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Voices
of Light
Where is the child in us,
Who each day wakes and knows,
The Light of Patmos
That opens like a rose?
The greatest teachers who have ever lived sometimes seem very remote from us. The echoes of their names --Buddha, Jesus, and Socrates, for example-- may make us think or feel that they existed on such an exalted plane, and at times and places so distant, that the character of their lives, and the content of their thought, are too far from our own to have clear and immediate meaning for us in the twenty-first century.
In fact, however, the very opposite is true.
The greatest teachers are precisely those from whom we have the most to learn. They are the "greatest" because their teachings relate, timelessly, to our deepest human concerns.
Whatever our individual situations may be, if we can learn to hear clearly what these teachers have to say --if we permit ourselves to listen to the music of their voices-- they can help us to learn what we most want to know: how can we live in a way that is most likely to make us happy? What do we have within ourselves that can enable us best to lighten the burdens of our daily struggles through our own spiritual enlightenment, and help us to realize our deepest hopes?
Voices of Light (see the planned Table of Contents BELOW as well as links to sample chapters. Sample Chapters will appear in a new browser window) is a series of imagined conversations between ten of the world's greatest teachers and people who came to them to hear what they might learn from them. If you read Voices of Light, I hope the voices of the teachers who speak in them come through to you clearly enough for you to find that they are speaking to you. And that what they have to say can make a happy difference in your life, as they have made in mine.
Harrison Sheppard
San Francisco, CA -- September 5, 1999
| Sample Chapters from Voices of Light Chapter One, Lao Tzu, The Way Chapter Eight: Albert Einstein, The Scientist Chapter Nine: Alexander The Great |
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Voices of Light |
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-TABLE OF CONTENTS- |
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| Page No. | |
| Acknowledgments | iii |
| Introduction | xiv |
| PART ONE: THE LIGHT OF SPIRITUAL TRUTH | |
| Ex Uno Plures | 1 |
| Chapter One, Lao Tzu, The Way | 2 |
| Lao Tzu and the Light of The Way | 11 |
| Chapter Two: Buddha, The Enlightened | 15 |
| Buddha and The Quiet Light | 19 |
| A Wide Quiet | 21 |
| Chapter Three: Jesus, The Child | 22 |
| Jesus and A Childís Light | 28 |
| The Light of Patmos | 28 |
| Chapter Four: Mohammed, The Prophet | 33 |
| Mohammed and The One Light | 38 |
| Chapter Five: Yohandas K. Gandhi, The Peacemaker | 41 |
| Gandhi and The Light of Non-Violence | 49 |
| PART TWO: THE LIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE | 53 |
| Chapter Six: Euclid, The Mathematician | 54 |
| Euclid and The Light of Logic | 62 |
| Chapter Seven: Socrates, The Philosopher | 67 |
| Socrates and The Light of Philosophy | 81 |
| The Light of Greece | 85 |
| Chapter Eight: Albert Einstein, The Scientist | 92 |
| Einstein and The Light of Science | 100 |
| PART THREE: THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM | 106 |
| Chapter Nine: Alexander The Great, The First Cosmopolitan | 107 |
| Alexander The Great, Slavery, and Freedom | 124 |
| Chapter Ten: St. Thomas Aquinas, Godís Lawyer | 128 |
| Aquinas & Freedom Under Law | 142 |
| Chapter Eleven: Nicolo Machiavelli, The Statesman | 149 |
| Why Machiavelli? | 151 |
| Machiavelli & Political Liberty | 160 |
| Chapter Twelve: Thomas Jefferson & Alexis deTocqueville, | |
| The Aristocrat & The Democrat | 169 |
| Democracy & Freedom | 188 |
| Chapter Thirteen: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Visionary | 196 |
| Martin Luther King, Jr.ís Dream For Freedom in America | 202 |
| Chapter Fourteen: Margaret Mead, The Feminist | 210 |
| The Liberty To Be Ourselves | 217 |
| 217 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS | 227 |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY & QUOTED SOURCES | 228 |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF VOICES OF LIFE | 231 |
If you would like to be notified when the publication date for Voices of Light is announced, e-mail the author by clicking here. Please include "Voices of Light" in the subject heading of your e-mail.
You will receive an e-mail once publication is announced, informing you of the date, along with an electronic order form for your convenience. The retail price of Voices of Light will be $19.95 USD. There will be a 10% discount for internet customers.
