Spirituality Buddhism

In this groundbreaking book, world-renowned Buddhist teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche invites us to join him in unlocking the secrets behind the practice of meditation. With an infectious joy and insatiable curiosity, he weaves together the principles of Tibetan Buddhism, neuroscience, and quantum physics in a way that will forever change the way we understand the human experience.

Legions of self-help authors rightly urge personal development as the key to happiness, but they typically fail to focus on its most important objective: hardiness. Though that which doesn't kill us can make us stronger, as Nietzsche tells us, few authors today offer any insight into just how to springboard from adversity to strength. It doesn't just happen automatically, and it takes practice. New scientific research suggests that resilience isn't something with which only a fortunate few of us have been born, but rather something we can all take specific action to develop.

The Words of My Perfect Teacher is the classic commentary on the preliminary practices of the Longchen Nyingtig—one of the best-known cycles of teachings and a spiritual treasure of the Nyingmapa school—the oldest Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Patrul Rinpoche makes the technicalities of his subject accessible through a wealth of stories, quotations, and references to everyday life. His style of mixing broad colloquialisms, stringent irony, and poetry has all the life and atmosphere of an oral teaching.

Embark on a transformative odyssey that weaves together the timeless wisdom of the past, the visionary possibilities of the future, and the boundless potential that resides within each of us. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover invites you to explore a unique integrated Zen Mormon Quantum Universalist spiritual philosophy - a framework that draws upon diverse traditions to uncover the creative power of the unitary field of potentiality. Born into a devout Mormon household, Westover's spiritual journey took an unexpected turn when exposure to Zen Buddhism and exposer to the...

By offering detailed instruction and friendly, inspiring advice for those embarking on the Tibetan Buddhist foundation practices, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche provides gentle yet thorough commentary, companionship, and inspiration for committing to the Vajrayana path.

One of the world's leading authorities on Zen Buddhism, D. T. Suzuki was the author of more than a hundred works on the subject in both Japanese and English, and was most instrumental in bringing the teachings of Zen Buddhism to the attention of the Western world. Written in a lively, accessible, and straightforward manner, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism is illuminating for the serious student and layperson alike.

Bring Me the Rhinoceros is an unusual guide to happiness and a can opener for your thinking. For fifteen hundred years, Zen koans have been passed down through generations of masters, usually in private encounters between teacher and student. This book deftly retells more than a dozen traditional koans, which are partly paradoxical questions dangerous to your beliefs and partly treasure boxes of ancient wisdom. John Tarrant brings the heart of the koan tradition out into the open, reminding us that the old wisdom remains as vital as ever.

What do we mean by mental development? By mental development we do not mean only those brief periods of our lives which we spend sitting cross-legged, counting our breath or looking at an image or reciting a formula. By mental development, we mean all those techniques or methods whereby we can change our mental orientation whereby we can change the way in which we view ourselves and the world around us. In this tradition, we are concerned with demonstrating the integration, the union between meditation, and our daily experience.

Positive psychology - with its focus not on mental "disease" but rather on what actually makes people happy - has revolutionized the way that we look at mental health. What many people don't realize, however, is that positive psychology is not as young a field of inquiry as we think. In fact, according to Joseph Emet, the original positive thinker was the Buddha himself.

Imagine the Celtic saint Brigid and the great bodhisattva Guanyin sitting down together for a cup of tea. I certainly would want to listen in to their conversation! Oak and Lotus takes us to a similar place. It’s a beautiful, expansive book about the joyful integration of Eastern and Western wisdom, a resource I expect to return to again and again. — Carl McColman, author of The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Eternal Heart Oak and Lotus is a joy to read. Bringing Celtic Christianity into conversation with three major Eastern faith traditions—Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism—...

The topic of enlightenment has built up more baggage and cruft than the Titanic, and most of what's out there on the subject will sink you just as surely as that stupid iceberg. Gatekeeping the Gateless Gate is the zero fluff, high-snark dose of truth you've been looking for. No touchy feelie BS, no karma or dogma. If your goal is to be enlightened, this is the only book you will ever need (and frankly you don't even need this one, but hey whatever floats your boat.).

Great teachers like the Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, and Gandhi were all born with brains built essentially like anyone else’s—and then they changed their brains in ways that changed the world. Neuroscience now reveals how the flow of thoughts actually sculpt the brain, and more and more, we are learning that it’s possible to strengthen positive brain states. By combining breakthroughs in science with insights from thousands of years of mindfulness practice, you too can shape your own “Buddha’s Brain” for greater happiness, love, and wisdom.

Written in India in the early eighth century CE, Santideva's The Bodhicaryavatara takes as its subject the profound desire to become a Buddha and save all beings from suffering. The person who enacts such a desire is a Bodhisattva. Santideva not only sets out what the Bodhisattva must do and become; he also invokes the intense feelings of aspiration which underlie such a commitment, using language which has inspired Buddhists in their religious lives from his time to the present.

Jataka Kathayen are said to have been inspired by the previous births of Siddhartha Gautama aka Lord Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. During these births, he was considered to have been born as human or as various animals and was on the path to enlightment. Lord Buddha used these stories to impart important wisdom to his disciples. And we are bringing 51 such most inspiring Jataka Kathayen or Jataka Tales to you to enjoy and learn from them.

In this beautifully written book, Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh explains how to acquire the skills of mindfulness. Once we have these skills, we can slow our lives down and discover how to live in the moment - even simple acts like washing the dishes or drinking a cup of tea may be transformed into acts of meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh's gentle anecdotes and practical exercises help us to arrive at greater self-understanding and peacefulness, whether we are beginners or advanced.

With a rare combination of freshness and lucidity, he delves into the origins and history of Zen to explain what it means for the world today with incredible clarity. Watts saw Zen as “one of the most precious gifts of Asia to the world,” and in The Way of Zen he gives this gift to listeners everywhere.

The mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II is not only a tale of injustice; it is a moving story of faith. In this pathbreaking account, Duncan Ryuken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation's history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American.

Throughout our lives we long to love ourselves more deeply and find a greater sense of connection with others. Our fear of intimacy—both with others and with ourselves—creates feelings of pain and longing. But these feelings can also awaken in us the desire for freedom and the willingness to take up the spiritual path.

For over 30 years, Opening the Hand of Thought has offered an introduction to Zen Buddhism and meditation unmatched in clarity and power. This is the revised edition of Kosho Uchiyama's singularly incisive classic. This new edition contains even more useful material: new prefaces, an index, and extended endnotes, in addition to a revised glossary.

Andrew Skilton - Senior Research Fellow in Buddhist Studies, Kings College, London - explains the development of the basic concepts of Buddhism and its spread across the continents during its 2,500 years of history. He begins with a close look at Buddhism in India, where it flourished until the 12th/13th century CE, charting the growth of different schools and practices. By the time it disappeared from its homeland midway through the millennium, it had become established in Central Asia and the Far East in a variety of forms.