Bøker utgitt av Shambhala Publications Inc

"We tend to want to avoid and ignore our dark or difficult emotions, biases, and tendencies-and we eschew them on a cultural and societal level because they reveal painful, ugly truths. The labeling of darkness as "negative" becomes a collective excuse to justify avoiding everything that makes humans uncomfortable: racism, spiritual bypass, environmental destruction. Welcoming darkness with curiosity and reverence, rather than fear or judgment, enables us to access our innate capacity for compassion and collective healing. In Seeing with the Heart, dharma teacher, shaman, and deep ecologist Deborah Eden Tull asks us to recognize, explore, and engage with the darkness we experience in our lives in order to learn important lessons and tools for bringing awakening, healing, and compassion to ourselves-and to our world. In an age of global uncertainty, Tull presents the radical teaching of endarkenment--that we can only awaken to wholeness through fully embracing the dark. Darkness, she posits, is not the absence of light, but an intrinsic, vital, healing, and restorative aspect of nature. Tull addresses the spiritual, ecological, psychological, and interpersonal ramifications of our bias towards light over dark. She offers a radical path to wholeness that can be found only through learning to embrace the interplay of both darkness and light, within ourselves and within our world. She offers inspiring teachings, meditations, and mindful inquiry questions to integrate into our daily practice an experiential understanding of endarkenment"--

"With 50 interactive activities that include talking like a chickadee, learning to sniff like a snake, and making your own fossils-this is your guide to having fun-filled adventures that will bring you up close and personal with the wild creatures right outside your door. Learn how to: Hum to a snail and watch it peek out at you Turn your flashlight into a night vision light so you can spy on nocturnal animals Start your very own animal scat collection and impress your friends Catch a frog with your bare hands Build a wildlife blind and become invisible to the animals around you Find snake skins, insect skeletons, animal feeding signs, bird feathers, and more Create a wild guide to your own backyard Take handy field notes on the secret lives of animals Go on fun scavenger hunts for things like dens, fur, nests, and even poop (or scat)"--

An interdisciplinary deep dive into Buddhist jhāna meditation and how it can transform our understanding of self and consciousnessStates of profound meditative concentration, the jhānas are central to the earliest Buddhist teachings. For centuries in Southeast Asia, oral yogāvacara (yoga practitioner) lineages kept traditional jhāna practices alive, but in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, reforms in Theravāda Buddhism downplayed the importance of jhāna in favor of vipassanā (insight) meditation. Some began to consider the jhānas to be strictly the domain of monastics, unattainable in the context of modern lay life. In recent years, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in the jhānas, and as researcher Paul Dennison shows, the esoteric and sometimes “magical” pre-reform practices of Southeast Asia hold powerful potential for modern lay practitioners living in a more scientifically minded world. Drawing on traditional Buddhist doctrine, teachings from lesser-known meditation texts such as the Yogāvacara’s Manual, and findings from the first in-depth, peer-reviewed neuroscience study of jhāna meditation, Dennison unpacks this ancient practice in all its nuance while posing novel questions about perception, subjectivity, and the nature of enlightenment.

"Whether you're wondering how your cycle impacts your emotional memories and fear response, how gut health impacts your cycle and fertility, how to find whole body strength and balance, or why the luteal phase is a good time to break or make new habits, this comprehensive, body literate guide will provide answers and tips for living well in your body. By imagining the four phases of the menstrual cycle as four seasons within the body, we become in tune with our internal rhythm. Cycles provides a detailed guide for not only living well in your body through the menstrual seasons, but also through the four seasons of womanhood from young adult and reproductive years to perimenopause and menopause. Each season is marked by unique internal physiology and dynamic, changing hormone levels. By focusing on the science of the body and providing supportive, phase-specific recipes, movement and self-care rituals, this book acts as a guide through each phase of the menstrual cycle and seasons of womanhood and allows you to cultivate optimal hormonal and overall health. This guide to optimal hormonal health includes: 40 nutrient-dense, menstrual-phase specific recipes that support hormonal, emotional, cognitive, gut and overall health including both omnivorous and vegetarian options. The science behind menstrual cycles and how hormonal fluctuation impacts your brain, breasts, skin and weight and how to take care of your body through the different phases. How to track your fertility using fertility awareness methods, allowing you to naturally and effectively avoid or pursue pregnancy. Supportive full body movement, self-care and nutrition tips that optimize physiological and hormonal health through the lifespan from young adult to postmenopausal woman"--

