Love energizes our daily existence, heals the body and mind and makes every moment precious. So why aren't we in love all the time? In Zen and the Art of Falling in Love, psychologist, relationship expert and Zen practitioner Brenda Shoshanna shows readers how to rejuvenate their romantic lives by combining a psychological understanding of relationships with the way of Zen practice. The lessons provided by such practices as Taking Your Shoes Off (Becoming Available), Sitting on the Cushion (Meeting Yourself), Cleaning House (Emptying Yourself) and Receiving the Stick (Dealing with Blows) can offer new insight into the common problems of miscommunication, lies, betrayal, jealousy, insecurity, loss, and disappointment. Using the lessons of Zen practice, you can open your life to love, fall in love—and stay in love.

    "Without science," Osho said, "the East has lost much; without meditation, the West has lost much. I am trying to bring together East and West, because together they will create the whole." Osho encourages the reader to throw off the accumulated "knowing" of a lifetime--to let go of physical, mental, and emotional tensions, to relax into the flow of an extraordinary discourse and become receptive to the present moment and the potential within.

    Growing up happens whether we like it or not, but maturity must be cultivated. Challenged to consider his own sense of maturity while mentoring a group of teenage boys, Fischer began to investigate our preconceptions about what it means to be "an adult" and shows how crucial true maturity is to leading an engaged, fulfilled life. Taking Our Places details the marks of a mature person and shows how these attributes can help alleviate our suffering and enrich our relationships. Discussing such qualities as awareness, responsibility, humour, acceptance, and humility, Fischer brings a fresh and at times surprising new perspective that can turn old ideas on their heads and reinvigorate our understanding of what it means to be mature.

    Stressing the theme of accepting what life brings, it reveals what acceptance is and what stands in the way of being able to accept life's ups and downs. Four steps for combating resistance are also provided.

    While there are many translations available, few have an inclusive – and lyrical – sensibility. In studying various versions of this sacred text, Larkin noted many discrepancies and embarked upon an entirely original translation. Each instalment gets tested at the Still Point Zen Buddhist Temple in Detroit, a remarkable Zen centre in the heart of one of the roughest neighbourhoods in the country.This small gift hardcover will have the appeal of the Thomas Byrom/Ram Dass edition, but will be made even more accessible with each chapter's introduction containing a powerful contemporary anecdote from the Still Point Temple community. This 'Downtown Dhammapada' will appeal not only to Buddhists, but to those who also appreciate beautifully rendered sacred texts as simply good reading.

    Like a master instructing every reader who has the dedication to read this book, the author maintains direct and unrelenting perspective, giving Fingers Pointing to the Moon its status as one of Zen Buddhism's essential classics. The depth of understanding evinced by Wei Wu Wei places him with Paul Reps, Alan Watts, and Philip Kapleau as one of the earliest and most profound interpreters of Zen.

    / Thus we bow to life as it is. This verse is an important reminder, says Ezra Bayda, of what the spiritual life is truly about: the willingness to open ourselves to whatever life presents—no matter how messy or complicated. And through that willingness to be open, we can discover wisdom, compassion, and the genuine life we all want. In At Home in the Muddy Water , Bayda applies this simple Zen teaching to a range of everyday concerns—including relationships, trust, sexuality, and money—showing that everything we need to practice is right here before us, and that peace and fulfillment is available to everyone, right here, right now, no matter what their circumstances.

    Why Lazarus Laughed is a powerfully written book of aphorisms, meditations, and startling ruminations on the nature of time, consciousness, freedom, enlightenment, duality, and free will. Wei Wu Wei described his books as reflections of the moon in a puddle because he does not set himself apart from any other, does not profess to be a teacher, and does not claim to have the last word on spiritual truth. His modest assessment of how well he succeeds at his task would most certainly be disputed by his many enthusiastic readers: Essential understanding might have found its way into occasional pages. Indeeed, profound insight seems to leap from every sentence.Play your part in the comedy, but don't identify yourself with your role! says Wei Wu Wei, and he follows his own advice. He writes his works anonymously and uses his iconoclastic humor to drive home his points. Those who discover his books feel they have found a secret teaching that brilliantly delivers the purest truth. He has become a sort of underground spiritual favorite whose fans anxiously await each reissued book.As the subtitle states, Why Lazarus Laughed explicates the essential doctrine shared by the traditions of Zen Buddhism, Advaita, and Tantra. The author is not interested in these traditions as religions, but only in so much as they reflect the moon for us. To read this jewel of a book from the immortal Wei Wu Wei is to enter into the heart and mind of one who possessed a very clear insight into the essence of understanding.

