This iconic journey changed the world forever, and the truths revealed continue to influence every corner of the globe today.A young man in line for the throne is trapped in his father's kingdom and yearns for the outside world. Betrayed by those closest to him, Siddhartha abandons his palace and princely title. Alone and face-to-face with his demons, he becomes a wandering monk and embarks on a spiritual fast that carries him to the brink of death. Ultimately recognizing his inability to conquer his body and mind by sheer will, Siddhartha transcends his physical pain and achieves enlightenment.Although we recognize Buddha today as an icon of peace and serenity, his life story was a tumultuous and spellbinding affair filled with love and sex, murder and loss, struggle and surrender. From the rocky terrain of the material world to the summit of the spiritual one, Buddha captivates and inspires—ultimately leading us closer to understanding the true nature of life and our selves.

    The classic text of these 81 verses, called the Tao Te Ching or the Great Way, offers advice and guidance that is balanced, moral, spiritual, and always concerned with working for the good.In this book, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer has reviewed hundreds of translations of the Tao Te Ching and has written 81 distinct essays on how to apply the ancient wisdom of Lao-tzu to today’s modern world. This work contains the entire 81 verses of the Tao, compiled from Wayne’s researching of 12 of the most well-respected translations of text that have survived for more than 25 centuries. Each chapter is designed for actually living the Tao or the Great Way today. Some of the chapter titles are “Living with Flexibility,” “Living Without Enemies,” and “Living by Letting Go.” Each of the 81 brief chapters focuses on living the Tao and concludes with a section called “Doing the Tao Now.”        Wayne spent one entire year reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them each day and ultimately writing down these essays as he felt Lao-tzu wanted you to know them.This is a work to be read slowly, one essay a day. As Wayne says, “This is a book that will forever change the way you look at your life, and the result will be that you’ll live in a new world aligned with nature. Writing this book changed me forever, too. I now live in accord with the natural world and feel the greatest sense of peace I’ve ever experienced. I’m so proud to present this interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, and offer the same opportunity for change that it has brought me.”

    Combining earthly wisdom with spiritual enlightenment, it describes how to live each moment to the full and shows the relevance of Zen to every aspect of life.

    What is the nature of these close connections? And what if our influence on pets, both in life and especially through sickness and death, is far more powerful than we ever conceived? David Michie draws on ancient Buddhist wisdom, supported by contemporary science, to provide fascinating insights into animal consciousness. He proposes that the pets with whom we share our lives are not there by accident. Whether your animal companion has fur, feathers or fins, he offers a treasury of practical tools to enhance your relationship with them in everyday life, as well as during times of challenge. Written with humour and compassion, and including extraordinary true stories from around the world, Buddhism for Pet Lovers reveals how our animal companions may indeed be among our most precious partners. For in helping them, our own lives are incomparably enriched too. 'If you have ever deeply loved an animal, this is, without doubt, the book for you.' Gail Pope, BrightHaven 'Our pets offer us one of our greatest opportunities to add compassion to the world. This book helps direct us to a path toward the blossoming of that opportunity.' Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words, and What Animals Think and Feel

    Here Pema provides the tools to deal with the problems and difficulties that life throws our way. This wisdom is always available to us, she teaches, but we usually block it with habitual patterns rooted in fear. Beyond that fear lies a state of openheartedness and tenderness. This book teaches us how to awaken our basic goodness and connect with others, to accept ourselves and others complete with faults and imperfections, and to stay in the present moment by seeing through the strategies of ego that cause us to resist life as it is.

    We want to face our challenges and disappointment with grace; be creative and inspired; feel excited by a purpose; and live fearlessly through an intuitive, guiding wisdom. We want to love and feel loved, and realize genuine peace . . . but as much as we desire a significant spiritual breakthrough and long to know our Divine selves, we’re still not making the commitment that will ensure our success.      We want the gifts, but we’re not engaging in the practical work necessary to obtain them, so we remain stuck and more frustrated than ever. We know a lot about the power of Spirit, yet we aren’t actually experiencing it. And we cannot do so through intellectual pursuits alone. In fact, we can only experience it through a deep, intentional daily practice of connecting with Spirit.      When you truly make this connection, you’ll realize that it’s the most authentic, lasting power you have in your life. In this enlightening book, spiritual teacher Sonia Choquette will show you that even though you can’t control the outside world, with the power of your Spirit, you can create a sense of purpose within that brings about profound contentment and personal peace—no matter what is going on around you.

