This is one of the most useful and impactful books on Ramana Maharshi. Having read "all" of his works, when Matthew Greenblatt first presented this book, it really changed the standard on how to access Ramana. So much of Ramana's teachings are visual, or in silence, that, more than virtually any other teacher, this is a uniquely powerful way to convey his messages. If you buy no other book on Ramana, buy this one - everything is there. Among many "hard core" Ramana Maharshi folk, this has rapidly become the great favorite. Buy it - it can change your life.

This book has become one of my favorites. It is filled with clear black and white photographs of Ramana Maharshi. Inserted on the pictures are GEMS of Ramana's teachings. The quotes are distilled and arranged in such a way to make them tremendously potent. I read a few pages at a time as I look at the pictures. I start feeling enlightenment. The words are dripping with profound simple insight into our apparent condition. The phantom self begins to drop away, peace begins to bring it's light, there is no need to seek. There is nowhere we need to go, it's all center, nobody's going anywhere. Time and space are but an illusion. Reading the words in this book. It's so simple and clear. All seeking, even religious seeking assume a separation from the infinite but the infinite is always here and now. Seeking objectifies and distances the infinite from us. It can even strenghthen the ego, now one has become a super holier than thou ego. There might be a certain readiness needed for this teaching. Some methods use seeking and a distance from God. Sometimes one needs to keep seeking because of all the commotion going on in one's soul. A tempest is blasting in one's soul and sometimes we are too in a hurry to be in the present. We've got things to do and places to go, you know. If you've begun to see the futility of seeking then you are ready for this book. You'll experience quiet, peace and stillness and an ordinary contentment with what is. What you feel after this depends on how much you contemplate and meditate upon these words and finally go beyond them into your REAL SELF. There is the phantom self and your REAL SELF. This book can help you find your REAL SELF that has been here all along, remember...?

this beautiful book is a treat for anyone interested in spiritual insight. ramana maharshi was a wise man and more: an illumined man. the photos are beautiful, the text, though brief, is sublime. he insists we are o k just as we are. we fail to realize it because we fail to know ourselves as we really are; infinite and divine. to read this book is to partake in a visual and philosophical feast. its brevity demands attention. its truths have the power to enlighten. enjoy this book as a meditation which will help you see and know your true Self.

Simon, by author Laura Sheerin Gaus, is a great selection for classroom teachers who are interested in combining historic events with exciting reading for their 9-12 year old students. The story is based on an actual event of the author's grandfather. While it provides the reader an enjoyable trip into the past as Simon comes to America in 1849, it has a completely different education value since the O'Shea family comes, not through Ellis Island, but New Orleans. Students will relate to Simon and the new and different life he finds in America. They, along with Simon, will discover the horrors of slavery, the challenges of living in a new world, the excitement of a new trade, and the difficult decision that Simon must make; a decision which will change his life and that of his family forever. As a fourth grade teacher I loved the book and feel it would serve as a wonderful reading tradebook for 4th, 5th, 6th, and even older students in the classroom. It's no surprise that as teachers discover this book, they are making it part of their classroom collection.

SIMON is a most enjoyable book that provided the topic for an interesting and spirited discussion among three generations in our family. It began with giving the book to our grandchildren for their birthdays and ended with the kids, their parents and grandparents spending a great deal of time together talking about Simon's decision and subsequent action, exchanging views on the subject and actually listening to each other. What an unexpected and joyous bonus to receive from what is already a really terrific book. Mrs. Gaus truly rates FIVE STARS for SIMON!

Simon was packed with intresting things to learn. Every page was a learning experiance and it had a lot of detail. Everybody I mean everybody should read this book. If you are tired of reading dumb books about boys and girls kissing, read Simon. If you don't like Simon you are a psycopath.You're missing out on so much.

