Chogyam Trungpa was among the most influential and controversial Tibetan Buddhist lamas to live and teach in the West until his death in 1987. Tony Cape became his devoted student in the mid-70s and eventually one of his kusung or personal attendants. Diamond High¬way is a loving tribute that recounts the story of Trungpa's community from this privileged viewpoint, without flinching from questions surrounding his teacher's drinking and sexuality. From the post-beatnik milieu of Boulder's Naropa Institute to the high ritual of Trungpa's cremation ceremony, Diamond Highway tells the fascinating story of the author's relationship with his extraordinary teacher, with his American successor Osel Tendzin, and with his eldest son Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, who leads his father's Shambhala organization today.Tony Cape was born in 1951 in Swansea, Wales, grew up in West Yorkshire and attended Cambridge University. After working as a journalist in Northern Ireland and England, he moved to the United States in 1977 to join the buddhist community of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche in Colorado. He has also lived in Vermont, Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. He has taught writing at Bard College and Yale University and now teaches at Hartsbrook Waldorf School in Hadley, Massachusetts. He is the author of four works of fiction.

Diamond Highway: A Tibetan Buddhist Path in America

Tony Cape

Off the Commons Books

What can we learn from Bitcoin and Burning Man about re-inventing money and designing better forms of self-governance? From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond explores a new generation of digital technologies that are re-imagining the very foundations of identity, governance, trust and social organization. The fifteen essays of this book stake out the foundations of a new future - a future of open Web standards and data commons, a society of decentralized autonomous organizations, a world of trustworthy digital currencies and self-organized and expressive communities like Burning Man. Among the contributors are Alex "Sandy" Pentland of the M.I.T. Human Dynamics Laboratory, former FCC Chairman Reed E. Hundt, long-time IBM strategist Irving Wladawksy-Berger, monetary system expert Bernard Lietaer, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Hirshberg, journalist Jonathan Ledgard and H-Farm cofounder Maurizio Rossi. From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond was edited by Dr. John H. Clippinger, cofounder and executive director of ID3, [http://www.idcubed.org] and David Bollier, [http://www.bollier.org] an Editor at ID3 who is also an author, blogger and scholar who studies the commons. The book reflects ID3's vision of the huge, untapped potential for self-organized, distributed governance on open platforms. A title chapter traces the 28-year history of Burning Man, the week-long encampment in the Nevada desert that have hosted remarkable experimentation in new forms of self-governance by large communities. Other chapters explore such cutting-edge concepts as: •evolvable digital contracts that could supplant conventional legal agreements; •smartphone currencies that could help Africans meet their economic needs more effective; •the growth of the commodity-backed Ven currency; and •new types of "solar currencies" that borrow techniques from Bitcoin to enable more efficient, cost-effective solar generation and sharing by homeowners.

From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond: The Quest for Identity and Autonomy in a Digital Society

While exploring the woods of Vermont with her cousin and her best friend, twelve-year-old Alexandra Stepp experiences a bewildering ability to see light emanating from within all that surrounds her - from within the forest animals, the flowers, grasses and trees, even from within the rocks and boulders. It is a wonderful gift but a challenge to control and impossible to understand. This is the summer of the Quiet Light, and Alexandra will turn to this gift to save her friends and elude capture by the ancient spirit she has awakened. She will also meet White Feather Woman, a medicine woman, who knows of both the danger and the wonder that this gift-sight could bring.The first in a four book series, The Summer of Quiet Light recounts the early days of Alexandra Stepp's journey from little girl to young woman. Look for the second book, Alexandra Stepp and the Swift-Footed Wind in the summer of 2015.

