Ayya Khema, author of the best-selling Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, uses one of the earliest Buddhist suttas to guide us along the path of the oldest Buddhist meditative practice for understanding the nature of "self." By following the Buddha's explanation with clear, insightful examples from her years of teaching meditation, she guides us back and forth between the relative understanding and higher realizations of the Buddhist concept of "self." Her thoughtful contemplation of the Buddha's radical understanding of "self" and her practical advice for achieving insight offer the reader a profound understanding of the "self." Both beginning and advanced practitioners will greatly benefit from Ayya Khema's warm and down-to-earth exposition of the Buddha's meditation on "self."

    The authors describe the techniques and their results, based on their own experience.

    For them death is not a mystery. They know what will happen and see it as a great chance for spiritual development. Fearless Death makes their teachings accessible to the modern West. In this book, Lama Ole Nydahl condenses the information he learned from years spent with great Buddhist masters in the East. His explanations are enriched by decades of experience guiding modern people through the dying process. In 1968, Lama Ole and his wife Hannah began training with meditation masters of the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism in the Himalayas. In 1972, Lama Ole learned the rare meditation practice of conscious dying (Phowa) according to the wishes of his teacher, the great 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. Since then he has taught the Phowa practice to over 90,000 people throughout the western world, inspiring them to live for others and face death without fear. People are less afraid of things they can understand. With Phowa training and the knowledge found in this book, readers can transform fear and doubt into confidence and a calm state of mind when facing death.

    For them death is not a mystery. They know what will happen and see it as a great chance for spiritual development. Fearless Death makes their teachings accessible to the modern West. In this book, Lama Ole Nydahl condenses the information he learned from years spent with great Buddhist masters in the East. His explanations are enriched by decades of experience guiding modern people through the dying process. In 1968, Lama Ole and his wife Hannah began training with meditation masters of the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism in the Himalayas. In 1972, Lama Ole learned the rare meditation practice of conscious dying (Phowa) according to the wishes of his teacher, the great 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. Since then he has taught the Phowa practice to over 90,000 people throughout the western world, inspiring them to live for others and face death without fear. People are less afraid of things they can understand. With Phowa training and the knowledge found in this book, readers can transform fear and doubt into confidence and a calm state of mind when facing death.

    With mindfulness being so widely taught, there is a need for a clear-sighted and experience-based guide. Analayo provides it.

    N. Goenka interprets the Buddha’s teachings in this collection of lectures, essays, and interviews. These writings provide insights into how one of the most influential contemporary Buddhist practitioners defines Vipassana and how he uses it to achieve peace of mind and lead a happy, useful life. Included are transcripts of recent talks given at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at the Millennium World Peace Summit, and a previously unpublished interview conducted by Alan AtKisson, former editor of In Context magazine.

    Taking a radical departure from traditional views of God, Western or Eastern, author Kevin Griffin neither accepts Christian beliefs in a Supreme Being nor Buddhist non-theism, but rather forges a refreshing, sensible, and accessible Middle Way. Griffin shows how the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, can be understood as a Higher Power. Karma, mindfulness, impermanence, and the Eightfold Path itself are revealed as powerful forces that can be accessed through meditation and inquiry.Drawing from his own experiences with substance abuse, rehabilitation, and recovery, Griffin looks at the various ways that meditation and spiritual practices helped deepen his experience of sobriety. His personal story of addiction is not only raw, honest and engrossing, but guides readers to an inquiry of their own spirituality. In doing so, he poses profound questions, including:·         How can I understand God from a Buddhist perspective?·         How can I “turn my will and my life over” as a Buddhist?·         How can this idea of God “remove my shortcomings”?·         How do I learn this God’s “will”?

    Many people understand that prior to his realization, Shakyamuni Buddha studied with many of the great yogis of his time, but most do not know what method he ultimately found leads most directly to nirvana. In Ajahn Buddhadasa Bhikkhu's book, Mindfulness With Breathing, the Thai meditation master provides practitioners with penetrating insights into the Anapanasati Sutta, the canonical text which many believe is the most direct transmission of Shakyamuni Buddha's breath meditation methods. Combined with a concise translation of the sutta itself, Mindfulness with Breathing is one of the best guides to Buddhist meditation practice available in the English language.

