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The Kober Press Catalogue
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The
Kober Press has published English translations
of the books of Bô Yin Râ as follows:
THE BOOK ON THE ROYAL ART
This work is the first volume of The Gated Garden, a cycle of thirty-two books in which the author shows the
way that lets his readers find objective spiritual truth within the light that
darkness cannot conquer. In this opening volume the author discloses his own
spiritual origin and sources and explains the reason leading to the publication
of these books in our time. As the Western mediator of the oldest roots of
ancient Eastern wisdom he also gives his readers the criteria to distinguish
spurious echoes of that wisdom.
Of particular significance for Western
readers is the chapter "The Night of Easter," which recalls the
actual events preceding what would later be accepted as the Resurrection. In
this context the book also touches on the Eastern well spring in the teachings
of the historical Master of Nazareth.
The concept "Royal Art" in the
book's title refers to the Indian Raja Yoga, but here the term is used to denote
a spiritual craft that far transcends the practices that are today suggested by
that name.
As the portal to The Gated Garden this book is of particular importance in that is sets the
tone and outlines the perspective from which all other volumes in the cycle
should be viewed and understood.
Contents:
PART ONE: The Light from Himavat and the
Words of the Masters. 1. The Luminary's Self-Disclosure to the Seeking
Soul. 2. The Harvest. 3. The One whose Being is Infinity. 4. Know Thyself. 5.
On the Masters of the Spirit's World. 6. Pitfalls of Vanity.
PART TWO: From the Lands of
the Luminaries. 1. The Threshold. 2. The King's Question. 3. The Pillar in the
Mountains. 4. The Night of Easter. 5 Communion.
PART THREE: The Will to
Joy. 1. To All who Strive Toward Timeless Light. 2. The Teachings on Joy.
Epilogue.
196 Pages. Paperback $12.00.
2006. ISBN 0-915034-13-1. Go to Bookstore
The following three books
are a trilogy and should be read together:
THE BOOK ON THE LIVING GOD
(Trilogy: Book I)
In this central text of the Hortus
Conclusus cycle, the author shows the
difference between the numerous subjective, man-made images of God--ranging
from the fetish of the savage to the intellectual constructs of the philosopher--and
the objective spiritual reality that human beings are capable of knowing
through experience. The phantom gods that human minds create owe their
existence and their power to nothing more than man's own will; they vanish when
there are no more believers willing to sustain them. What in this book is
called the Living God is something very different. It neither is a
"person" moved by human passions, nor an omnipotent, all-knowing
potentate who made the cosmos out of nothing in order that it worship him. Man's
individuated Living God is, rather, shown as the sublimest self-creation by and
of the Spirit. It is a spiritual scintilla that is born, as light from light,
within each human soul that has prepared itself to be a fitting vessel.
Contents: Word of Guidance. "The
Tabernacle of God is with Men". The "Mahatmas" of Theosophy.
Meta-Physical Experiences. The Inner Journey. The En-Sof. On Seeking God. On
Leading an Active Life. On "Holy Men" and "Sinners". The
Hidden Side of Nature. The Secret Temple. Karma. War and Peace. The Unity among
Religions. The Will to Find Eternal Light. Mankind's Higher Faculties of
Knowing. On Death. On the Spirit's Radiant Substance. The Path toward
Perfection. On Everlasting Life. The Spirit's Light Dwells in the East. Faith, Talismans,
and Images of God. The Inner Force in Words. A Call from Himavat. Giving
Thanks. Epilogue. Reminder.
Excerpts: The Spirit's Radiant Substance
The Mediators of Eternal Light
342 pages. Paperback $10.95. 1991. ISBN
0-915034-03-4. Go to
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THE BOOK ON HUMAN NATURE (Trilogy:
Book II)
Together with The Book on the Living
God and The Book on Life Beyond the present volume forms a trilogy, containing the
essential facts and insights of the spiritual cosmology the author outlines in
his thirty-two volume cycle Hortus Conclusus (The Enclosed Garden). The Book on Human Nature at the outset draws a clear distinction between the
timeless, truly "human" individuality of spiritual ancestry that is
embodied in each mortal human life, and the material organism of the special
animal with which the spiritual being unifies itself to spend its earthly
lifetime in a troubled, but inseparable partnership. The book sheds light both
on the primal origin of human beings in their timeless spiritual nature and
also on the causes leading to that spiritual being's physical incorporation. In
this context, the creation narrative of Man preserved in Genesis is shown to be
a fragment based upon objective insights into cosmic truth. As the mortal human
being encloses the conflicting energies of spiritual and animal desires, needs,
and wills, the struggle for predominance between the two opposing forces cannot
be avoided. The critical question, both for the human individual and,
ultimately, for society at large, is whether the eternal essence in the human
mortal gains the upper hand, or whether mortal man remains the thrall of his
material instincts, and thereby forfeits all awareness of his spiritual nature.
