These are stories of true love, devotion and piety, incest, lust, prostitution, adultery, polygamy, necromancy, decapitation, treachery and violence: of women''s exploitation and abuse by men and how women gained their revenge.

Apart from a few women such as Eve, Mary (the mother of Jesus) and Mary Magdalene, the women in the Bible are generally eclipsed by their more famous male counterparts. This state of affairs not only mirrors the general standing of women in Western society over the past two thousand years, it also reflects the patriarchal nature of both the Jewish and Christian religions.

And yet closer study of the Bible reveals that women were once regarded as the equals of men rather than subject to them. We read of women who were priestesses in the Near East, who served as judges and prophets to the early Israelites, and who saved the Israelites from extinction. Even Wisdom, described in the Old Testament as the ''fountain of life'', was personified as a woman.

From Abi to Zipporah, Women in the Bible retells the stories of the women, both great and humble, who people the pages of the Old and New Testaments as well as the biblical books known as the Apocrypha. These are stories of true love, devotion and piety, incest, lust, prostitution, adultery, polygamy, necromancy, decapitation, treachery and violence: of women''s exploitation and abuse by men and how women gained their revenge.

Get drunk on Love, for Love is all that exists. Unless you make Love your business, you will not be admitted to the Beloved.'' (Divan-i Shams-i Tabriz 455:A1:54)The thirteenth-century saint Jalaluddin Rumi has been called the greatest mystical poet of any age, and his work compared to that of Dante and Shakespeare. Over a period of 25 years he composed over 70,000 verses of poetry on the subjects of divine love, mystic passion and ecstatic illumination.Rumi was also a master story-teller, as this comprehensive exploration of his work so rewardingly reveals. Primarily an introduction to Rumi and the path of self-surrender, it is arranged in such a way that it guides the reader from the poet''s outer, historical world to the inner, spiritual essence of his teaching.The Essence of Rumi offers us the opportunity to overcome the limitations of our human view of the world and transform our sensory eye into the poet''s all-seeing Ocean of Reality.

Insight into Life is the real religion, which alone can help man to understand Life.'' Hazrat Inayat KhanThe Sufis have been using carefully constructed stories for teaching purposes for thousands of years. Though on the surface these often appear to be little more than fairy or folk tales, the Sufis hold that they enshrine - in their characters, plots and imagery - patterns and relationships that nurture a part of the mind not reachable in more conventional ways, thus increasing our understanding, flexibility and breadth of vision. Familiarization with this body of material can eventually provide answers to questions about our origins and our destiny.In this book John Baldock explores the rich body of literature the Sufis have produced to guide spiritual travellers. While explaining the significant teachings and emphasizing their significance for us, he sheds a timely light on the Sufis'' fascinating perception of life, revealing it to be a process of the heart and not of the head, and offers intriguing pathways to further study and reflection.