The selected teachings are taken from the sources of the traditions, including the Buddha himself, Nagarjuna, Guru Rinpoche, Atisha, Shantideva, and Asanga; from great masters of the past, including Thogme Zangpo, the Fifth Dalai Lama, Milarepa, Longchenpa, and Sakya Pandita; and from contemporary masters, including the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and Mingyur Rinpoche. They address such topics as the nature of the mind; the foundations of taking refuge, generating altruistic compassion, acquiring merit, and following a teacher; view, meditation, and action; and how to remove obstacles and make progress on the path.

    

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

    The most common way this manifests is in a persistent sense of discontentment. Something just doesn’t feel quite right. That something is usually hard to put a finger on. It’s often just a feeling that haunts us in the background, one that leads to endless soul searching and goal striving. Although it can disappear when a desire is achieved, or a piece of our life that was believed to be missing falls into place, ultimately the relief is only temporary. Before long, the background feeling that something is not okay returns and the search begins anew. You may be surprised to learn that life doesn’t have to be this way. Since 2006, our global scientific research project has been on the trail of the tiny fraction of the population that seems to have escaped this fate. We found thousands of them, and what we learned has been nothing short of astonishing. It will revolutionize your life for the better, if you’ll let it. Praise For The Finders "If a Nobel Prize existed for Psychology, the work done by Jeffery Martin and his team and described in this book would be a strong contender. The book is about people who have managed to fulfil one of the most sought after but rarely achieved human needs – true happiness, a deep and fundamental sense of wellbeing." ~ Dr. Peter Fenwick, internationally renowned neuropsychiatrist and Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists "Dr. Jeffery Martin's work on non-symbolic states of awareness has helped create the most lucid map for understanding higher states of consciousness. I have personally gained a deeper understanding of the universality of human sacred experience from his research and have been able to replicate and publish it. For anyone who is interested in getting scientific knowledge of the range and evolution of human experience in the direction of expanded awareness and ultimately that which wisdom traditions call 'enlightenment' Jeffery's book and research are must reads." ~ Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation and co-founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing, author of over 85 books including dozens of best sellers "In this book Dr. Martin takes his place beside William James and Abraham Maslow to give us one of the most important and ground-breaking works on consciousness and human potential in recent memory." ~ Allan Leslie Combs, Ph.D., CIIS Professor of Consciousness Studies, author of The Radiance of Being and Consciousness Explained Better "Dr. Jeffery Martin and his colleagues have produced a landmark study, one not only relevant to transpersonal psychology but to psychology in general. Maslow wrote of 'self-actualized' persons. Dr. Martin goes a step further, describing the phenomenology of Maslow's highest level, namely the self-transcendent or enlightened. This book contains a schema by which its readers can more deeply appreciate the development of these men and women. It is not often that rigorous research can be inspirational, but Dr. Martin has come through. Indeed, readers on a spiritual path are now able to chart their own development on a continuum of experiences, one that many writers once pathologized." ~ Stanley Krippner, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Saybrook University; past-President of two and Fellow in five divisions of the American Psychological Association, and winner of its lifetime achievement award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology; 50+ year veteran researcher and pioneer in the scientific study of consciousness

    Eastern wisdom traditions are often baffling for Western minds – where to begin in uncovering the often complicated steps, precepts, concepts and ideas? Aimed at people who are curious about Buddhism and want a basic book that will help them to understand – and apply – Buddhist principles in their life, The Lotus Still Blooms is a practical book that goes through all of the major Buddhist principles, step-by-step, and then shows how to apply them to our busy, hectic lives. Filled with Joan Gattuso’s trademark delightful stories and warmth, as well as exercises to help readers begin using the principles right away, this is a book that will be a welcomed new introduction to this exciting spiritual tradition.

    On their tender shoulders rests a great nation, a baffling world and a beautiful planet. It is, therefore, my dharma to share what I know so a parent's hand is raised only to protect their child." Penning his thoughts on the art of spiritual and mindful parenting, Om Swami sheds light on many a scenario where parents and children don't always see eye-to-eye. Believing that the right guidance at the right time can make any child recognize their true potential, the author shares some extraordinary insights based on his own knowledge gleaned from experience and various psychological studies that can help steer your child in the right direction. Touching upon parenting challenges, building the right pillars of guidance and nurturing core values, this book has all you need to raise happy, healthy children.

    All that’s required is that we learn to let go of our expectation that life should go according the agenda we have in mind. Zen teacher Ezra Bayda provides the teachings and practices we need to learn to let go into true happiness—the kind that goes far deeper than the kind that’s about getting what we think we want. Most of our unhappiness, he explains, is the result of seeking satisfaction in things external to us: new jobs, better relationships, luxury vacations. By liberating ourselves from expectations about these outward things and looking inward instead, we can find a deeper and unshakable kind of satisfaction that not only makes things a lot more pleasant for us, but that generates in us generosity and compassion toward others.  Beyond Happiness includes simple meditation and mindfulness practices you can use to access true happiness, including basic sitting meditation, gratitude practice, loving-kindness practice, and the Three Questions practice, in which we ask ourselves: Am I happy now? What blocks happiness? and Can I surrender to what is?