I am truly grateful to Douglas E. Harding for this superb book, which is a collection of articles by Douglas over nearly four decades. Every one of these is a gem. Mr. Harding teaches you how to look inward and how you can come to the realisation that what you are really is an infinite capacity for love. The Advaita concept which is not that easy to grasp has been lucidly demonstarted by this articulate sage. This book is a must for any seeker.

Love and best wishes.

mr harding has for half a century traveled the world sharing his view of our ultimate identity. he has also found time to write some great books. this is one of his best. for that matter it is one of THE best. he simplifies the in-seeing into our truest and deepest identity. with that seeing and realization comes a great clarity of who and what and where we really are. you could sit in zazen for 10 yrs or read this book in 3 hrs. either method has a very good chance of helping you know yourself in a truly new and wonderful and freeing way. most problems will shrink into a manageable size once you realize WHO has the problem. most joys will be increased when you see the wonder of their SOURCE. this book is profoundly spiritual without being dogmatic, sectarian, or emotionally icky. there's no superstition here, just a clear sweet insight into WHO you are and what I AM.

At first glance Harding's "headless" approach looks more like a gimmic than a spiritual exercise. Pretending that one has no head seems like something for children to do. Harding's methods help one break through the subject/object duality of experience. All experience begins with the "I" thought. With Harding's headless method the "I" is no longer idenfied with it's customary location in the head but with what one experiences.

I admit I had a hard time with some of his language as there seems to be a slight communication gap (for me anyway) between British and American english. It wasn't until I actually has a headless experience that I saw the profundity of his work. With so many spiritual texts sounding like the other this is truly a unique work and perspective.

I do NOT raise orchids, but after reading Hansen's STRANGER IN THE FOREST (about his trek across Borneo) I couldn't wait to read ORCHID FEVER... His first chapter is as good as STRANGER; well-written, visual descriptions, insightful characterizations and his usual ascerbic wit/commentary on the absurdity of the orchid world kept me glued to the book. Alas, since it's so short, I couldn't bear the thought of it ending, so I took more than a month to read it by only allowing myself to read a chapter per week. Since ORCHID is more of an anthology, a collection of essays on the most eccentric, bizarre characters that populate the orchid world, it didn't hurt to savor ORCHID in this manner because it's really not a book but a collection. The chapters on trekking into Borneo to collect undiscovered species and when he finally meets the mean-spirited orchid judges were highlights. I laughed out loud numerous times. My husband does not garden and he loved the book too... You don't have to be an avid gardener to enjoy this book. If you enjoy reading about truly wacko, obsessive people then it's irrelevant if you can't tell an orchid from a lily, you will still find this book fascinating.

This delightful book charmed me from the first and kept me reading in amazement until the end. More bizarre than the most irreverant satire, Orchid Fever examines the incredible characters, situations and locales that make up the world of orchids. You don't need to know a thing about plants to enjoy this book, for it is the people and places Eric Hansen describes that makes for a fascinating read.

Eric Hansen takes you on journeys around the world and back again as he points out the trials, tribulations, obsessions, repossessions of orchids. The book is not only full of humor and suspense, but it is a wonderful reference for botanical gardens, books, people, etc. I only put the book down to sleep and go to work. I think my most common statement throughout was "oh my god!" The verbal visualization of the world's most exotic plants to the irrational acts of the people with "power" to the lengths people will go to save a plant simply made me say "oh my god" over and over again. It's a must read!

Written for the average investor (those with IRA, 401K, and perhaps some free cash for individual stocks), this is by far the best book I've ever read on investing. It is not only very entertaining, but is full of practical information. This book was published in 1999 and accurately foretold the stock market crash. (Those who followed his advice saved a lot of money).

After reading this book, you'll realize that most of the "experts" that you see on tv or read about in the paper are just shills for Wall Street. Their interest is in getting you to buy and sell stocks so that THEY can make money.

From a practical point, the author argues convincingly against the "buy and hold" approach, demonstrating with simple graphs and language how devastating this can be to your wealth. For example, the Nasdaq was at 5000 in March of 2000. It's now at 1500. While it may recover to 5000 one day, do you want to wait another 10 or 15 years merely to get back to even?

