Zen Religion

Reiki is an ancient and profoundly simple system of "laying on of hands" healing derived from Tibetan Buddhism. In the West, Reiki has been kept highly secret for many years. Essential Reiki presents full information on all three degrees of this healing system, most of it in audio for the first time. Teaching from the perspective that Reiki healing belongs to all people, Diane Stein breaks new ground in her classic guide to this ancient practice.

A Temporary Affair is a collection of talks given at Sunday morning sittings at the Ithaca Zen Center by Yoshin David Radin, abbot and founder of the Ithaca Zen Center for the past 40 years. The talks contained here were given at a time when Yoshin’s health was severely compromised by end stage renal failure. In February 2019, he received a kidney transplant from a member of Ithaca Zen Center, to whom the publication is dedicated. The collection of 31 talks contains the insight of the individual dharma talks themselves.

Buddhism aims for the development of a flexible mind and skillful responsiveness-whether toward problems in one's personal life or broader issues like the ecological crisis. But in a culture now saturated with cliches about mindfulness and unrealistic fantasies about happiness, what does it truly mean to walk this path? The key practice is that of embodied aliveness.

These three sutras are the most important texts for the Chan (Chinese) and Zen (Japanese) Buddhist traditions, though they are very different in character and provenance. The Diamond Sutra (Vajracheddikā Prajña Pārāmitā Sutra in Sanskrit) has the distinction of being 'the earliest complete survival of a dated (11 May 868) printed book’. It was found in the Dunhuang Caves in China in 1900. The title, Diamond Cutter, outlines its purpose, which is to cut through ignorance to attain to perfect wisdom or ultimate reality.

Loneliness is on the rise, with detrimental effects on our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. How do we look past the surface, to discover a life filled with meaningful connection and genuine relationships? Untangled is a welcoming guidebook to finding expansive ease and true joy through the eightfold path–one of Buddhism’s foundational teachings. Psychotherapist and Zen teacher Koshin Paley Ellison compassionately walks listeners down these eight roads, leading them to discover true joy.

One of Thich Nhat Hanh’s most beloved books, The Sun My Heart contains the journey, on the path of everyday practice, from mindfulness to insight. Using the objects and events of everyday life in his hermitage in Plum Village—the gradual settling of the pulp in a glass of apple juice or the wind blowing into the room and scattering papers about—Thich Nhat Hanh draws from Buddhist psychology, epistemology, and the world of contemporary literature and science to guide the reader along the path of clarity and understanding.

In these delightful and playful talks, Osho introduces the mystery, the wonder and the emptiness that is Zen, not comparable to anything else and a completely different approach to life. The chapters alternate between elaborating original excerpts by the 14th Zen master, Ikkyu, taking us into the world of Zen – and responding to personal questions, which brings the world of Zen into our lives, connects with our issues and questions.

Within the chapters of Striking Thoughts, you will find the secrets of Bruce Lee's incredible success—as an actor, martial artist, and inspiration to the world. Consisting of eight sections, Striking Thoughts covers 72 topics and 825 aphorisms—from spirituality to personal liberation and from family life to filmmaking—all of which Bruce lived by. His ideas helped energize his life and career and made it possible for him to live a happy and assured life, overcoming challenging obstacles with seeming ease.

Do you want to learn the fundamentals of Buddhism? Do you want to learn it in a practical manner that actually improves your day-to-day life? Do you want to learn it in an easy-to-understand manner? Buddhism now is more popular than it has been in decades; the Buddha’s incredible teachings are starting to get the recognition they deserve. What has happened recently is a wave of books that only go over the theory of Buddhism and don’t cover the most important aspect - how Buddhism can transform your daily life and revolutionize you as a person.

With sections on daily practice, relationships, physical practices, mindful eating, and practicing with children, Happiness is a comprehensive guide to living our daily lives with full awareness, whether we are working, eating, parenting, driving, walking, or simply sitting and breathing.

The Abhidharma, one of the three major text collections of the original Buddhist canon, frames the psychological system of Buddhism, explaining the workings of reality and the nature of the human mind. Because of its complexity, the Abhidharma has traditionally been reserved only for academic or monastic study; now, for the first time, clinical psychologist Beth Jacobs brings this dynamic body of work to general listeners, using practical explanation, personal stories, and vivid examples to gently untangle the technical aspects of the Abhidharma.

In a distant city, an old cat considers himself as wise as can be, until he hears of an ancient pine far away, under the boughs of which infinite wisdom can be found. Thus, the Cat embarks on a journey deep into the forest to search for the tree. Along the way, he meets new friends—the Hare, the Magpie, the Wolf Cub, the Monkey, the Tortoise, and the Tiger—and comes across the energetic young Kitten. What wisdom does the Cat have to impart to his friends, and, perhaps more importantly, what does he still have to learn?

Deep down, most people think that happiness comes from having or doing something. Here, in Alan Watts’s groundbreaking third book (originally published in 1940), he offers a more challenging thesis: authentic happiness comes from embracing life as a whole in all its contradictions and paradoxes, an attitude that Watts calls the “way of acceptance.” Drawing on Eastern philosophy, Western mysticism, and analytic psychology, Watts demonstrates that happiness comes from accepting both the outer world around us and the inner world inside us,

What is the essence of Zen meditation? Why is it considered one of the most celebrated spiritual practices of all time? What are the basic steps of its practice? What is the essence of the revolutionary philosophy behind it? And how can its regular practice allow you to conquer spiritual progress and inner peace starting today? Zen Meditation in Easy Steps answers these and other profound questions, presenting the basic teachings of Zen Buddhism. With a bonus selection of Zen spiritual tales, this beginner’s guide contains the basic steps of Zen meditation.

Howard Fast began to formally practice Zen meditation after turning away from communism in 1956. The Art of Zen Meditation, originally published by the antiwar political collective Peace Press, in 1977, is the fruit of Fast’s study: a brief and instructive history of Zen Buddhism and its tenets, written with a simplicity that is emblematic of the philosophy itself. Fast’s study of Zen also inspired his popular Masao Masuto mystery series about a Zen Buddhist detective in Beverly Hills.

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.

Comprising only 632 Chinese characters, the Heart Sutra is Buddhism in a nutshell. Despite its brevity, this powerful work covers more of the Buddha's teachings than any other scripture. Its influence is more profound and wide-reaching than any other text in Buddhism.

Those moments in your life when there was openness, a spacious quality to your existence - those are the moments that truly make life remarkable. Creating those moments is the focus of this program by Ram Dass, a spiritual teacher who has studied and practiced meditation for many years.

In The Way of Tenderness, Zen priest Zenju Earthlyn Manuel brings Buddhist philosophies of emptiness and appearance to bear on race, sexuality, and gender, using wisdom forged through personal experience and practice to rethink problems of identity and privilege.

In this book, Mark Westmoquette speaks from a place of profound personal experience. A Zen monk, he has endured two life-changing traumas caused by other people: his sexual abuse by his own father, and his stepfather’s death and mother’s very serious injury in a car crash due to the careless driving of an off-duty policeman. He stresses that by bringing awareness and kindness to these relationships, our initial stance of “I can’t stand this person, they need to change” will naturally shift into something much broader and more inclusive.