To help the reader form objective concepts concerning mankind's origin,
immortal essence, and eternal goal, the present book provides succinct and
lucid guidelines.
Contents: Introduction. The Mystery
Enshrouding Male and Female. The Path of the Female. The Path of the Male. Marriage.
Children. The Human Being of the Age to Come. Epilogue. A Final Word.
Excerpt: Concerning
Marriage
167 pages. Paperback $12.00.
2000. ISBN0-915034-07-7. Go to Bookstore
THE BOOK ON LIFE BEYOND (Trilogy:
Book III)
This book was written to provide its readers
with the most important facts concerning the non-physical existence in which
they must awaken after they have lost the use of their material organism. The
book prepares them for realities they may expect to find upon the other shore
and clearly spells out what one ought to do, and what must be avoided. In
particular, the author warns of the deceptive phantom "heavens,"
which misdirected human faith--generated during mortal life--has brought into
existence in the world beyond. As he makes clear such realms of self-imposed
illusions can hold the human consciousness in hidden chains for ages. The
author explains that life "beyond" is in reality the very life we
live on earth, only it is then experienced by means of different senses.
Objectively considered, "death" is only the transition which allows
us to resume the spiritual existence we had known before the birth into this
mortal life. In this context, the author also touches on the topic of
"reincarnation" and discusses under which conditions it may actually
occur. As a rule, however, this present life is a unique event, and thus of
critical importance for its results will have the most far-reaching
consequences for our life to come.
Contents: Introduction. The Art of
Dying. The Temple of Eternity and the World of Spirit. The Only Absolute
Reality. What Should One Do?
Excerpt: Death and the Question of Afterlife
161 pages. Paperback $12.00. Second
edition 2002. ISBN 0-915034-11-5. Go to Bookstore
THE WISDOM OF ST. JOHN
This work retraces the original contents
of the Fourth Gospel, before its text was mutilated by the early editors who
made it fit the mold of the synoptic gospels in order to support the progress
of the mission. The book discusses the historical events reflected in this
Gospel, as they were witnessed by contemporaries, before interpretation gave
the actual events another meaning. It describes the human personality of Jesus
of Nazareth, his life and death, his public and private teaching, and, most
importantly, it gives the real background on his spiritual mission. The book
provides a portrait of the Galilean Master as his friends and adversaries knew
him, before his life and person were deified, so as to serve as objects for the
worship of the new religion. In separating history from legend, the book shows
many ancient dogmas in a higher light: as symbols of enlightened wisdom which
point the way to spiritual realities beyond the purview of dogmatic
speculation.
Contents: Introduction. The Master's
Image. The Luminary's Mortal Life. The Aftermath. The Missive. The Authentic
Doctrine. The Paraclete. Conclusion.
Excerpt: The Significence of Jesus
xxii, 90 pages. Cloth $12.00. 1975. ISBN
0-915034-01-8. Go To
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THE BOOK ON HAPPINESS
The Book on Happiness will guide the reader to a new and deeper understanding
of the final roots of happiness and of the hidden laws of nature that underlie
and regulate all forms of life, both in the physical and in the spiritual
dimensions of reality. Because these laws consistently affect events in human
life, no less than any law of physics, they must be carefully observed if one
would lead a happy and productive life. In the present book the author shows
that happiness in human life is not a random gift of fortune, which some
receive and others seek in vain, but the inevitable consequence of all creative,
ethical activity. Spiritually considered, happiness is an experience that every
human being is not merely able to create, but morally required to attain. It is
an obligation every person has to meet, a debt we owe both to ourselves and to
society as such.
Contents: Prelude. Creating Happiness as
Moral Duty. "I and "You." Wealth and Poverty. Money. Optimism.
Conclusion.
Excerpt: The Nature of Happiness
133 pages. Paper $10.95. 1994. ISBN
0-915034-04-2. Go
to Bookstore
SPIRIT AND FORM
The present book deals with a topic nowhere
else discussed in the extensive literature on attributes of spiritual life;
i.e., the intricate relationship between the Spirit's all-pervading,
all-sustaining radiant substance, and
the tangible and concrete forms in which this substance manifests its presence
in material life. The author shows that, in the Spirit's highest realms, form
and content are an integral identity; that nothing spiritual is ever found
devoid of form, and that all elements of form, even in this physical domain,
are ultimately based upon, and thus reflect, the Spirit's infinite creative
powers. It is for that reason that human souls who would discover and
experience the reality of spiritual life need to develop an awareness of the
close connection between external form and inner content in their earthly
lives. Imposing form on all one's physical existence; one's work and play;
one's public and domestic life; one's impulses and feelings, including joy and
grief, is thus of critical importance if one would be prepared to find the Spirit's
realm within.To form oneself is, finally, the highest task in life; for only
what has reached its perfect form can hope to enter in the Spirit's absolute
perfection.
