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Esta colección de poemas en prosa está basada en las enseñanzas del Buda. Lo seleccionado ha sido elegido con una finalidad inspiradora más que como una representación que aspire abarcar el amplio espectro de la enseñanza. Hemos compartido con anterioridad partes de esta selección, en varias ocasiones, en forma de diapositivas, o las hemos leído en voz alta a nuestras amistades, como después de concluir algún taller, o al terminar las reuniones de profesores asistentes, en torno a la fogata en parques nacionales, o después de una sesión de Metta por la noche. Han sido recibidas con aprecio de una manera consistente y han evocado peticiones múltiples para su publicación. Todas estas composiciones combinan los pensamientos del Buda con expresiones contemporáneas. No pueden considerarse citas directas del Canon en lengua Pali, debido a que solo hemos trabajado con traducciones al inglés y a que hemos combinado varios pasajes similares o modificado el lenguaje para facilitar la lectura. Sin embargo, tampoco podemos afirmar que estas palabras sean originales nuestras, puesto que son en el espíritu del Buda. Son una re-expresión breve y poética de algunas de sus ideas más importantes. Son chispas de la fogata que continúan resplandeciendo en la oscuridad. Nuestra intención es que estas diapositivas, o páginas, inspiren por igual a meditadores y a personas que no meditan. Están escritas desde la auténtica experiencia de la inquietante condición humana y se articulan desde la perspectiva del sufrimiento, así como del Sendero para salir del sufrimiento. Son vestigios de comprensión cabal que han cruzado el puente del tiempo desde la India ancestral hasta nuestros días. Esperamos que ustedes encuentren la sabiduría que fluye a través del tiempo en el río de palabras que nace en el antiguo manantial del Canon en lengua Pali. -Paul R. y Susan K. Fleischman

"The ensuing pages present a selection of passages from the early Buddhist discourses that provide perspectives on the cultivation of liberating insight into vedanåa, "sensation," "feeling," or "feeling tone." For meditators, such passages can be of considerable help as a reference point for deepening insight. The book's presentation is based on textual sources that reflect "early Buddhism," which stands for the development of thought and practices during roughly the first two centuries in the history of Buddhism, from about the fifth to the third century BCE. These sources are the Påali discourses and their parallels, mostly extant in Chinese translation, which go back to instructions and teachings given orally by the Buddha and his disciples. In those times in India, writing was not employed for such purposes, and for centuries these teachings were transmitted orally. The final results of such oral transmission are available to us nowadays in the form of written texts. Contemplation of the impermanence of vedanåas, as the key to avoid attachment and clinging, does not entail having to avoid all types of joy. Appreciating this requires a clear distinction of joy into those types that are related to attachment and those free from it. The joy of deep insight, the joy of letting go, and the joy of increasing purification of the mind are all commendable; they offer powerful support for the path to freedom. A guiding principle for conduct and practice can be the understanding that the crucial distinction to be made is not between pleasure and pain, but between vedanåas that foster what is wholesome and those that rather trigger what is unwholesome. Inspiration for adopting this guiding principle can be gained by keeping in mind that this actualizes an outcome of the Buddha's own realization, gained during his quest for awakening. In this way, an orientation toward the realization of Nibbåana can serve as the chief reference point for contemplation of vedanåas, which, based on the simple distinction into three affective types, leads to such realization via the gradual removal of ignorance"--

Drawn from the Buddha's teachings, contemporary literature, and the author's own life, this collection of stories, anecdotes, and aphorisms provides inspiration and refreshment for practitioners of meditation. A sympathetic, observant, and compassionate voice drives these narratives, offering practitioners guidance and strength in their pursuit of eternal bliss. The anecdotes pair lasting truths with contemporary concepts, pointing to Dharma in all things, from a shoe repair shop to the World Wide Web. With one story, poem, or aphorism per page, Buddhism's ancient wisdoms are presented in an easily digestible format.