Bøger af John Herlihy

The blazing autumn leaves are forever falling, dying, Now as birds of light, forever free and forever flying.A symphony of color and light in a magical world, A riotous conflagration of fire as banners unfurled. The poems in this collection seek to find balance within the human condition between the two extremes of courage and cowardice, strength and weakness, virtue and vice, and above all light and darkness. We experience the interplay of such forces every day of our lives, forces that we must come to terms with in order to better understand what it means to be human.

The poems in this third collection further explore the world of nature and the people who live and thrive within that world of nature, partly because we humans have the capacity to listen and hear what the signs of nature can teach us, and partly because of its sheer beauty. If the artefacts of nature such as the sun, moon and stars speak to us directly, we are obliged to listen carefully to hear what they have to say, at the risk of seeming stone deaf if we ignore their messages. When birds speak, we have a duty to listen.

For lovers of Haiku and Tanka, this collection offers a rare and exotic feast. Whether moonglow in an ancient well or a ladybug sipping dew on an autumn leaf, these poems capture the soul of an idea in the light of Nature. The poems have no true horizon; instead, the author brings the sun, moon and stars down into our everyday lives to shed light on the mystery of what it means to be human. "The night was never so black, the moon never so bright, as in this rare collection of poems." - an internet reader "The mystery of beauty finally unveiled." -an internet reader

This collection of travel essays takes the reader on a unique journey to exotic, tropical islands from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean and the distant shores of Indonesia, with brief interludes in Eastern Turkey, Bosnia, Croatia and Southern India along the way. This is a riveting account of a well-seasoned traveler who knows how to write about and describe the adventures he enjoys, as he takes readers by the hand into the heart of darkness and light. "If you would like to travel and experience exotic lands without leaving your living room, this is the book to bring you there."

The poems in this collection seek to find balance within the human condition between the two extremes of courage and cowardice, strength and weakness, virtue and vice, and above all light and darkness. We experience the interplay of such forces every day of our lives, forces that we must come to terms with in order to better understand what it means to be human. "In this age of sound-bites and selfies, it is the rare exception to have the spotlight shine down upon a collection of modern-day poems that explores with such depth and insight what it means to be human in today's world."

This rare collection of poems offers a wide variety of subject matter and poetic styles. Each poem, in its own unique way, seeks to capture within its tone and phrasing the spirit of the modern world. John Herlihy as poet concerns himself primarily with the human condition and what it means to be both a human and a spiritual person in today's modern, fast-paced, materialistic and secular world. The poems are separated into four different categories, including a separate section for poems that explore the human intimacy with nature, portfolio poems that represent the heart and soul of the poet's output, narrative poems that tell a unique, individual story, and finally spiritual poems that focus primarily on the soul experience within the human condition, an experience that actually raises us up to fulfill our destiny as spiritual beings experiencing life in our human world.

Written by an American Muslim convert who has lived nearly 40 years among the Muslims, the author presents an insider's account of Islam's true place within the family of religions, what it means to be a Muslim living in the shadow of the modern world, and how to cultivate a life of spirituality through the way of Islam in today's anti-spiritual environment. Within its pages, history unfolds, mysteries are unveiled, and secrets are revealed that shed light on the great hu Written by an American Muslim convert who has lived nearly 40 years among the Muslims, the author presents an insider's account of Islam's true place within the family of religions, what it means to be a Muslim living in the shadow of the modern world, and how to cultivate a life of spirituality through the way of Islam in today's anti-spiritual environment. Within its pages, history unfolds, mysteries are unveiled, and secrets are revealed that shed light on the great human story of spiritual awakening and fulfillment.

