Lotus Reviews

in fictional form. Written at the height of the Civil Rights movement in the United States, this book can make a white person *feel* the pain of racial discrimination. This is my personal favourite of all the Hersey output. In addition to the "message", this book also tells a fine story of personal courage in the face of adversity. Please do read this one.

I thought this was the best book I've ever read. It's a little long, but it's worth reading. It's well written, it's interesting, and it is realistic. It's a story that seems like it could really happen, and it makes you stop and think what you would do in a situation like White Lotus finds herself in. John Hersey makes you feel like you're in the story, or listening to White Lotus sitting right across from you telling you her story!

I first encountered this book in college, which is (presumably) a radical time in anyone's life. As a student of anthropology, I was being confronted with a number of issues, and this book pretty much served as the wrecking ball which finally destroyed my old opinions regarding race and gender in any given society--and thank heavens for that! This book made me laugh and cry and, most importantly, think. I know it made me a more conscious member of society, and maybe that's what the author set out to do, in addition to simply telling an incredibly gripping tale. In any case, this one is more than worth the effort it takes to track it down. In any age, this one is a classic.

Other than the original three books this is one of the best in the series. The later volumnes are not nearly as informative as some of the earlier works. This one is full of clear and concise guidance. You can read all of these books over and over and learn something new each time.

One book, that if you understand it (in your mind and heart) will change your life for the whole eternity.

Para aqueles que buscam a Verdade, a Luz, O Caminho é mostrado com simplicidade através dos ensinamentos de Saint Germain. O volume 17 da Série"The I Am Discourses" - Discursos de AYAM , continua a mostrar a todos como alcançar a Graça, como se tornam Um adepto da Grande Fraternidae Branca, como ser vitorioso no caminho. Portanto, amigos, buscadores da Luz, estudantes da verdade... não desanimem, leiam, estudem, selecionem com mestria as fontes de ensinamento e saber, e afimamos com certeza, ser esta série de livros, publicados por Saint Germain Press, o porto mais seguro e verdadeiro para o iniciante. "Hosana, Bendito seja o Senhor que abriu o Sétimo Sêlo permitindo, assim, a Terra entrar numa Era de Paz e Felicidade". Obrigado.... Riva - Belo Horizonte

A great book to learn about healing and channeling your energies in a more positive way. The book has many 'gems' in terms of ideas, thoughts, and basic healthly, positive principles of living -- for the novice to the expert person who is on a spiritual quest to a more fulfilling life. Buy it!

The colors & tones of this deck are SO different from any other products I have purchased/reviewed. A photo of the stone is imposed upon the painted artwork. The 6 stones unique to this set are: Earth Keeper crystal, iolite, apatite, shiva lingam, star quartz, & boulder opal. The division by elements/areas is similar to The Crystal Ally Cards & the Crystal Journey Cards, but is a completely "new" system of association. To my knowledge, there is no other deck so precisely built around a specific discipline. The skandhas are from sacred geometry: cube, icosahedron, (merkabah)star tetrahedron, octahedron & dodecahedron. The lotus blossom on each of the 8 cards per elemental "suit" are that chakra's color: red, orange, yellow, *emerald, *rose, blue, indigo, purple. (note: the heart chakra uses these 2*) There are 10 readings/layouts.

I love this book and card deck! Of all the books I've read about crystals, this is the most comprehensive book I've seen! The card deck is great for readings! This book links crystals to the metaphysical and physical parts of human beings in a way that makes so much sense. Now I really understand why crystals affect us.

And the cards are great! Whenever I get a cold or feel down about something, I just get out the deck of cards and give myself a reading from the "Jewels of the Lotus." The reading is always right on track - I come away with insights into the situation and then I make progress by using what I learned.

This is a long overdue book and card deck - it is definitely on my gift list for my favorite people!

-Gena Parkhurst Chicago, IL

In high school, kids spend time reviewing the Declaration of Independence and learning its meaning. This book goes well beyond that to inspect the thoughts and ideas that were prevalent in the late 18th century and how they influenced the document. Becker goes into great detail about natural rights theory according to John Locke and explores the ins and outs of its implications. This to me was the strongest and most enjoyable part of the book. He also explores the thoughts and ideas that were circulating Britain at the time.