In the past hundred years, haiku has gone far beyond its Japanese origins to become a worldwide phenomenon—with the classic poetic form growing and evolving as it has adapted to the needs of the whole range of languages and cultures that have embraced it. This proliferation of the joy of haiku is cause for celebration—but it can also compel us to go back to the beginning: to look at haiku’s development during the centuries before it was known outside Japan. This in-depth study of haiku history begins with the great early masters of the form—like Basho, Buson, and Issa—and goes all the way to twentieth-century greats, like Santoka. It also focuses on an important aspect of traditional haiku that is less known in the West: haiku art. All the great haiku masters created paintings (called haiga) or calligraphy in connection with their poems, and the words and images were intended to be enjoyed together, enhancing each other, and each adding its own dimension to the reader’s and viewer’s understanding. Here one of the leading haiku scholars of the West takes us on a tour of haiku poetry’s evolution, providing along the way a wealth of examples of the poetry and the art inspired by it.

"A translation from Tibetan of an eighteenth-century compilation by one of Tibet's greatest Buddhist masters of practice texts of the Marpa Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. The Treasury of Precious Instructions by Jamgèon Kongtrul Lodrèo Taye, one of Tibet's greatest Buddhist masters, is a shining jewel of Tibetan literature, presenting essential teachings from the entire spectrum of practice lineages that existed in Tibet. In its eighteen volumes, Kongtrul brings together some of the most important texts on key topics of Buddhist thought and practice as well as authoring significant new sections of his own. Volumes in this series may be engaged as practice manuals while also preserving ancient teachings significant to the literature and history of world religions. Volume 7 of the series, Marpa Kagyu, is the first of four volumes on teachings and practices from the Marpa Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Marpa Kagyu tradition derives from the Indian masters Saraha, Tilopa, Nåaropa, and Maitråipa, and then the Tibetan Marpa Chèokyi Lodrèo (1000?-1081?)"--

"Twelve practical strategies to experience more joy and feel less guilt as a working parent, drawn from ACT, the groundbreaking therapy technique that has helped countless people. Dr. Yael Schonbrun calls out the myth of the work-life balance and offers practical strategies that can help us reframe our approach to working and parenting from the inside out. Based in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), these strategies won't create more hours in the day, but they can shift how we label our experiences, revise the stories we tell ourselves about working and parenting, and recognize the value we get from each role. Differing values and commitments pull working parents in opposite directions and the social supports families desperately need are lacking. Yet even with these very real challenges, we can find more peace and less stress. Some of these strategies include: Getting clear on our values and using these to help us make what often feel like no-win choices around time and resources Practicing mindfulness in both parenting and working Subtracting less meaningful obligations from our lives These steps can help you crush both roles, with examples from the author's research that show families of many shapes and backgrounds"--

Zen Training is a comprehensive handbook for zazen, seated meditation practice, and an authoritative presentation of the Zen path. The book marked a turning point in Zen literature in its critical reevaluation of the enlightenment experience, which the author believes has often been emphasized at the expense of other important aspects of Zen training. In addition, Zen Training goes beyond the first flashes of enlightenment to explore how one lives as well as trains in Zen. The author also draws many significant parallels between Zen and Western philosophy and psychology, comparing traditional Zen concepts with the theories of being and cognition of such thinkers as Heidegger and Husserl.

Maps and guideposts are helpful when we undertake a journey. The ten Ox-Herding Pictures, the accompanying ancient poems, and a modern commentary by John Daido Loori, sketch the spiritual path encountered in Zen training, a path of exhaustive study of the self and the realization of the ultimate nature of reality. The Ox-Herding Pictures can be our companion on the Way of self-discovery, our compass and perspective when we need one. They are a bottomless source of mysterious wisdom to which we can return again and again for inspiration, and they translate easily into the gritty reality of spiritual practice that emerges from and grounds us in the inescapable relevance of our daily lives. The exquisite versions of the pictures found in the book are traditional Chinese nanga brush paintings by Gyokusei Jikihara Sensei, a modern Japanese master of calligraphy and a teacher in the Obaku School of Zen. The traditional verses accompanying them have been translated by John Daido Loori and Kazuaki Tanahashi, translator and editor of Enlightenment Unfolds: The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Dogen.

