Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life That Matters


Bernard Glassman - 1997
    The hardcover edition was featured in every major Buddhist magazine. "Be nourished and inspired! Magnificent work!"--Jon Kabat-Zinn.

The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul, and the Spiritual Life


John Tarrant - 1998
    Using real-life stories, Zen tales, and Greek myths, The Light Inside the Dark shows how our darkest experiences can be the gates to wisdom and joy. Tarrant leads us through the inevitable descents of our journey--from the everyday world of work and family into the treasure cave of the interior life--from which we return with greater love of life's vivid, common gifts. Written with empathy and a poet's skill, The Light Inside the Dark is the freshest and most challenging work on the soul to he published in years.

The Naked Buddha: A Practical Guide to the Buddha's Life and Teachings


Adrienne Howley - 2003
    Now, Adrienne Howley -- personally ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and one of the highest ranking Buddhist nuns in the world -- writes in a warm, simple, and engagingly humorous style that illustrates the life, ideas, and teachings of the Buddha and the religion and philosophy that he inspired. This charming guide demystifies Buddhism and shows how we can apply its teachings to our lives in useful and meaningful ways. Howley covers who Buddha was and how he came to formulate his philosophy, the three main Buddhist traditions, what ordinary Buddhists believe and practice today, and meditation: how and why. There are also answers to questions most commonly asked by non-Buddhists, including: How can Buddhism make me happy? How can I always practice generosity? and How can I move away from greed and hatred? The Naked Buddha is an accessible, down-to-earth introduction to this ancient Asian religion and a valuable addition to the literature on Buddhism.

Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom


Dzogchen Ponlop - 2010
    It’s the part of you that already knows how to break free of fear and unhappiness. This rebel is the voice of your own awakened mind. It’s your rebel buddha—the sharp, clear intelligence that resists the status quo. It wakes you up from the sleepy acceptance of your day-to-day reality and shows you the power of your enlightened nature. It’s the vibrant, insightful energy that compels you to seek the truth. Dzogchen Ponlop guides you through the inner revolution that comes from unleashing your rebel buddha. He explains how, by training your mind and understanding your true nature, you can free yourself from needless suffering. He presents a thorough introduction to the essence of the Buddha’s teachings and argues that, if we are to bring these teachings fully into our personal experience, we must go beyond the cultural trappings of traditional Asian Buddhism. “We all want to find some meaningful truth about who we are,” he says, “but we can only find it guided by our own wisdom—by our own rebel buddha within.”

Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators


Guy Armstrong - 2017
    In fact, emptiness points to something quite different than “nothingness” or “vacancy.” And by developing a richer understanding of this complex topic, we can experience freedom as we live consciously in the world. Guy Armstrong has been a leading figure and beloved teacher of insight meditation for decades. In this book, he makes difficult Buddhist topics easy to understand, weaving together Theravada and Mahayana teachings on emptiness to show how we can liberate our minds and manifest compassion in our lives.

Thich Nhat Hanh: 37 Motivational and Life-Changing Lessons from Thich Nhat Hanh


Christine Jay - 2017
    He is what Martin Luther King called, an apostle of peace and non-violence. He is the pioneer who brought Buddhism to the West. His key teachings are through mindfulness and how to live happily in the present. This eBook will introduce you to the Zen master who has inspired many to live in the present without regretting the past or worrying about the future. He is the epitome of peace. This eBook will guide and inspire through the life changing lessons from Thich Nhat Hanh

Buddhism for the Unbelievably Busy


Meshel Laurie - 2017
    It’s a book about making it stop.What if I told you that a lot of what keeps you unbelievably busy is not only pointless, but avoidable, nonsensical and entirely driven by your own fears, insecurities and ego? You’d probably want to slap me, if you could find the time, right?Don’t worry, I was once just like you: exhausted, harried, overcommitted and flummoxed as to what to cut back on. I’m not completely cured, but for the first time in years I have room to breathe and to think about what kind of life I really want to live. And I have Buddhism to thank for this.In this book I’ve compiled the teachings, ideas and practices that got me to this point. Buddhism helped me dig deep to discover why I was determined to do so much, and why I was so afraid to stand still and be alone with myself. It’s not hippy-trippy stuff, believe me. Buddhism is just as relevant and practical in our modern world as it’s ever been.As crazy as it sounds, I’m asking you to add one more thing to your list today: read this book, and let it help you free yourself from the grind of your unbelievable busyness. Live the peaceful life you know you deserve and be the person you want to be.