Building on this foundation, he weaves a tale as to why certain things were worded as they were (like Britain being run as a ruthless tyrant), and why certain things were left out altogether (like slavery). He also closely examines the changes that took place in the drafts and attributes them to individuals who proofread Jefferson's draft. I really could have done without his granularity in this area.

In all, this was a fascinating read. For those of you who want to extend your knowledge beyond the simple presentation of the document you received in high school, I highly recommend buying this book!

I have read this book, off and on, several times. It never ceases to amaze me. I tend to be a controversialist and rely upon this book often to help those who seem convinced that the Founding Fathers were of a particular religious persuasion. While foundationally on a personal level this may be true, in general they bowed down to a higher power: Reason. Yet this was not new to them nor were their political theories. Their roots came from somewhere else and that somewhere else was from the European soil they had left.

Becker does an awesome job dissecting the Declaration and its influences primarily from Jefferson through Locke. The natural rights philosophy chapter is awesome. This book is over seventy five years old and its arguments have been revisited and even countered but the book is still foundationally necessary for anyone who seeks to study the Declaration of Independence. In terms of studying the Declaration, there is before Becker's book and there is after.

There are many revealing insights and oddities that appear when Becker displays the lines that have been cut from the original draft (e.g. notice there is no mention of slavery in the final version; the reasons for its excision are included in the book). These little tidbits opened my eyes a bit to the relatively benign history of this document that I had been taught. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing so have a little fun and check this book out.

Carl L. Becker's book on the Declaration of Independence first appeared nearly eighty years ago, and yet it is still a valuable and stimulating study of its subject. It is dated now, for two large reasons:

First, Becker wrote before the revolution in studying the history of ideas, and thus unavoidably predates the close-focus examination of the controversy between Great Britain and her American colonies in the years from 1765 to 1776. Two recent books should be read alongside Becker's monograph -- Pauline Maier's AMERICAN SCRIPTURE: MAKING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (New York: Knopf, 1997; Vintage paperback, 1998), and John Phillip Reid, CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, abridged ed. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995).

Second, Becker focuses on Jefferson as *the* author of the Declaration, neglecting that he was actually the draftsman selected by the Continental Congress and his colleagues within the drafting committee. Thus, the Declaration -- no matter what Jefferson said about it in later life -- was not primarily a window into his own thinking about natural rights and democracy, but rather the final statement by Congress as to the reasons for breaking ties with Britain. To be sure, later generations have read it as an expression of Jefferson's mind -- rather than of "the American mind," as he put it. But, as Maier shows in AMERICAN SCRIPTURE, Jefferson's thinking was nowhere near as unique or advanced on these subjects as later hero-worshipping biographers have suggested.

In particular, as Maier has shown, the age-old dispute about whether Jefferson was or was not influenced by Locke is somewhat beside the point. Even so, Becker's fine book is indispensable for deciding whether we should read the Declaration through Lockean or Jeffersonian lenses, and whether we should regard it as a codification of American aspirations or as a hypocritical catalogue of principles we cannot live up to.

R. B. Bernstein, adjunct professor of law, New York Law School

One of the poems quoted in this book, which begins the Ninth Chapter, goes in part as follows: "All night long / I cannot sleep. / Rising and sitting, / I think a thousand thoughts... / Only by observing / the state where there is no birth / can I remove these teardrops / from the wet sleeves of my robe." These eight simple lines form the essence of the message of this book, based upon the 1995 experiences of a Canadian Zen practitioner, Jim Bedard, who was diagonosed with acute myeloide leukemia (AML) and given ten days to live. It is the story of how he used his Zen practice to bring himself into full contact with the inevitability of his own death while at the same time having to deal with painful medical treatments which included a bone marrow transplant and life taxing chemotherapy.

While the experiences written about in this book explain how this one man used his exposure and grounding in the spiritual practice of Zen Buddhism to help him get through his unthinkable physical ordeal, the alert reader will notice that spiritual practice, whatever it may by, can not only help us transcend such trials in our lives, but also help us to understand and experience our practice in a deeper and more profound way such that it becomes a life transforming event in itself.

What Jim Bedard's experience of fighting AML taught him and what he struggled to understand were the very truths he had worked with in Zen, only this time in a life-threatening, three dimensional way. At one point he admits that, "Each of us had to do the work of awakening to our true Mind by ourselves; no one was going to do it for us."