Chi-gung, which literally means "energy work," is a system of cultivating health, vitality, and longevity that is based on the fundamental principles of Taoism and the laws of nature. Practiced by the Chinese for thousands of years, chi-gung works with the energy found in all living things to help rid the body of the imbalances that sap our strength and give rise to disease. The simple, meditative movements, breathing exercises, and massage techniques that are the basis of chi-gung can be practiced by anyone, regardless of age or physical fitness.

Thomas Cleary, one of America’s most beloved translators of Buddhist texts, brings twelfth century Chan master Dahui’s monumental compilation of teachings to life for the first time in English.Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching (Chinese Zhengfayanzang) stands as among the greatest classics of Chan (Chinese Zen) Buddhism, combining speeches, stories, dialogues, poems, and commentaries that the influential master Dahui (1089–1163) extracted from Chan lore. Compiled by Dahui’s students during Song Dynasty China, this work is replete with the enigmatic, paradoxical wisdom for which Zen Buddhism is so well known.Central to this collection is the notion of “great doubt” in matters of language, conceptual thinking, and how we conceive of our existence. By working with great doubt through koan introspection and other meditative practices, a practitioner is able to push themself to the limits of ideas and concepts until a breakthrough to enlightenment is achieved. In the words of Dahui, “Within great doubt there necessarily exists great enlightenment.”A fascinating compendium of literary and spiritual puzzles, Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching will challenge and inspire readers to work with great doubt themselves and to discover their inborn potential for enlightenment. Masterfully translated by one of America’s foremost translators of Chinese classics into English, it is a captivating window into the literary world of Chinese Zen and essential reading for students of all Zen schools today.

Simple mindfulness practices to help health care professionals of all kinds reconnect with themselves and their patients, find joy, and build resilience.Healers need healing too. Mindful Medicine shares simple mindfulness practices and brief meditations that fit easily into the demanding schedule of a healthcare worker’s day, creating an experience of less stress and more presence, connection, ease, and flow. Addressing topics such as connecting with yourself and your patients, the role of the Inner Critic in medicine, and rescue remedies for times of stress, this book offers evidence-based support for the many challenges of healthcare work. These short practices are an invitation to replenish the passion of healthcare work and douse the flickering flames of burnout.

"Based on a series of lectures that were themselves crafted with this book in mind, this books explores meditation in the Southern Buddhist tradition from its beginnings at the time of the Buddha and after, with a survey of some of the many schools of meditation practice found in recent Theravåada Buddhism and an interlude in Central Asia"--

Beloved Buddhist nun Ayya Khema expertly guides the reader through ten meditations on generating loving-kindness and cultivating the fifteen wholesome qualities necessary for igniting compassion and boundless love.Having escaped Nazi Germany in 1938, Ayya Khema has singularly profound perspective on creating peace, unconditional love, and compassion. She gently teaches that inner peace is not necessarily natural or innate. Instead, peace should be considered a skill that needs intentional practice—every day. Peace is the sum of many parts, namely the fifteen wholesome qualities the Buddha himself noted in the Metta Sutta, including usefulness, mildness, humility, contentment, receptivity, and others. Ayya Khema expertly guides us through each individual condition, using her trademark humor and personal narrative, to help each reader shape their own path to self-transformation.  The second part of the book includes an eye-opening discussion of metta (loving-kindness) as both a morality and concentration practice, as well as ten meditation practices that use visualizations rather than more traditional mantra repetition. These visualizations include your heart as a "Fountain of Love," reaching those close to you and those far away, and a "Flower Garden," where we tend to the blooms in our hearts through love and compassion and share them with others. Edited by her student and retreat leader, Leigh Brasington, this book is a complete course in practical ways to calm and brighten our minds.

The ever-increasing popularity of Yoga and related practices makes a desktop reference like this indispensible. With over twenty-five hundred entries and extensive illustrations, it combines comprehensiveness with accessibility. The book is arranged and written in a manner that will inform rather than overwhelm the lay reader, while at the same time offering valuable references for the professional researcher and the historian of religion. This new edition includes information about contemporary Yoga teachers. It also provides fuller descriptions and illustrations of Yoga poses, and features additional cross references.

