Dear Friend,

Welcome to our Spring Reader, in which as always you will find a cornucopia of wonderful books and interesting, informative articles. I hope you find it light-filled, exciting, and a source of much-needed inspiration.

I know these are difficult times for many of us, both psychologically and economically. It’s as if were stand at an evolutionary moment as things quickly change. The chaos from which the new will be born is palpable. Microcosmically, in our individual lives we experience the current global crisis in our own way. Certainly, cash is short, and most of us have little disposable income to spare, forcing us to prioritize. Nevertheless, I would like to make a plea that you continue to buy and read serious books. Doing so helps you as well as us. Through reading, together we can all find inner strength and inspiration to forge a fruitful, transformative, and compassionate path through hard times. It’s almost magical how a simple book can inspire, nurture, and germinate new meaning and renew our sense of purpose and direction.

At SteinerBooks, we are in the same position you are. We expect overall sales to be down considerably; donations, too, will probably fall substantially. And we, too, will have to prioritize and cut back in many ways. Nonetheless, we believe that our mission is to continue to bring the light of the spirit into the world, and somehow—despite the present recession (or depression)—we are determined to continue to fulfill that mission. You can help us by putting books and reading on your list of priorities. They certainly cost less, and their effects last longer than most things we buy. And so, if you believe in what we are doing and have the means to do so, we ask you to help us this year by continuing to buy and read our books. Please buy directly from us rather than from Amazon or others, to whom we must give hefty discounts.

Personally, I shall buy and read more books and go less frequently to the theater and concerts. I shall do so for the nourishment, for engagement in the world, and for the incentive to rededicate myself continually to the values of service, compassion, learning and engagement, and understanding of the physical and spiritual worlds in which we live. I hope our readers will consider doing the same. In at least one sense, SteinerBooks is a community; publishing spiritual books depends in equal measure upon those who produce them and upon those who buy and read them. We cannot do our work alone; what we do, we do together.

Therefore, we are very grateful to you, our readers. We appreciate the gift and the support and friendship immanent in every book you buy. We thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for being there.

All very best wishes in these turbulent times,
Gene Gollogly
President & CEO, SteinerBooks

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In addition to the many new and favorite books, the 2009 Spring Reader includes a few extracts from new books and an article:

First up is the introduction to Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love, by Arthur Zajonc. In it, he outlines the essence of his approach and makes suggestions for beginning a contemplative practice.

"By now it has become clear that contemplative practice works. The hundreds of scientific studies of its efficacy have shown the value of meditation in many health contexts. A high point for me in this regard was a large conference at MIT in 2003 that I co-facilitated, called “Investigating the Mind.”4 A distinguished group of Buddhist scholars and monks, including the Dalai Lama, were on stage with an equally distinguished group of cognitive scientists and psychologists. Richard Davidson from the University of Wisconsin in Madison was presenting data from his extensive studies of eight expert Buddhist contemplatives during long periods of meditation.5 His research was meticulous, with every control one could imagine to eliminate experimental artifacts. The data were compelling. Even at the level of neurophysiology, dramatic changes were evident, and these went far beyond what one could expect from any normal variations."

Next is “Calendars Do Not Forget” by Kevin Dann, from Christ & the Maya Calendar: 2012 & the Coming of the Antichrist by Robert Powell & Kevin Dann. This very interesting chapter from the book begins Kevin's description of the Maya calendar and its importance for today. Kevin talks of the enormity of this subject:

"Though we may find ourselves initially disappointed that the date that we formerly believed to be so precise in its identification by the ancient Maya is actually a thirty-six-year time span, consider the enormous span of time between alignments: The alignment of a solstice or equinox point with the Galactic Equator occurs only each quarter precessional cycle, that is, every 6,480 years. The next solstice alignment will take place in 12,960 years. That the Maya calendar, dating back perhaps further in time than our own Christian calendar, could pinpoint this rare, unique, astronomical event with such precision is stunning. Might there be other calendars with similar foresight?"

We have also included Christopher Bamford's insightful introduction to Rudolf Steiner's Inner Reading and Inner Hearing & How to Achieve Existence in the World of Ideas, a recent addition to The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner. As always, Christopher describes the context of these 1914 lectures, given as they were during the chaos and confusion as World War I was just beginning in Europe.

"Throughout the first four of these lectures, Steiner speaks directly and candidly of his own research experiences—above all with the dead, but also, as the lectures unfold, with higher spiritual beings—in astonishing depth and detail. The lectures, therefore, ought not to be read for mere information about the spiritual world, but read and reread as a guide to our own inner and outer lives."

In this unique article, the founding doctors of True Botanica discuss their views on healing, focusing on substances, as well as on our physical and inner conditions. They tell us:

"Surprisingly, perhaps, a metamorphosis has occurred in our epoch. True advancement in cognition, whether as deeper reading comprehension or higher awareness, can occur only when the human 'I' is able to penetrate in a healthy and harmonious manner all three functions: human thinking, feeling, and willing. As Rudolf Steiner summarizes it, in a culmination of his esoteric work, a new call needs to sound: 'O Man, know thyself in body, soul, and spirit.' At the core, then, it can be said that the most illuminated insight will be possible only if health penetrates all three levels....

"The mission of True Botanica is to develop nutritional supplements based on Rudolf Steiner's indications, with the goal of increasing one's health in a way that allows the best overall function, from a better physical health to better cognition and ultimately to enhancing one's ability to arrive at spiritual insight."

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You don't have to wait to receive a copy in the mail; you can download an electronic version by clicking HERE

If you are not on our mailing list or wish to request extra copies of the catalog, please send email to friends@steinerbooks.org. Be sure to include a postal address and phone number.

From all of us at SteinerBooks, we hope you enjoy the 2009 Spring Reader.

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