He was in essence put up against a solid wall, his own mortality, and asked to look inside himself for the key to his release. The possibility of death has a way of focusing the mind that no other circumstance in life can match. And Jim Bedard succeeded. He found his strength in the source of his survival, and lived to tell the tale so that others might also find that same strength within themselves. You don't have to be a Buddhist or know anything in particular about Zen to enjoy and learn something from this book. Its lessons transcend specific religion. Though if you are Buddhist it should definitely enhance your practice.

There are many moments of insight provided in this account, which seems to move along at a fairly brisk pace despite it morbid subject matter. One of the more telling moments came little more than two weeks into Jim's ordeal when he writes, "With serious illness one is quickly stripped naked for all to see. The different masks we hide behind dissolve. All I identified with as my self was breaking up and dispersing. I was experiencing the truth of the Buddha's teaching of impermanence firsthand....I had no guarantee of a future, my past identity had been eradicated, and the present was demanding one hundred percent of my attention." These experiences Jim writes about of facing a terminal illness are universal in their nature and accessible by anyone who is human.

As he struggled with the distracting aspects of his illness, Jim, in his intense examination of his own mind in search of mental relief from the physical strain, inevitably came upon an epiphany. "The leukemia was there, I felt, to heal another, much deeper sickness that I would never have recognized without its help: the sickness of pain-producing behavior and habit patterns stemming from seeds that were planted lifetimes ago. The reason for this illness was not a mystery to me. Like all Buddhists, I clearly understood the answer to the question, What did I do to deserve this? It was obvious: my own karma brought me to this point."

Having come to this insight was only the beginning of his journey in overcoming the illness that was wracking his once fine body. From this point he was put into the position, as he put it, of having to walk a tightrope between life and certain death. It wasn't an easy walk, and it was this walk that the remainder of the book describes in great detail. For anyone who is going through such an experience or for those who are in a position to support another who is, this book will be a comfort and source of inspiration.

The book endeavors to provide answers to the tough questions that come to the mind of the sufferer in such a situation, while at the same time showing one way in which such hardships in life can be successfully faced and overcome. For Jim Bedard his saving grace can be summed up in one section where he writes, "For me each time fear would raise its head, I would face it straight on and ask myself again and again, 'Who is aware of this fear? Who am I really?' It was this constant looking into Mind that was my saving grace. The penetrating and liberating practice of introspection allowed me refuge from the maelstrom around me." Such introspection is at the heart of the way of all true religious practice.

In "Lotus in the Fire," Jim Bedard tells the story of his battle with leukemia with the lightness, simplicity and humor of a gifted storyteller and with the depth and insight gained from long years of Zen practice. Running through this book are questions we all live with: How do we face difficult or painful times? When do we accept the situation at hand and make the best of it or when do we put our full effort into changing it? How do we use a dillemma or an illness as a tool to enable us to grow in strength, wisdom and compassion, and even to give love and wisdom to others? "Lotus in the Fire" follows Bedard's journey through illness in an open and unselfconscious manner.He meets his trials with flexibility, knowing only that he does not know what is going to happen the next day, the next moment. Returning again and again to his Zen practice, Bedard finds energy when he has no energy left and an ability to ride through disappoinments with trust. Bedard expresses gratitude for his life and family and friends throughout the book. In "Lotus in the Fire," the reader walks with Bedard through the experience of having cancer. He holds nothing back, gives his all throughout the journey and throughout the book. A sense of responsiblility and of giving full effort with awareness, love and humor shines through this book. It is a tale told with grace and wit, and with the easy lilt of an author who finds joy in this world.

Arriving at the emergency room of an Ontario hospital to treat what he believed to be an allergy resulting in some minor swelling of his hands and ankles, Jim Bedard discovers that he has acute myeloid leukemia and may have no more than ten days to live. Thus begins Mr. Bedard's descent into a hellish realm of personal suffering, transcended by a profound faith in himself, his Zen Buddhist practice, family, Zen Teacher and the Buddhist community to which he belongs. Jim Bedard's tremendously moving account of struggle against impossible odds stretches our imagination and reinvigorates our faith in ourselves and in humanity. He concretely demonstrates faith made manifest and teaches us that faith and determined spiritual practice provide us with the tools not only for survival, but for renewal, transformation and rebirth. To imagine that a person could survive such an ordeal is amazing enough. But, to do it with such faith, humility, gratitude and insight is dumbfounding! Jim Bedard sets forth a courageous example for us all and gives us a first hand appreciation of what it means to be stricken with cancer. One can't help but be grateful for his great effort of personal recovery, spiritual discovery and unfailing perseverance. This book is a must read for anyone struggling with life and death, religious faith or merely troubled by the vagaries and uncertainties of life. Without doubt, the reader will be rewarded for his or her effort.

