New Releases by Stephen Mitchell

»The Work« – Der Schlüssel zu Selbsterkenntnis und innerer Freiheit Ob Trauer, Wut, Verzweiflung ... Wie oft stecken wir in negativen Gefühlen fest und hadern mit dem Leben so, wie es ist? Dabei sind es vor allem destruktive Gedanken, die uns Leid und Schmerzen bereiten. In ihrem Hauptwerk stellt Byron Katie, eine der bedeutendsten spirituellen Lehrerinnen der Gegenwart, ihre revolutionäre Methode »The Work« vor. Vier einfache Fragen helfen dabei, Gedanken und Glaubenssätze infrage zu stellen, die uns zusetzen, beschränken und aus der inneren Balance bringen. So gelingt es, die Perspektive zu wechseln und völlig neue Einsichten zu gewinnen. Dieser Prozess hat die Kraft, das Leben tiefgreifend zu verändern. In dieser Reihe erscheinen folgende Titel im Arkana Verlag: Eckhart Tolle, Jetzt! Die Kraft der Gegenwart Louise Hay, Heile deinen Körper Thich Nhat Hanh, Das Wunder der Achtsamkeit Eckhart Tolle, Eine neue Erde Shunryu Suzuki, Zen-Geist - Anfänger-Geist

The towns and villages of Phrygia, a predominantly rural region of inner Asia Minor, provide richer documentation of their early Christian communities than any other part of the Roman empire. This includes the earliest lengthy Christian funerary text, coin types depicting Noah and the Flood introduced by Christians at the Phrygian emporium of Apamea, the famous ‘Christians for Christians’ inscriptions, and more than a hundred other pre-Constantinian grave monuments, The abundant evidence for the Christian presence up the Turkish invasions throws new light on continuity between Late Antiquity and the Middle Byzantine period, and on the warfare between the Byzantines and Turks in the 11th century. This is the first exhaustive regional study since 1897.

"O Trabalho de Byron Katie é uma dádiva para o nosso mundo." — ECKHART TOLLE, autor de O poder do agora Vivemos tempos difíceis, e a maior parte da população sofre com ansiedade e depressão, medo e raiva. Em seu livro mais aguardado desde Ame a realidade, Byron Katie traz um raio de luz mais do que necessário para nossas vidas, uma fonte de esperança e alegria. Em Uma mente em paz, ela apresenta ensinamentos de um dos mais profundos e antigos textos do budismo, o Sutra do Diamante — traduzido para o inglês por Stephen Mitchell —, além de seu sistema revolucionário de autoinvestigação chamado O Trabalho. Profundamente esclarecedor, este livro nos revela a natureza da mente e nos liberta dos pensamentos que nos trazem sofrimento de forma prática e inspiradora.

"One of our oldest stories of grace . . . The heart cannot help but be moved and healed by the treasure to be found in these pages." —Elizabeth Gilbert, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Stephen Mitchell's gift is to breathe new life into ancient classics. In The Way of Forgiveness, he offers us his riveting novelistic version of the Biblical tale in which Jacob's favorite son is sold into slavery and eventually becomes viceroy of Egypt. Tolstoy called it the most beautiful story in the world. What's new here is the lyrical, witty, vivid prose, informed by a wisdom that brings fresh insight to this foundational legend of betrayal and all-embracing forgiveness. Mitchell's retelling, which reads like a postmodern novel, interweaves the narrative with brief meditations that, with their Zen surprises, expand the narrative and illuminate its main themes. By stepping inside the minds of Joseph and the other characters, Mitchell reanimates one of the central stories of Western culture. The engrossing tale that he has created will capture the hearts and minds of modern readers and show them that this ancient story can still challenge, delight, and astonish. "A beautiful 'retelling' of one of the most profound and moving passages in the Bible. Stephen Mitchell has fashioned a deceptively simple version of the story of Joseph and his brothers, and given it back to the world in luminous prose that the authors of the King James Version would applaud. A unique and special kind of masterpiece." —John Banville, Booker Prize–winning author "Stephen Mitchell has offered us a lovely treat, a creative and heartfelt way to re-inhabit this biblical story full of wisdom and healing." —Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart

We seem to be obsessed with perfection. It's everywhere, permeating our conversations, our language, our advertising, our films and our religion. It's not only widespread across our culture; it has roots deep in the beginning of our civilization. For the sake of our well-being and our faith we need to be liberated from this pre-occupation. Past Perfect unravels some of the confusion surrounding our use of the word in many different contexts, and shapes an understanding of God that is free of this notion.