    

    Using simple language, he provides precise, experiential instructions that make this life-transforming realization attainable for all, whether we are just seeking a happier life or are pursuing the spiritual journey all the way to enlightenment.

    Starting from simple and easily accessible understandings of emptiness, Burbea presents a unique conception of the path along which he escorts the practitioner gradually, through the careful structure of the work, into ever more mystical levels of insight. Through its precise instructions, illuminating exercises and discussions that address the subtleties of both practice and understanding, Seeing That Frees opens up for the committed meditator all the profundity of the Buddha’s radical teachings on emptiness. This is a book that will take time to digest and will serve as a lifelong companion on the path, leading the reader, as it does, progressively deeper into the territory of liberation. From the Foreword by Joseph Goldstein:"Rob Burbea, in this remarkable book, proves to be a wonderfully skilled guide in exploring the understanding of emptiness as the key insight in transforming our lives... It is rare to find a book that explores so deeply the philosophical underpinnings of awakening at the same time as offering the practical means to realize it."

    In just thirty-seven verses, Tokmé Zongpo summarizes the bodhisattva path. While this revered and loved text from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition has been translated many times, Ken McLeod's plain and simple English beautifully reflects the simplicity and directness of the original Tibetan. McLeod's commentary is full of striking images, provocative questions and inspiring descriptions of what it means to be awake and present in your life. Practical instruction, brief and to the point, is found in each of the verse commentaries, providing straightforward responses to the question, "How do I practice this?"McLeod is clearly writing from his own experience. Yet, instead of anecdotes and personal history, he challenges the reader to engage various scenarios, and consider for ourselves how compassion, clarity, presence and balance could take expression in his or her life.This masterful translation and commentary shine the light of wisdom on the challenges of contemporary life and illuminate a path the modern reader can tread to freedom, peace and understanding.Reflections on Silver River has three parts. The first is an informative introduction to the text and to Tokmé Zongpo. The introduction is followed by the translation of Tokmé Zongpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. The third section is the main part of the book, a traditional verse-by-verse commentary. At less than 200 pages, Reflections on Silver River is a highly accessible introduction to Tibetan Buddhist practice as well as a valuable resource for the experienced practitioner, regardless of his or her tradition of training.McLeod himself is a teacher, translator, author and business consultant. He pioneered one-on-one meditation instruction, has taught numerous retreats and classes, published a highly regarded translation of Mahayana mind-training under the title The Great Path of Awakening, wrote an encyclopedic treatment of meditation practice in Wake Up to Your Life, and composed a poetic and evocative commentary on the Heart Sutra in An Arrow to the Heart.

    However, it is not just a teaching on the view but a presentation providing the student the means to realize it through meditation practice. The idea of a series of meditation practices on a particular aspect of the Buddha's teachings is that by beginning with one's first rather coarse commonsense understanding, one progresses through increasingly subtle and more refined stages until one arrives at complete and perfect understanding. Each stage in the process prepares the mind for the next in so far as each step is fully integrated into one's understanding through the meditation process.

    Sophisticated without being daunting, brilliantly clear without becoming simplistic, Andrew Olendzki's writing is filled with rich phrases, remarkable images, and the fruits of decades of careful thought. Grounded in profound scholarship, psychological sophistication, and many years of teaching and personal practice, this much-anticipated collection of essays will appeal to anyone looking to gain a richer understanding of Buddhism's experiential tools for exploring the inner world. In Unlimiting Mind, Olendzki provokes fresh and familiar reflections on core Buddhist teachings.

    Ordained at twelve, he would eventually become the first Buddhist chaplain at an American university, the founder of a retreat center and monastery, and a bestselling author. Here, Bhante G. lays bare the often-surprising ups and downs of his seventy-five years, from his boyhood in Sri Lanka to his decades of sharing the insights of the Buddha, telling his story with the "plain-English" approach for which he is so renowned.