Afterzen: Experiences of a Zen Student Out on His Ear


Janwillem van de Wetering - 1999
    Van de Wetering gives them his own distinctive touch of humor, down to earth reality, and tough spirituality in the context of meeting and adventures with personalities "collaged from bits and pieces of teachers and fellow students who kindly came my way."In this third book of the trilogy, van de Wetering is at his accessible, honest, funny, and genuinely spiritual best.

The Words of My Perfect Teacher


Patrul Rinpoche - 1991
    Original. 10,000 first printing.

The Way of the Bodhisattva


Śāntideva
    Presented in the form of a personal meditation in verse, it outlines the path of the bodhisattvas--those beings who renounce the peace of an individual salvation and vow to work for the deliverance of all beings, and to attain enlightenment for their sake. The text is beloved by Buddhists of all traditions.Originally written in India in Sanskrit, the text first appeared in Tibetan translation in the eighth century. The fact that it has been expounded, studied, and practiced in Tibet in an unbroken tradition lends the Tibetan version of the Bodhicharyavatara a particular authority. The present version has therefore been translated from the Tibetan, following a commentary by the Nyingma master Kunzang Pelden, renowned for its thoroughness, clarity, and accessibility.

The Life of Ramakrishna


Romain Rolland - 1929
    Used in many colleges as an introduction to the saint. Beautiful translation and story from the French edition.

Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness, and the Man Who Found Them All


Perry Garfinkel - 2006
    Burned out, laid up with back problems, disillusioned by relationships and religion itself, he was still hoping for that big journalistic break—and the answers to life’s biggest riddles as well. So he set out on a geographic, historical and personal expedition that would lead him around the world in search of those answers, and then some.First, to better understand the man who was born Prince Siddhartha Gautama, he followed the time-honored pilgrimage “in the footsteps of the Buddha” in India. From there, he tracked the historical course of Buddhism: to Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Tibet, Japan and on to San Francisco and Europe. He found that the Buddha’s teachings have spawned a worldwide movement of “engaged Buddhism,” the application of Buddhist principles to resolve social, environmental, health, political and other contemporary problems. From East to West and back to the East again, this movement has caused a Buddhism Boom. Along the way he met a diverse array of Buddhist practitioners—Thai artists, Indian nuns, Sri Lankan school children, Zen archers in Japan, kung fu monks in China and the world’s first Buddhist comic (only in America). Among dozens of Buddhist scholars and leaders, Garfinkel interviewed His Holiness the Dalai Lama, an experience that left him speechless—almost. As just reward for his efforts, toward the end of his journey Garfinkel fell in love in the south of France at the retreat center of a leader of the engaged movement, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh—a romance that taught him as much about Buddhism as all the masters combined. In this original, entertaining book, Garfinkel separates Buddhist fact from fiction, sharing his humorous insights and keen perceptions about everything from spiritual tourism to Asian traffic jams to the endless road to enlightenment.From the Hardcover edition.

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice


Shunryu Suzuki - 1970
    Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it’s all about. An instant teaching on the first page. And that’s just the beginning.In the forty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind has become one of the great modern Zen classics, much beloved, much reread, and much recommended as the best first book to read on Zen. Suzuki Roshi presents the basics—from the details of posture and breathing in zazen to the perception of nonduality—in a way that is not only remarkably clear, but that also resonates with the joy of insight from the first to the last page. It’s a book to come back to time and time again as an inspiration to practice, and it is now available to a new generation of seekers in this fortieth anniversary edition, with a new afterword by Shunryu Suzuki’s biographer, David Chadwick.

Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind


Sakyong Mipham - 2012
      As a Tibetan lama and leader of Shambhala (an international community of 165 meditation centers), Sakyong Mipham has found physical activity to be essential for spiritual well-being. He's been trained in horsemanship and martial arts but has a special love for running. Here he incorporates his spiritual practice with running, presenting basic meditation instruction and fundamental principles he has developed. Even though both activities can be complicated, the lessons here are simple and designed to show how the melding of internal practice with physical movement can be used by anyone - regardless of age, spiritual background, or ability - to benefit body and soul.

Women Of Wisdom


Tsultrim Allione - 1984
    These stories of great women who have achieved full illumination, overcoming cultural prejudices and a host of other problems which male practitioners do not encounter, offer a wealth of inspiration to everyone on the spiritual path. In this revised and expanded edition, Tsultrim Allione's extensive autobiographical preface and introduction speak directly to the difficulties and triumphs of women in the West who pursue a spiritual life, as she shares her own stories and experiences. Women of Wisdom offers valuable insights to all those interested in women's spirituality, regardless of background or tradition. This new edition includes Tsultrim's expanded autobiography, covering the last fifteen years since the first edition appeared.