Alexandra Stepp and the Summer of Quiet Light

Teen & Young Adult

Allen Fowler

Literature & Fiction

I have loved writing this memoir of my parents. While not a comprehensive Seidman family history, it is a reconstruction of my understanding of parts of my parents' background in Ukraine, their coming to this country, and the life they made here, all told from my point of view as the youngest of four siblings. Because I waited so long to research and write it, there are times in my parents' lives for which little hard information survives. In some parts of the memoir, in the honored tradition of the midrash, I have fleshed out what facts I had in a way that I think is true to those facts and to how I understand my parents' characters. I have made it clear in the text when I have done so. I used to ask my father what life was like for him in Russia. He would reply, "We were poor. We had nothing. America is the best country. What do you want to know for?" This book is my attempt to answer that question for myself and to tell the stories that lay behind his laconic answer. Irv Seidman, youngest child of Phillip and Fanny Seidman, is Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst. He lives with his wife, Linda, in Shutesbury, Massachusetts. They are the parents of Rachel F. and Ethan L. Seidman.

So You Might Know: A Memoir of My Parents

Irving Seidman

This collection of twenty-four stories, essays, and vignettes captures the experiences of two brothers who grew up in Brooklyn a decade apart. Irving (Itzik) Glasser (1925-1994) reveals the bittersweet experiences of growing up during the Great Depression. His younger brother, Myron (Mickey) Glazer, focuses more on the World War II and post-war years as he describes the similarities and differences in their childhood and adolescence. The brothers focus on family, work, and poverty, but also on their radio heroes, their love of sports, and the features of the city that made life in Brooklyn and beyond a treasure of humor and poignancy. As Mickey writes in the Preface, "The stories in this collection are a constant reminder of struggles and obstacles in our lives. But there are equally potent themes of courage and caring. Life in the special culture of Brooklyn of the 1930s and 40s is long gone, but the legacy of those days lives on. Even today, I remember my brother's voice, reminding me that there is humor to be found in every situation. This is a legacy to be cherished and nourished, because with humor there is also hope."

Itzik & Mickey: Stories from Brooklyn & Beyond

GLASSER, IRVING MARTIN & MYRON PERETZ GLAZER

Ecological Spirituality is a foundation work, examining human spiritual necessity with an under­standing of spiritual mechanisms anchored in biological and social existence. Giving meaning to life without the requirement to believe in the supernatural, this book is a pursuit of a spiritual framework that balances the human Soul between Heaven and Earth. Taking clues from modern science, it approaches spiritual identity through the nature of matter and space. "Ecological Spirituality is a post-traditional, ecologically sensitive account of our Earth in relation to Body, Soul, Spirit, Self, God and Heaven-terms we use to express our deeper nature and our place in the universe. Thoughtful readers will welcome J. Stuart Walter's timely vision and practice for authentic being-in-the-world." -Christopher Queen, PhD, Harvard University J. Stuart Walter was raised Unitarian/Universalist in Concord, Massachuetts, received a BA from Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, and lives in the Amherst, Massachusetts area.

Ecological Spirituality: and an Ecological Conception of God

J. Stuart Walter

Nine distinguished teachers of the Alexander Technique - Elisabeth Walker, Frank Ottiwell, Anne Battye, Joan and Alex Murray, Sarnie Ogus, Rome Earle, Ann Mathews, and Jane Heirich - speak with Ruth Rootberg about their lives, their work, and their approach to using their Alexander skills as they face aging, loss of loved ones, and the challenges of illness and injury. With over 400 years of combined teaching experience, they reveal how the Alexander Technique provides a dependable pathway to meet the ongoing challenges of daily living. This book is a wonderful resource for Alexander Technique students, teachers, and anyone who seeks models of aging with dignity and passion. Ruth Rootberg is a certified Alexander Technique teacher, Designated Linklater Voice teacher, and Certified Laban Movement Analyst. The author of many articles on the Alexander Technique, she comes from a classical voice and theater background and integrates many of these passions in her practice. Ruth lives and teaches in Amherst, Massachusetts and offers workshops in the United States and abroad.

Living the Alexander Technique: Interviews with Nine Senior Teachers

Ruth Rootberg

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