The Blue Lotus truly is one of Herge's best works. Continuing the story of Cigars Of The Pharoah, the book portrays Tintin discovering the Oriental. Along with a well constructed plot and beautiful illustrations, the book accurately displays the prejudices that Occidentals felt for Orientals at the time, and the harships that the Chinese faced. I do believe this to be a classic in its own genre, and will keep me rereading it for years to come.

This Tintin book is the best.It contians action, suspence,and some very sneaky villians.This story starts were Cigars of the Pharoh ended.A must read.

This is probably the most exciting and the most interesting of all the 25 Tintin adventures. Considering it was written early in Herge's career (c. 1930s), the level of proficiency and artwork is extraordinary. In this adventure, really the continuation of "Cigars of the Pharaoh" but able to stand on its own, Tintin travels to China to root out an international drug-smuggling gang. During his stay in China, Tintin gets enmeshed in the politics of the time, when the Japanese were secretly creating pretexts for extending their occupation of China. At a time when the European powers were practicing appeasement towards Japan, this adventure is a daring stance in solidarity with the underdog - here being the Chinese. Much of the day-to-day events of the time are interwoven seamlessly with the action of this adventure comic. Neither is the opium trade (the centerpiece of this story) that the colonial powers pushed on China far removed from reality.

What is perhaps the most amazing thing about this creation is that Herge never traveled to China, not before nor after this story (though he did go to Hong Kong much later in his life). For information about China, he relied on magazine photos and articles, and on the information provided by a friend and roommate Chang Chong Ching, who played the role model for the Chang Tintin befriends in the story (and whom we encounter later in Tintin in Tibet). Chang is the one who wrote the myriad excellent specimens of Chinese calligraphy ornamenting the book. All the Chinese signs in the adventure are meaningful inscriptions, from simple restaurant signs "Foods" and advertisements for international companies "Siemens" to anti-imperialist and anti-Japanese slogans grafittied on the walls. These signs paint a realistic portrait of the Chinese environment at the time. All my Chinese friends who have read this adventure swear that the depictions of China are realistic and cannot believe that Herge never visited that country!

This comic story has all the components for a great piece of art/literature. The artwork is masterful, the settings and scenery realistic, the plot and action entertaining and suspenseful, and the characters well-developed and possess considerable depth. In addition, while the ending is happy, the story is not free from life's tragic moments that bring tears to the eyes. A definite must-read for all Tintin lovers, as well as for those wishing to learn something about China and its recent history.

This book is simply the best book on the market that specializes on Domino Administration for R5. The book is written in a reader-friendly style and covers deeply technical information in an informative, yet approachable style. It gives not only the technical facts, but the pragmatic advice that comes from years of experience.

While the Lotus reference materials may give you choices of A, B, or C, this book recommends a specific choice and gives you the advantages and consequences of your choices. This type of advice is invaluable when it comes to making decisions about how to configure your system.

I've recommended this book to many of my clients and they are all pleased that they invested in it. Get this book.

This is a fantastic Domino Admin book. Mine weighs in at 858 pages, but there is no fluff here that you will find in other books. Each chapter gets down to business quickly. He deals with everything you'll have to deal with if you have Domino 5; Replication, Mail Routing, Modem Communications, Agents, Setup Profiles, etc. It's all here. I always suggest to people if they are trying to learn all about a specific topic like Domino they should read at least 2 books to cover all the bases. Look no futher, you've found one of them. I also bought Special Edition Using Lotus Notes and Domino 5 but this book was much better (and much cheaper). If you joined a course to teach you all this you'd pay thousands of dollars. Save your money. Build yourself a second computer with the money you save not taking a course, download the server and clients off Notes.net, load NT or Windows 2000 on it and go through each chapter and play with your test server. You'll learn more than you would in most courses, and you'll have a second computer.

