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A jargon-free explanation of two central teachings of the Buddha: karma and rebirth. The Buddha's teaching on karma (literally, "action") is nothing other than his compassionate explanation of the way things are: our thoughts and actions determine our future, and therefore we ourselves are largely responsible for the way our lives unfold. Yet this supremely useful teaching is often ignored due to the misconceptions about it that abound in popular culture, especially oversimplifications that make it seem like something not to be taken seriously. Karma is not simple, as Traleg Kyabgon shows, and it's to be taken very seriously indeed. He cuts through the persistent illusions we cling to about karma to show what it really is-the mechanics of why we suffer and how we can make the suffering end. He explains how a realistic understanding of karma is indispensable to Buddhist practice, how it provides a foundation for a moral life, and how understanding it can have a transformative effect on the way we relate to our thoughts and feelings and to those around us.

A radical approach to mindfulness—combining an ancient meditation technique with leading-edge theory, resulting in a powerful new method of self-transformation. With practical teachings and detailed instructions, Ken Wilber introduces Integral Mindfulness, a new way of practicing the widely popular meditation. Integral Mindfulness applies many of the leading-edge insights of Ken Wilber''s Integral Theory--the first system to combine Eastern teachings on the five stages of awakening with the eight major Western models of human development, thus portraying the complete path of human evolution. In addition to all the benefits to body, mind, and spirit that standard mindfulness meditation confers, practicing Integral Mindfulness promises a more powerful approach to personal transformation and brings within reach the fullest experience of Enlightenment possible.     Beginning with as little as fifteen to thirty minutes of daily sessions, the meditator can gradually expand from there by slowly and easily adding significant aspects of the practice. Meditation instructions and step-by-step guided contemplations are given in detail. Readers learn how to create a graph to track progress and discover natural strengths and potentials. The book also offers recommended readings and resources to facilitate further study.

Buddhist wisdom for finding freedom and insight through spiritual practice in the midst of illness and pain."Let your illness be your spiritual teacher!" Make a statement like that to someone who''s struggled for years with, say, rheumatoid arthritis, and be prepared for an eyeroll (at best). To Peter Fernando''s credit, he makes that statement, and no such impulse arises. We believe him because he''s been there himself and because he backs up the statements with his own real experiences and with real wisdom from the Buddhist teachings. Peter starts by defusing the pernicious belief that anyone is somehow responsible for their illness: You''re not "wrong" for being sick. Then, having gotten past self-blame, one can begin to learn self-kindness. From there, one moves to mindfulness practices and cultivating body awareness--even if body awareness is distasteful when the body isn''t behaving the way you like. Further topics include getting intimate with dark emotions (fear, despair, the scary future, frustration, grief, etc.), learning equanimity (rejoicing in the good fortune of those who don''t share your suffering), cultivating healthy relationships in the midst of everything, and practical advice for living with pain. Each chapter comes with one or more practices or guided meditations for putting the teachings into practice.

Stop hating your house and start adoring it—40 steps to make your home express who you are and work for how you really live. Love the House You’re In is about more than creating a beautiful space; it’s about creating a home that reflects you and all that you find comforting and inspiring in your life. Deco­rating your home can be daunting and overwhelm­ing, but here’s the secret: If you want to love your house, the inspiration and ideas need to come from you. Love the House You’re In provides the tools to do just that. Through 40 actionable steps, you will:      • Explore your life story: Mine your life for those things that inspire nostalgia and create a positive connection to memories, explore your family’s heritage, and be conscious of how you want to live now.    • Understand what you’re working with: Take stock of your stuff, understand the history of your home, and get clear on the space you have.    • Create an inspired action plan: Discover how to ap­proach design room-by-room, find the through line that ties the whole house together, and work in ways that empower your own ideas and creativity.    • Learn the design skills that matter: Get tips on pick­ing paint colors, choosing window dressings, arrang­ing art, and more.   When you start decorating your home with you as the starting point, you can create a highly personalized space that reflects your past, your future, and how you want to live today. In the process, you’ll gain the confidence and inspi­ration to come up with a functional and fabulous living space that’s just right for you and your life.

