Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps by Barbara Pease, Allan Pease

Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps: How We're Different and What to Do About It

by 

Barbara Pease, Allan Pease

Have you ever wished your partner came with an instruction booklet? This international bestseller is the answer to all the things you've ever wondered about the opposite sex.

For their controversial new book on the differences between the way men and women think and communicate, Barbara and Allan Pease spent three years traveling around the world, collecting the dramatic findings of new research on the brain, investigating evolutionary biology, analyzing psychologists, studying social changes, and annoying the locals.

The result is a sometimes shocking, always illuminating, and frequently hilarious look at where the battle line is drawn between the sexes, why it was drawn, and how to cross it. Read this book and understand--at last!--why men never listen, why women can't read maps, and why learning each other's secrets means you'll never have to say sorry again.

To get a man to listen, give him advance notice and provide an agenda,"" write the husband and wife Peases in this pithy, attention-grabbing guidebook to the differences between men and women. Originally self-published in Australia to wide acclaim, the book weaves together facts from the latest brain research, theories from evolutionary biology and a treasure trove of anecdotal events and conversations collected by the authors during a three-year research trip around the world. Sociobiology has rarely been so entertaining. The Peases say that a woman's brain is wired to be able to speak and listen simultaneously, for example, and they are geared to talk through problems. Men, by contrast, need to clam up. ""He uses his right brain to try to solve his problems or find solutions, and he stops using his left brain to listen or speak."" These brain differences took shape in cave days, according to the authors. Men were hunters and defenders who evolved tunnel vision (as compared to women's vision), while, as nurturers, women not only had broad peripheral vision but sensitive relationship skills. Channel surfing and newspaper skimming are modern ways for a man to cut off from others to privately mull problems, advise the authors. ""Remember, his forefathers spent more than a million years sitting expressionless on a rock surveying the horizon, so this comes naturally to him.... "" Feisty and crystal clear, this controversial work will appeal to readers of both sexes.

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The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by TIMOTHY FERRISS

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich 

by TIMOTHY FERRISS

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan - there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.

This step-by step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:

* How Tim went from $40,000 dollars per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per MONTH and 4 hours per week * How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want * How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs * How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist * How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent 'mini-retirements'.

This new updated and expanded edition includes:

More than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled their income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point * Real-world templates you can copy for eliminating email, negotiating with bosses and clients, or getting a private chef for less than £5 a meal * How lifestyle design principles can be suited to unpredictable economic times * The latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either

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The Conquest of Illusion - J.J. van der Leeu

The Conquest of Illusion
 by
 J.J. van der Leeu

In 1710, George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, argued that there is no such thing as matter. What we take as matter, what we take to be "the world" are but our perceptions of some unknown reality. This line of thought became known as "idea-lism" and has been a thread in the history of Western philosophy since then. But this line of thought is very ancient. Plato expressed it in his well-known allegory of the cave, in which the world we perceive is but a shadow of something else, something of which we are generally completely unaware. Such a line of thought is extremely well developed in Eastern thought in such philosophies as Sankhya, Vedanta, and in the practical works of Raja yoga.

This general line of thought has fallen out of favor over the past several centuries in the West, due in large part to the rise of science, and the underlying philosophy of materialism, that has since morphed into the philosophy of physicalism, the dominant, if generally implicit paradigm of the modern world.

In spite of being eclipsed by the dazzling successes of the physical sciences in the West, it is a completely undeniable fact that our conscious awareness forever serves as an intermediary to what ever it is that is being represented as "the world" in our awareness. However, particularly in modern times, this general fact of our experience is neglected in our considerations of the world.

In Conquest of Illusion, van der Leeuw begins from this premise. But he does not construct philosophical arguments. No. This book is about his first-hand experiences from his advanced practice of yoga, exploring both the nature of consciousness and the nature of this thing we call "the world" that appears in our consciousness. van der Leeuw describes the >>result<< of successfully achieving the main goal of yoga, which is direct awareness of the eternal that underlies this "thing" we call existence.

The book is profound in every conceivable respect. In spite of the exponential growth of our current understanding of the material world, including the brain and the cosmos, this book is still apropos. It describes the eternal veritas underlying time, space, the mind, and our relative existence.

Perhaps the single most important quote of this book is:

"The mystery of life in not a problem to be solved, it is a reality to be experienced."

It is clear to one informed in such matters that van der Leeuw is describing in a lucid and (relatively) easy to understand fashion what has been described for centuries in Eastern, and specifically Indian philosophy, and in particular in the Kashmiri Shavism school of Indian thought.

The relevance of this book will only continue to grow over time as thinkers again begin to recognize in ever greater measure the implications that the "world" that exists, and this "world" as it appears in our conscious awareness are by no means identical.

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Mind Beyond Death - Dzogchen Ponlop

Mind Beyond Death
by
 Dzogchen Ponlop

Mind Beyond Death is an indispensable guidebook through the journey of life and death. Using humorous analogies and his profound understanding of the Western mind, Rinpoche makes the mysterious Tibetan teachings on the bardos--the intervals of life, death, and beyond-- completely available to the modern reader. Drawing on a breathtaking range of material, Mind Beyond Death shows us how the bardos can be used to conquer death. But the bardos also apply to taking control of life, and learning how to live with fearless abandon. Walking skillfully through the bardos of dream, meditation, and daily life, we then travel deep into the mysterious death intervals and become familiar with their dazzling mindscape. This tour de force gives us the knowledge to transform the greatest obstacle of death into the most powerful opportunity for enlightenment. With nuts-and-bolts meditations and brilliant illumination, Mind Beyond Death offers a clear map that will safely transport the reader through the challenging transitions of life and death

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The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda

The Art of Dreaming
by
 Carlos Castaneda

Carlos Castaneda tells how, under don Juan's tutelage, he gained control over his dreams and used dreaming as a launching pad to a pervasive but unseen realm of ancestral spiritual forces, good and evil. He goes through tunnels, enters into the consciousness of trees, meets scouts, emissaries and form-changing blobs of energy. Aided by don Juan's companions and fellow apprentices, Castaneda penetrates a realm of "inorganic beings" who set traps for him and attack him, as if to illustrate don Juan's teaching that consciousness is compelled to grow through life-or-death confrontations. For believers, Castaneda's quest offers a tantalizing glimpse of alternate worlds beyond the rational parameters of our mundane reality. 

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