Showing titles in Buddhism

In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. The universal tendency, he shows, is to see spirituality as a process of self-improvement - the impulse to develop and refine the ego when the ego is, by nature, essentially empty. "The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use," he said, "even spirituality."

Using the Upanishadic vision, Osho contrasts the teachings of Buddha, J. Krishnamurti, and the Vedas, and explains how these different teachings have relevance to the way we live today.

The notion of dignity is crucial to the question of how best to live a meaningful and fulfilling life, particularly for today’s environment in which so many of us experience self-doubt, low self-esteem, and feelings of being trapped by anxiety, dissatisfaction, or even success. How, in such a circumstance, can we gain authentic and unshakeable dignity? In Awakening Dignity, Phakchok Rinpoche draws from the Tibetan Buddhist wisdom tradition to offer a unique and fresh approach to answer this question.

This second book in the bestselling Mindfulness Essentials series, a back-to-basics collection from world-renowned Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, introduces everyone to the essentials of mindfulness practice. These short meditations cover everything from eating with others and enjoying our food to connecting with the Earth. How to Eat is a welcome reminder that the benefits of mindful eating are both personal and global.

In this book, renowned Buddhist teacher Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche leads us through the three steps of his Emotional Rescue Plan. First, Mindful Gap is the practice of creating a safe distance between you and your emotions, which gives you the psychological space to work with their energy. Clear Seeing involves recognizing the bigger picture. Finally, Letting Go is the practice of releasing stressful physical and emotional energy through physical exercise, relaxation, and awareness.

The teachings of Shunryu Suzuki have served for innumerable people as the gateway to Zen practice and meditation. In Zen Is Right Now, devoted student and biographer David Chadwick sheds new light on Suzuki’s presence and teachings through selected quotes from his lectures and a variety of stories told by his students.

As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little interest in the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the practice occurs within secular contexts such as hospitals, schools, and the workplace. Is it possible to recover from the Buddhist teachings a vision of human flourishing that is secular rather than religious without compromising the integrity of the tradition?

Pain, loss, shame, sadness - suffering is an unavoidable part of being human. The practice of tonglen offers us a way to transform our relationship with suffering - our own and that which is all around us. In The Courage to Love the World, beloved teacher Pema Chödrön shares insightful and heartfelt stories about tonglen, along with direct instruction and guided practice.

The Zen master and one of the world's most beloved teachers returns with a concise, practical guide to understanding and developing our most powerful inner resource - silence - to help us find happiness, purpose, and peace.

This audiobook offers a clear, concise account of the Eightfold Path prescribed to uproot and eliminate the deep underlying cause of suffering—ignorance. Each step of the path is believed to cultivate wisdom through mental training, and includes an enlightened and peaceful middle path that avoids extremes. The theoretical as well as practical angles of each of the paths—right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration—are illustrated through examples from contemporary life.

Saints are not unattainable beings of stained glass or carved stone. “Saints are ordinary and human, doing things any person can learn to do,” teaches Lama Rod Owens. “Our era calls for saints who are from this time and place, who speak the language of this moment, and who integrate both social and spiritual liberation. I believe we all can and must become New Saints.” With The New Saints, Lama Rod shares a guidebook for becoming an effective agent of justice, peace, and change.

Western thought and culture have coalesced around a series of constructed ideas—that human beings stand separate from a nature that must be controlled; that the mind is somehow superior to the body; that all sexuality entails a seduction—that in some way underlie our exploitation of the earth, our distrust of emotion, and our loneliness and reluctance to love.

How can we discover this perfect, somatic knowing? It begins by removing the blockages that manifest mentally, emotionally, and physically. Join Reggie Ray as he presents the practice of pure awareness in nine guided, sequential sessions that lead to the direct experience of our true nature. Emphasizing deep relaxation, the power in the lower belly, opening the central channel, and the significance of posture, Reggie helps us unfold ever-subtler realizations of our capacities to love and heal.

There is a basic human wisdom that can help solve the world’s problems. It doesn’t belong to any one culture or region or religious tradition—though it can be found in many of them throughout history. It’s what Chögyam Trungpa called the sacred path of the warrior.

Buddhism for Mothers explores the potential to be with your children in the all-important present moment; to gain the most joy out of being with them. How can this be done calmly and with a minimum of anger, worry and negative thinking? How can mothers negotiate the changed conditions of their relationships with partners, family and even with friends? Using Buddhist practices, Sarah Napthali offers ways of coping with the day-to-day challenges of motherhood.

In the late 1990s, shortly after arriving in the United States, it became clear to Dza Kilung Rinpoche that his Western students were unable to progress in meditation, as well as his students had back in Asia - and he realized that was because the pace of Western life made it difficult for them to relax. The Relaxed Mind contains instructions for the seven-phase meditation practice Dza Kilung Rinpoche developed for Westerners. It's very traditional but adapted to help those of us who live in a culture of distraction.

Theravada Buddhism, often understood as the school that most carefully preserved the practices taught by the Buddha, has undergone tremendous change over time. Prior to Western colonialism in Asia—which brought Western and modernist intellectual concerns, such as the separation of science and religion, to bear on Buddhism—there existed a tradition of embodied, esoteric, and culturally regional Theravada meditation practices.

In this gripping account, John Avedon draws on his work and travels with the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to bring us the riveting story of Tibet and its temporal and spiritual leader. Included is an extensive interview with the Dalai Lama, who speaks about the conditions in Tibet, the mind of a Buddha, and the events of his life. Rigorously researched, passionately written, the original edition of In Exile From the Land of Snows was instrumental in launching the modern Tibet movement when it was published in 1984.

In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one.

Now you can transform driving, shopping, or waiting in line into calming experiences of mindfulness. This unique audio course was carefully distilled from Jack Kornfield's most popular retreat, a 5-week workshop on mindful meditation. Kornfield shows listeners how to benefit from the 2,500-year-old system for becoming fully aware of how our actions in each moment create the fabric of our lives.