Down the road from a working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the conditions are exactly right, you'll find the entrance to Slade House. A stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won't want to leave. Later, you'll find that you can't. Every nine years, the house's residents -- an odd brother and sister -- extend a unique invitation to someone who's different or lonely: a precocious teenager, a recently divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it's already too late.

A vast, intricate novel that weaves six narratives and spans from 1984 to the 2030s about a secret war between a cult of soul-decanters and a small group of vigilantes called the Night Shift who try to take them down. An up-all-night story that fluently mixes the super-natural, sci-fi, horror, social satire, and hearbreaking realism.

The Second Edition of A History of the Later Roman Empire features extensive revisions and updates to the highly-acclaimed, sweeping historical survey of the Roman Empire from the accession of Diocletian in AD 284 to the death of Heraclius in 641. Features a revised narrative of the political history that shaped the late Roman Empire Includes extensive changes to the chapters on regional history, especially those relating to Asia Minor and Egypt Offers a renewed evaluation of the decline of the empire in the later sixth and seventh centuries Places a larger emphasis on the military deficiencies, collapse of state finances, and role of bubonic plague throughout the Europe in Rome’s decline Includes systematic updates to the bibliography

Vivid, enjoyable and comprehensible, the poet and pre-eminent translator Stephen Mitchell makes the oldest epic poem in the world accessible for the first time. Gilgamesh is a born leader, but in an attempt to control his growing arrogance, the Gods create Enkidu, a wild man, his equal in strength and courage. Enkidu is trapped by a temple prostitute, civilised through sexual experience and brought to Gilgamesh. They become best friends and battle evil together. After Enkidu's death the distraught Gilgamesh sets out on a journey to find Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood, made immortal by the Gods to ask him the secret of life and death. Gilgamesh is the first and remains one of the most important works of world literature. Written in ancient Mesopotamia in the second millennium B.C., it predates the Iliad by roughly 1,000 years. Gilgamesh is extraordinarily modern in its emotional power but also provides an insight into the values of an ancient culture and civilisation.

Stephen A. Mitchell has been at the forefront of the broad paradigmatic shift in contemporary psychoanalysis from the traditional one-person model to a two-person, interactive, relational perspective. In Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis, Mitchell provides a critical, comparative framework for exploring the broad array of concepts newly developed for understanding interactive processes between analysand and analyst. Drawing on the broad traditions of Kleinian theory and interpersonal psychoanalysis, as well as object relations and progressive Freudian thought, he considers in depth the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis, anachronistic ideals like anonymity and neutrality, the nature of analytic knowledge and authority, and the problems of gender and sexual orientation in the age of postmodernism. The problem of influence guides his discussion of these and other topics. How, Mitchell asks, can analytic clinicians best protect the patient’s autonomy and integrity in the context of our growing appreciation of the enormous personal impact of the analyst on the process? Although Mitchell explores many facets of the complexity of the psychoanalytic process, he presents his ideas in his customarily lucid, jargon-free style, making this book appealing not only to clinicians with various backgrounds and degrees of experience, but also to lay readers interested in the achievements of, and challenges before, contemporary psychoanalysis. A splendid effort to relate parallel lines of theorizing and derivative changes in clinical practice and informed by mature clinical judgment and broad scholarship into the history of psychoanalytic ideas, Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis takes a well-deserved place alongside Mitchell’s previous books. It is a brilliant synthesis of converging insights that have transformed psychoanalysis in our time, and a touchstone for enlightened dialogue as psychoanalysis approaches the millennium.

"Pasazer statku, z utesknieniem wygladajacy konca podrozy przez Pacyfik w 1850 roku; wydziedziczony kompozytor, usilujacy oszustwem zarobic na chleb w Belgii lat miedzywojennych; dziennikarka-idealistka w Kalifornii rzadzonej przez gubernatora Reagana; wydawca ksiazek, uciekajacy przed gangsterami, ktorym jest winien pieniadze; genetycznie modyfikowana uslugujaca z restauracji, w oczekiwaniu na wykonanie wyroku smierci; i Zachariasz, chlopak z wysp Pacyfiku, ktory przyglada sie, jak dogasa swiatlo nauki i cywilizacji - narratorzy Atlasu Chmur slysza nawzajem swoje echa poprzez meandry dziejow, co odmienia ich los zarowno w blahym, jak i w donioslym wymiarze."--Cover.

