“Ego is just software that likes to believe it is hardware,” declares the author of Looking for God: The W(hole) Truth.
This book is part of a set of thought-provoking, non-sectarian quality publications that will soon be available in Sri Lanka courtesy a partnership between L&A Publishing Pvt. Ltd. and India’s Stone Hill Foundation Publishing (SHFP). Exploring topics like mind/body/spirit, non-duality, ecology and eco-spirituality, alongside science and new science, each book is beautifully presented. They are being brought to Sri Lanka by Lasangi Bodaragama and Ajitsingham Balasingham, the team behind L&A Publishing – the country’s newest publishing house.
The fledgling company will be breaking new ground in more ways than one. They intend to focus on providing high-quality pictorial books and total publishing solutions for authors and publishers. However, their alliance with SHFP makes for an ambitious step forward. “It offered us the opportunity to partner with a forward-looking international publisher and co-publish books with them for the Sri Lankan, South Asian, Asian and other markets, and thus gain direct access to this fast-growing subject area of body/mind/spirit,” said Lasangi.
“Our books deal with the serious subject of living our lives in a difficult and challenging world,” said a spokesperson for SHFP, stressing the combined threats posed by weapons of mass destruction, environmental damage, accelerating technology and the rat race. “The turmoil in our lives has reached chaotic levels. These pressures have created terrible imbalances in the lives of modern human beings that are reflected in our physical, psychological, and spiritual interactions.”
Publishers like SHFP are stepping up to this challenge with books by authors who have relied on traditional wisdom and self enquiry to tap into the enormous reservoir or energy and creativity we all possess. “This frees up the huge potential of the human being to live life fully, centred in the inner self that is the source of all creativity.”
Explaining that “it is not a matter of any organized movement such as New Age, or any religion per se, or of renunciation,” he says that it is instead about “living fully, engaged in activity in the world, in awareness of the present moment in which all living and activity take place”.
Initially, 22 of SHFP’s published titles will be available in Sri Lanka. Thereafter, as SHFP’s publishing programme expands, all new books will be made available.
Having a price range of Rs. 800 to Rs. 1,800, the books will soon be available in all leading bookstores. They will include Steven Harrison’s ‘The Question to Life’s Answers’ and ‘What’s Next After Now’, which the publishers describe as remarkable works of “post-spirituality”. Harrison’s ‘Being One’ “reminds us that we are already in relationship with everyone and everything. It is a radical exposition of the true nature of the human heart”.
Other titles include cell biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s revolutionary work on morphic resonance and Michael Murphy’s ‘The Life We Are Given’. The former explains morphic resonance in his three books ‘A New Science of Life’, ‘The Presence of the Past’, and ‘The Rebirth of Nature’. Michael Murphy’s book is a classic of Integral Transformative Practice from a pioneer of the Human Potential Movement.
The publishers are confident that the books will sell well. “The body/mind/spirit genre is now the fastest-growing subject area in publishing worldwide,” said SHFP’s spokesman, adding that “many publishing companies publish exclusively in this genre, exploring the connections between physical, psychological and spiritual matters, which are the basis of all life and pursuit. More and more people in this millennia are discovering the ‘secret’ of living a stress-free, fear-free life by delving deep into themselves and coming up with the precious gift of understanding why things are the way they are, thus freeing themselves from fear and anxiety. There could be nothing more worthwhile than publishing such books”.
In the meantime, Lasangi who comes from a background of advertising and journalism and Ajitsingham who has worked extensively in the publishing industry are both optimistic about their new venture.
They say that L&A Publishing would like to publish books that will “reveal the world of art to the general public”. They want to make these books accessible to the public at affordable prices. This will include books on subjects such as photography, archaeology, design and architecture. “Our vision is to attract many authors, artists, designers, illustrators and photographers, who are distinguished in their own fields.” Having already begun several projects they intend to have these completed in 12 to 18 months’ time. |
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