"The author’s eye is wide open, and her writing is fresh, funny, and exhilarating."—Peter Matthiessen
"Marilyn Stablein’s wry voice tells how it was, calmly and clearly, unadorned. . . . whether on the ground with sadhus and chapatis or in the sky with diamonds, these wry prose poems evoke a last epiphany of the best of East and West."—Keith Dowman, author of The Power Places of Tibet
In 1965, Stablein drops out of Berkeley and travels to India and Nepal with her lover. Their brief getaway turns into a seven-year stay. "There are times when I ask myself," Stablein writes, "What am I am doing here? My answer: to paint, to study a culture; to uncover its secrets; to listen to the whisperings, the sacred oral traditions; to learn by heart the names and faces of deities so I can capture their images on paper and strive to imbue each image with the greatness of its namesake, its spiritual essence. Art is my muse and practice. The world is my palette, artists my teachers; art lives and breathes in the people I meet."
In the heyday of the ’60s Stablein encounters luminaries of the American counterculture like Ram Dass whom she accompanies to interview HH, the Dalai Lama, on the spiritual value of LSD. Later, when the Indian police come to arrest Stablein for having an expired visa, Kalu Rinpoche quips "The Buddha never had visas," and orders her to hide in a closet next to his tantric human bone costumes.
Includes photos and recipes.
Marilyn Stablein, writer, artist, and performer, is the author of seven books and a frequent performer of her work. Her art has been widely exhibited. She lives in the Hudson Valley and co-directs, with her husband, Alternative Books and The Uptown: A Performance Space in Kingston, NY.

Sleeping in Caves: A Sixties Himalayan Memoir

Stablein, Marilyn

Religion & Spirituality

Monkfish Book Publishing

Enlightenment Blues is Andre van der Braak’s compelling first hand account of his relationship with a prominent spiritual teacher. It chronicles both the author’s spiritual journey and disenchantment as well the development of a missionary and controversial community around the teacher. It powerfully exposes the problems and necessities of disentanglement from a spiritual path.
“Enlightenment Blues is the account of a young man's sincere and protracted struggle to transform his life according to the teachings of the American guru Andrew Cohen. Ruthlessly honest and unsettling, Andre van der Braak gives a vivid first-hand account of an uncompromising experiment in establishing Indian spirituality in a modern Western setting. This story is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the allure and pitfalls of surrendering one's authority in the hope of spiritually transforming the world” Stephen Batchelor, Author Buddhism without Beliefs
“Narrated with the psychological subtlety and drama of a good novel, Enlightenment Blues is a precise, profound dissection of the guru-devotee relationship. It should be required reading for all who are currently engaged in or considering studying under a spiritual teacher.” John Horgan, author of Rational Mysticism
"A profound contribution. The maturity and balance of this book place it at the front rank of works on contemporary spirituality. All the major themes of the spiritual quest are here - reason versus emotion, the problem of the ego, the guru, self-doubt, the place of altered states. Andre van der Braak has the creative gift of being able to hold opposing ideas in his mind without moving towards premature closure. Hence this heartfelt account of his eleven years in the Cohen movement is a beautiful testament to one man's quest to discover his own reality. Enlightenment Blues deserves the widest readership." Len Oakes, Prophetic Charisma
“Enlightenment Blues is the personal story of one man’s eleven year journey into and out of a group of seekers of enlightenment with a charismatic leader who claims to be an exemplar of perfection. What distinguishes this book are the writer’s insights and honesty in portraying the workings of an authoritarian belief system that operates under the guise of spiritual revelations. Anyone who has ever belonged to such a group, or knows anyone who has, or who wants to understand what the appeals and dangers of surrendering to a guru consist of, would benefit from reading this book.” Joel Kramer, author, The Guru Papers
"Andre van der Braak’s story is our own story. We walked the ‘yellow brick road’ whether it was Zen or Yoga or Advaita. We desperately wished for or found a Guru who could help us find our way home and we wholly gave ourselves. Andre’s talk of it is fresh and innocent. He takes us by the hand through a hazardous trail. Neither bitter nor estranged, nor having lost his passion for the way, he remembers with us what really happened, and why.” Orit Sen-Gupta, Author, Dancing the Body of Light – The Future of Yoga
Andre van der Braak lived in Andrew Cohen’s spiritual community for 11 years, an involvement initiated shortly after Cohen had begun teaching. He was one of the original editors for “What is Enlightenment Magazine”. He was also an editor for Cohen’s first teaching text, Enlightenment is a Secret, which entailed reading over 4,000 pages of transcribed talks, and editing them into book form.
Today, he lives in Amsterdam where he teaches philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and at Luzac College in Alkmaar.

