Showing results by narrator "Chirag Patel" in All Categories

Sometimes, honour and bravery can win a reprieve from destiny. A story of hope and despair, as artificial intelligences, posthumans, and other minds struggle against their fates.

The Chuang Tsu is one of the most important books in Chinese literature and philosophy. It is one of the two foundational texts of Daoism. Also titled Zhuangzi, it is a commentary and extension of the Dao de Jing/Tao Te Ching, in the same way that Mencius' Analects are an exploration of Confucius' thought. Written in around 300BCE during the Warring States period, it is a collection of anecdotes, fables, and stories that are as silly and funny as they are profound and thought provoking.

In the middle ages, Christianity shared much with Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies. Listen to learn how Christian mystics came to the same conclusions as those from very different faiths. This edition has been adapted from the 1923 version into modern English to make the ideas more accessible to today's listener, the Cloud of Unknowing distills a complex mystical epistemology and discipline into engaging, understandable prose.

Translations of the famous Way and Virtue (Dao De Jing/Tao Te Ching) focus on the poetics and depth of the original. In contrast, Giles’ translation focuses on telling stories with the text, drawing out the nuances in a way that is more familiar to Western audiences from philosophical and religious texts.

James Legge was one of the first great popularisers of Eastern ideas and religion in the West. In this foundational work, he provides a translation of the Dao De Jing/ Tao Te Ching that stands up well today, over a hundred years later.

Gertrude Barrows Bennet is better known by her pen-name, Francis Stevens. With a career that only spanned three years between 1917 and 1920, when she stopped writing after her mother's death, she is credited as "the woman who invented dark fantasy". She was a direct influence on H.P. Lovecraft, and in the words of Sam Moskowitz was the "greatest woman writer of science fiction in the period between Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and C.L. Moore"

The best summary of this book is ‘being right doesn’t mean you’re gonna win, and this is why’. It’s the ultimate guide to spotting the many different kinds of bullshit people pull in order to win over the crowd, rather than argue the point at hand. There’s very few of them that don’t immediately bring examples to mind, and having it laid out clearly like this is the perfect armour to stop people derailing you.

London businessman Mr. Bedford is broke. He retreats to a beautifully mundane area of the British countryside to focus on writing a play, which he hopes will bring him financial success. By a stroke of luck, Mr. Bedford quickly reaches new heights…just not in the way he anticipated. Mr. Bedford’s countryside retreat is interrupted by a peculiar physicist named Mr. Cavor, who is developing an anti-gravity material called cavorite. The unlikely pair sets sight on the moon and begins planning the first ever lunar expedition.

If you're struggling with how to demystify the world, check out this guide. With answers about everything from AI and mental health, to living through hard times and discussions of philosophy, theology and spirituality, it contains a wealth of interesting facts, ideas and opinions.

The classic work of Sufi mystical thinking from 1100CE, available in audiobook for the first time. It is also known as A Niche of Lamps.

In the Early settler days, the British did more than go to war. Many found the local folklore and beliefs fascinating, and collected them together. This is one of the first explorations of South African folk tales.

Fifty-One Tales is a collection of fantasy short stories by Irish writer Lord Dunsany, a major influence on J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin and others. Each story is a short vignette, a single moment of strangeness or horror in the face of death.

“What Did Jesus Really Say?”, authoritatively answers these formerly unanswerable questions. Jesus taught of an inner world, and this very inner world can be tapped today for answering what the written record cannot reveal. Trusted inner sources are the key and were tapped for this book.

This is not a self-help book, or a book of specific guidance. In fact, it was written because too many works that claim to help you find your way either disappear into meaningless abstraction or are so petty and particular they fall at the first hurdle, teaching control instead of acceptance. Come with Arthur and Chirag as they discuss the ways they have sought understanding and progress over time, both within and without.

Lord Dunsany was the most influential writer in the genre that came to be known as fantasy, which his stories set trends for that continue to this day. In this collection you’ll find sixteen stories from the first and greatest master of the fantasy genre.

Edward Plunkett, the Baron Dunsany, was just gaining his stride as the world's first modern fantasy author, and wrote this book of tales to help show that dreams still came, dark and fantastical as they may be.

Written in the dark days of World War I, join Lord Dunsany as he spreads the dreams that we cannot leave to die. Dunsany was the most influential writer in the genre that came to be known as fantasy, which his stories set trends for that continue to this day.

Clayton Barbour, the narrator, is a protected bourgeois son just weak enough to allow himself to be overwhelmed by a sly, dissembling force of evil, just strong enough to be constantly tormented by his weakness. Invited to a séance by a casual acquaintance, Moore, who sees in him a psychic force, he becomes the inadvertent victim of Moore's wife's contact with a channeled malignant force.

Nightmare was the first in a type of fiction that became known as dark fantasy, and remains a high water mark in the genre. First published in 1916, this debut novel began the three year career in which Francis Stevens became the person that launched entire genres of modern fictions. With her vast imagination and flair for the unusual and exciting, Gertrude Barrows Bennett created a seed that has grown into thousands of great works.

This was the book that launched a genre. Modern fantasy collections trace their lineage back to Lord Dunsany, and this was his first work that today's listeners would recognise in tone and settings.