While Chinese acupuncture and herbalism enjoy widespread popularity in the West, traditional Chinese exercise techniques—with the exception of qi... gong—have rarely been taught outside China. This book is designed to change that. Written by Jun Wang, a doctor of Chinese medicine, Cultivating Qi draws on classic Chinese texts to introduce these body-mind healing exercises to Western readers.In simple, accessible language, Wang presents three specific qi exercises: the Yijin Jing, a popular form of calisthenics associated with both Chinese Buddhist and Daoist traditions; Taiji Neigong, a series of 34 movements adapted from the Wu-Hao style of Taiji Quan; and the “Six Healing Breaths,” which combines spoken sounds with movements associated with the six major vital organs of Chinese medicine.Written for beginning students of Chinese medicine as well as laypersons, healthcare practitioners, and martial artists, Cultivating Qi includes clear explanations of Chinese medical terminology—and provides the original Chinese characters for more advanced students—as well as step-by-step instruction in the three exercises. Accompanied by 100 photographs, these exercises are suitable for all ages and activity levels, and most of themtake no more than 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Drawing from progressive educational thought, this guide helps teachers translate theory into classroom practice in seven crucial areas, including... developing communities of learners, planning instruction, and more.

Under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet government carried out a massive number of deportations, incarcerations, and executions. Paradoxically, at the... very moment that Soviet authorities were killing thousands of individuals, they were also engaged in an enormous pronatalist campaign to boost the population. Even as the number of repressions grew exponentially, Communist Party leaders enacted sweeping social welfare and public health measures to safeguard people's well-being. Extensive state surveillance of the population went hand in hand with literacy campaigns, political education, and efforts to instill in people an appreciation of high culture.In Cultivating the Masses, David L. Hoffmann examines the Party leadership's pursuit of these seemingly contradictory policies in order to grasp fully the character of the Stalinist regime, a regime intent on transforming the socioeconomic order and the very nature of its citizens. To analyze Soviet social policies, Hoffmann places them in an international comparative context. He explains Soviet technologies of social intervention as one particular constellation of modern state practices. These practices developed in conjunction with the ambitions of nineteenth-century European reformers to refashion society, and they subsequently prompted welfare programs, public health initiatives, and reproductive regulations in countries around the world.The mobilizational demands of World War I impelled political leaders to expand even further their efforts at population management, via economic controls, surveillance, propaganda, and state violence. Born at this moment of total war, the Soviet system institutionalized these wartime methods as permanent features of governance. Party leaders, whose dictatorship included no checks on state power, in turn attached interventionist practices to their ideological goal of building socialism.

When Thich Nhat Hanh was a 24-year-old monk, he fell desperately in love with a nun of 20. He couldn’t sleep, and stayed up all night writing poetry.... This book taps that experience in an ambitious double narrative that interweaves his memories of that first love with how it was transmuted into boddhichitta with a thoughtful study of the Mahayana Buddhist sutras. Through this unusual approach, Nhat Hanh shows readers how to nurture their own "mind of love" and bring joy and hope to themselves and those around them.

Commissioned by the Blanton-Peale Institute, Cultivating Wholeness is a practical, comprehensive, contemporary guide to community care and counseling.... Margaret Zipse Kornfeld, a pastoral psychotherapist for almost thirty years, focuses on wholeness, the dynamics change, an inclusive understanding of spirituality, the caregiver/ counselor, and on community as not merely the context for healing but also the means by which healing happens.

So central was labor in the lives of African-American slaves that it has often been taken for granted, with little attention given to the type of work... that slaves did and the circumstances surrounding it. Cultivation and Culture brings together leading scholars of slavery- historians, anthropologists, and sociologists- to explore when, where, and how slaves labored in growing the New World's great staples and how this work shaped the institution of slavery and the lives of African-American slaves.The authors focus on the interrelationships between the demands of particular crops, the organization of labor, the nature of the labor force, and the character of agricultural technology. They show the full complexity of the institution of chattel bondage in the New World and suggest why and how slavery varied from place to place and time to time.

An overview of the development of new religions and the controversies surrounding them in late modern society. A stimulating, course-friendly overview... of the history and development of new religious movements (NRMs) in the late twentieth century Explores eight cults and NRMs, including the Church of Scientology, Transcendental Meditation, Unificationism, The Family International, the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, the Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, and Wicca Each chapter reviews the origins, leaders, beliefs, rituals and practices of a NRM, highlighting the specific controversies surrounding this group Covers debates including what constitutes an authentic religion, the validity of claims of brainwashing techniques, the implications of experimentation with unconventional sexual practices, and the deeply rooted cultural fears that cults engender.

What is a cult? Why do they emerge? Who joins them? And why do tragedies such as Waco and Jonestown occur? This reader brings together the voices of... historians, sociologists, and psychologists of religion to address these key questions about new religious movements. Looks at theoretical explanations for cults, why people join and what happens when they do. Brings together the best work on cults by sociologists, historians, and psychologists of religion. A broad-ranging, balanced and clearly organized collection of readings. Includes coverage of topical issues, such as the 'brainwashing' controversy, and cults in cyberspace. Section introductions by the editor situate the nature, value, and relevance of the selected readings in context of current discussions.

Cults today are bigger than ever, with broad ramifications for national and international terrorism. In this newly revised edition of her definitive... work on cults, Singer reveals what cults really are and how they work, focusing specifically on the coercive persuasion techniques of charismatic leaders seeking money and power. The book contains fascinating updates on Heaven's Gate, Falun Gong, Aum Shinrikyo, Hare Krishna, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and the connection between cults and terrorism in Al Queda and the PLO.

How did the classical Greek city come into being? What role did religion play in its formation? Athens, with its ancient citadel and central religious... cult, has traditionally been the model for the emergence of the Greek city-state. But in this original and controversial investigation, Francois de Polignac suggests that the Athenian model was probably the exception, not the rule, in the development of the polis in ancient Greece.Combining archaeological and textual evidence, de Polignac argues that the eighth-century settlements that would become the city-states of classical Greece were defined as much by the boundaries of "civilized" space as by its urban centers. The city took shape through what de Polignac calls a "religious bipolarity," the cults operating both to organize social space and to articulate social relationships being not only at the heart of the inhabited area, but on the edges of the territory. Together with the urban cults, these sanctuaries "in the wild" identified the polis and its sphere of influence, giving rise to the concept of the state as a territorial unit distinct from its neighbors. Frontier sanctuaries were therefore often the focus of disputes between emerging communities. But in other instances, in particular in Greece's colonizing expeditions, these outer sanctuaries may have facilitated the relations between the indigenous populations and the settlers of the newly founded cities.Featuring extensive revisions from the original French publication and an updated bibliography, this book is essential for anyone interested in the history and culture of ancient Greece.

A television series is tagged with the label "cult" by the media, advertisers, and network executives when it is considered edgy or offbeat, when it... appeals to nostalgia, or when it is considered emblematic of a particular subculture. By these criteria, almost any series could be described as cult. Yet certain programs exert an uncanny power over their fans, encouraging them to immerse themselves within a fictional world. In Cult Television leading scholars examine such shows as The X-Files; The Avengers; Doctor Who, Babylon Five; Star Trek; Xena, Warrior Princess; and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to determine the defining characteristics of cult television and map the contours of this phenomenon within the larger scope of popular culture.

This volume reprints two articles by Paulo Freire (1921-1997) from 1970 that appeared in the Harvard Educational Review. These articles contain many of... Freire's original ideas on human rights and education issues that are central to his work. Freire was a pioneer in promoting the universal right to education and literacy as part of a commitment to people's struggle against oppression.