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It was the early 1960s. The place, a far-off corner of the Himalayas long fabled in Tibetan tradition to be hiding a valley of immortality among its peaks and glaciers - a real-life Shangri-La. They waited generations for the prophesied lama to come, the one with the secret knowledge of how to "open" the Hidden Land. Then, one day, he came. His name was Tulshuk Lingpa.

The teachings of Buddhism describe two realities: the "historical dimension" of time, space, and form, and the "ultimate dimension": an infinite realm beyond birth and death, the realm of complete freedom, peace, and joy, the ground of being called "nirvana". On The Ultimate Dimension, you are invited to sit beside Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh for an advanced dharma retreat that opens the doorway to this sublime experience of being.

Upon its first publication, this path breaking book launched an explosion of interest in how Eastern spirituality can enhance Western psychology. Since then, the worlds of Buddhism and psychotherapy have been forged into a revolutionary new understanding of what constitutes a healthy emotional life. In his insightful introduction, Mark Epstein reflects on this revolution and considers how it is likely to evolve in the future.

Vipassana has as its goal the ability to change your heart and mind. It puts you on a path, a way of life that is healthy for body, mind, and spirit. From the healthy way of life, both physical and mental health benefits may flow. But the goal is not any specific physical health or mental health 'fix', but a path of life itself. How one learns to follow the path - and what else begins to happen - is the focus of these public talks given in 2007 by Paul Fleischman in Europe in America, and now finally collected together in one audiobook.

In the words of the Buddha, the four foundations of mindfulness (the four sadhipatthanas) are " the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disapperance of dukkha (suffering) and discontent, for the acquiring of the true method, for the rea;ization of Nibbahna." Within the quinitessential discourse called the Satipatthana Sutta, we find the Buddha's seminal teachings on the practice of meditation.