The Joy of Sects

Peter Occhiogrosso began his writing career as a jazz critic and interviewer and was the first journalist to cover the emerging "loft jazz" scene in downtown Manhattan in depth. As music editor for the Soho Weekly News, he also immersed himself in the burgeoning punk rock and new wave movements. Accordingly, he wrote his first book about the fictitious British metal band Spinal Tap, and collaborated with Frank Zappa on his unconventional autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book. But by the 1990s, Peter's interests had grown to encompass spirituality, following his initiation into the American group Eckankar, where he learned to practice intensive dream work. That started him on a trail of spiritual exploration that led to the study of Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, Zen, Kabbalah, and many years of practice with the Chinese qigong master Kwan Saihung.

Religion is one of the oldest human activities and even in the present day pervades almost every aspect of life, but with so many seemingly incomprehensible beliefs, laws, rituals, and terminologies, you can't tell the players without a program. The Joy of Sects overcomes this confusion by presenting a rich trove of information in a concise, browsable format. It is a guidebook to the world's religious traditions not only for the devout follower but also for the interested outsider, for the curious unbeliever, and for anyone who ever wondered about the difference between karma and dharma, yin and yang, Talmud and Torah, the astral plane and the akashic record, Pharisees and Sadducees, Sunnis and Shiites.Here you will find detailed narrative histories of the six great religious traditions of East and West -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam -- along with information about related traditions, including Sikhism, Confucianism, Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, and the various elements that compose the New Age. Each chapter contains brief sections on the scriptures, places of worship, and terminologies, as well as the numerous denominations, orders, and schools that make up the great millefleur tapestry of world religion.