Shambhala library

"Li Po (701-762) is considered one of the greatest poets to live during the Tang dynasty--what was considered to be the golden age for Chinese poetry. He was also the first Chinese poet to become well known in the West, and he greatly influenced many American poets during the twentieth century. Calling himself the "God of Wine" and known to his patrons as a "fallen immortal," Li Po wrote with eloquence, vividness, and often playfulness, as he extols the joys of nature, wine, and the life of a wandering recluse. Li Po had a strong social conscience, and he struggled against the hard times of his age. He was inspired by the newly blossoming Zen Buddhism and merged it with the Taoism that he had studied all his life. Though Li Po's love of wine is legendary, the translator, J. P. Seaton, includes poems on a wide range of topics--friendship and love, political criticism, poems written to curry patronage, poems of the spirit--to offer a new interpretation of this giant of Chinese poetry. Seaton offers us a poet who learned hard lessons from a life lived hard and offered his readers these lessons as vivid, lively poetry--as relevant today as it was during the Tang dynasty. Over one thousand poems have been attributed to Li Po, many of them unpublished. This new collection includes poems not available in any other editions"--

"In this book Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chodron offers short, stand-alone readings designed to help us cultivate compassion and awareness amid the challenges of daily living. More than a collection of thoughts for the day, Comfortable with Uncertainty offers a progressive program of spiritual study. Inspired by the Buddhist tradition of the 108-day retreat, the book leads the reader through essential concepts, themes, and practices on the Buddhist path."--BOOK JACKET.

"The works of Henry David Thoreau contain some of the most beautifully written and inspiring observations of nature, yet most of his readers are familiar with only one of his books, Walden. Two other gems, The Maine Woods and Cape Cod, are travelogues containing some of his finest writing. Presented here are selections from the best of these two works, including Thoreau's record of his climb up Mount Katahdin, his arduous river journey by canoe down the Allegash River, the deadly shipwreck he encountered on his first trip to Cape Cod, as well as his wonderfully colorful and humorous portrait of a Wellfleet oysterman. These writings offer a vision of Thoreau struggling with the harsh realities of wild nature and of how people might live in harmony with the natural world."--Jacket.