Leza Lowitz

"Virtuous Heart: Twelve Buddhist Stories to Awaken and Inspire," offers a beautiful selection of ancient wisdom tales of the Buddha updated for our times. In these stories, Buddha is incarnated as the devoted elephant, the patient ox, the compassionate snake, the sorry sun, and more, to teach humans about devotion, kindness, honesty, loyalty, forgiveness, compassion, humility, and self-sacrifice. These beautiful stories appeal to the soft heart within each of us-the virtuous heart that radiates truth, beauty, love, and connection in its care for all beings on this fragile earth.**********"In this evocative retelling of these classic Buddhist morality tales, each fable starts with the relatable, all- too-human cravings of the villain-a twist that makes all the more touching the transformations wrought by the compassion of the awakened animal teachers. Pairing Leza Lowitz's deft prose with the delicate brushstrokes of Amanda Giacomini's illustrations, these stories are tuned to delight seekers of all ages."-Anne Cushman, author of "The Mama Sutra: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Path of Motherhood"**********"These simple, beautifully written and illustrated folk tales, based on stories from the Pali scriptures, are among some of the oldest recorded stories in the world. If you are not already familiar with them-as I wasn't-I promise you will find them delightful. While charming in their own right, they also embody everyday wisdom (the Buddha reportedly used them to illustrate his teachings) that will inspire all of us, of any age or spiritual back- ground, to endeavor to become our best selves."-Nina Zolotow, co-author of "Yoga for Healthy Aging: A Guide to Lifelong Well-Being" and Editor-in-Chief of the "Yoga for Healthy Aging" blog**********"VIRTUOUS HEART will make you remember the wisdom of animals with very human lessons you'll never forget. So powerful, resonant and needed today "-Jennifer Pastiloff, author of "On Being Human: A Memoir of Waking Up, Living Real, and Listening Hard"

"A new EAT, PRAY, LOVE."-Graceful Passages "This is a story about forging family across dividing oceans, cultures, and self-doubts, but ultimately, "In Search of the Sun" proves that love is not bound by blood. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in that which connects us, holds us together, and makes us family."--MC YOGI At 30, Californian Leza Lowitz is single and travelling the world, which suits her just fine. Coming of age in Berkeley, California, during the sexual and feminist revolutions of the 1960s, she learned that marriage and family could wait. Or could they?Then she moved to Japan and met the man of her dreams, and her heart opened in ways she never thought possible. And when she approached 40--the same age her own mother had left the family behind to "find herself" --Lowitz yearned for a child. In a reverse trajectory of her own mother's life, Lowitz sought to heal the wounds that had kept motherhood at bay.As Lowitz's healing took her from the San Francisco Bay Area to New York and Tokyo, with spiritual quests in India on the way, she came to a deeper understanding of what motherhood means. She went from doing her yoga practice for herself to opening a yoga studio in Tokyo and fostering a community. Then, at 44, she sought to adopt a child in Japan, where bloodlines are paramount and family ties are almost feudal in their cultural importance. She unearthed lessons from a Jewish childhood and married them to an adulthood spent with Zen and yoga in Japan.Though raised in Berkeley, one of the most diverse and progressive places in the world, Lowitz settles in Japan, one of the most outwardly homogenous and socially staid." In Search of the Sun" is the story of what Lowitz learned from both worlds. It's the story of how she conquered her fears, blasted through inner and outer limits, and became the mother she'd never thought she'd be. And when the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown hit Japan, the disasters reinforce what she'd come to know by then: that the only true home is the one we make within ourselves."We think we know where babies come from, but do we know how a mother is born? "In Search of the Sun" is a wise and compelling story of becoming a mother by opening your heart. Warm, luminous and healing."-Karen Maezen Miller, author of "Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood" "In Lowitz's quest for harmony and beauty-the story of a mother, told by a poet through the self-examination of a yogi-she discovers that where there is fear there can be no love, and where there is a victim there can be no enlightenment. I fell in love with everyone in this memoir of a woman wanting to be loved and to love. This is an intimate, brilliant, beautiful offering."-Sharon Gannon, co-Founder, Jivamukti Yoga "The story of how this American Samurai's kept her tender heart open in the face of continued obstacles will inspire every yogi who has ever forgotten to take refuge in their practice. Full of beauty and joy and truth and goodness and courage, this is a love story and a yoga page-turner."-Cyndi Lee, author, "May I Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Yoga, and Changing My Mind" (This is a new, revised edition of the author's previously published memoir entitled "Here Comes the Sun.")

