PO

Po Man's Poker takes you on a journey from the struggles of the deep south to the trials, tribulations and triumph's of the north, namely Chicago's south side. Laugh, cry and feel the experiences of the lively character Coco, who is dedicated and loyal to family and has a vibrant and triumphal spirit. See how the life of Coco intertwines with the wit, wisdom and dealing with what you are dealt with mastery of her favorite card game, bid whiz, which is the Po Man's Poker!!!

Po' Man's Poker is a delightful novel. You will come to know many names and faces as you are navigated through the story. This book made me laugh! Po Man's Poker is a hidden jewel. Pick it up today, you wont be disappointed and, during the process you just may learn the tricks of the game. Happy Reading and tell a friend!

As the authors state, this is a souped up version of Coddington and Levinson. I found the very formal style a bit daunting, and would have found it a bit heavy for a text- there is not a great deal of explanation or motivation of new topics- but it is certainly very compact, with a great number of useful examples and remarks, which include helpful references to the literature. It also includes a good bibliography. Thus I would say that it is definitely useful as a reference.

This book is a well-chosen cross-section of Chinese Zen poetry. It also supplies one of my favorite items in translations of foreign poetry - the original text. The strength of this book is the broad stretch of time covered, as indicated by the organization of the index: pre-T'ang dynasty, T'ang, Sun, Yuan, Ming, Ch'ing. This breadth also means, however, that not all the poetry is of the quality one find's in more focused collections ephasizing the masters Wang Wei, Han Shan, Li Po... Several of these collections appear as "selected sources" in this book.

My favorite in this volume is The Flow and Seed Sequence, a series seven poems written by the Zen Patriarchs beginning with Bodhidharma (d. 536) with poems added to the series nearly 2 centuries later. The translations do an excellent job of retaining the concrete imagery typical of Zen poetry e.g. from Liu Chang Ching "All along the trail of moss, / I follower your wooden shoeprints". We find inventive descriptions of concret images in Liu Fang-Ping "The Big Dipper slopes; / the Great Bear bends down". There are also unusual mentions of doubt from Wang An Shih "Often I doubt the Buddhist way, / that nothing truly exists".

Despite its many good attributes, this collection failed my ultimate test: rarely was I enticed to read and reread a poem. I would still recommend A Drifting Boat or Cold Mountain first. But to even be worthy of comparison to those volumes is strong praise.

We have the entire set of these books. There is one for each character. Po is the favorite at my house. My 3 yr old and 18 month old fight over who gets the Po book. The book unfolds into "Po" His stomach is where the actual book is. no words just pictures. The only downfall of this book is keeping the soft shell that unfolds from tearing. It is not as hard as the board book inside and it is a lot of fun for small kids to open and close the velcro closing.

Dilgo Khyentse (1910-1991) was an important Nyingma master, exponent of Dzogchen (aka Mahamudra), teacher of Chogyam Trungpa and transmitter of teachings to HH. The Dalai Lama. His writings are known for their poetic beauty.

This book is his commentary on Atisha's "Seven Point Mind Training," a core Tibetan Buddhist teaching which concerns the cultivation of bodhicitta or limitless compassion. The root text of Atisha is very short, given in three pages at the beginning of this book. Dilgo Khyentse then draws the reader in quickly with vivid stories of the teachers of Atisha which illustrate the fundamental principles underlying the teaching. He then proceeds line by line through the root text and brings each line to life, clarifying and elaborating them, and again, using stories to make points and to engage the imagination. The notes and glossary at the back of the book are a welcome addition.

Our 3 and 5 year old girls both loved this book, although the 5 year old found it disconcerting that words were changed from what she knew from the t.v. show. The pictures helped the 3 year old follow along, and after 2 readings she could "read" it herself, telling the story from the pictures. A good book for small tubbie fans, and not so small ones too :)

This is a book about Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. It is a useful book for people studying American Studies. Lots of teachers recomend this to their students or require them to read this, especially here. I read this book and I thought this was pretty throughal....

Everyone has a favorite bedtime story from childhood that they never got tired of hearing: The three Little Pigs, Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood. Sometimes children's stories have a tendencey to mimic different characters, storylines, or fantasy worlds that children and parents have already grown to love. Ed Young's Lon Po PO displays a familiar storyline recognized as Little Red Riding Hood and it also includes familiarities found in Three Little Pigs. The addition of a few characters, alteration of setting and variation in the main plot creates the Chinese version of a compilation of American children's literature.

Lon Po Po begins with a country woman leaving her three children Shang, Tao and Paotze while she ventures to grandmother's house. Soon after the mother departs, a person who claims to be Po Po, which is grandmother in Chinease, knocks on the door requesting the children allow her to enter. Here we are amused with recognition of Little Red Riding Hood and how the wolf tricks the child into beleiving he is the grandmother. Of course the children accept this perpatrator to be their grandmother, but are not fooled for long. Cleverly Young now turns Lon Po PO into the story of the Three Little Pigs.