Finally, and most importantly, his research shows the average investor how to triple the returns of the S&P 500 by following the "seasonal" tendency of the stock market to rise strongly in the November to late April period and then to fall in the May through October period. The data is very, very convincing.

In a word, if you want a clear, simple, and straightforward understanding of the stock market and how to use that information to dramatically increase your returns while lowering your risk, this is the book for you. Those who read the book and follow his advice can look forward to a very comfortable retirement. Those who don't, well, good luck to you.

I have read many books on investing and would have to say Sy has covered many topics that you don't see in most. Sy gives you a good look at how the securities industry works and a system for investing that is easy to implement. He addresses the fact that there is risk in the market, something most investors don't seem to respect. It is written very clearly making it an easy read. If you are looking too learn more about investing, do yourself a favor and read this book. Not only could it make you money, it could save you money as well.

After finding this book in a second hand book shop, I decided to buy and read it. I noticed it predicted the bear market to come and it was actually written in 1999, two years BEFORE the bear market actually started. It seemed to make such good sense and I decided I would try the seasonal strategy. Like many, I had gained and lost spectacularly over the past seven years. Im a really good stock picker, but I just had no guiding strategy. This book appeared to actually made some sense out of what I could do, with its seasonal strategy approach. The result: In 2002, a year when the average mutual fund lost -23%, I gained +17% on my portfolio. And I sold and BOOKED the 17% profit in May. Then, as Sy advises, I bought back in again, in November. My stocks are up +55% for the last six months----and---I am getting ready to SELL! What a far cry from before! True, I made some great picks this year. But I now have a strategy,learned from this book, that will allow me to KEEP my profits by knowing WHEN TO SELL!!

Sy, your book is a true revelation. You are a born teacher and a real spirit. And you are someone the word TRUST, such a rarity in the financial professions, can be bestowed upon without any reservation. Thanks for your gift and sharing it with us. In deepest appreciation.

And to any skeptics, buy this book. It IS amazing and simple and makes so much sense. IT will change your investment ability forever.

Douglas Harding's On Having No Head: Zen And The Rediscovery Of The Obvious is a philosophical look at "headlessness", or the psychological state of "no-self" of mysticism that opens one's mind and senses to the workings of internal and external nature. Harding places "the headless way" within a Zen context, as well as comparing it to other spiritual traditions in this insightful and thought-provoking treatise. On Having No Head is a highly recommended contribution to Buddhist and Eastern Philosophy supplemental reading lists.

Is the world you experience "inside" your mind or "outside" it?

Puzzle over that little question while you read this underground spiritual classic. Douglas Harding is dead serious (though far from solemn): he wants to show you that you have no head.

You see, he noticed one day while wandering in the Himalayas -- where this sort of thing is apt to happen -- that _he_ didn't have a head. And, in reflecting on the experience afterwards, he worked out a way to bring other people to the same awareness with no need for either abstruse scholarly appartus or esoteric meditation techniques.

All you have to do is turn around the arrow of attention, and try to look back to see who -- or Who -- is looking _out_ from wherever it is you're looking out from. Go ahead. Try it right now.

See?

Well, if you did, you don't technically need the book any more. But Harding is still a lot of fun to read: he has a light touch, a subtle sense of humor, and the ability to compress the keenest of insights into the simplest of prose, so you'll enjoy him even if you've already gotten his point.

And if you _haven't_ gotten it yet, he'll help you to do so. It's really the same point Alan Watts wanted to put across in _The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are_ (which, for my money, is his best work on the subject). Watts wants you to see that the world is your body; Harding wants you to see that the world is your mind; and they're both right.

This is just a charming book all around, and it will grow on you over the years without ever getting old. Buy a copy and keep it; when it wears out, buy another. Pass it out to your friends. Force it on your enemies (and thereby turn them into your friends). I've gone through at least a couple copies of it myself.