Insightful and entertaining essays spanning 40 years of lectures by Alan Watts on Zen, Taoism, psychedelics, and comparative philosophy.Alan Watts''s essays and talks range widely through psychology, art, religion, and politics, but always come home to the Zen core. For those familiar with Alan Watts’s style of presentation, the wonderful, memorable, and prophetic style of his voice is captured in this volume. Talking Zen puts on display Watts’s ability to explore the very subtle philosophies, those common across traditions and those unique to Zen, in ordinary and accessible language. These lectures paved the way for the rise of Zen in the West. 

An intimate spiritual and literary journey exploring how Zen koans make us permeable to the joys and the anguish of this life—and to the primordial mystery we glimpse behind the veil of the everyday. In Through Forests of Every Color, renowned Zen teacher Joan Sutherland reimagines the koan tradition with allegiance to the root spirit of the koans and to their profound potential for vivifying, subverting, and sanctifying our lives. Her decades of practicing with koans and of translating them from classical Chinese imbues this text with a warm familiarity, an ease still suffused with awe.     Interlinked essays on “koans as art,” “keeping company with koans,” and “walking the koan way” intersperse with beautifully translated renditions of dozens of traditional Zen koans. Sutherland also shares innovative koans culled from Western literature, as well as teachings on how to create idiosyncratic koans or "turning words" from the circumstances of one''s own life.   “First honored is your yearning, the preparation made on faith that there is something that will receive you if you make yourself ready,” writes Sutherland of the koan seeker. “Bathed—attended to, washed free of complications—and then aspiring to the deepest kind of beauty—receptive, brave, dedicated, openhearted. Already you’ve begun to look like the thing you’re looking for.”

Inspired by a flower shop in Tokyo, this embroidery collection will take new and seasoned stitchers through a year of beautiful botanicals and whimsical floral scenes. Stitch your way through the seasons with a bit of thread, a needle, and a small swatch of fabric. Follow along with textile artist Kazuko Aoki as she welcomes you to Gente Flower Shop in Tokyo, a stunning backdrop from a gardening stitcher’s dreams. The more than 25 motifs featured here are delicate, down to earth, and whimsical—mixing materials and stitching techniques to create life and depth to each design, which include meadow flowers, garden baskets, fresh berries, a violet-covered armchair, and more. Featuring simple and elegant sewing instructions for patches, totes, pins, purses, and more, Aoki skillfully shows stitchers that your every floral embroidery can always find the right home. With beautiful photographs, clear step-by-step instructions, and detailed diagrams, this book is an inspiring and playful guide for gardeners and embroidery enthusiasts of all levels. 

The inspiring life story of Tertön Migyur Dorje, who revealed a new cycle of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, together with a commentary on the preliminary practices written by his main student. Tertön Migyur Dorje revealed the Namchö treasure teachings while in a three-year retreat that began when he was only thirteen. The Great Compassionate One (Avalokiteshvara) and Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) appeared to him in pure visionary experience and gave him these teachings. Migyur Dorje then dictated them to his teacher Karma Chagme. The Namchö treasures later became the main teachings and practices of the Palyul lineage, and these teachings continue to be presented in Palyul monasteries and retreat centers throughout Asia, North America, and Europe. This book brings together two texts that have inspired countless practitioners in this lineage. The first text tells the life story of Migyur Dorje. It was composed by Karma Chagme, the master who first recognized the seven-year-old Migyur Dorje as an exceptional tulku and tertön and who was responsible for preparing him to be a major treasure revealer.   The second text is a commentary on the Namchö preliminary practices. Written by Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, Migyur Dorje’s main student and the first throne holder of the Palyul lineage, it explains the foundational practices that should be completed before pursuing more advanced ones: the four contemplations that turn the mind to dharma and the fivefold practice of taking refuge, arousing bodhichitta, mandala offering, Vajrasattva purification, and Guru Yoga.

The Six Perfections of generosity, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiastic effort, concentration, and wisdom are practiced by Bodhisattvas who have the supreme intention of attaining enlightenment for the sake of others. These six are perfections because they give rise to complete enlightenment. Practice of them also insures the attainment of an excellent body and mind in the future and even more favorable conditions for effective practice than those we enjoy at present. Generosity leads to the enjoyment of ample resources, ethical discipline gives a good rebirth, patience leads to an attractive appearance and supportive companions, enthusiastic effort endows the ability to complete what is undertaken, fostering concentration makes the mind invulnerable to distraction, and wisdom discriminates between what needs to be cultivated and what must be discarded and leads to greater wisdom in the future.

