Sounds True Press Room

January 19, 2012

Explore the Metaphor and Symbolic Power of the Native Bow and Arrow

Filed under: spirituality — Sounds True Press Room @ 3:22 pm

The Lakota Way of Strength and Courage:Lessons in Resilience from the Bow and Arrow

By Joseph M. Marshall III *AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 1 2012

 In Lakota tradition, the bow and arrow were more than tools for hunting or battle.  The bow’s resilience and flexibility, the arrow’s grace and power, the archer’s focus and patience—in these, we find the essential qualities for living a life of strength, purpose, and simplicity. In The Lakota Way of Strength and Courage (Sounds TrueFebruary 1, 2012), Joseph M. Marshall III builds upon the central metaphor of the bow and arrow to provide a treasury of insights, stories, and irreplaceable wisdom. With elegant and captivating writings, this master storyteller illuminates timeless lessons on:

  • Transformation—how we can preserve what is fundamental even as our external circumstances change
  • Simplicity—the story of grandmother Grass Braid, who understood that “the more you know, the less you need to carry”
  • Strength and Resiliency—what the history and lore of the Lakota can teach us about growing through adversity
  • Purpose—how the world unveils our purpose to us, as revealed in story of the “Keeper of the Winter Count”

Once, the Lakota people relied on the ash bow and the willow arrow to provide food and sustenance. Today, these simple tools can offer us something even more precious: a way to nourish our souls with spiritual wisdom. Joseph M. Marshall offers a book that is at once profound, honest, and rich with meaning as he reveals The Lakota Way of Strength and Courage

“Joseph Marshall is a master storyteller who reveals profound principles of ancestral wisdom. In a brilliant weaving of metaphorical teaching, Marshall shares a treasury of insights for living a life of strength, purpose, and simplicity. This is such an important book for our times!”
—Sandra Ingerman, author of Soul Retrieval and Awakening to the Spirit World

January 4, 2012

Standing in Your Own “Yes” : Founder & Spiritual Director of the Agape International Spiritual Center, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Shares His Life Visioning Process to Manifest the Soul’s Truest Potential

Filed under: Books for Better Living, Michael Beckwith, Michael Bernard Beckwith, spirituality — Sounds True Press Room @ 11:23 am

Why have you been given this singular treasure that is your life—and how will you use it? What is the purpose for the unique blend of gifts, skills, experiences, and perspectives that you alone possess? To support you in answering these questions and living in sync with your inner calling, Michael Bernard Beckwith presents Life Visioning: A Transformative Process for Activating Your Unique Gifts and Highest Potential (on sale January 1, 2012)—an essential companion for anyone seeking to accelerate their spiritual evolution.

Michael Beckwith created the Life Visioning Process to be a transformational technology for applying deep inquiry and spiritual practice to enable the growth, development, and unfoldment of your soul. With Life Visioning, he details the process in its entirety, with invaluable insights and meditations to help you each step of the way, including:

  • The four stages of consciousness: Victim, Manifester, Channel, and Being—the characteristics of each stage, and how we move through them
  • The dance of co-creation—establishing the balance between effort and surrender
  • Where powerful intentions come from, and why they are much greater than self-serving desires
  • The “dark night of the soul”—a guide for navigating the uncertain transition between stages of consciousness
  • Cultivating intuition as a key to realizing the highest vision for your life
  • Applying the Life Visioning Process in all of your life structures including relationships, finances, livelihood, and spiritual practice

“When your thoughts and actions begin to align with the imperatives of your soul,” explains Beckwith, “you enroll the full support of the universe. Unimagined possibilities begin to open up as you synchronize with the divine.” With Life Visioning, this dynamic teacher shares an unparalleled method for navigating every stage of your evolutionary journey—and fulfilling your highest calling as only you can.

December 12, 2011

Start your Meditation Journey with Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming The Present Moment–And Your Life

Filed under: Jon Kabat-Zinn, meditation, self-help, spirituality — Tags: , — Sounds True Press Room @ 4:09 pm

Enjoy this excerpt from Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a new treasury of meditations and wisdom gems, like the one below, created by the teacher who introduced mindfulness to modern medicine.  See the presskit page: http://wp.me/P64an-MQ

Beginner’s Mind

It tends to be a momentous occasion to intentionally stop all your outward activity and, just as an experiment, sit or lie down and open to an interior stillness with no other agenda than to be present for the unfolding of your moments — perhaps for the first time in your adult life.

The people I know who have incorporated the practice of mindfulness into their lives remember quite vividly what drew them to it in the first place, including the feeling tone and life circumstances that led up to that moment of beginning. I certainly do. The emotional topology of the moment of beginning — or even of the moment of realizing that you want to connect with yourself in such a way — is rich and unique for each of us.

Suzuki Roshi, the Japanese Zen Master who founded the San Francisco Zen Center and touched the hearts of so many, is famous for having said, “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” Beginners come to new experiences not knowing so much and therefore open. This openness is very creative. It is an innate characteristic of the mind. The trick is never to lose it. That would require that you stay in the ever-emerging wonder of the present moment, which is always fresh. Of course you will lose beginner’s mind in one way, when you cease to be a beginner. But if you can remember from time to time that each moment is fresh and  new, maybe, just maybe, what you know will not get in the way of being open to what you don’t know, which is always a larger field. Then a beginner’s mind will be available in any moment you are open to it.


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