A guide to reconciling Buddhist spirituality with the American way of life addresses the challenges of spiritual living in the modern world and offers guidance for bringing a sense of the sacred to everyday experience.

    Among the selections are some of the earliest recorded sayings of the Buddha on the practice of freedom, passages from later Indian scriptures on the perfection of wisdom, verses from Tibetan masters on the enlightened mind, and songs in praise of meditation by Zen teachers. The book also includes traditional instruction on how to practice sitting meditation, cultivate calm awareness, and live with compassion. Jack Kornfield, one of the most respected American Buddhist teachers, has compiled these teachings to impart the essence and inspiration of Buddhism to readers of all spiritual traditions.

    The fruit of some twenty years' experience leading Buddhist meditation retreats, this book touches on a wide range of topics raised repeatedly by meditators and includes favorite stories, key Buddhist teachings, and answers to most-asked questions.

    Thich Nhat Hanh's clarity shines forth in Call Me by My True Names, transforming the pain and difficulty of war and exile into a celebration of awareness and the human spirit.

    In this fully revised edition, Zen master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh argues eloquently for their universal applicability in daily situations. Nhat Hanh discusses in depth the value and meaning of each precept, offering insights into the roles that they could play in our changing society. In a world marked by moral and spiritual emptiness, he says, The Five Mindfulness Trainings offer a path to the restoration of meaning and value. The author calls the trainings a “diet for a mindful society” that transcends sectarian boundaries, and he presents simple yet powerful ways that people can come together around them to explore and sustain a sane, compassionate, and healthy way of living.

    Commentary on the Seven Point Mind Training, brought to Tibet by the Indian master Atisha.

    Through its structure and symbolism, as well as through its concisely stated principles, it conveys a vast range of Buddhist teachings. This one-volume edition contains Thomas Cleary's definitive translation of all thirty-nine books of the sutra, along with an introduction, a glossary, and Cleary's translation of Li Tongxuan's seventh-century guide to the final book, the Gandavyuha, "Entry into the Realm of Reality."

    Titles in the original Tibetan "The Sanglingma Life Story," it was recorded by the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, concealed in the ninth century at Sanglingma (Copper Temple) in Samye, and revealed by Nyang Ral Nyima Oser in the twelfth century. In addition to narrating the legendary story of a unique spiritual personality, the book contains oral instructions and advice that he left for the benefit of future generations. Also included are "A Clarification of the Life of Padmasambhava" by Tsele Natsok Rangdröl, an extensive glossary and index, and a bibliography of Tibetan and English sources.

    Of the two major schools of meditation, this is the one that teaches you the art of creating a foundation of awareness in your daily life. Zen monks draw from these same principles in their practice.

    Since its original publication, Chagdud Tulku has continued to teach widely and has met thousands of sincere, enthusiastic, and sometimes skeptical students. The frank questions inspired by these teachings form the basis of the material added to this revised edition.

    Compassionate and wise, Thich Nhat Hanh's healing words help us acknowledge and dissolve anger and separation by illuminating the way toward the miracle of mindfulness.

    Thich Nhat Hanh writes eloquently in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. on the need for mindfulness and altruistic love as the basis for political action.

    Lessons of spiritual wisdom emerge from his interviews with more than twenty male and female hermits.

    Originally written in the 11th or 12th century, the Sangaha has served as the key to wisdom held in the Abhidhamma. Concisely surveyed are Abhidhamma's central themes, including states of consciousness and mental factors, the functions and processes of the mind, the material world, dependent arising, and the methods and stages of meditation. This presents an exact translation of the Sangaha alongside the original Pali text. A detailed, explanatory guide with more than 40 charts and tables lead readers through the complexities of Adhidhamma. This replaces 9552401038.

    The text sets forth the Bodhisattva path to enlightenment. Features a foreword by renowned American Buddhist scholar Dr. Robert A. Thurman.

    The book is written in clear and concise English. This is particularly important as the teachings are very elaborate and at times hard to understand. The simple language used clarifies tremendously. The authentic descriptions of Dzog Chen give the serious student ample material to practice Dzog Chen.

    Here, he elucidates the fundamentals of spiritual understanding in Tibetan Buddhism--from the most basic ways to regard our fortunate but transitory human condition to the development of the open, wise, and compassionate mind of enlightenment. Filled with illustrative stories and anecdotes, this book will delight all who are spiritually inclined.

    In this highly personal and insightful odyssey of the heart and mind, she encounters Tibetan Buddhist meditators, Mexican shamans, and Native American elders, among others. In rapt prose, she recounts her explorations—from Japanese Zen meditation to hallucinogenic plants, from the Dogon people of Mali to the Mayan rain forest, all the while creating "an adventure of the spirit and a feast of wisdom old and new” (Peter Matthiessen). Halifax believes that deep ecology (which attempts to fuse environmental awareness with spiritual values) works in tandem with Buddhism and shamanism to discover “the interconnectedness of all life,” and to regain life’s sacredness. Grove Press is proud to reissue this important work by one of Buddhism’s leading contemporary teachers.

    Showing how suffering & happiness do not depend on external circumstances, but the mind itself.

    Book by Hixon, Lex

    ASIN: B000X5JEFYAmazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Like-Fire-...