A compilation of teachings and practices of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism by one of Tibet's greatest Buddhist masters.The Treasury of Precious Instructions by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye, one of Tibet's greatest Buddhist masters, is a shining jewel of Tibetan literature, presenting essential teachings from the entire spectrum of practice lineages that existed in Tibet. Volumes in this series may be engaged as practice manuals while also preserving ancient teachings significant to the literature and history of world religions.  Volume 11 of the series, Shangpa Kagyu, is the first of two volumes that present teachings and practices from the Shangpa Kagyu practice lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. This tradition derives from the female celestial beings, or ḍākinīs, Niguma and Sukhasiddhi and their disciple, the eleventh-century Tibetan yogi Khyungpo Naljor Tsultrim Gönpo of the Shang region of Tibet. The scriptural source material for this practice tradition is twofold: the yogic teachings of the Six Dharmas of Niguma and the nature of mind instructions from the cycle of teachings Amulet Box Mahamudra.  The tantric basis of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition is the five principal deities of the new translation (sarma) traditions and in particular the Five-Deity Cakrasamvara practice. The six parts of this sizable volume include source scriptures, liturgies, supplications, empowerment texts, instructions, and practice manuals composed by Niguma, Virūpa, Tāranātha, the compiler Jamgön Kongtrul, and others.

Stay calm, steady, and composed through the ups and downs of life with yoga poses, relaxation techniques, meditations, and lessons on how to manage stress, grief, anxiety, depression, and life's transitions.Yoga was originally designed to make you calmer, steadier, and more content, not just stronger and healthier. This guide offers many ways you can use yoga as a healthy coping mechanism when you're confronted with the physical, emotional, and mental changes that life brings you. It covers both ancient and modern techniques—including yoga poses, breathing practices, relaxation, mantras, and meditation—that allow you to return yourself to balance when you're experiencing challenges, and to fortify yourself for the future.  Nina Zolotow covers myriad topics related to living through times of change, including stress, anxiety, depression, anger, grief, being present, making peace with change, how to practice yoga when you're experiencing physical changes, and how to practice meditation, breath practices, and yoga on your own, among others. Become more content through life's ups and downs by learning to live your everyday life the yogic way.

The first-of-its-kind money workbook that uses a 3-step plan to bring more compassion, honesty, and awareness to your relationship with your finances. “A gentle, beautifully written, and practical guide for everyone who wants to become more intentional, values-aligned, and awake in their relationship with money.”—Tara Mohr, author of Playing Big  For over 20 years, financial therapist Bari Tessler’s Art of Money program has helped thousands of people understand and navigate their financial life. Her 3-phase process will help you make choices that reflect your values, become aware of spending patterns, and create new financial habits: Money Healing: Your emotions, the body check-in, and delving into your personal money story Money Practices: Self-care practices, money dates, and values-based bookkeeping Money Maps: Visioning, transforming your budget, making good money decisions, and handling curveballs  Each step offers self-reflective exercises and tools that will encourage you to write your own money memoir, set regular money dates with yourself and/or your partner, and plan for the future. Bari’s gentle encouragement and practical tools will transform your relationship with money and offer you new avenues for creativity and joy.

Learn to face, participate in, and ultimately love all aspects of your experience with this fresh and accessible guide to embodiment training.​ Buddhism aims for the development of a flexible mind and skillful responsiveness-whether toward problems in one's personal life or broader issues like the ecological crisis. But in a culture now saturated with cliches about mindfulness and unrealistic fantasies about happiness, what does it truly mean to walk this path? The key practice is that of embodied aliveness. In The Path of Aliveness, Zen and Taoist Qigong teacher Christian Dillo offers a path of meaningful transformation tailored to our times. Through potent conceptual work and practical examples, he shows how to carefully examine the interrelationship between our senses, body energy, thoughts, and emotions so that we can transform our lives in the direction of less suffering and more freedom, wisdom, and compassion. This secular reconstruction respectfully plumbs Buddhist tradition-including classic teachings such as the foundations of mindfulness meditation, the practice of loving kindness, and the four noble truths-while encouraging practitioners to rely on their own body-mind and trust their own experience as the basis for deepening vitality.