    A very practical guidebook for meditators for navigating their way through these states of bliss and concentration.One of the elements of the Eightfold Path the Buddha taught is Right Concentration: the one-pointedness of mind that, together with ethics, livelihood, meditation, and so forth, leads to the ultimate freedom from suffering. The Jhanas are the method the Buddha himself taught for achieving Right Concentration. They are a series of eight successive states, beginning with bliss and moving on toward radically nonconceptual states. The fact that they can usually be achieved only during prolonged meditation retreat tends to keep them shrouded in mystery. Leigh Brasington is here to unshroud them. He takes away the mystique and gives instructions for them in plain, accessible language, noting the various pitfalls to avoid along the way, and then providing a wealth of material on the theory of jhana practice--all geared toward the practitioner rather than the scholar.

    That's the premise of this book: how to cook what Zen Buddhists call "the supreme meal"—life. It has to be nourishing, and it has to be shared. And we can use only the ingredients at hand. Inspired by the thirteenth-century manual of the same name by Dogen, the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen tradition, this book teaches us how we can "enlarge the family we're feeding" if we just use some imagination. Bernie Glassman founded Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York, in 1982 to employ those whom other companies deem unemployable—the homeless, ex-cons, recovering addicts, low-skill individuals—with the belief that investing in people, and not just products, does pay. He was right. Greyston has evolved into an $8 million-a-year business with clients all over New York City. It is the sole supplier of brownies to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, and has even sold cakes to the White House. But financial profit is only one of two bottom lines that Greyston is committed to. The other one is social impact, and this goal is certainly being met. The bakery enterprise has led to the creation of the Greyston Foundation, an integrated network of organizations that provide affordable housing, child care, counseling services, and health care to families in the community. Using entrepreneurship to solve the problems of the inner city, Greyston has become a national model for comprehensive community development. Its giving back is more than just sloughing off a percentage of its profits and donating it to charity; it's about working with the community's needs right from the beginning—bringing them from the margins to the core. As its company motto goes, "We don't hire people to bake brownies. We bake brownies to hire people." This book is as much a self-manual as a business manual, addressing such concepts as    • Beginner's mind    • The Middle Way of Sustainability    • The "hungry ghosts" of Buddhism as a picture of all humanity    • Working with our faults    • Indra's Net and the interconnectedness of life    • Leaving no trace

    The very idea that the teachings of meditation can be mastered will arouse controversy within Buddhist circles. Even so, Ingram insists that enlightenment is an attainable goal, once our fanciful notions of it are stripped away, and we have learned to use meditation as a method for examining reality rather than an opportunity to wallow in self-absorbed mind-noise .Ingram sets out concisely the difference between concentration-based and insight (Vipassana) meditation; he provides example practices; and most importantly he presents detailed maps of the states of mind we are likely to encounter, and the stages we must negotiate as we move through clearly-defined cycles of insight. It s easy to feel overawed, at first, by Ingram s assurance and ease in the higher levels of consciousness, but consistently he writes as a down-to-earth and compassionate guide to the practitioner willing to commit themselves this is a glittering gift of a book."

    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”?

    In "Zen and the Art of Happiness", you will learn how to think and feel so that what you think and feel creates happiness and vibrancy in your life rather than gloominess or depression.

    Moreover, this simple daily practice purifies and opens us to our ecstatic inner realms, taking us on an exciting journey to inner space. The consequences of this journey are as practical as they are profound. This book provides easy-to-read instructions for beginning and continuing with the practice of "Spinal Breathing Pranayama," addressing in a surprising degree of detail the many experiences and questions that can come up. Yogani is the author of two landmark books on the world's most effective spiritual practices: "Advanced Yoga Practices - Easy Lessons for Ecstatic Living," a comprehensive user-friendly textbook, and "The Secrets of Wilder," a powerful spiritual novel. The "AYP Enlightenment Series" makes these profound practices available for the first time in a series of concise instruction books. "Spinal Breathing Pranayama" is the second book in the series.

    Part memoir, part manual full of tips, tricks and rituals to integrate into your life to be the best you, you can be. ‘Enough’ follows the journey of Angela Cox, who after years of unsuccessful & often dangerous dieting, needed a radical mindset shift and a floppy haired Body Coach by the name of Joe, to finally change her own story and support others to do the same. She could never have predicted how she'd gain far more than a new body. In meeting her New Self, she first had to make peace with a painful past that had kept her under lock and key for nearly forty years. This book demonstrates that the power to change your now and your forever exists inside you if you believe that you are enough.

    Their insights shook our perception of who we are and where we stand in the world, and in their wake have left an uneasy coexistence: science vs. religion, faith vs. empirical inquiry. Which is the keeper of truth? Which is the true path to understanding reality?After forty years of study with some of the greatest scientific minds, as well as a lifetime of meditative, spiritual, and philosophic study, the Dalai Lama presents a brilliant analysis of why all avenues of inquiry—scientific as well as spiritual—must be pursued in order to arrive at a complete picture of the truth. Through an examination of Darwinism and karma, quantum mechanics and philosophical insight into the nature of reality, neurobiology and the study of consciousness, the Dalai Lama draws significant parallels between contemplative and scientific examinations of reality.This breathtakingly personal examination is a tribute to the Dalai Lama’s teachers—both of science and spirituality. The legacy of this book is a vision of the world in which our different approaches to understanding ourselves, our universe, and one another can be brought together in the service of humanity.