Patrul Rinpoche''s collection of the Dzogchen teachings of Aro Yeshe Jungne illuminated by practical meditation instructions that can be applied on-the-go in daily life by students of all backgrounds.Patrul Rinpoche, the beloved nineteenth-century master best known for Words of My Perfect Teacher, collected the teachings of the tenth-century adept Aro Yeshe Jungne and synthesized them into the short text translated here as Clear Elucidation of True Nature. How to put these essential teachings into practice is the subject of the lively commentary by the two Khenpo brothers, the late Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche.The Dzogchen meditation instructions of the Aro lineage are divided into nine sets, or nine levels, with specific instructions for each on how to identify the nature of the mind, how to abide in it as a way of life, and how to liberate turbulent thoughts and emotions when they arise. The commentary enfolds this instruction into a broad general teaching suitable for beginners that serves as an introduction to Dzogchen meditation, to the Nyingma tradition, and to basic Buddhism.Succinct and easy to read, the text encapsulates the entire path of the nine levels of study and practice described in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. As a result, it has much to offer both beginners and longtime meditators to support their understanding and practice.

A complete translation of Asanga''s classic work on the distinguishing qualities of bodhisattvas that describes how to awaken, develop, and perfect the mind of enlightenment in the Great Vehicle, or Mahayana, Buddhist tradition. Arya Asanga, famous for having been the conduit through which the teachings contained in the Five Texts of Maitreya were received and recorded, is also considered to be the author in his own right of several other foundational works of Yogācāra philosophy. One of these, considered the definitive text of the Yogācāra school of Buddhism, is the encyclopedic synthesis of Mahayana Buddhist doctrines and practices known as the Yogācārabhūmi, or "Stages of Spiritual Practice." The Bodhisattvabhūmi, or "Stages of the Bodhisattva Path," is one portion of that massive work, though it is considered a stand-alone text in the Tibetan traditions--for example, it is counted among the six core texts of the Kadampas. However, despite the text''s centrality to the Yogācāra school and its seminal importance in the Tibetan traditions, it has remained unavailable in English except in piecemeal translations; Engle''s translation will therefore be especially welcomed by scholars and students alike.

WINNER OF THE 2016 JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL AWARD FOR CONTEMPORARY JEWISH LIFE AND PRACTICEAn inspiring and accessible guide, drawn from Jewish wisdom, for building the inner qualities necessary to work effectively for social justice.The world needs changing-and you're just the person to do it! It's a matter of cultivating the inner resources you already have. If you are serious about working for social justice and change, this book will help you bring your most compassionate, wise, and courageous self to the job. Bringing positive social change to any system takes deep self-awareness, caring, determination, and long-term commitment. But polarization, the slow pace of change, and internal conflicts among activists and organizations often leads to burnout and discouragement among the very people needed to make a difference. Changing the World from the Inside Out distills centuries of Jewish wisdom about cultivating and refining the inner life into an accessible program for building the qualities necessary to accomplish sustainable change. Through explorations of deep motivation, inner-drive, and traits like trust and anger, this book engages the reader in a journey of self-development and transformation, demonstrating that sustainable activism is indeed a spiritual practice. Jaffe offers accessible and meaningful guidance for this journey-with exercises, contemplations, and discussion points that can be used individually or in a group.

Freedom from suffering is not only possible, but the means for achieving it are immediately within our grasp-literally as close to us as our own breath. This is the 2,500-year-old good news contained in the Anapanasati Sutra , the Buddha's teaching on cultivating both tranquility and deep insight through full awareness of breathing. In this book, Larry Rosenberg brings this timeless meditation method to life. Using the insights gained from his many years of practice and teaching, he makes insight meditation practice accessible to modern practitioners.

This book is about using art as an instrument of personal transformation, enabling us to move from an inherited to a chosen state of being. Peter London offers inspiration and fresh ideas to artists, art students, and art teachers-as well as to people who think they can't draw a straight line but want to explore the joys of creative expression. