This book is an excellent beginning book on the theory (and some practice) of acupuncture. The concepts are very easy to grasp, but you don't get the feeling that you are being "spoon-fed". Dr. Mann has a real talent for taking complicated (for most Westerners) concepts and putting them into a frame of reference where we can easily understand them. It's very easy to read, and I highly recommend it.

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Aldous Huxley had planned to write an autobiography. Sadly, he didn't feel up to the task after his papers were destroyed by fire in 1961. Fortunately, David King Dunaway has attempted to fill this gap by creating an oral history of Aldous Huxley. He spent years tracking down and interviewing Aldous Huxley's friends and family. The result is some 900 pages of transcripts now archived at the Huntington Library and this 224-page book.

Overall, I found this book to be delightful reading. The recorded memories are very personal, yet also very informative and full of insights into Huxley's personality, his spiritual journey and his work. Although the interviews focus a little too much on Huxley's personal relationships, they are far less gossipy than one would expect -- the contributors clearly loved and admired this remarkable man. When Huxley's weaknesses and flaws are discussed, it is always with compassion. These recorded memories have a sincere and authentic ring to them that just isn't there in Laura Huxley's memoir, THIS TIMELESS MOMENT (although that book is also interesting and enjoyable). In this book, one learns that Huxley psychologically blocked all memories of his mother who died when he was fourteen, that he lost his eyesight at age sixteen and that, at age 22 he married a unique 17 year-old girl whose love, attention and altruism shaped his life and work for the next 35 years. When recollecting Huxley after the death of his first wife, Maria, and his second marriage to Laura Archera, some of the interviews take on a dramatic change in tone. Several of Huxley's close friends hinted at their distrust and dislike of Laura Huxley. One acquaintance admittedly withdrew from Huxley as a result of the antipathy. Laura Huxley's memories become somewhat defensive. It is interesting to contrast her account here with that contained in her own memoir.

The final chapter is devoted to interviews of some two dozen Huxley scholars throughout the world. Highly recommended reading.

Syville Bedford's literary biography Aldous Huxley blends Huxley's remarkable life with his quite successful literary career, all wrapped in the familiarity of the author with Huxley's family over the decades. With such associations in hand, biographer and author Syville Bedford then deftly probes Huxley's life and writings, creating a memorable biography and a set of insights that deserves ongoing mention.

Laura Huxley herself said to Sawyer [paraphrased], "Out of all the biographies written about Aldous, this is the only one he would have actually liked." With emphasis on philosophical studies and works, it is the definitive source for understanding Huxley's influence and ideas. Being a student myself at Maine College of Art, I can vouch for the know-how of Sawyer.

"The enlightened, the Brahman-abiding,
Calm-hearted, unbewildered,
Is neither elated by the pleasant
Nor saddened by the unpleasant"

Every few years I read this extraordinary book...I've read other translations, but seem mostly to be drawn back to this one. Partly prose and partly verse, more interpretive than literal, it's in a flowing style, easy to understand, and with great clarity in its spiritual instruction.
"Shutting off sense
From what is outward,
Fixing the gaze
At the root of the eyebrows,
Checking the breath-stream
In and outgoing
Within the nostrils,
Holding the senses,
Holding the intellect,
Holding the mind fast,
He who seeks freedom,
Thrusts fear aside,
Thrusts aside anger
And puts off desire:
Truly that man
Is made free forever".

Written between the 5th and 2nd centuries B.C., this dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna is an inspiring sacred text, and a must read for anyone interested in the great religions of the world.
This edition comes with an introduction by Aldous Huxley, a background history of the Gita and Mahabharata, 2 appendices, and the text has footnotes to aid in the meaning of certain words and personages.

"He who is free from delusion, and knows the supreme Reality, knows all that can be known. Therefore he adores me with his whole heart.
This is the most sacred of all the truths I have taught you. He who has realized it becomes truly wise. The purpose of his life is fulfilled".

A predecessor to 1984 (the most awesome book in existence), it also deals with a vision of a dystopia far in the future. Zamyatin depicts a controllist state governed by something as impermeable as mathematics. No emotion is involved and the soul is seen as a disease. Although the situation is much more dispairing than the one shown in 1984, it also offers some hope as one still gets the impression of a resistance outside the green wall. Despite the "numbers" being completely brainwashed, the One State is a society on the brink of collapse. The Guardians are ultra paranoid of any abnormal activity, spying on the citizens more than normal. The book is written in the form of a journal addressed to the people of another planet. It justifies the One State and is an attempt to socialize the other planet's people before a possible invasion by men.

This third volume of Huxley's complete essays will appeal to a college collection which already has the first two volumes and anticipates collecting the entire six: this volume covers 1930-35 and collects his observations of the social and political trends of those years. Important essays and articles provide rich, seasoned commentary on history and modern times.

Huxley shows a wide range in this collection of essays, with observations on everything from the Odyssey to the "talkies", the latest in motion picture technology at the time these pieces were written (ca.1929).

The twelve essays are: 1. One and Many; 2. Silence is Golden; 3. Spinoza's Worm; 4. Swift; 5. Paradise; 6. Wordsworth in the Tropics; 7. Fashions in Love; 8. Francis and Grigory; 9. Baudelaire; 10. Holy Face; 11. Revolutions; 12. Pascal.

If you ever have a chance to get your hands on this book, do so with great haste. I have never really cared for most of Huxley's works but this particular essay has stayed with my thoughts for years and, in fact, changed the way I percieve things around me. I cannot summarize the book in any manner but can only say that Huxley examines the human psyche and behavior, and details it in such a way that one will feel ignorant for having not noticed many of his observations before.