This is the essential pregnancy guide for dads-to-be and comes complete with must-have man-centric checklists so you won't forget anything. From the joys of conception, the pain of labour and the exhilaration of birth, this easy-to-read book will empower you with authentic, reassuring, realistic, bloke-authoritative advice so you can be the most supportive and useful partner ever for your pregnant other half. This is more than what to expect, it is what to do...for blokes. Congratulations and enjoy the ride.

"Breaks fresh ground...Mitchell's translation tells the stories in a voice much like the ancient Hebrew, without adornment." — Seattle Times From the author of The Gospel According to Jesus comes a new adaptation of the book of Genesis. In this highly acclaimed translation, Stephen Mitchell conveys in English the simplicity, dignity and powerful earthiness of the original Hebrew. More than just interpreting it, he also separates stories that were combined by scribes centuries after they were written, explaining their sources and omitting all verses that are recognized as scribal additions. Like removing coat after coat of lacquer from a once-vibrant masterpiece, this allows readers to appreciate the clarity of the original tales. Genesis is an extraordinarily beautiful book that is accessible in a way that no other translation has ever been. It will shed new light on readers' understanding of this seminal work of sacred scripture.

Dispatched to the influential Japanese port of Dejima in 1799, ambitious clerk Jacob de Zoet resolves to earn enough money to deserve his wealthy fiancée, an effort that is challenged by his relationship with the midwife daughter of a samurai.

A revised edition of the first book of poems by Stephen Mitchell, the renowned translator of Rilke's poetry, The Book of Job, and the Tao Te Ching. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Let the heavens and the earth rejoice: A new adaptation of the psalms from the author of The Gospel According to Jesus. When the ancient rabbis named the anthology that we know as the Book of Psalms, they called it sefer tehillim—the Book of Praises. That is the dominant theme of the greatest of the Psalms: a rapturous praise, a deep, exuberant gratitude for being here. In this volume, leading biblical scholar and award-winning translator Stephen Mitchell translates fifty of the most powerful and popular bible psalms—to create poems that recreate the music of the original Hebrew verse.

Following the phenomenal success of his own version of the Tao Te Ching, a renowned scholar and translator delivers a 21st-century form of ancient wisdom into the modern world.

“Byron Katie is one of the truly great and inspiring teachers of our time. I encourage everyone to immerse themselves in this phenomenal book.” –Dr. Wayne W. Dyer In her first two books, Loving What Is and I Need Your Love–Is That True? Byron Katie showed how suffering can be ended by questioning the stressful thoughts that create it. Now, in A Thousand Names for Joy, she encourages us to discover the freedom that lives on the other side of inquiry. Stephen Mitchell–the renowned translator of the Tao Te Ching–selected provocative excerpts from that ancient text as a stimulus for Katie to talk about the most essential issues that face us all: life and death, good and evil, love, work, and fulfillment. With her stories of total ease in all circumstances, Katie does more than describe the awakened mind; she lets you see it, feel it, in action.

Stephen Mitchell is widely known for his ability to make ancient masterpieces thrillingly new, to step in where many have tried before and create versions that are definitive for our time. His celebrated version of the Tao Te Ching is the most popular edition in print, and his translations of Jesus, Rilke, Genesis, and Job have won the hearts of readers and critics alike. Stephen Mitchell now brings to the Bhagavad Gita his gift for breathing new life into sacred texts. The Bhagavad Gita is universally acknowledged as one of the world's literary and spiritual masterpieces. It is the core text of the Hindu tradition and has been treasured by American writers from Emerson and Thoreau to T. S. Eliot, who called it the greatest philosophical poem after the Divine Comedy. There have been more than two hundred English translations of the Gita, including many competent literal versions, but not one of them is a superlative literary text in its own right. Now all that has changed. Stephen Mitchell's Bhagavad Gita sings with the clarity, the vigor, and the intensity of the original Sanskrit. It will, as William Arrowsmith said of Mitchell's translation of The Sonnets to Orpheus, "instantly make every other rendering obsolete."

