By turns humorous and moving, this beautifully written memoir demystifies Zen training, casting its profound insights in simple, lucid language, and takes the reader on a journey of their own, into the hidden treasures of life that contemplative practice can reveal to any of us.

    With a touch of imagination, it can be. Imagination helps us see what’s hidden, and it shape-shifts reality’s roiling twisting waves. In this inspiring reframe of a classic Buddhist teaching, Zen teacher Norman Fischer writes that the paramitas, or “six perfections” — generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyful effort, meditation, and understanding — can help us reconfigure the world we live in. Ranging from our everyday concerns about relationships, ethics, and consumption to our artistic inspirations and broadest human yearnings, Fischer depicts imaginative spiritual practice as a necessary resource for our troubled times.

    

    It's the last thing he feels like doing. What he wants to do instead is tell his friend everything he never said, to explain Zen and what he does for a living and why he spends his time "Sitting. Sitting. Sitting. Meditating my life away as it all passes by. Lighting candles and incense. Bowing to nothing." So, as he continues his teaching tour through Europe, he writes to his friend all the things he wishes he had said. Simply and humorously, he reflects on why Zen provided him a lifeline in a difficult world. He explores grief, attachment, and the afterlife. He writes to Marky, "I'm not all that interested in Buddhism. I'm much more interested in what is true," and then proceeds to poke and prod at that truth. The result for readers is a singular and winning meditation on Zen -- and a unique tribute to both a life lost and the one Warner has found.

    That's where Patti Montella found herself early in life after the death of a beloved friend and the unraveling of her marriage--seeking the universal truths of life. When Patti met renowned spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, she left her corporate career to dedicate her life to uplifting society through the power of breathwork, ancient wisdom, and meditation.Becoming Unshakeable gives you a rare inside look into the life and transformation of a true seeker who rose above countless obstacles, learned from her failures, discovered her inner resilience, and uncovered the source of happiness. Patti shares fifteen life-changing Wisdom Lessons that not only help you develop newfound self-awareness, but start you on a path toward greater clarity, happiness, inner strength, and fulfillment. She also reveals the pivotal spiritual lesson she learned after decades of searching for the Divine: it had been with her the entire time.

    This pioneering interpreter of Zen Buddhismwas the most charismatic leader of the 1960’s ‘San Francisco Renaissance' movement. There are more than 25 books on his account including the best sellers ‘The Wisdom of Insecurity’, ‘Become What You Are’ and ‘The Way of Zen’. ‘Tao of Alan Watts: 444 Expressions of Zen’ is a perfect choice for Alan Watts lovers. This book is a reflection of his philosophy teachings on various topics like psychology, Zen practices, life, art and spirituality…

    Brown was one of the first Westerners to be ordained a priest by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, who had hoped that Zen might be transformed into a vibrant new form in the West. In The Most Important Point, Brown fulfills Suzuki’s wish with 60 essays that are distinctly American yet preserve the roots of traditional Japanese Zen. Drawing from his time in the kitchen and on the cushion, Brown explores a range of topics, from basic sitting practice to making the "perfect" biscuit and much more. "In the words of my teacher," reflects Brown, "the most important point is to find out what is the most important point." Flavored with wise insights and irreverent humor, The Most Important Point brings together a treasury of teachings to inspire your own discovery.

    Imagine if work became the expression of our deepest, most authentic self. Imagine if it no longer looked as though anything depended on it. Imagine if the idea of work disolved altogether and became the simple, sheer joy of living. We don’t have to imagine it. We can live it. Because it is the truth of work. Lived from understanding, work is simply the expression of the freedom, peace and happiness we know ourselves to be. It is just that, somewhere along the way, we forgot who we were. And so work started to look hard. EASE explores the transformation of self, work, colleagues, performance, success and money as we come back in touch with reality.

