Johnny Appleseed Planting Seeds of a New World

Feb. 2, 2015 - PRLog -- Johnny Appleseed, you remember, was that folk hero, who, legend has it, tramped all over the Ohio River Valley planting apple seeds, which grew into beautiful apple orchards, benefiting the people.

Now James Hilgendorf, author of nine non-fiction books extolling a new vision of ourselves and a new dream of America, is planting seeds of a new world all across the plains, coasts and valleys of America.

Besides blogging, articles, videos, and interviews, Hilgendorf has even taken to the streets to introduce his books person-to-person.

Asked what his books are all about, Hilgendorf replies:

“I want to wake people up to the unbounded potential within their own lives, and to the real greatness and unfulfilled dream of our own country of America.”

The titles of his books reflect the breadth of his concern:  “A New Myth for America”; “The New Superpower”; “Forever Here”; “The Buddha and the Dream of America”; “The Great New Emerging Civilization”; “Handbook for Youth in a Muddied Age”; “Life & Death: A Buddhist Perspective”; “Poems of Death: Time for Eternity”; and “Maybe We Need A New Religion”.

In one of his books, “A New Myth for America”, he writes:

“America is the promise of the self.  It is the unfolding, finally, of everything that was imagined or dreamed.  It is finding the very core of the universe, and all the gods and demons and stars and suns and galaxies, within one’s very own heart.”

“America means to show the unlimited possibilities of a single human being.  We are met here to enact this drama.  The star is you. The star is me.  I can be a street sweeper and confound worlds. This is the true meaning of democracy.”

As the titles of his books also suggest, Hilgendorf is a Buddhist - a forty-year practicing member of the SGI, or Soka Gakkai International, now the largest Buddhist lay organization in the world, with 12,000,000 members in 192 countries and territories around the globe. He sees Buddhism on the forefront of a new era of religion, with a philosophy of humanism capable of embracing the world’s peoples.

Hilgendorf lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he has walked the streets of many of the neighborhoods and towns in the area, talking to people, handing out cards about his books; but his goal is to cover America, and this is where his feet and efforts are taking him - planting seeds of a new world.

James Hilgendorf’s website is at http://www.jameshilgendorf.org

The books of James Hilgendorf are available through bookstores, and online in paperback or e-book format from Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles, iBooks, and other online booksellers.

He can be contacted at 510-501-9564.

El Cerrito, CA