    Drawing on the ancient traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, and Advaita Vedanta, Wei Wu Wei brings a very different perspective to the conventional notions about time, love, thought, language, and reincarnation.

    As such it represents a major contribution to both Western Zen practice and English-language Zen scholarship. In Japan the traditional Rinzai Zen koan curriculum includes the use of jakugo, or capping phrases. Once a monk has successfully replied to a koan, the Zen master orders the search for a classical verse to express the monk's insight into the koan. Special collections of these jakugo were compiled as handbooks to aid in that search. Until now, Zen students in the West, lacking this important resource, have been severely limited in carrying out this practice. Zen Sand combines and translates two standard jakugo handbooks and opens the way for incorporating this important tradition fully into Western Zen practice. For the scholar, Zen Sand provides a detailed description of the jakugo practice and its place in the overall koan curriculum, as well as a brief history of the Zen phrase book. This volume also contributes to the understanding of East Asian culture in a broader sense.

    Everyone has the desire to create and live in an environment that is a "Pure Land"—a place of peace and harmony.

    His serendipitous beginning as a Buddhist resulted from being a civilian prisoner of the Japanese in the Second World War, where he found R. R. Blythe, the great haiku master, and D.T. Suzuki, the most important and popular chronicler of Zen in English, as fellow detainees. After the war he returned to Japan on several occasions to study in traditional monastic settings. He has been a leader of the contemporary move to establish Zen Buddhism in the West and was a founding member of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.With material never before collected in book form, The Morning Star includes writings from his first book, A Zen Wave, and from eight collections of essays and poems published over the last three decades. The introduction to this volume offers Robert Aitken’s latest presentation of Zen practice, addressing the Great Matter from a historical and personal perspective.

     "Usually people associate a sense of unbound presence with epiphanies in life-being present at a birth, or a death. People lose themselves in sexual union, in nature, or in the presence of a heart-wrenching beauty. In those moments they forget to keep up the story about the one having the experience, and all that is left is the actual experience." In Passionate Presence, internationally acclaimed spiritual teacher Catherine Ingram shares her insights and wisdom for connecting more intimately to the experience of our daily worlds. Through her popular interactive Dharma Dialogues (dharma meaning truth, or "the way"), she has helped thousands of spiritual seekers everywhere in their quest for awakening by encouraging them to give up the quest. Now she brings nearly thirty years of experience to a book that shows us how to recognize these everyday miracles, and become more cognizant of life's greatest gift: our own passionate presence. Based on "non-dual" teachings that rely on direct experience, with numerous stories illustrating her points, Ingram takes readers on an eye-opening journey that will help them to: o Know the seven traits of passionate presence: silence, tenderness, discernment, embodiment, genuineness, delight, and wonder o Relax in simple presence to dissolve barriers between people, foster better communication, and create inner peace and harmony o Discover why true aloneness can never be lonely o See how tender mercies can purge intense feelings of anger and much more. Filled with illuminating anecdotes and personal reflections, Passionate Presence reveals our true natures and opens the doorway to the divine in all of us. Inspiring and profound, it is certain to gain a wide and devoted readership.

    Karl's unique ability lies in exposing the beliefs we've built our lives on, beginning with our root sense of individuality. Our current predicament is the result of believing ourselves to be something other than what we really are. This self-imposed limitation causes our incessant searching and suffering.Throughout these dialogues Karl unceasingly brings us back to the truth of our real nature by helping us recognize the fleeting and impermanent nature of the self we've come to believe in. Even momentarily seeing the truth of who we really are immediately frees us, if only temporarily, from these self-imposed limitations.Karl's purpose-if we can say he even has one-is to reflect our own divinity, which he skillfully and uncompromisingly expresses throughout the pages of this book. By realizing the implication of his words, we can live life to its fullest and experience the boundless freedom that is our essence. The most detailed and authoritive text on the true meaning of the Taylors Masonic rituals! The principal contents of this book are the Official Taylors Lectures on the Three Degrees of Craft Freemasonry. These lectures deal with the description of the ritual of those Degrees along with their moral and symbolic significance and are of a formal nature, arranged as catechisms - that is by question and answer form. The text can be studied at home or can be preformed by two or more brethren in open lodge. Much evidence suggests that many sections of these lectures are as old as the degrees themselves. This book adds much to ones enjoyment and understanding of Freemasonry. The most detailed and authoritive text on the true meaning of the Taylors Masonic rituals! The principal contents of this book are the Official Taylors Lectures on the Three Degrees of Craft Freemasonry. These lectures deal with the description of the ritual