Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience


Sharon Salzberg - 2002
    Through the teachings of Buddha and insight gained from her lifelong spiritual quest, Salzberg provides us with a road map for cultivating a feeling of peace that can be practiced by anyone of any tradition.

Original Kriya Yoga Volume I: Step-by-step Guide to Salvation


Rangin Mukherjee - 2017
    Through a combination of mis-communication and intentional alteration, however, most of what is taught as Kriya Yoga today is far from what was originally taught, often to the detriment of sincere practitioners. In this short, but practical and experiential guide, Sri Mukherjee reveals the techniques of Kriya Yoga, as originally taught by Lahiri Mahasaya. Sri Mukherjee is the disciple of Sri Gyanendranath Mukhopadhyay (Mukherjee) who compiled the Pranab Gita from the teachings of his Guru, Swami Pranabanandaji. Swami Pranabanandaji is well known as the main disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, and so what is made available here has not been altered through the distorting effect of formal organizations (which Mahasaya and Pranabanandaji both eschewed), but has been kept intact through the age-old method of direct guru-to-disciple transmission. Fearing the loss of the original Kriya Yoga as taught by Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Mukherjee has generously written this book in order to record and share this most valuable of all human knowledge.

The Essence of Buddha: The Path to Enlightenment


Ryuho Okawa - 2002
    It offers a contemporary interpretation of the way to enlightenment, written by highly revered spiritual leader. The fundamental tenets of the Buddhist understanding of life, such as The Eightfold Path, The Six Paramitas and the Laws of Causality, are clearly explained in modern and accessible terms, along with the need for self-reflection, the nature of karma and reincarnation, and other teachings of the Buddha. Enlightenment is a potential achievement for every sentient being. The path towards it is an expansion of consciousness, moving from material concerns to an increaed awareness of the unseen spiritual reality. This, and the practice of a love that gives, rather than just expecting to be loved, is the only path to happiness, and a better world.

A Monastery Within: Tales from the Buddhist Path


Gil Fronsdal - 2010
    These are tales of transformation and spiritual growth. They delight and challenge as they express different facets of the Buddhist path to liberation in familiar, yet fresh and engaging, ways. These stories can be reread often, each time supporting new reflec- tions on the spiritual life and the possibility of each person awakening to the kindness, clarity and insight available to all of us. A Monastery Within points to how each person can build an inner home for the awakened life.

Diamond Mind: Psychology Of Meditation


Rob Nairn - 1999
    With clarity and humour he guides us to understand how we ourselves generate the clouds of anxiety, desire and anger that obscure our happiness. We learn to recognise these obscurations, how they came about and how to release and dissolve them. The innate wisdom and brilliance of the mind then naturally manifest. The title contains guidelines and practices for meditators.

The Direct Path: A User Guide


Greg Goode - 2012
    It’s not my experience!” If so, The Direct Path, inspired by Sri Atmananda (Krishna Menon), could be for you. This book is the “missing manual” to the Direct Path. For the first time in print, Direct-Path inquiry is presented from beginning to end and beyond, in a user-friendly way. The core of the book is a set of forty experiments designed to help dissolve the most common non-dual sticking points, from simple to subtle. The experiments cover the world, the body, the mind, abstract objects, and witnessing awareness. You are taken step-by-step from the simple perception of a physical object all the way to the collapse of the witness into pure consciousness. Your takeaway is that there’s no experiential doubt that you and all things are awareness, openness, and love. Also included are three tables of contents, illustrations, an index, a section on teaching, and the notion of a “post-nondual realization.” This book can be utilized on its own or as a companion volume to the author’s Standing as Awareness.

One Hundred Days of Solitude: Losing Myself and Finding Grace on a Zen Retreat


Jane Dobisz - 2007
    “3:15 A.M. Wake Up. 3:20 300 Bows. 4:00 Ma. 4:15 Sitting. 4:45 Walking.” And so it goes, for 100 days. Dobisz, inspired by her Korean Zen master’s discipline of long, solitary retreats, has decided to embark on a retreat of her own. The unfolding story of her experience is related here. The suburban-raised Dobisz weaves amusing anecdotes about learning to live a Walden-like existence — water comes from a well, wood needs to be chopped — with Zen teachings and striking insights into the miracles and foibles of the human mind when there’s nothing on hand to distract it. Entertaining and inspiring, the book is a joyous testament to the benefits that solitude and reflection can bring to all.

