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Energy and Eros Dr. Kunio Kitamura ~ Head of Japan's National Family Planning Association, writing In Mainichi Dr. Kunio Kitamura was born in 1951. He graduated from Jichi Medical School and through his 30 years of research,is now the "voice of Japanese sexuality." Among his many books are "Shiawase no Sex (Happy Sex)," "Piru (The Pill)" and "Karada no Hon (The Body Book)." I first encountered Polynesian Sex. . . when I was writing a column for the weekly magazine Shukan Post called "Shiawaze No Sex Kakumei" ("The Happy Sex Revolution"). At that time writer Hiroyuki Itsuki's books Silent Love and Ai Ni Kansuru Ju-Ni Sho (Twelve Chapters on Love) were in the news. James N. Powell's Energy and Eros served as the inspiration for those books. In this busy age when we're always pressed for time, people have forgotten what it's like to touch each other. Even if that opportunity arises, modern people tend to get caught up over orgasms, which means their sex is little more than masturbation using their partners' bodies. Acknowledging this to be the case, I realized anew how important slow sex is and support the message of re-thinking how we make love. Polynesian sex is, as it sounds, the sex practices taught among the people of Polynesia in the South Pacific. . . . This method involves taking a long time to thoroughly touch each other and increase arousal across the entire body. This allows energy in the form of weak electromagnetic waves similar to the concept of ki to flow, building up to create large waves that encompass the entire body and bring about enormous pleasure and happines. Booklist Contrasts “the popcorn type” of Western lover (who values the percussive aspects of sex) and the contemplative, quietly savoring, exquisitely melting “ice cream-style” lover of the ancient East. Fascinating discussions of Taoist and Hindu sexual beliefs and a review of some Western doctrines of quiet sex lead up to the author’s own guide to deeply intimate and meditatively lengthy, and (he claims) intensely satisfying sex for any contemporary couple. Kirkus Reviews Powell’s directions are detailed enough without being creepily-clinical, so aficionados of this genre may find him worth a try. |
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The
Tao of Symbols New York Times Review of Books Most people think they use language to communicate. But language is insidious; it determines the way we think. Modern philosophers say we live in a universe limited by our language. Ludwig Wittgenstein even said we were “bewitched.” James Powell goes a little further. He examines the symbols of language the way a biologist examines cells. By inquiring into the nature of symbols themselves, he hopes to show the transcendental capacity of language not for mere communication but for “communion.” He assures us that the universe is a silent partner in a dialogue that goes on all the time and that throughout history certain images and techniques of meditation have led consciousness to break through the limitations of language, opening the mind to dazzling bursts of divine thunder and illumination. Mr. Powell argues that we tend to underestimate the volatility of symbols. In world politics, we can easily see the danger of a breakdown in communication. When one world of meaning (an Islamic cult) has no reality for the other (the American Government), dialogue stops, sometimes violently. If the breakdown is taken as a failure in communication, in which each side sees the other as willfully irrational, the result is explosive. If, however, the failure is seen as a collision of symbol systems, each of which has absolute internal reality, then dialogue may be pursued with a different understanding. The Tao of Symbols is Mr. Powell’s attempt to bring occupants of different worlds together (Buddhist and Moslem, scientist and sage) and to suggest the basis for a new kind of dialogue. Brain/Mind Bulletin Symbols have the power to emancipate―and constrain―the human mind. “Any symbol system that does not encourage transcendence becomes a prison.” Symbols here are not merely visual signs. They are the foundation of culture. The objects of subatomic physics, for instance, are not observable things but can be interpreted only through the symbols of the language of math. And the unveiling of subconscious material in psychology depends on the interpretation of the symbols of dream language “Every human activity, every Tao or path―be it physics, painting, poetry or meditation―is a way of symbols.” As Alfred North Whitehead pointed out: “The art of free society consists first in the maintenance of a symbolic code, second in fearlessness of revision, to secure that the code serves those purposes that satisfy an enlightened reason.” If a society cannot combine reverence for its symbols with freedom of revision, Whitehead said, it must ultimately decay. Revision in science appears to be built into the process of paradigm shifts. “The reason that philosophies, poetic styles and theories remain in vogue only briefly is that we are capable of going within ourselves,” author Powell said. “There we see novel ways of rearranging the way in which words link up with things. In this way, poetic eras begin in revolution, become accepted as convention and finally deaden into cliché and boredom, only to be replaced by a new poetic vision.” This eloquent, illustrated exploration cites poets, Zen Buddhists, Hopis, Druids and the Vedas to show how we can transcend the limits of our symbolism. New Realities The Tao of Symbols, subtitled “How to transcend the limits of our symbolism,” explores cross-culturally the fragmenting as well as the unifying effects of the concepts, symbols, and languages used by humankind. The book investigates the symbolic environments of ancient religious traditions. Author Powell explores the images and visions of the Hindus, Druids, Zen Buddhists, Taoists, and Zuni Indians. And he enhances these symbolic networks with the personal cosmologies of poets and scholars from the ancient Greek, Zen, through to the medieval St. John of the Cross, and to William Blake. While Powell points out the constructing influence of language on perception, he sees language not as a trap but as a path to enlightenment if followed tenaciously and lovingly. He traces the “spectrum of language from nonflowing, eternal silence to the sounding syllable.” And he says, “Both the scientist and the sage speak of an immense reservoir of pure creative potentiality transcending all conceptualization. Through this field is the sole constituent of the universe, it gives rise to distinctions and material bodies, which are just fluctuations of it. In his discussion of the koans and trickery of Zen, Powell concludes, “What ‘useful’ language has given –concepts and confusion –‘useless’ language removes.” The active language forms of the Zuni describe objects as events and thus avoid the separation of the world into object symbols. The Tao of Symbols presents an illuminating summary and synthesis of research into the symbolic/conceptual attempts by individuals and societies to transcend a fragmented, language-based view of the universe. |
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Prentice Hall Global Employment Guide Library Journal One of the best business books of the year. |
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