Contents: The Question. Outer World and Inner
Life. At Home and at Work. Forming One's Joy. Forming One's Grief. The Art of
Living.
81 pages. Paper $12.00. 2001. ISBN 0-915034-08-5
Go to Bookstore
THE BOOK ON SOLACE
This book considers the experience of
grief, bereavement, and despair from the perspective of our timeless life, from
which all physical ordeals and pains appear in a profoundly different light.
While not denying the reality of suffering and anguish in the sphere of mortal
life, the book explains why grief and sorrow have no basis for existence in the
dimension of the Spirit's light. That is to say, all grief is strictly limited
to physical mortality, is subject to the law of time, and an inevitable
consequence of life in earthly form. All grief, however, can be borne and
overcome by seeing it in its true nature: as a defect inherent in our mortal
life. Thus, it even can be turned to our benefit; for it may reawaken and
intensify our inner life.
Contents: On grief and Finding Solace.
Lessons One can Learn from Grief. On Follies to Avoid. On the Comforting Virtue
of Work. On Solace in Bereavement.
95 pages. Paperback $12.00.
1996. ISBN 0-915034-05-0. Go
to Bookstore
THE MEANING OF THIS LIFE
In this book the author speaks to
readers who are asking whether human life on earth indeed has any meaning; and
if so, what that meaning is, and how one could pursue a meaningful existence.
For those who would not waste their lives in aimless theories, the present work
will offer solid grounds on which to build a life that is not only spiritually
secure and physically productive, but also intellectually enlightened: because
its guiding principles are rooted in the recognition of eternal law. As in his Book on Happiness, the author states that lasting joy is not a gift of
chance awarded from without, but rather the creation of an active soul, so too
the reader's life is bound to have no meaning unless such meaning is created by
determined human will.
While there are many goals one can
pursue to give one's life subjective meaning, the author shows that none
surpasses that of which the ancient sages wrote as being mankind's
"highest good": the conscious rediscovery of our timeless spiritual
nature, through which not only our present life, but also our state in life
beyond will be affected most profoundly. To help the reader recognize and reach
that highest of all human goals remains the foremost aim of all the author's
writings. It also is the purpose of the present work. And here he deals with,
in particular, the mystery of evil manifest in human nature; the need to find a
new approach to asking final questions; the dangers of experimenting with
"occult" phenomena; the difference between subjective verities and
absolute, objective Truth; and also of the subtle ways in which the Spirit's
world is often apprehended unawares, and in the midst of ordinary daily life.
Of special interest should prove the
chapter on the benefits of silence, given that this discipline seems nowadays
to many a forgotten art. Stressing that our present life is but the preparation
for the life to come, whose state will be determined largely by our conduct
here and now, the book concludes with this advice: "If you would lend
abiding purpose to your life on earth, be sure that everything you undertake is
always done in such a way that it will likewise further values of a higher
kind. For, in the end, your present life will have true meaning only if it
continues to be fruitful, and if its harvest shall be yours to reap for all
eternity."
Contents: A Call to
the Lost. The
Iniquity of the Fathers. The Highest Good. The "Evil" Individual.
Summons from the World of Light. The Benefits of Silence. Truth and
Verities.
Conclusion.
126 pages. Paperback $12.00. 1998. ISBN
0-915034-06-9. Go
to Bookstore
Bï YIN Rå: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS WORKS
The articles and shorter pieces
collected in this volume provide a brief but comprehensive introduction to the
author's writings, his background, and perspective. In particular, it offers a
synopsis of his forty published works, together with short commentaries on
their contents. This book has been compiled to let the interested reader gain a
clearer picture of the painter and writer B™ Yin R‰ whose unprecedented
expositions in the fields of metaphysics, religion, and philosophy are
difficult to classify and have to be examined by themselves, within their
proper context.
Contents: Preface. About My Books.
Concerning My Name. In My Own Behalf. Essential Distinction. ResumŽ. Comments
on the Cycle Hortus Conclusus and the
Related Works. Brief Biography of B™ Yin R‰. The Works of B™ Yin R‰.
Frontispiece: photographic portrait of the author.
117 pages. Paperback $12.00. 2004.
ISBN 0-915034-10-7. Go
to Bookstore
WORLDS OF SPIRIT
Among the thirty-two works that
form B™ Yin R‰'s cycle Hortus Conclusus (The Enclosed Garden), this volume
occupies a special place, in that the author's text is here accompanied by
twenty of the artist's spiritual perspectives, paintings that depict the nature
and dynamic structure of eternal life. In his comments on this book, B™ Yin R‰â
remarks that false ideas about the life in spiritual dimensions, patterned too
directly on mortal physical experience, prevent the human soul from ever
apprehending timeless life in earthly form. It therefore is essential to remove
the mental barriers that tradition has created and to replace them with
authentic presentations of nonphysical existence.