    

    Asian & Asian American Studies. From the translator's preface: This is a book of epigrams, epigrams that encapsulatethe teaching the Buddha first transmitted 2,400 years ago when he held up a flower and Kashyapa smiled. They're that simple. The Chinese call them ming. Like the epigrams of ancient Greece, they consist of couplets that can stand alone or be linked together. And like their Mediterranean counterparts, they were inscribed, rather than spoken or sung. They were embroidered, carved, or written on all sorts of things: doorways, tombstones, ritual bronzes, even items of daily use like washbasins and writing brushes. Their salient feature was a few pithy phrases conveying something worth keeping in mind, and they usually rhymed. For example, taxes in ancient China were paid in silk, and this epigram was embroidered on robes: 'The silkworms suffered / the weaving women weren't pleased / any new taxes / we're all sure to freeze.' Ezra Pound took his motto from one inscribed on the washbasin of a king who lived 4,000 years ago: 'Make it new / new every day / and make it new again.'--Red Pine

    For newcomers and seasoned practitioners alike, they are foundational practices to enter and realize the mind of Buddha. In this sincere and powerful book, Zen teacher Reb Anderson offers teachings and practice stories that elucidate and open up each paramita. Taken together, the six “perfections” form an integrated and complete path—the path of the heroic bodhisattva who vows to practice ceaselessly for the welfare and liberation of all beings.

    With The Most Important Thing, Volume 2, this esteemed teacher presents a series of talks on what it means to peer through these gateways and into a universe of infinite possibility. In this second collection of deep-dive audio sessions, Adyashanti offers evocative teaching stories and anecdotes pointing you toward the ultimate reality that exists beyond the bounds of storytelling. Whether questioning the cultural identities we adopt or recalling the events that set him on the seeker’s path, Adyashanti devotes these talks to pulling back the curtain of our assumptions to reveal that none of us is alone and no one is ever truly isolated from the whole of existence. These selections consider:Exploring the meaning of birth, life, and death• The nature of ego and the ways it manifests• Meditation as the art of "listening with one’s entire being"• Embodying your innate and inextricable connection with the total environment• Examining the patterns of conditioned thinking around "I"• Why our most nourishing stories embrace uncertainty and paradox• Embracing the natural awe and wonder of existence• The ultimate simplicity of consciousness• "Know thyself": the cornerstone of all spiritual inquiry Ideal for anyone wanting to delve beyond the surface of their spiritual journey, The Most Important Thing, Volume 2 offers portals to that which is already alive and waiting within: the truths that fuel the most authentic expression of your life.

    Although his writings originated from the metaphorical waypoints visited along his riding journeys, riders and nonriders alike will find plenty to enjoy in these meditations on life, loss, and love, stories that center around the commonalities that unite and bond not just motorcyclists but everyone.

    For the Chinese master Huangbo Xiyun (d. 850), the mind is enlightenment itself if we can only let go of our normal way of thinking. The celebrated translation of this work by John Blofeld, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, introduced countless readers to Zen over the last sixty years. Huangbo’s work is also a favorite of contemporary Zen (Korean: Seon) Master Subul, who has revolutionized the strict monastic practice of koans and adapted it for lay meditators in Korea and around the world to make swift progress in intense but informal retreats. Devoting themselves to enigmatic questions with their whole bodies, retreatants are frustrated in their search for answers and arrive thereby at a breakthrough experience of their own buddha nature. A Bird in Flight Leaves No Trace is a bracing call for the practitioner to let go and thinking and unlock the buddha within.

    Rather, Zen in the sense of going directly to the heart of the matter without regard for scriptures or traditions. Pulyan was one of those rare spiritual masters who could transmit to others, and his method of transmission came not only through personal contact, but through an exchange of letters with his students. In fact, he worked primarily by mail and had notable success triggering enlightenment in serious students through the confrontation and rapport of his letters. A fortunate side-effect of his method is that it is written down, and thus potentially available to others—providing one can find any of his letters. Those collected here are from correspondence with Richard Rose in 1960 and 1961, and provide an invaluable look under the covers as a Zen master goes about his thankless work.

    But there’s a risk: by focusing our attention on something (or someone), we might always see it as something other, as separate from ourselves. To close this distance, mindfulness has traditionally been paired with a focus on intimacy, community, and interdependence. In this book, Ben Connelly shows us how to bring these two practices together—bringing warm hearts to our clear seeing.   Helpful meditations and exercises show how mindfulness and intimacy can together enrich our empathetic engagement with ourselves and the world around us—with our values, with the environment, and with the people in our lives, in all their distinct manifestations of race and religion, sexuality and gender, culture and class—and lead to a truly engaged, compassionate, and joy-filled life