"Any student of yoga will find treasures to cherish within its pages." -Yoga JournalWINNER, PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Best Poetry BookWINNER, Bay Area Independent Bookseller's Award for Spiritual BooksEighteenth Anniversary re-issue of this beloved volume, still inspiring thousands of yogis around the world. The transformative paths of yoga and poetry converge in "Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By," a landmark volume of poetry by award-winning writer and internationally renown yoga instructor Leza Lowitz. The ancient holistic system of yoga, hugely popular today around the world, helps us to open our hearts, recovering our emotional core and connection to the world through breath, movement, and awareness. Poetry, called the "original breath," seeks to do the same through words, images and sound. Like yoga, the alchemy of poetry awakens the soul, changing the way we see ourselves and the gifts of the universe. Inspired by yoga postures themselves (think of the names of the poses--Tree, Bridge, Eagle, Sun Salutation, Monkey-- to name a few ) these 60 poems range from the whimsical to the philosophical, the personal to the universal, structured around the Eight Limbs of Yoga. "Hatha-Yoga at its best is both precision science and poetry of the heart. Leza Lowitz's inspired poems capture well this dual spirit. I have been enjoying them for their depth and grace." Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., author, "The Yoga Tradition""I thank Leza for winding down the road of intimately describing her experiences within her yoga practice, extracting the essence of the yoga postures with her keen observation, and communicating them to us through potent poetry." -Rodney Yee"A set of elegant poems inspired by the study and practice of yoga. Lowitz . . . writes here with a Zenlike spareness that lends clarity both to the poems and the reader's appreciation of the yoga experience. YOGA POEMS serves as a window onto a landscape made more vivid by the physical ingenuity and spiritual richness of yoga, and any student of yoga will find treasures to cherish within its pages." -Yoga Journal

A powerful novel-in-verse about how one teen boy survives the March 2011 tsunami that devastates his coastal Japanese village. "Successfully captures the raw emotions of loss, grief, and what it means to move forward." --BuzzFeed On the day the tsunami strikes, Kai loses nearly everyone and everything he cares about. But a trip to New York to meet kids whose lives were changed by 9/11 gives him new hope and the chance to look for his estranged American father. Visiting Ground Zero on its tenth anniversary, Kai learns that the only way to make something good come out of disaster is to return and rebuild. Heartrending yet hopeful, Up from the Sea is a story about loss, survival, and starting anew. Fans of Jewell Parker Rhodes's Ninth Ward and Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust will embrace this moving story. An author's note includes numerous sources detailing actual events portrayed in the story. A BOOKRIOT 100 MUST-READ YA BOOKS WRITTEN IN VERSEA NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK FOR TEENS, 2016 "Up From the Sea touched me deeply with its beautiful message of hope and the resilience of humanity. Bravo." --Ellen Oh, author of the Prophecy series "It is a moving story of the rebirth of hope in a teen who has lost almost everything. . . . Kai will resonate with teens on a simple human level, just as 3/11 resonates with 9/11." --VOYA

Bold, visual, profound, symbolic: Japanese kanji characters communicate powerful graphic messages that look great on skin, walls, stationery, T-shirts, and more Here are dozens of edgy, targeted characters hand-picked to help you find the inner you and express yourself in a distinctive stylish way. With cultural clues, readings, font varieties, and ideas for proper use. Don't embarrass yourself with bad ink! Shogo Oketani is an editor and author in Tokyo, Japan, and a long-time student of Japanese martial arts, philosophy, poetry, and history. Leza Lowitz is the author of twenty books of fiction and poetry and is owner/teacher at Sun and Moon yoga studio in Tokyo, Japan.

