A Leaf in the Wind


Book Description

Born in Melbourne in 1943, Adrian Feldmann was one of the first Westerners to become a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. On the eve of a three-year, solitary meditation retreat, he recounts the inner and outer journeys that lead him to Nepal where, in the early 1970's, he met two Tibetan lamas, Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. They were among the first lamas to teach Buddhism to Westerners. In the 1970's, Adrian Feldmann was a young doctor wrapped up in the hippie counter-culture, experimenting with mind-altering drugs and studying Eastern mysticism. Seeking a greater purpose to his life, he began to travel. Following his friends on the hippie trail, he travelled through Afghanistan where he was impressed by the spiritual power of Islam. Inspired by his reading of Taoist philosophy, he and some friends bought a converted rowing boat and sailed down the Indus River, searching for freedom and a more authentic way of living. What he found launched him on the spiritual path to Buddhism. This personal account of one man's search for happiness is often humorous and sometimes shocking. Adrian Feldmann doesn't shirk revealing the mistakes and failings which help to highlight his personal message of hope. He wants us to know that the ego undermines our happiness and fortifies our habitual, destructive emotions. His spiritual path is a quest to "slay the ego," and his life story is a parable for modern times. This title was first published in 2005 by Lothian Books as a paperback book. This updated ebook version is published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and includes a postscript from the author recounting the continuing saga of his spiritual path. The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive is a non-profit organization established to make the Buddhist teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche freely accessible in many ways, including on our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as digital and printed books. Our website offers immediate access to thousands of pages of teachings and hundreds of audio recordings by some of the greatest lamas of our time. Our photo gallery and our ever-popular books are also freely accessible. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting the LYWA website. Thank you!




Green Leaves for Later Years


Book Description

Calling on seventy-five years of memories and lessons learned, Emilie Griffin reflects on the beauty and struggle of aging. Hers is a deceptively simple spiritual path--motivated only by a desire to be close to the Lord. Ideal for both individuals and discussion groups.




Reading Tea Leaves


Book Description

Find your fortune sip by sip Reading Tea Leaves is your ultimate guide to the ancient art of tasseography—divination with tea leaves. Traditionally a practical, everyday form of divination often practiced by women, tea-leaf reading gave glimpses into the drama of daily life—who was stopping by after supper and if a letter was on the way. The process is simple: brew yourself a cup of loose-leaf tea, settle down somewhere comfy, and sip it intentionally. Once you’ve reached the bottom of the cup, the tea leaves that remain will take the form of shapes and symbols that can give you guidance, spark your intuition, and even give you a hint of the future. Originally published by an unnamed "Highland Seer" in the early 20th century this new edition has been updated for modern readers and features a foreword by tasseography experts Leanne Marrama and Sandra Mariah Wright. Reading Tea Leaves will teach you everything you need to know to begin reading the leaves yourself. Inside you’ll find a dictionary of symbolic meanings to help you successfully interpret the images you see in the cup, along with ten illustrated example readings to allow you to hone your interpretive skills. Reading Tea Leaves is a warm-hearted invitation to celebrate the small, magical moments we encounter every day.




Wisdom of the Plant Devas


Book Description

Consulting plant spirits for spiritual and psychological guidance and healing • Reveals how, by communing with the deva or spirit of a plant, we can call forth its medicine without even needing to ingest it • Includes wisdom from the devas of 13 herbs, such as rosemary, datura, and uva ursi • Empowers readers with the tools to develop their own inner resources for healing in relationship with the plant devas around them Each plant has a story to share with us, a healing story to guide us in trying times, a spirit medicine for the New Earth that is presently unfolding. Herbs are some of the most powerful allies we have for these transitional times--we just need to learn how to listen as they share their knowledge with us. In Wisdom of the Plant Devas, Thea Summer Deer reveals a new dimension of herbal medicine, one where the plant’s spirit is consulted for guidance and healing beyond the physical. Examining the botany, modern and traditional uses, history, and folklore of 13 special herbs, such as rosemary, uva ursi, and datura, she shares divinations and messages from their devas, or plant spirits, explaining how these stories carry the herbs into our lives, letting them work their magic on us. Exploring herbal medicine from an energetic perspective, she reveals that by communing with the deva of a plant, we can call on the plant’s physical, psychological, and spiritual medicine and guidance--without ingesting it or even being in its presence. Detailing the sacred space of a Medicine Wheel Garden, whether in a backyard or our imaginations, she connects us with the devas and empowers us to seek our own answers with their much-needed spiritual guidance and divinatory advice. Creating a bridge between botanical medicine and plant spirit medicine, she shows how by coming into community with the devas and co-creating with the world of nature, we can gain tremendous insights to help heal our hearts, our minds, and our spirits and consciously evolve as together we birth the New Earth.