The children trick and the wolf and leave him incapable of harming them. There is no gore in the end, but instead a happy, clever and peaceful ending. Shang, the eldest child, tempts the wolf by taunting him with gingko nuts, which is suppose to insure immortality. The wolf of course desires these nut and wants the children to provide him with this magic. The wolf must reach the top of the tree to accomplish his goal of immortality. The children allow him to beleive he will be successful, but in the end the wolf is left without life let alone immortality.

Young has created a fun and adventurous storyline combinig familiar tales. He is succesful in keeping the readers attention and his illustrations create dreamlike images allowing mystery to exist for the children readers. The images are almost ghostly as if they are created in the minds while being told the story around a fire with hopes of sending a chill of fear. I feel this book is very succesful and interesting for children all around the world to read.

Mother of Knowledge: The Enlightenment of Yeshe Tsogyal Text by Nam-mkha'i snying-po. Translation by Tarthang Tulku, ed. Jane Wilhelms Dharma 1983; £12.25 p/b

My first encounter with the tantric text Mother of Knowledge was a bit like walking into a jungle. It was difficult to hold a path or to distinguish between the plants, sounds and life-forms. Often the undergrowth seemed so dense that it was impenetrable. But the jungle was bursting with rich vitality and life.

'She played a lute and sang: "... ai o au am all". After crying out "hrih! hrih! hrih! hrih! she completely disappeared. At the same time the earth trembled and rays of light criss-crossed the sky. An ear-splitting din rent the air, followed by a great rushing, clashing sound and a little spring of water near the palace grew into a small lake.'

This strange poetry, this assault on the limitations of my mind set, drew me like a magnet. I wanted very much to understand, but Mother of Knowledge has so many levels of meaning, and so many different dimensions, that I don't believe I will ever fathom them all. Having studied it continuously for seven years, I am still uncovering deeper and deeper levels. The further I go into the jungle. the more there is to see.

The text is a terma, a teaching which is traditionally understood to have been given by Padmasambhava and subsequently 'hidden' until the time was ripe for its appearance. His close disciple and consort, Yeshe Tsogyal, was responsible for hiding an enormous number of these termas, including The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava.

Mother of Knowledge is the story of Yeshe Tsogyal's spiritual career, her struggles and progress. It is her record of the teachings she received from Padmasambhava, as well as those she herself gave as her spiritual experience deepened. It is also a beautiful and intimate record of the profound connection between disciple and teacher. In this respect it is for me a handbook on how to become the perfect disciple. As she sits meditating in a cave high up on the forest slopes. wearing only one piece of cotton cloth, her body covered with blisters from the cold, she entreats her Dharma Lord to 'look down on me with the sunlight of your compassion'. When I falter in my own practice, I recall such heroic endurance and her example revives me like a fresh fall of rain.

Really engaging with the text demands an imaginative identification. You have to wander with Yeshe Tsogyal into the land of the Orgyan Dakinis, where the trees are 'like keen razors and the earth seems made of flesh'. You need to see with her eyes the 'great castle built of three types of skull, its roof covered with a sheath of skin'. You have to feel the heat from 'the mountains of fire burning fiercely all round'.

Mother of Knowledge is not something you study in the formal sense. It is vivid experience - a strange new land to be explored and lived in. I used to dip into it every night just before going to sleep and its teaching seemed like a boat ferrying me into the unconscious, its symbols working their magic in the depths of my mind.

But it is not all in this vein; there are also traditional Buddhist teachings in their more recognizable form: on the precepts, mindfulness, impermanence, and sunyata (emptiness). And sometimes, as when Padmasambhava praises his disciple's practice of the six Perfections, one seems to enter a clearing in the jungle as the text becomes lucid in a rational way: 'Listen well, daughter... You are disciplined and ethical, patient and free from anger. With your discriminating wisdom, you have guided many beings; through your generosity, you have became totally free. Your vigour is endless, and in your meditation, you have travelled the five paths and the ten spiritual levels.'

Unremitting effort, focus and awareness are, however, essential or the path suddenly vanishes again and all sense of direction is lost. To stay alert, I ask myself questions. Why is Hayagriva (the wrathful form of the Buddha Amitabha) appearing now? Why is Tsogyal doing the purification practice at this particular point? In the process of attempting to follow the pathway through many diverse teachings, to discover and understand what is really being communicated, the shape of my mind has to change. It has to become more spacious; my thinking has to leave its narrow, habitual track, and revert to the wilderness.

All of you gathered here, listen closely Direct the power of your mind to my voice. You needn't despair, you should rejoice. Because life is composite, it is impermanent. Because objects are merely appearance, They have no real foundation. Because paths are confused, they are without truth. Because the fundamental nature or things is emptiness, Objects have no real status. Because the mind is merely dualistic concepts, It has no ground or root.

The name Yeshe Tsogyal means 'ocean of unending primordial wisdom'. If I truly engage with the text, I believe the ultimate demand will be to make my mind as fluid, unbiased, broad and deep as the ocean.

Varachitta is an artist who lives in East London

"Quilting School" is a very attractive, fun book to use. The techniques are laid out in such a way that you can buy your fabric, lay out the design, pick up your scissors, and start making a quilt that will be cherished for years to come. I got my first exposure to the book by checking it out at the library; now I am here at Amazon to purchase one as a reference book to use for many years to come.