The Four Noble Truths


Bhikkhu Sumedho - 1992
    The teaching is conveyed through the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, first expounded in 528 B.C. in the Deer Park at Saranath near Varanasi and kept alive in the Buddhist world ever since.Venerable Ajahn Sumedho is a bhikkhu (mendicant monk) of the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. He was ordained in Thailand in 1966 and trained there for ten years. He is currently the Abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Centre as well as teacher and spiritual guide to many bhikkhus, Buddhist nuns and lay people.This booklet has been made available through the voluntary efforts of many people for the welfare of others.Note on the Text:The first exposition of the Four Noble Truths was a discourse (sutta) called Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta — literally, 'the discourse that sets the vehicle of the teaching in motion'. Extracts from this are quoted at the beginning of each chapter describing the Four Truths. The reference quoted is to the sections in the books of the scriptures where this discourse can be found. However, the theme of the Four Noble Truths recurs many times, for example in the quotation that appears at the beginning of the Introduction."From the Preface

The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk


Palden Gyatso - 1997
    When Communist China invaded Tibet in 1950, it embarked on a program of “reform” that would eventually affect all of Tibet’s citizens and nearly decimate its ancient culture. In 1967, the Chinese destroyed monasteries across Tibet and forced thousands of monks into labor camps and prisons. Gyatso spent the next 25 years of his life enduring interrogation and torture simply for the strength of his beliefs. Palden Gyatso’s story bears witness to the resilience of the human spirit, and to the strength of Tibet’s proud civilization, faced with cultural genocide.

Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki


David Chadwick - 1999
    This most influential teacher comes vividly to life in Crooked Cucumber, the first full biography of any Zen master to be published in the West. To make up his intimate and engrossing narrative, David Chadwick draws on Suzuki's own words and the memories of his students, friends, and family. Interspersed with previously unpublished passages from Suzuki's talks, Crooked Cucumber evokes a down-to-earth life of the spirit. Along with Suzuki we can find a way to "practice with mountains, trees, and stones and to find ourselves in this big world."

The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary


Red Pine - 2012
    The Lankavatara Sutra is the holy grail of Zen. Zen’s First Patriarch, Bodhidharma, gave a copy of this text to his successor, Hui-k’o, and told him everything he needed to know was in this book. Passed down from teacher to student ever since, this is the only Zen sutra ever spoken by the Buddha. Although it covers all the major teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, it contains but two teachings: that everything we perceive as being real is nothing but the perceptions of our own mind and that the knowledge of this is something that must be realized and experienced for oneself and cannot be expressed in words. In the words of Chinese Zen masters, these two teachings became known as “have a cup of tea” and “taste the tea.” This is the first translation into English of the original text used by Bodhidharma, which was the Chinese translation made by Gunabhadra in 443 and upon which all Chinese Zen masters have relied ever since.In addition to presenting one of the most difficult of all Buddhist texts in clear English, Red Pine has also added summaries, explanations and notes, including relevant Sanskrit terms on the basis of which the Chinese translation was made. This promises to become an essential text for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding or knowledge of Zen.

Rescue Me


Jana Richards - 2012
    The damsel, a.k.a. Chelsea Andrews, thinks he’s as crazy as the creep on the bus! Soon after, through a happy coincidence, Matt rents the apartment next door to Chelsea. At first she can’t believe her new neighbor is the reincarnation of Psycho’s Norman Bates! But she soon discovers that the most dangerous thing about her charming new neighbor is the damage he’s inflicting on her heart.Or is it? Not long after Matt moves in, strange romantic notes begin showing up at the art gallery where Chelsea works. Then she’s followed home from the bus stop late one night, and her apartment is broken into. Despite her growing feelings for Matt, all the evidence points to him as the culprit. Is Matt the kind, funny, sincere man she’s falling in love with, or is he some kind of flowery-letter-writing stalker? Will the real Matt Malone please stand up?

Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin


Hakuin Ekaku - 1999
    A fiery and dynamic teacher and renowned artist, he reformed the Zen Rinzai tradition, which had fallen into stagnation and decline in his time, revitalizing it and ensuring its survival even to our own day. Hakuin emphasized the importance of zazen, or sitting meditation, and is also known for his skillful use of koans as a means to insight: the most famous of all koans, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" is attributed to Hakuin. This is the first English translation of Hakuin's intimate self-portrait. It includes reminiscences from his childhood, accounts of his Zen practice and enlightenment experiences, practical advice for students on the problems that arise in intensive meditation practice, and the only description of a technique he calls "introspective meditation."

Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path


Ayya Khema - 1987
    She addresses the how and why of meditation, providing a clear framework for understanding the nature of karma and rebirth and the entirety of the eightfold path. With specific, practical advice Ayya Khema illuminates the practices of compassion and sympathetic joy and offers forthright guidance in working with the hindrances that we all encounter in meditation. Few introductory books are both simple and profound. Being Nobody, Going Nowhere is both.

The Path Of The Masters: The Science Of Surat Shabd Yoga: The Yoga Of The Audible Life Stream


Julian P. Johnson - 1980
    This is Seventeenth edition (revised) 2012