When I was a Jr. Notes Administrator this book gave me the level of knowledge and understanding of Domino and Lotus Notes that I needed to move into a more senior position in a very short amount of time. My now-dogeared copy is still by my side every day at work as I continue to learn from this all-inclusive, easy-to-read manual. From setting up your first server to understanding Domino system architecture, "Domino System Administration" covers it all. This book is truly a "must have". I am desperately hoping that Mr. Kirkland writes an updated version for Domino/Notes 6!

This is a good book providing advanced LotusScript and Java examples beyond standard reference stuff taken from Help. As the back cover says, it contains all the front and back end classes for LotusScript and Java. But, it is a detailed reference on ONLY those two topics, not a "panacean tool" for all Domino areas as the back cover also implies in the FIRST sentence (as Dilbert says, all marketing people lie and should be shot). so you need to learn LotusScript and Java somewhere else to use this.

My only gripe is that the title is really misleading - this ONLY covers LotusScript and Java, and should be described as such in the title. I recommended this book at a recent Orange County (CA) Notes & Domino user group and gave away a raffle copy, and there was much interest from the experienced developers. There are other books that cover many topics about Domino, but this one covers only the two topics in very good detail not available elsewhere.

Now, maybe they might do the same for Javascript and HTML within the Domino environment in the future - hear that guys! I could also use a manual comparing techniques using standard Notes features with EXAMPLES how to do the same task just for the web.

There is no companion CD, and it would have been nice to get a full text searchable, Notes nsf file of the book like other publishers provide to carry on your laptop.

The book is list priced at $45, Amazon is $9 less, and I bought it when it first came out at the local Microcenter store for $25. Most of you won't be near such a good bookstore, so Amazon continues to be a good source for this kind of book...

Finally a book that covers both LotusScript and Java in clear and detailed format. This is an essential reference book for any Notes/Domino shop. The sample code is first rate.

If you are new to LotusScript do not buy this book. This is a reference book for LotusScript and Java classes and a very good one at that. The developer help files can be confusing at times and it always helps to have a reference book near you.

If you are an intermediate or experienced Notes developer this is a terrific book, I have it by my desk all the time.

If you want a book to teach you LotusScript but Practical LotusScript it's great!

A random search on 'Tintin' on Amazon.com brought back powerful memories of my happy youth, when my brother and I would save up our pocket money every month to buy used copies from local booksellers in the musty streets of Delhi. The books would be marked with pen and sundry stains, but, to us, they were a reminder of what lay just beyond our reach.

We would be fascinated by Tintin's travels through the most exotic places in the world (and beyond!). What colorful characters Haddock and Calculus are! For some reason, King Ottokar's Sceptre was always my favorite one, but almost all comics in this series are classics.

I would especially urge any one with young children to buy every Tintin comic book in existence, but, really, these comics will please all age groups.

The Tintin books are fascinating in their simple and easy to understand details and plot. I'm thirteen years old, and I must say that these books are some of my favorites to read when I'm tired. They are mysteries, but fun to read over and over. My favorite so far is probably "Tintin and the Broken Ear," "The Black Island," or "Explorers on the Moon." These are books for all ages of people, and I disagree with a review stating that the print was hard to read, I started reading these books when I was eight or nine, and I never found the print difficult, though that is my own personal experience. These books are a treasure!

Watch out, this 3-in-one comes in a smaller size than the regular single adventures. Makes it harder to read and harder to enjoy the graphics.

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

Lotus Domino support for EJB programming mode

This is by far the best and most useful book I have purchased in a long time! Bob has great insights on the future of Web interfaces to data and how you, as a programmer, can effectively work in the new paradigm. He does an excellent (and concise) job of helping you sort out the architectural options for the web: cgi/perl/asp/activex/etc. The book then has a detailed explanation of everything you need to know to program Domino in Java. I found Bob's speculation on the CORBA/IIOP and Domino v5.0 technologies especially useful in planning our IT infrastructure. Please buy this book if you are curious about Domino and Java! If you are new to Java you should also find a beginners guide. This is not a 'learn Java and Domino' text for beginners. Intermidiate and Advanced users, however, definitely need this book before they write another Agent in Domino or another CGI script in Perl. This book will wake you up to the future of the Web, Domino, and Java programming!