PHILIP ZALESKI
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J. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, both at the University of Oxford. He then moved within the same university to become the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, and held these positions from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, a co-member of the informal literary discussion group The Inklings. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda and, within it, Middle-earth. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the larger part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the tremendous success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings ignited a profound interest in the fantasy genre and ultimately precipitated an avalanche of new fantasy books and authors. As a result, he has been popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature and is widely regarded as one of the most influential authors of all time.
Paramahansa YoganandaParamahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893 – March 7, 1952) was an Indian and American Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) / Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) of India—the only one he created to disseminate his teachings. A chief disciple of the yoga guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, he was sent by his lineage to spread the teachings of yoga to the West. He immigrated to the US at the age of 27 to demonstrate the unity between Eastern and Western religions and to advocate for a balance between Western material growth and Indian spirituality. His longstanding influence in the American yoga movement, and especially the yoga culture of Los Angeles, led yoga experts to consider him as the "Father of Yoga in the West". He lived his last 32 years in the US. Yogananda was among the first Indian teachers to settle in the US, and the first prominent Indian to be hosted in the White House (by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927); his early acclaim led to him being dubbed "the 20th century's first superstar guru" by the Los Angeles Times. Arriving in Boston in 1920, he embarked on a successful transcontinental speaking tour before settling in Los Angeles in 1925. For the next two and a half decades, he gained local fame and expanded his influence worldwide: he created a monastic order and trained disciples, went on teaching tours, bought properties for his organization in various California locales, and initiated thousands into Kriya Yoga. By 1952, SRF had over 100 centers in both India and the United States. As of 2012, they had groups in nearly every major American city. His "plain living and high thinking" principles attracted people from all backgrounds among his followers. He published his Autobiography of a Yogi in 1946 to critical and commercial acclaim. It has sold over four million copies, with Harper San Francisco listing it as one of the "100 best spiritual books of the 20th Century". Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs ordered 500 copies of the book, for each guest at his memorial to be given a copy. It was also one of Elvis Presley's favorite books, and one he gave out often. The book has been regularly reprinted and is known as "the book that changed the lives of millions". A documentary about his life commissioned by SRF, Awake: The Life of Yogananda, was released in 2014. He remains a leading figure in Western spirituality. A biographer of Yogananda, Phillip Goldberg, considers him "the best known and most beloved of all Indian spiritual teachers who have come to the West".
Serenity PrayerThe Serenity Prayer is an invocation by the petitioner for wisdom to understand the difference between circumstances ("things") that can and cannot be changed, asking courage to take action in the case of the former, and serenity to accept in the case of the latter. The prayer has achieved very wide distribution, spreading through the YWCA and other groups in the 1930s, and in Alcoholics Anonymous and related organizational materials since at least 1941. Since at least the early 1960s, commercial enterprises such as Hallmark Cards have used the prayer in its greeting cards and gift items.
ZaleskiZaleski (feminine: Zaleska; plural: Zalescy) is a Polish surname. At the beginning of the 1990s there were approximately 4322 people in Poland with this surname. The germanizewd form is Saleski Notable people with the surname include: Alan Zaleski (1942–2025), American politician in Ohio Alexander M. Zaleski (1906–1975), U.S. Catholic Bishop Anthony Florian Zaleski (1913–1997), American two-time world middleweight boxing champion August Zaleski (1883–1972), Polish diplomat, historian, President of Poland in Exile Bronisław Zaleski (1819 or 1820–1880), Polish writer Carol Zaleski, American author, professor of religious studies Jan Zaleski (1869–1932), Polish biochemist Jan Zaleski (philologist) (1926–1981), Polish philologist, historian of language, numismatist Jerod Zaleski (born 1989), Canadian football player Józef Bohdan Zaleski (1802–1886), Polish poet Krzysztof Zaleski (1948–2008), Polish actor Ladislaus Michael Zaleski (1852–1925), Polish prelate, Apostolic Delegate to the East-Indies and Latin Patriarch of Antioch, botanist Leon Zaleski (c. 1810–1841), Polish patriotic activist Marcin Zaleski (1796–1877), Polish painter Michał Zaleski (born 1952), Polish politician Philip Zaleski, American writer and editor Stanisław Załęski (1843–1908), Polish priest and historian Terence M. Zaleski (born 1953), American politician Wacław Michał Zaleski (pseudonym Wacław from Olesko; 1799–1849), Polish poet, researcher of folklore Wojciech Zaleski (1906–1961), Polish politician Zbigniew Zaleski (1947–2019), Polish politician Zygmunt Zaleski (1882–1967), Polish literature historian, poet
Owen BarfieldArthur Owen Barfield (9 November 1898 – 14 December 1997) was an English philosopher, author, poet, critic, and member of the Inklings.