Of course, if you're one of those people who thinks spirituality isn't _supposed_ to be fun, and that anything this simple is somehow unworthy of God, you should probably stay away from it for a while. Read Raymond Smullyan's _The Tao Is Silent_ first and (chuckle) lighten up.

Is the world you experience "inside" your mind or "outside" it? Read Harding, and then _you_ tell _me_.

'On Having No Head : Zen and the Re-Discovery of the Obvious' by D. E. Harding, is astonishingly wonderful soul food. Most books on Zen leave the reader more lost than before the reading, but this is a profound exception. It starts with an "Ahah!" that on the surface seems quite absurd, carries you immediately to understand the 'situation' of having no head, and leaves the reader with a lasting appreciation of what we 'headless ones' can look forward to :) It is a lot of fun!

I really liked this book because of its strong practical outlook. It could be titled : Some useful tricks to remember your true nature. However I would have liked some more insights. I hope I am not unfair to Douglas Harding but, reading it, I sometimes got the feeling the teaching was based on hearsay. The book is based on conversations and on workshops that he conducts and it has this kind of workshop marketing flavour sometimes. I do not agree with the assumptions that this is even shorter Short Cut. The "tricks" are helpful to remember who we are but they do not form a true teaching> It might be a shortcut but how far do you really want to go ??

This book edited by David Lang, is one of the most accesible books of Douglas Harding. It may bring you from hear - say to look - see. Highly recommanded.
Douglas and Catherine have visited me in my house here in Belgium, and they are wonderful people, indeed. I hope you can meet them one day.
You can read the preface Douglas wrote for my first book on my website, []

Jan Kersschot, author of "nobody home"

We study the ancient wisdom texts because we feel they may be able to help us understand who and what we are. But what we quickly discover is that these ancient texts, whether Zen such as Seng-ts'an's 'Hsin-hsin-ming,' or Buddhist such as the Prajnaparamita 'Heart Sutra,' or Vedantic such as the 'Ashtavakra Gita,' even when quite short, as these three are, are by no means easy to understand. One could easily spend a lifetime studying the original texts, their translations and commentaries, and still end up no wiser. Ultimately, what they demand is not so much understanding as insight. What is Brahman, or Emptiness, or Seng-ts'an's 'Not-Two'? How does one really find out?

Traditionally one approaches a Master, attends to his words, and practises meditation. Then, after prolonged meditation, insight may come. But not everyone can avail themself of a Master. Some of us have to make do with texts. And meditation can take years. And we are busy and harassed modern folks. Is there a simpler, easier, faster way of arriving at insight? Amazingly, there is. If you really want to grasp what all the great Indian and Tibetan and Chinese and Japanese Masters and Sages and Rishis have been trying to convey to their disciples down through the centuries, all you need do is read this book.

Why, after these thousands of years, it should have been left to an Englishman to discover a simple mental act, an act which anyone can perform anywhere at any time and which unlocks the mystery of 'Not-Two,' I have no idea. But after spending more than twenty years puzzling my head over Eastern texts before finally discovering Harding, I can assure you that his instructions for "reversing the arrow of attention" really do work. His are the most important books I have ever read.

Attention is a bit like a compass. The act of attention which you are bringing to bear on these words as you read them is like the compass needle. Just as the needle always points North, your attention is almost always pointing here, out here. You give no thought to this. But the answer you seek is not out here.

Make Harding your Master. Let him neatly sever your head. You will quickly find that the 'Not-Two' is not a mystery any more. For by following his simple instructions you will have become it.