Enlightenment Blues: My Years with an American Guru

van der Braak, Andre

"With this one compact statement, Jacob Needleman has forced the discussion of both science and religion in our time into a new, more mature and discriminating phase. . . . It is a way station where those who are seriously exploring the transformation of consciousness will have to stop, take thought, and perhaps re-plot their course."—Theodore Roszak
"I want to strongly recommend it to every reader seriously interested in our present cultural situation."—Fritjof Capra
"Needleman is unique; he is really on to something. . . . A fine book"—Harvey Cox
Western science has operated for centuries on the assumption that we can understand the universe without understanding ourselves. We are just now seeking to make the necessary connection between the general laws of nature to those of our own (inner) nature. But the job won’t be done with "massive injections of the new consciousness"; we cannot democratize the sacred by cheapening its demands.
"My aim in this book therefore" says Needleman, "has not been to speak of the convergence of science and spirituality, but of their separation. As in nature itself, organic unity is a reciprocal relationship between separate but interdependent entities. In human life as well, there can be no real unity except through the awareness of real divisions. One may then hope to experience the magic power of sustained awareness by itself to bring the harmony that we have until now fruitlessly attempted to impose on ourselves and on our endangered civilization."
Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University and the author of many books, including Money and the Meaning of Life, and The American Soul. In addition to his teaching and writing, he serves as a consultant in the fields of psychology, education, medical ethics, philanthropy, and business, and has been featured on Bill Moyers’s acclaimed PBS series A World of Ideas.

A Sense of the Cosmos: Scientific Knowledge and Spiritual Truth

NEEDLEMAN, Jacob

Science & Math

"[T]he only subjective account of a mystical experience induced during ritual tantric sex ever written. That Ward experienced it, and that this experience was profound, there seems little reason to doubt. . . . Diabolically funny at times, this is also a brave, wise, and brilliant book."—Toronto Star
"This book is . . . about learning. Its great strength, aside from its finely crafted prose, is Ward’s honesty about what he learned . . . The process of acquiring wisdom provides the narrative with its dramatic muscle . . . risky, bracing stuff."—The Globe and Mail
Tim Ward spent six years in the Orient wandering the Dharma trail. He visited temples and monasteries, desert ashrams, and mountain top holy places, seeking out monks and mystics.
In this, his third and most sensual book, Tim falls in love with Sabina, who has come to India to research the temptation of the Buddha by Mara (Hinduism’s devil) and his three daughters. The Buddha overcame his final temptation, in the moment before Enlightenment, by touching the earth beneath him, and asking the Earth to bear witness to his Realization. The Earth Goddess rose in his defense. For her thesis, Sabina must record and photograph rare Buddhist statues bearing this scene. Tim accompanies her as her assistant.
A mixture of sex, love, coming of age, and Buddhism, Arousing the Goddess is filled with humor and recognition of the absurdities of life. It has been praised for its honesty and insight.
Tim Ward is the author of What the Buddha Never Taught, which was a best-seller in Canada, and a Book of the Month selection in the United States. He has written for a variety of publications, including Reader’s Digest, The Toronto Globe and Mail, Common Boundary Magazine, and several Traveler’s Tales anthologies. He is president of Intermedia Communications Training, Inc., in Maryland where he lives with his -family.

Arousing the Goddess: Sex and Love in the Buddhist Ruins of India

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Ward, Tim

Psychology & Counseling

". . . captures the spirit of the San Francisco Bay area in the 1960's and 1970's and tells the story of Jones' life as Ginny ("the first hippie") drifts into and out of it."-Publishers Marketplace in their "Deal of the Day" column.
"A soothingly disturbing bittersweet elixir. By turns deliciously funny and poignantly painful, it wanders and rambles in and out of the messiness of life. It's real. It's human. You will be different for having immersed yourself in it. Ginny Good has the soul and guts and truth of a classic of American Literature."-Donna McDougle, author and book reviewer
Gerard Jones is the infamous creator of the Everyone Who's Anyone in Trade Publishing website.

Ginny Good

Biographies & Memoirs

Jones, Gérard

Arts & Literature

". . . blends story and philosophy into a dazzling concoction that offers powerful guidance to us all. It offers brilliant insights into personal, cultural, and national realities and possibilities. Fascinating!"—Thom Hartmann, author, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight
"Frankel tells a compelling story in a compelling way. His is a voice that must be heard and, thankfully, it’s a lyrical voice that is sheer pleasure to read."—Marjorie Kelly, author, The Divine Right of Capital
Combines a personal narrative, visionary framework, and cultural criticism into a story about where we have gone wrong as a culture and what we must do—and become—to set things right again.
Carl Frankel is the author of In Earth’s Company: Business, Environment and the Challenge of Sustainability.