    In Shin Buddhism, Taitetsu Unno explains the philosophy anc practices of "Pure Land" Buddhism, which dates back to the sixth century C.E., when Buddhism was first introduced in Japan.While Zen Buddhism flourished in remote monasteries, the Pure Land tradition was adopted by the common people. With a combination of spiritual insight and unparalled scholoarship, the author describes the literature, history, and principles of this form of Buddhism and illuminates the ways in which it embodies this religion's most basic tenet: "No human life should be wasted, abandoned, or forgotten but should be transformed into a source of vibrant life, deep wisdom, and compassionate living." As a practice that evolved to harmonize with the realities of everyday life, Shin Buddhism will be particularly attractive to contemporary Western readers.Author Biography: Recently retired, TAITETSU UNNO, Ph.D., was the Jill Ker Conway Professor of Religion at Smith College. He travels throughout the world as a lecturer on Japanese Buddhism, religion, and culture. He lives in Northhampton, Massachussetts.

    

    With masterful scholarship, Rinpoche explains this unified system of meditation—what to do, what to avoid, and the stages of deepening meditation—so the practitioner can gauge progress. His teaching is a commentary on the eighth chapter of the Treasury of Knowledge by Jamgon Kongtrul.

    The essential initiatory experience of Zen, satori is believed to open up the direct perception of things as they are. "Even if you sit until your seat breaks through, even if you persevere mindless of fatigue, even if you are a person of lofty deeds and pure behavior, if you haven't reached this realm of satori, you still can't get out of the prison of the world." Deliberately cultivated and employed to awaken the dormant potency of the mind, satori is said to be accessible to all people, transcending time, history, culture, race, gender, and personality. Attributed to the thirteenth-century Zen Master Keizan (1268–1325), Transmission of Light (along with The Blue Cliff Record and The Gateless Barrier ) is one of three essential koan texts used by Zen students. Techniques for reaching the enlightening experience of satori are revealed through fifty-three short tales about the awakenings of successive generations of masters, beginning with the twelfth-century Zen master Ejo, dharma heir to Dogen. The translator's introduction establishes the context for Transmission of Light within the Zen canon and elucidates central themes of the work, including the essential idea that genuine satori "is not the end of Zen; it is more properly the true beginning."

    Answers most asked questions about Buddhism and how to deal with anger.

    Wise, clear, and searching, this collection of the writings of an iconoclastic Zen master takes a rational approach to transcendence, to the discovery of the unlimited depth of reality, and to understanding the self beyond our usual notions of who we are.

    Explores how Soto monks between the 13th and 16th centuries developed new forms of monastic organization and Zen instructions and new applications for Zen rituals within lay life; how these innovations helped shape rural society; and how remnants of them remain in the modern Soto school, now the lar

    Now in a newly revised, extended and updated edition incorporating much new material, this much sought for classic study is now available once more under a new title: Gathering the Elements, volume 1 in the series Vajrakīla Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition.The first volume in this series presents a comprehensive overview of the origin, growth and establishment of the Northern Treasures (Byang-gter) school of Tibetan Buddhism, together with a detailed study of the esoteric wrathful deity Vajrakila (rDo-rje phur-pa) and his cult as represented by the literature and living tradition of this school.From the roots of kila mythology, deeply embedded within the pre-Buddhist religion of ancient India, the text follows the path of a humble wooden stake towards its magnificent apotheosis as a terrifying god of awesome power by whom all demons are vanquished. Devotees of the Kīla deity, merging body, speech and mind within the sacred maṇḍala of this glorious vision, experience a spiritual ecstasy equated with the higher siddhi, a profound knowledge utterly free of propositional content, and become imbued with a confident sense of well-being as an indication of having banished the evil hordes of Mara beyond the confines of the world.The currently available collections of Byang-gter phur-pa texts at the heart of the present study together comprise a total of over 250 separate titles, including root tantra, rites of initiation and empowerment, profound meditations on the nature of enlightenment, rules for the invocation of the system protectors, wrathful ritual activities against enemies and longevity rites for the benefit of the yogin and his sponsors. All of these topics, and more, are put into context within the pages of this book so that the reader is presented with a comprehensive gathering of the essential elements of the cult of the deity Vajrakīla in the illustrious tradition of the Northern Treasures.

    The concept of 'One Vehicle' especially, which permeates the whole work, has had immeasurable influence upon Japanese Buddhism.It is divided into 28 chapters, of which Chapter 16, 'The Life Span of the Tathagatayuspramana-parivarta XV), is especially important for its eulogy of sakyamuni as the embodiment of the eternal life and as having attained enlightenment in the inconceivably remote past. Among the numerous parables those of the three carts and the burning house, the wealthy man and his poor son, the three kinds of medicinal herbs and two kinds of trees, and the phantom city and the treasure land are especially famous. In addition Chapter 25, 'The Universal Gate of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara' (Skt.: Samantamukha-parivarta XXIV), which describes the blessings of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, was circulated in China and Japan as an independent sutra and is still recited today. It is also a well-known fact that the chant, or daimoku, of the Nichiren School of Japan and related sects consists of the invocation na-mu added to the Japanese title of this sutra, resulting in Na-mu-myou-hou-ren-ge-kyou.

    (from the Forward)

    But as Tina L. Staley and Edward W. Bastian have discovered, when we engage with our inevitable mortality at this moment, we open the door to fearlessness, joy, and the complete experience of being alive. In Dying Without Fear, these two healers present a guide for bringing an open mind and heart to the final challenge we all must face. Integrating scientific and spiritual perspectives from around the world, this collection of teachings includes: * Life review exercises to access the liberating "deathbed revelation" at any stage of your life * Practices for easing the suffering of a terminal illness * Essential teachings about gratitude-the key practice for living life fully at any age Featuring the wisdom of Joan Halifax, Dr. Ira Byock, Tessa Bielecki, Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, and more, Dying Without Fear is an illuminating, informative-and even exciting-guide to consciously embracing our mortality. Readers will discover that when we prepare to cross the final threshold with honesty and courage, we enrich every day we live in this world.