I confess that before reading this book I knew little of Florence Harding beyond the rumor that she poisoned her husband. After reading Mr. Anthony's excellent work I know feel that I know of her better. I'm just not sure I like her. Yes, she was an activist First Lady, sometimes even overshadowing her husband. And she certainly was single-minded in her drive to get Harding to the White House. But at what cost? She essentially abandoned her son, seeing little of him during his short life. Her involvement with her grandchildren was minimal at best. She had no close friends outside of Evalyn McLean, with the possible exception of "Doc" Sawyer, although that relationship was more one of interdependence. See what I mean about complex? Mr. Anthony has done a great job in partially rehabilitating the Duchess' historical image. It's a shame the selfish Mrs. Harding in a sense inhibited her biographer by burning nearly all of her husband's presidential papers. As an aside, I couldn't help noticing parallels between Harding's administration and the current one. See if you agree.

Florence Harding's biography is not something that I would normally want to read, let alone spend money to obtain. However, after leafing through it in our local bookstore, I added it to my cart on a whim the last time I bought from Amazon. If you are interested in American History in general and the presidency in particular (as I am), you will devour this book (as I did). The parallels to the Clintons, while unmentioned by the author, are undeniable; in fact, it would be appropriate for Hillary to attempt channeling with Florence rather than Eleanor Roosevelt! This makes the reading all the more lively and contemporary. This biography does a great service to the memory of Florence Harding, who comes off very poorly in nearly all the historical summaries I have read. She is usually portrayed as imperious, aggressive, and authoritarian -- which she was, but not without reason; and Harding is portrayed as being the victim of a loveless marriage -- which he was not, she adored him. Why is the wife always blamed for her "coldness" when a husband sleeps around? I was left with great admiration for Mrs. Harding, and a desire to learn even more about her. Congratulations, Mr. Anthony, on a monumental biography.

I haven't read a lot about the Hardings -- at least, nothing much that presented them as other than a brief, corrupt interlude in our country's history -- so it was with interest that I picked up this big, thick book on a woman I knew little about. Once I opened the cover, I was never bored, and seldom tempted to skip pages :-) It was truly fascinating to discover Florence Harding as a real person. This book does include all the rumors and intrigues that surrounded Florence and her contemporaries ... and without which you would lose sight of historical perspective, for we are all not only what we think of ourselves, but also what others think of us. But it covers more than rumors and scandal; extensively researched and well-written, this book presents a stunning portrait of a complex woman and her times. However ... the similarities between the Clintons and the Hardings has probably stimulated my interest in reincarnation more than this book's non-metaphysical author would prefer ! A good read!

here is wonderful book which outlines the very character of the Anglo-Saxon people. It is great and Churchill really adds a name to this not to mention the great newspaper reporter Richard davis

This story leaves you grinning from ear-to-ear. A great "rags to riches" tale that definitely appeals to children. I had a copy as a child and recently read it to my 7-year-old son. He then re-read it directly after I finished. Although quite short, the story stays with you a long time. . .
Also, I suspect the Winston Churchill is the Popular turn-of-the last century author of "Richard Carvel". His popularity was such that Sir Winston always used his middle initial to distinguish himself from the other (i.e. - Winston S. Churchill).

This book is a very good book and entertaining althought very few people know of it. It is very worth anyones wild to track it down and enjoy reading. I would love to get a copy for my collection

This book was an easy read and kept my attention. It brought back memories of my childhood. I think it covered the topics of racism and the depression very well. I hope there will be other books by this author.

This novel exudes warmth and loving knowledge of the human heart. The characters are all finely drawn, the dialogue reveals an ear for the southern conversation that would have done Faulkner proud. After spending some time with the Hammond family as portrayed by Dean McGarity, you will truly feel as if you know them, and have been made the richer for it. This portrait of a southern childhood will whipsaw your emotions from tears to outright belly laughs. Enjoy the ride and the fine writing of Ms. Mcgarity, and take a moment to reflect on what has been gained and lost in America's headlong drive toward a modernity where regional differences have vanished.

I just read this book and was immediately engrossed in the family life. I'd like to see more from this author-it was an excellent picture of Southern life of that era. It had a good view of the Depression and of the racial problems of the period.