Out of the Labyrinth: Who We Are, How We Go Wrong and What We Can Do About It

History

Frankel, Carl

World

Tagore is unequivocal in his faith. He appreciates the intellectual triumphs of science, but he writes as a poet and philosopher. Man must always be a music-maker and dreamer of dreams; he must never lose, in his material quests, his longing for the touch of the divine. He traces the growth of the idea of God from primitive notions to universality. Today, as he says, all barriers are down and the “the God of humanity has arrived at the gates of the ruined temple of the tribe.” His book rings with joy and affirmation overstepping all limitations of race and creed.
“His estimates of western civilization are searching and some of them written in acid…one reads much between the lines-but Tagore recognizes the true strength of the west and the faults of the east. The lectures are actually a superb and haunting criticism and evaluation of life from the viewpoint of an immemorial philosophy by a wise man.” -Christian Century
This is a book for everyone: a book whose human interest and pervading charm assure it a wide appeal and lasting value. It is not a philosophical work, as its author repeatedly warns us; in fact, its one semi-philosophical chapter (the first) may well be omitted. Its value is religious and poetical; like the essays of Emerson, it is primarily a document of the spiritual life.” -Journal of Religion
“Rich in profound thought and poetic speech…he has never written anything so penetrating and illumination on the nature of things… Tagore has seen visions, and he can paint them for us with a compelling charm due to utter simplicity and fidelity. But he has not stopped there. His reason hs entered into truth by the doors which his intuition has opened…A treasure-store of truth, beauty and wisdom.” -New Chronicle 
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India. Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures.
Philip Novak is the author of The World's Wisdom, a widely used anthology of the sacred texts of the world's religions and the companion reader to Huston Smith's The World's Religions.

The Religion of Man

Tagore, Rabīndranāth

Religious Studies

Cultural Writing. Memoir. GINNY GOOD "captures the spirit of the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s and 1970s and tells the story of Jones' lifes as Ginny ("the first hippie") drifts into and out of it"--Publisher's Marketplace. "A soothingly disturbing bittersweet elixir. By turns deliciously funny and poignantly painful, it wanders and rambles in and out of the messiness of life. It's real. It's human. You will be different for having immersed yourself in it. GINNY GOOD has the soul and guts and truth of a classic of American literature"--Donna McDougle.

Goodbye, Amelia

“This is a wise and wonderful book, a book to open minds and nourish souls.” —Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen To Good People
“Mirkin is a passionate storyteller who enables us to see ourselves in each story that she tells. The connection between biblical women and people living today is so moving and insightful that it is almost impossible to read this book without feeling inspired to grapple with our own relationships and emerge more fully vested in life and love.” —Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., The Dance of Anger
The Women Who Danced by the Sea invites us to embark on a journey that can lead us to deeper connection within ourselves, with those we love, and with the increasingly complex and dangerous world in which we live.
The Women Who Danced By The Sea is the first book of its kind to view the lives of biblical women through the lens of contemporary psychological theories. Each chapter looks at a different foremother and a different issue she must grapple with in order to gain the wisdom to move into deeper relationship with herself, those she loves, and the Divine. Dr. Mirkin ties their struggles to those of contemporary women and men she has met in her twenty-year clinical practice and looks at what we can learn from their experiences. Our foremothers’ stories offer profound lessons in living. Their legacies can guide us as we face similar challenges, have similar sorrows and confusions and find similar hope and blessings on our path to more intimate connection.
Marsha Mirkin, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and resident scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center. The ideas for this book are drawn from courses she has been teaching on psychological interpretations and the contemporary relevance of the Bible. Dr. Mirkin has held appointments at Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine, and has been on the faculty of the Jean Baker Miller Institute at Wellesley College.

The Women Who Danced by the Sea: Finding Ourselves in the Stories of our Biblical Foremothers

Mirkin, Marsha

Self-Help

Pain, Sex and Time explores evolution and postulates the possibility and means of a future evolution of the mind. First published in 1939, its philosophy converted a generation of leading thinkers from the scientific worldview to the perspective of the mystics.
Gerald Heard (1889-1971) was a well-known British polymath and science commentator for the BBC. He later toured and lectured prolifically in the United States. Heard wrote thirty-eight books including The Ascent of Humanity, The Social Substance of Religion and A Taste for Honey, a detective story which sold over half a million copies. Referring to Heard’s influence on Western notables, Ellery Queen wrote, “Gerald Heard is the spiritual godfather of this Western movement.”
 Aldous Huxley (from his 1939 review of Pain, Sex and Time): “Gerald Heard’s book represents a significant attempt to reinterpret in contemporary terms and in the light of modern knowledge the teachings, practical no less than theoretical, of the traditional religious philosophies...”
Professor Huston Smith, (from his 2004 Foreword to
Pain, Sex and Time): “Overnight, the book in hand converted me from the scientific worldview to the vaster world of the mystics. I applaud the decision to bring this book back into print.”In this absorbing and provocative book, Gerald Heard shows that a fissure in human consciousness, which has been rapidly widening for 400 years, is the cause of modern man’s tragic dismay. Believing his problem external, when it is really in his own mind, man at last faces a “veritable Copernican revolution” psychologically. Science tells us that man is the only animal capable of continued evolution. It shows further that he can evolve in only one way—mentally. Pain, Sex and Time is then a new outlook, a new promise for the future, a new exploration of those strange and little-known powers of human consciousness of which man is becoming increasingly aware. Harper &amp; Brothers, 1939
Pain, Sex and Time was James Dean’s favorite book.
Pain, Sex and Time has been out of print for 60 years.

Pain, Sex and Time: A New Outlook on Evolution and the Future of Man (Provenance Editions)

Gerald Heard

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Monkfish Book Publishing publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Monkfish Book Publishing