Wisdom in the Leaf


Book Description




The Book of Herbal Wisdom


Book Description

Hailed as a “classic” by leading herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, this botanical compendium provides a wide-ranging history of herbalism and useful guidance for healing with herbs Matthew Wood is one of the United States’ most renowned herbalists and the author of Seven Herbs: Plants as Healers, a watershed book in teaching herbal healing as a part of total wellness. With The Book of Herbal Wisdom, he continues and expands this study, creating a must-read guide for anyone who works in the natural health field or is interested in self-healing with herbs. Wood creates a vast and sweeping history of herbalism, drawing on Western botanical knowledge, homeopathy, Traditional Chinese medicine, and Native American shamanic botany. Detailing the history and use of more than forty plants, he shows how each tradition views a plant, as well as its use in cases drawn from his own herbal and homeopathic practice. An initial section describes signatures, similar, and patterns in these traditions, and elements, temperaments, and constitutions. Wood has two objectives: to demonstrate how herbal medicines are agents of healing and wisdom, and to give the reader a useful catalog of plants for medicinal uses. His clinical observations of his patients bear the wry wisdom of the country doctor; his love of plants is evident in lush botanical descriptions, which show the connection between remedies—whether homeopathic, Chinese, or Native American—and the plants from which they are derived. An introduction to centuries of lore about healing from indigenous traditions, The Book of Herbal Wisdom integrates and describes North American Indian medicine, homeopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Western herbalism like no other contemporary botanical compendium.




The Life of a Leaf


Book Description

In its essence, science is a way of looking at and thinking about the world. In The Life of a Leaf, Steven Vogel illuminates this approach, using the humble leaf as a model. Whether plant or person, every organism must contend with its immediate physical environment, a world that both limits what organisms can do and offers innumerable opportunities for evolving fascinating ways of challenging those limits. Here, Vogel explains these interactions, examining through the example of the leaf the extraordinary designs that enable life to adapt to its physical world. In Vogel’s account, the leaf serves as a biological everyman, an ordinary and ubiquitous living thing that nonetheless speaks volumes about our environment as well as its own. Thus in exploring the leaf’s world, Vogel simultaneously explores our own. A companion website with demonstrations and teaching tools can be found here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/sites/vogel/index.html




The Wisdom of Trees


Book Description

With lush illustrations, poems, and accessible scientific information, The Wisdom of Trees by Lita Judge is a fascinating exploration of the hidden communities trees create to strengthen themselves and others. We clean the air and seed the clouds, we drench the thirsty land with rain. We are like wizards. The story of a tree is a story of community, communication, and cooperation. Although trees may seem like silent, independent organisms, they form a network buzzing with life: they talk, share food, raise their young, and offer protection. Trees thrive on diversity, learn from their ancestors, and give back to their communities. Trees not only sustain life on our planet—they can also teach us important lessons about patience, survival, and teamwork. A New York Public Library Best Book of 2021 A New York Public Library Top Ten Book for Kids




Plant Witchery


Book Description

"Awaken your inner healer by connecting with the wise and magickal energies of plants. Drawn from traditional ancestral practices passed down by generations of indigenous teachers, plant whisperer and herbalist Juliet Diaz guides readers along a journey far beyond the basic medicinal and magical properties of plants in this deep dive into Mother Earth's drumming heart. Become a powerful healer and a child of nature, learning to hear, see, and understand the sacred vibrations of plant language to heal not only yourself but our earth as well with this illustrated guide. In Plant Witchery you will discover how to: Work with the magickal and medicinal properties of over 200 species of plants Speak and listen to plants through powerful communication techniques Determine properties both medicinal and magical for a collection of plants Grow and care for plants, even how to heal them when they are dying Create your own potions, elixirs, tinctures, oils, and spells dry and store herbs, plants, and flowers for medicinal and magickal workings choose the best times astrologically to work with different plants"--




Country Wisdom & Know-How


Book Description

Reminiscent in both spirit and design of the beloved Whole Earth Catalog, Country Wisdom & Know-How is an unprecedented collection of information on nearly 200 individual topics of country and self-sustained living. Compiled from the information in Storey Publishing's landmark series of "Country Wisdom Bulletins," this book is the most thorough and reliable volume of its kind. Organized by general topic including animals, cooking, crafts, gardening, health and well-being, and home, it is further broken down to cover dozens of specifics from "Building Chicken Coops" to "Making Cheese, Butter, and Yogurt" to "Improving Your Soil" to "Restoring Hardwood Floors." Nearly 1,000 black-and-white illustrations and photographs run throughout and fascinating projects and trusted advice crowd every page.