Autobiography of a YogiAutobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda is a spiritual classic published in 1946. It recounts Yogananda's life, his search for his guru, and his teachings on Kriya Yoga. The book has introduced many to meditation and yoga and has been influential in both Eastern and Western spiritual circles. It has been translated into over fifty languages and continues to be widely read. Notable admirers include Steve Jobs, George Harrison, and Elvis Presley. Paramahansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali Hindu family. Autobiography of a Yogi recounts his life and his encounters with spiritual figures of the Eastern and the Western world. The book begins with his childhood and family life, then finding his guru, becoming a monk and establishing his teachings of Kriya Yoga meditation. The book continues in 1920 when Yogananda accepted an invitation to speak at a religious congress in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He then travelled across the USA lecturing and establishing his teachings in Los Angeles, California. In 1935, he returned to India for a yearlong visit. When he returned to the USA he continued to establish his teachings, including writing this book. The book is an introduction to the methods of attaining God-realization and the spiritual wisdom of the East, which had only been available to a few before 1946. The author claims that the writing of the book was prophesied by the nineteenth-century master Lahiri Mahasaya (Paramguru of Yogananda). The book has been in print for seventy-five years and translated into over fifty languages by the Self-Realization Fellowship, a spiritual society established by Yogananda. It has been acclaimed as a spiritual classic, being designated by Philip Zaleski, while he was under the auspices of HarperCollins Publishers, as one of the "100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century." It is included in the book 50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom from 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose by Tom Butler-Bowdon. According to Project Gutenberg, the first edition is in the public domain, at least five publishers are reprinting it and four post it free for online reading.
Philip ZaleskiPhilip Zaleski is the author and editor of several books on religion and spirituality, including The Recollected Heart, The Benedictines of Petersham, and Gifts of the Spirit. In addition, he is coauthor with his wife Carol Zaleski of The Book of Heaven, Prayer: A History, and The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of The Inklings J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams. His books have received laudatory reviews in The New York Times Book Review, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. Zaleski is also the editor of the acclaimed Best Spiritual Writing series (1998–present). His essays and reviews on religion, culture, and the arts appear regularly in national periodicals including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and First Things. Zaleski was for many years a book critic for the Boston Phoenix, and later worked as executive editor and senior editor at Parabola Magazine, where he contributed frequent essays on Christianity and other world religions. During this period he also published a pioneering essay on Vladimir Nabokov's lepidoptery, which won him the David McCord Essay Prize. In 1999, Zaleski compiled, under the auspices of HarperCollins Publishers, a list of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the 20th Century. Zaleski has taught religion, literature, film, and creative writing at Wesleyan University, Smith College, and Tufts University. One of Zaleski's main subjects is prayer, which he has described in a television interview as "communication between the human and transcendent realms, an act that for most people means talking with a personal God, coming into the presence of a Person who cares about them and loves them and can offer them help. This communication may in time become a two-way street, as God responds. Vast numbers of people report this sort of experience and make it the basis of their daily lives, people who wake up every morning, pray, and believe that they have been in communion with God. They pray to God and receive an answer. And this relationship makes people profoundly happy, which tells us that prayer is something essential to our nature, as if it were hardwired in us." He is the son of Malta-born artist Jean Zaleski.
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