Written by an American Muslim who converted to Islam over 40 years ago, this intimate portrait identifies the Qur'an as a companion and friend to the Muslims wherever they may be, especially in this anti-spiritual world with its emphasis on money, power and material possessions as the main goal of life and the answer to life's mysteries. It recounts the journey of a book that began in 7th century Arabia in the darkness of a cave in the black mountains outside of Makkah in present-day Saudi Arabia. The author explains in depth the many reasons why the Muslims-and he himself as a practicing Muslim-continue to respect and love their holy book as a treasure of great value in this world, even now in the present era with its secular outlook on life and its emphasis on a modern-day scientific rather than traditional worldview that provides no opening into the life and world of the Spirit. The book has been divided into two parts, each with nine chapters on a selected topic. Part One presents and clarifies the historical context in which the Qur'an was delivered, the circumstances around which the descent of the revelation was made known to humanity, how it came to be compiled and codified into a single book for future generations, and finally the influence the Qur'an had in the development of Islamic culture and science across the early centuries of Islam's growing stature as a global force. Many people today know of the existence of the Qur'an as the holy book of the Muslims, no doubt because the verses are often quoted by media pundits and terrorists alike to prove some obscure point that has nothing to do with the universal truths of the revelation, but the average person nowadays has very little idea of the historical narrative that brought the Islamic scripture to humanity in the first place or the context in which it was delivered. Part Two explores more deeply the spiritual life of the book which becomes the spiritual life of the Muslims who read and recite its verses. The Religion of Islam actually began with the descent of the initial verses through the Archangel Gabriel to the Prophet of Islam. It is virtually the heart and soul of the religion. The book is identified as "An Intimate Portrait" because in unveiling its very heart as a living presence for the Muslims, the author hopes to reveal the source and origin of all the emotions and higher sentiments that have descended to humanity through the book and will ascend back to God through its recitation and study. In addition to several chapters that identify the Qur'an as a book of knowledge and a book of blessing, the author has included a practical first-hand account of how the Muslims, whether they are young children, natural born Muslims, non-Arabic speaking Muslims, or Muslim converts such as the author himself, learn to come to terms with the correct recitation of the verses, including a focused knowledge of the exact pronunciation of the Arabic letters through the science of tajwid that governs the sonorous chanting of the sacred words and verses. Readers will not be disappointed in having this unique access to the historical, devotional and spiritual record of this "final revelation" of divine origin. It is a book that provides a complete and traditional worldview that present and future generations can live by, a book that has virtually changed the way billions of people down through the ages understand the purpose and meaning of life, a book that gives a sense of personal identity to individuals in search of the profound questions and mysteries they must confront and come to terms with in their lives. In short, according to the Muslims, it is a book like no other in this world.

This collection of essays resemble members of a family in which the children have all been adopted. They may not necessarily be related by blood; but they are related in terms of thematic content and by their intrinsic soul and spirit. While the title of the book evokes the multiple ways of the world, the reference in the sub-title specifies the human condition as both the foundation and ground upon which the human edifice is built. We open with in-depth speculation about the nature of destiny's promises. The meaning of the word "destiny" may not be elusive; but its practical application within our lives is questionable and ever present. We may or may not believe in individual fate or destiny, but we cannot escape the fact that there is an overlay of destiny in our lives that we wear as a winter cloak. Early on in the first chapter, I write that "If we try to examine the idea of destiny in all its aspects, we quickly realize that it slips through our fingers like silk cloth, shimmering with the light of insight before it vanishes like mist once again as a mystery whose window has disappeared." Only one thing seems to be certain, namely that our destiny enters our lives slowly, one drop at a time, recalling Abraham Lincoln's famous remark: "The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."I have devoted several chapters to the idea of the spiritual compass. We are all familiar with the four corners of the earth reaching from north to south, from east to west. We have relied on the physical compass down through the ages to make journeys into the unknown, we pursue our determined way to any number of destinations, or simply to find our way in the world. However, the notion of the spiritual compass has eluded our comprehension and grasp, particularly in this day and age. "Contrary to the magnetic compass of the earth, the symbolic image of the sacred compass provides a meaning of greater universal background and offers the astute seeker after truth a series of transparent landmarks that move beyond the immediate, earthly horizon, beyond even the great expanse of space and time, in order to enter a realm that is so preternatural, mysterious and profound that we must rely on the language of symbolism, of myth, or metaphor, indeed we must build upon the language of geometry even, in order to articulate the intangible phantoms of this spiritual and otherworldly reality." The spiritual compass comprises none other than our origins, our source, our center and our final end. This is none other than the spiritual compass of which I write.We close our collection of essays with some reflections on the way of the world. We live in our world today without fully understanding it, and without fully coming to terms with its inscrutable and mysterious ways. There is a secret to the world that we have yet to fathom and it will not be found by trying to dissect its physical properties down to the quantum level of existence. The true nature of our world lies far beyond any physical description of how it came into being and how it turns on its axis within the vast cosmos as if on a dime. We live in a world within multiple worlds, not the least of which being the inner world of the human condition. A secret indeed, but once discover opens onto a world of limitless possibilities that we could never before have imagined on our own. Therein lies the opportunity and the challenge.

This collection of traditional essays explores the meaning of the human condition as we live in today's post-modern world. The ten essays explore such commonplace ideas as trust, love, time, silence, and death. We take these words for granted without ever really coming to terms with their true meaning and import into our lives. What does the idea of trust and love, silence and death really mean and how do we apply these terms to our lives in a manner that is meaningful and significant. In the first Chapter on trust, the author writes: "Locked within the experience of the world there lies the secret of some final emotion that begins to emerge every time we reach beyond ourselves and experience the world in all its true reality, through the intelligence of the mind and the love of the heart." These essays have been written within the context of the perennial philosophy in which the principle of Unity and Oneness lies at the heart of the human as well as the universal condition.