Search

How did a society on the edge of collapse and dominated by wandering bands of armed men give way to a vibrant Buddhist culture, led by yogins and scholars? Ronald M. Davidson explores how the translation and spread of esoteric Buddhist texts dramatically shaped Tibetan society and led to its rise as the center of Buddhist culture throughout Asia, replacing India as the perceived source of religious ideology and tradition. During the Tibetan Renaissance (950-1200 C.E.), monks and yogins translated an enormous number of Indian Buddhist texts. They employed the evolving literature and practices of esoteric Buddhism as the basis to reconstruct Tibetan religious, cultural, and political institutions. Many translators achieved the de facto status of feudal lords and while not always loyal to their Buddhist vows, these figures helped solidify political power in the hands of religious authorities and began a process that led to the Dalai Lama's theocracy. Davidson's vivid portraits of the monks, priests, popular preachers, yogins, and aristocratic clans who changed Tibetan society and culture further enhance his perspectives on the tensions and transformations that characterized medieval Tibet.

This groundbreaking work describes the historical origins of the Tantric movement in early medieval India. Drawing on primary documents--translated into English for the first time from Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Bengali--Davidson shows how changes in medieval Indian society, including economic and patronage crises, a decline in women's participation, and the formation of large monastic orders, led to the rise of the esoteric tradition in India that became the model for Buddhist cultures in China, Tibet, and Japan.

For Kevin Pitcairn, the letter from a serial killer awaiting execution comes with implications he can’t ignore. The writer’s guilt is clear—at least in a legal sense. But the questions he raises draw Pitcairn into a compelling journey of investigation whose profound psychological and spiritual implications hurl his live into upheaval. As he tries to determine and tell the killer’s true story, Pitcairn plunges deeper into the pit his own demons have created and trapped him in. His journalist’s curiosity becomes a compulsion as events bind him tighter and tighter, propelling him from New Mexico’s stark high desert into an increasingly hostile wider world. Murder, mystery, and redemption shape Pitcairn’s struggle to answer the moral questions left festering by the killer’s horrible crimes: What is the nature of evil? What choices do any of us truly have? How can we reconcile with our most painful wounds and the people who have inflicted them?

Extensively revised and expanded, this third edition of Neuropsychology for Psychologists, Health Care Professionals, and Attorneys provides a clear, concise, and comprehensive discussion of neuropsychology, outlining its purpose, use, and historical development. It covers the anatomy of the brain, a wide variety of neurobehavioral disorders, compr

Peter Gunnarson Rambo, son of Gunnar Petersson, was born in about 1612 in Hisingen, Sweden. He came to America in 1640 and settled in Christiana, New Sweden (now Delaware). He married Brita Mattsdotter 7 April 1647. They had eight children. He died in 1698. HIs daughter, Gertrude Rambo, was born 19 October 1650. She married Anders Bengtsson. Descendants and relatives lived mainly in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio.

This text provides an introduction to the science that governs the interaction of light and matter (in the gas phase). It provides readers with the basic knowledge to exploit the light-matter interaction to develop quantitative tools for gas analysis (i.e. optical diagnostics) and understand and interpret the results of spectroscopic measurements. The authors pair the basics of gas‐phase spectroscopy with coverage of key optical diagnostic techniques utilized by practicing engineers and scientists to measure fundamental flow‐field properties. The text is organized to cover three sub‐topics of gas‐phase spectroscopy: (1) spectral line positions, (2) spectral line strengths, and (3) spectral lineshapes by way of absorption, emission, and scattering interactions. The latter part of the book describes optical measurement techniques and equipment. Key subspecialties include laser induced fluorescence, tunable laser absorption spectroscopy, and wavelength modulation spectroscopy. It is ideal for students and practitioners across a range of applied sciences including mechanical, aerospace, chemical, and materials engineering.