The paintings that illuminate the present book, in which events of
spiritual reality are in effect transformed into a physically accessible
experience, are, together with this artist's other spiritual perspectives,
unique creations in the history of art. For until now, artistic images of
spiritual worlds were, of necessity, derived from either intuition or
imagination, not from fully conscious and objective insights into their
reality.
The subject of this book is the ascent of an awakened human spirit, under the protection of its inner guide, to a dimension in the Spirit`s world where ultimate perfection is attained, and where the human spirit then is able to survey and understand its own eternal journey, from its origins, its self-willed fall from highest light, and its eventual, long and burdensome return to where it had begun its quest.
The
titles of the paintings illustrating the cosmology of these events: Emanation,
Contents: Preface. The Ascent. The Return. Reviews of Creation. Epilogue.
89 pages. Hardcover $50.00. 2002. First edition limited to 500 copies. ISBN 0-915034-09-3. Go to Bookstore
THE BOOK ON LOVE
The author stresses the distinction between
the world of mental notions and the objective spiritual reality that underlies
all physical perceptions, The Book on Love is of particular significance as it
distinguishes expressions of emotional attachment from the elemental cosmic
force sustaining all creation.
Few words are used so readily, and with a wider range of connotations,
reaching from an attribute of God to the material realm of physical desire,
than is the concept "love." Yet while incessantly abused by
thoughtless speech, the substance of the world is not debased; even as the sun
is not defiled by shining on a putrid swamp.
What fundamentally distinguishes all forms of human love from the
almighty cosmic force which also bears that name, is that the former need an
object they attract and would possess, while the latter—the divine,
celestial revelation of that power—is wholly free of all attachment,
being perfect and sufficient in itself.
It is the latter form of love that animates the Spirit's infinite
dimensions, and its reflection must inspire human souls who would experience
what all the great historical religions had been founded to convey.
A special chapter in the present book sheds light on the historical
life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth, who was the greatest Mediator of that
highest form of love embodied in this life, which made him able to accomplish
his redemptive sacrifice at Golgotha. titles of the paintings.
Contents: Introduction.
The Greatest of Compassion's Mediators. On Love's Primordial Fire.
Light of Liberation. On Love's Creative Power.
148 pages. Paperback. 2005.
ISBN 978-0-915034-12-3. Go to Bookstore
THE BOOK OF DIALOGUES
The Book of Dialogues presents a selection of conversations
between the author and his spiritual mentors on a number of topics that should
be clearly understood if one would find objective spiritual life and knowledge,
nor merely concepts and beliefs.
The book is of particular significance in that it sheds
revealing light both on the author's own development from early childhood on,
and thereby also on the trials and ordeals which those need to endure who then
become authentic masters, competent as spiritual mediators to speak of and
convey the substance of eternal light.
In the context of these dialogues, the reader will make the
connection that the author is the Western representative and voice of the
perennial source from which all true and real insights into spiritual
dimensions have been granted mankind since the dawn of time, long before the
rise of temporal religious creeds.
Fragments of this oldest tradition of
Eastern wisdom have reached the West at various times in history, but never
before has that knowledge been coherently made public as it is now in the
writings of this author. This book explains what brought these works about.
Contents: Testimony. Knowledge and Reality in Action. Light and Darkness. The Spirit's Might. The Jewel of the Heart. Transformation. The Dialogue on the Innermost
East. The Dialogue on the Parting
of a Master. The Flower Garden. The Deviant Pupils. Night of Trial. Individuality and Person. The Realm of the Soul. On finding Oneself. On the Elder Brothers of Mankind. Mysteries of Magic.
175 pages. Paperback. 2007.
ISBN 978-0-915034-14-X. Go to Bookstore
THE PATH TO GOD
This book confirms, all atheists and skeptics notwithstanding, that faith in God is not the stubborn superstition of untutored or misguided minds, but the experience of an energy that reconnects the spiritual human being with the primordial Ground of Being that sustains all levels of existence.
The God, however, whom enlightened faith has every reason to believe is not the mentally constructed phantom of theology--full of contradictions, fraught with human flaws, unfeeling but omnipotent--who created the ever-expanding universe in a few days, but a reality transcending intellect, philosophy and science, whose power human beings are capable of apprehending through experience.
Once experienced, all "belief" is made irrelevant, and faith becomes united with its object. How that ultimate experience is attained in mortal life, the guidelines of The Path to God describe in terms that shed authentic light on life's profoundest mystery.
Contents: Fantasy and
Faith, Knowing Certainty, Dreaming Souls, Truth and
Reality, Yes and No, The Decisive Battle, Individual
Perfection.
