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Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi
- Orientalism and the Mystical Marketplace
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
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Publisher's summary
From jewelry to meditation pillows to tourist retreats, religious traditions - especially those of the East - are being commodified as never before. Imitated and rebranded as “new age” or “spiritual,” they are marketed to secular Westerners as an answer to suffering in the modern world, the “mystical” and “exotic” East promising a path to enlightenment and inner peace.
In Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi, Sophia Rose Arjana examines the appropriation and sale of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam in the West today, the role of mysticism and Orientalism in the religious marketplace, and how the commodification of religion impacts people’s lives.
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Forbidden Faith
- The Secret History of Gnosticism
- By: Richard Smoley
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. In Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley narrates a popular history of one such truth, the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, which flourished between the first and fourth centuries AD, but whose legacy remains even today, having survived secretly throughout the ages.
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An absolute must for understanding Gnosticism.
- By Patriot RN - Doc on 05-12-21
By: Richard Smoley
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High Weirdness
- Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies
- By: Erik Davis
- Narrated by: Erik Davis
- Length: 20 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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A study of the spiritual provocations to be found in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson, High Weirdness charts the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality that arose from the American counterculture of the 1970s. These three authors changed the way millions of readers thought, dreamed, and experienced reality - but how did their writings reflect, as well as shape, the seismic cultural shifts taking place in America?
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High Weirdness
- By Amazon Customer on 09-17-20
By: Erik Davis
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Secular Buddhism
- Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World
- By: Stephen Batchelor
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little interest in the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the practice occurs within secular contexts such as hospitals, schools, and the workplace. Is it possible to recover from the Buddhist teachings a vision of human flourishing that is secular rather than religious without compromising the integrity of the tradition?
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Good, but repetition of old material
- By Ludwig on 02-25-18
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The Yugas
- Keys to Understanding Our Hidden Past, Emerging Energy Age and Enlightened Future
- By: Joseph Selbie, David Steinmetz, Swami Kriyananda - foreword
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's view of history cannot account for ancient anomalies, such as the Pyramids and advanced knowledge contained in India's Vedas. But in 1894, an Indian sage gave us an explanation not only for our hidden past but for the trends of today and for our future enlightenment - the 24,000-year yuga cycle.
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Excellent book but one slight problem
- By Z on 02-19-19
By: Joseph Selbie, and others
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Witches, Sluts, Feminists
- Conjuring the Sex Positive
- By: Kristen J. Sollee
- Narrated by: Kristen J. Sollee
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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“Like being deemed a witch hundreds of years ago, being presumed a slut today is cause for ostracism, abuse, and death”.... Archetypes of “witch” and “slut” have been used to police female sexuality and punish women; now, feminists are reclaiming them as positive affirmations. This book unearths the sex positive feminist legacy of the witch in art, music, politics, and popular culture, connecting the fictional witch we love to emulate and fear with real women, past and present.
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Uh Ok
- By Chris J Saretto on 05-05-20
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Mythology
- Indian Myths, Gods, Goddesses, and Tales from South Asia
- By: Ron Carver
- Narrated by: John Griffith
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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A big part of Hindu and Indian mythology is the lengthy Mahabharata, with stories about princes, princesses, monsters, and many mysterious creatures. Krishna is one of the prominent figures in many ancient mythology writings from this region, and his victories over evil have been applauded and believed by many.
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Aha!
- By Ruth on 01-18-20
By: Ron Carver
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How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind
- Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity
- By: Dr. Thomas C. Oden PhD
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Africa has played a decisive role in the formation of Christian culture from its infancy. Some of the most decisive intellectual achievements of Christianity were explored and understood in Africa before they were in Europe. If this is so, why is Christianity so often perceived in Africa as a Western colonial import? How can Christians in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, indeed, how can Christians throughout the world, rediscover and learn from this ancient heritage?
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Worth reading even if not perfect
- By Adam Shields on 02-26-20
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50 Spiritual Classics
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This unabridged guide to the literature of the spirit surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights, and applications - everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works.
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useful as review or starting point
- By connie on 01-03-09
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A Secular Age
- By: Charles Taylor
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 42 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we - in the West, at least - largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean - of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.
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Needs Guest Narrators for French and German
- By Norman on 06-13-15
By: Charles Taylor
What listeners say about Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- RLD
- 11-03-23
Interesting premise
I found this audiobook to be an interesting tour of mysticism in capitalist worlds. However, I left unsatisfied by the author’s neglect to delve deeply into the ethics of a mystical marketplace. Too often the author seemed to rely on the reader to go along with her implicit moral critique. The author seemed to rely heavily on the negative reactions that can be elicited by words like “whitewashing” and “colonialism.” For instance, she speaks of “muddled” religion, rather than really grappling with whether a healthy syncretism is taking place. Admittedly, she acknowledges such a tension. However, she never fully grapples with whether there is indeed anything morally perverse or harmful about universalizing religion and mystical practices. At times, she seems to essentialize and romanticize religious traditions rather than delving into the ways that religions and societies collide. Perhaps my negative impression about the moralizing tone of the book is in part related to the voice of the reader, who speaks in an ironic, aloof, and subtly arrogant manner, as if she is just a little bit too clever for the masses. These problems aside, I leave with a provocative vision of orientalism as it survives today.
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- Kindle Customer
- 12-13-22
Interesting concept, redundant writing
I was very interested in this book but unfortunately the writing is very hard to sit through. It is likely the most redundant book I've ever consumed. I agree with most of the author's points and believe that she has solid arguments however the writing is just unbearably repetitive. I understand an academic text such as this one is not exactly supposed to be riveting, but quite honestly you need only listen to the prologue to understand what she claims to elaborate on for the rest of the 8 hours. Her thoughts are not succinct and she repeats and repeats and repeats herself.
I think this would have been exponentially better as a short form essay rather than a full length book. The content is informative, I would have liked to see more a more skillful execution.
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