The classic guide for Zen students pursuing the true way. "Somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha-statue, blows smoke in its face and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing there. What can you do?" This is a problem that Zen Master Seung Sahn was fond of posing to his American students who attended his Zen centers. Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a delightful, irreverent, and often hilariously funny living record of the dialogue between Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn and his American students. Consisting of dialogues, stories, formal Zen interviews, Dharma speeches, and letters using the Zen Master's actual words in spontaneous, living interaction, this book is a fresh presentation of the Zen teaching method of "instant dialogue" between Master and student which, through the use of astonishment and paradox, leads to an understanding of ultimate reality.

Jason Taylor is 13, doomed to be growing up in the most boring family in the deadest village in the dullest county in the most tedious nation on earth. This book follows 13 months in his life as he negotiates the pitfalls of school and home and contends with bullies, girls and politics.

Presents an account of the life of Jesus, using what the author considers to be the most authentic sources.

Amusingly absurd and playfully profound, this delightfully illustrated volume of original poems is sure to tickle the fancy of children and adults alike. It happened on a winter’s day (The air was cold, the sky was gray): Out walking in the woods alone, I came upon a wishing bone. What would you do if everything you wished came true? How does a white rhinoceros take his tea? Where can you find the elusive purple tiger? Who wanders in the whiffle bog on a bilgy, bulgy night? Resonating with childlike questions, the fanciful poems in THE WISHING BONE invite readers to think and to dream. Full of illustrations as fresh and whimsical as the verse, here is a collection to read aloud and savor for its sheer verbal and visual exuberance.

Out of nowhere, like a cool breeze in a marketplace crowded with advice, comes Byron Katie and “The Work.” In the midst of a normal life, Katie became increasingly depressed, and over a ten-year period sank further into rage, despair, and thoughts of suicide. Then one morning, she woke up in a state of absolute joy, filled with the realization of how her own suffering had ended. The freedom of that realization has never left her, and now in Loving What Is you can discover the same freedom through The Work. The Work is simply four questions that, when applied to a specific problem, enable you to see what is troubling you in an entirely different light. As Katie says, “It’s not the problem that causes our suffering; it’s our thinking about the problem.” Contrary to popular belief, trying to let go of a painful thought never works; instead, once we have done The Work, the thought lets go of us. At that point, we can truly love what is, just as it is. Loving What Is will show you step-by-step, through clear and vivid examples, exactly how to use this revolutionary process for yourself. You’ll see people do The Work with Katie on a broad range of human problems, from a wife ready to leave her husband because he wants more sex, to a Manhattan worker paralyzed by fear of terrorism, to a woman suffering over a death in her family. Many people have discovered The Work’s power to solve problems; in addition, they say that through The Work they experience a sense of lasting peace and find the clarity and energy to act, even in situations that had previously seemed impossible. If you continue to do The Work, you may discover, as many people have, that the questioning flows into every aspect of your life, effortlessly undoing the stressful thoughts that keep you from experiencing peace. Loving What Is offers everything you need to learn and live this remarkable process, and to find happiness as what Katie calls “a lover of reality.”

Eiji Miyake arrives in a sprawling Japanese metropolis to track down the father he has never met. But the city is a mapless place if you are 18, broke, and the only person you can trust is John Lennon. His 8-week hunt plunges into the hinterland between the city and the mind, where a Polish art movie is no less real than the coffee in front of him and letters from an Imperial Army soldier are signposts to next week, and where he crosses paths with numerologists, staion masters, gateballers, hostesses, organ harvesters and insane chefs. Philosophical, colourful, sometimes violent, this is a dazzlingly inventive novel about image, control and memory.

Full of graceful and rich humor, this retelling of Andersen's classic fairy tale--of the Emperor of China who is enchanted by the song of a nightingale--is paired with impeccably researched, astonishingly beautiful paintings of acrylic, oil, and gouache.

The city of Pisidian Antioch was founded in the hellenistic period by the Seleucids, in what is now south-west Turkey. Under the emperor Augustus it became the most important Roman colony of the eastern empire. The city flourished until the sixth century AD. It has left dramatic and extensive ruins. This comprehensive and fully-illustrated study, a sequel to Mitchell's Cremna in Pisidia, is based on a new survey of the site. It also includes the results of the most recent Turkish field work as well as detailed information from the important but unpublished 1924 excavation by the University of Michigan.

A magnificent compilation of sacred writings from all traditions and the perfect companion to Stephen Mitchell's poetry collection, The Enlightened Heart, and the bestselling Tao Te Ching.