    Then they used their minds to change their brains in ways that changed history.With the new breakthroughs in neuroscience, combined with the insights from thousands of years of contemplative practice, you, too, can shape your own brain for greater happiness, love, and wisdom.Buddha's Brain joins the forces of modern science with ancient teachings to show readers how to have greater emotional balance in turbulent times, as well as healthier relationships, more effective actions, and a deeper religious or spiritual practice.Well-referenced and grounded in science, the book is full of practical tools and skills readers can use in daily life to tap the unused potential of the brain-and rewire it over time for greater peace and well-being.If you can change your brain, you can change your life.

    Krishnamurti shows how people can free themselves radically and immediately from the tyranny of the expected, no matter what their age--opening the door to transforming society and their relationships.

    But it doesn't have to be this way. In City Dharma, Arthur Jeon suggests that it’s not what happens to us, but how we react to events and thoughts that causes most of our suffering.City Dharma is the essential guide for everyone living in the accelerated world most of us call home. Offering smart, practical ways to overcome daily stresses and the crazy-making reactivity of our own minds, Jeon explores the most challenging aspects of modern urban and suburban life, including:Another Day, Another DollarAvoid Working StiffnessWalking Down a Dark AlleyAwareness and Violence Sex and the City DharmaSeeking Love vs. Expressing LoveScaring Ourselves to DeathTranscending Media NegativityRoad RageDealing with Mad Max Within and WithoutDrawing wisdom from the ancient Eastern teachings of Advaita Vedanta and filled with engaging stories, City Dharma offers a new way of seeing the world--one that is based on connection rather than separation, direct experience rather than belief, and love instead of fear.From the Hardcover edition.

    Pocket-sized with bold black-and-white illustrations by Jason DeAntonis, How to Sit provides explicit, simple directions on the mechanics of posture and breathing, along with instructions for how best to achieve the awakened, relaxed state of clarity to cultivate concentration and compassion. Following the instructions, Thich Nhat Hanh shares a series of secular guided meditations that help us return to our breath, spend some time in the present moment, and come home to ourselves.The function of meditation practice is to heal and transform. Scientific studies indicate that meditation contributes tremendously to well-being, general health, and longevity. How to Sit is a unique gift for those who want a comprehensive yet simple guide to getting started with meditation practice, as well as meditators with training in any spiritual tradition who want to be reminded of the foundation of practice.

    When Isaac Newton figured out the law of gravity from a falling apple, everything changed. When Benjamin Franklin harvested electricity from lightening and Thomas Edison made the first commercial light bulb, everything changed. Today, when quantum physicists realize our physical universe isn’t real, that it’s just a hologram, everything … wait! Nothing’s changed - yet. "Butterflies Are Free To Fly" offers a new and radical approach to spiritual evolution based on the recent scientific experiments in quantum physics and brain research outlined in Part One. Given that the physical universe which looks and feels so real to us is actually a unique holographic projection from our own brain, the author examines various models for life and living that are very different than what we have been told and taught. “This is the only radical thinking that you need to do,” Dr. Amit Goswami is quoted as saying. “But it is so radical, it is so difficult, because our tendency is that the world is already ‘out there,’ independent of my experience. It is not. Quantum Physics has been so clear about it.” For example, in Part Two we are introduced to something the author calls an “Infinite I,” which is creating our unique holographic experiences. Then there is the “Human Game Model,” offering explanations all the way from why we experience pain and suffering to how we can change our reactions and responses by letting go of our judgments, beliefs, opinions, and fears. The end result, suggests the author, is peeling away all the layers of false identities that make up the “ego,” transforming and emerging from our cocoon as a “no-self.” Part Three of the book is a series of questions and answers to offer alternative explanations consistent with these models on subjects such as money, past lives, karma, trust, and the “Earth Environment.” This book will leave you thinking, because this book is truly radical.

    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.

    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

    These extracts from his writings cover the whys, whats and wherefores of meditation. Osho urges, cajoles and encourages the reader to step out on the path to peace and fulfilment, and gives advice on how to stay on it.

    Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence. "The Power of Now" was a question-and-answer handbook. "A New Earth" has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, "A New Earth" is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life?and for building a better world.