**Winner of the 2013-2014 Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature** **2015 Sakura Medal Nominee** **Shortlisted for the 2014 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award** **Nominated for the Cybils Young Adult Bloggers Literary Award** Seventeen-year-old Jet Black is a ninja. There's only one problem—she doesn't know it. Jet has never lived a so-called normal life. Raised by her single Japanese mother on a Navajo reservation in the Southwest, Jet's life was a constant litany of mysterious physical and mental training. For as long as Jet can remember, every Saturday night she and her mother played "the game" on the local mountain. But this time, Jet is fighting for her life. And at the end of the night, her mother dies and Jet finds herself an orphan—and in mortal danger. Fulfilling her mother's dying wish, Jet flies to Japan to live with her grandfather where she discovers she is the only one who can protect a family treasure hidden in her ancestral land. She's terrified, but if Jet won't fight to protect her world, who will? Stalked by bounty hunters and desperately attracted with the man who's been sent to kill her, Jet must be strong enough to protect the treasure, preserve an ancient culture and save a sacred mountain from destruction. In Jet Black and the Ninja Wind, multiple award-winning author, poet and translator team Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani make their first foray into young adult fiction with a compulsively readable tale whose teenage heroine must discover if she can put the blade above the heart—or die trying.

"Selected Persian (Farsi) Translations of Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By" Leza Lowitz's poetry is inspirational. While the poems are about Yoga poses, they relate to the many larger challenges of life, expanding beyond the physical and relating to the many spiritual aspects of life that both practitioners and non-practitioners of Yoga would relate to. The translations share the richness of Leza Lowitz's work with the Persian-speaking readers and enable them to enjoy the depth of her poetry.For more information regarding BAHAR BOOKS, visit: www.baharbooks.com

"Yoga Heart is a tiny treasure to hold and to behold. Even the typography and colors are food for contemplation...highly recommended for people who will not only read the lines for enjoyment, but also use them for contemplation and right action in life." --New York Journal of Books These sixty poems on the Buddha's six "perfections," or qualities for a meaningful life--generosity, kindness, patience, joy, stillness, wisdom--were written over years of yoga and meditation practice, inspired by Tibetan Heart Yoga, nature, Buddhism, Osho, Tantra, ancient Japanese and Chinese poetry, Rumi, Kabir, haiku, love, and life. They seek to capture a journey from the physical body to the subtle body to the light body, until the heart bursts open into the beautiful radiance of divine energy in the world. Leza Lowitz is an award-winning author and editor. She owns Sun and Moon Yoga Studio in Tokyo and has written for Yoga Journal and Shambhala Sun. All author proceeds from the sale of this book go to relief efforts for people and animals affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011

"A must-have for anyone who is new and serious about exporing the subject further. Also recommended for advanced practitioners who may want to 'brush-up' on their Sanskrit." -- Yoga Magazine UK "This slim volume is a lot more than its title lets on." -- The Asian Reporter "...A joy to read: it has accuracy in its translations, beauty in its presentation, and conveys the spiritual richness of the yogic tradition. It will definitely enrich the life of many yoga teachers and students." -- Ascent Magazine Joseph Campbell called Sanskrit "the great spiritual language of the world." Designed by ancient Indian holy men to express the states of enlightened consciousness through syllabic sounds, Sanskrit is widely used in the West during yoga practice to channel spiritual pathways and to discuss important meditative and philosophical concepts. This book introduces 180 Sanskrit words (including chakra, karma, om, namaste, veda, nirvana) with Devanagari scripts, pronunciations, chants and brief cultural/historic explanations. A practical reference that makes an excellent gift book for any student of yoga, meditation or Eastern religion. Leza Lowitz is a much-published writer and director of Sun and Moon Yoga Studio in Tokyo. Reema Datta grew up in India and teaches Ashtanga yoga and Ayurvedic cooking in San Francisco.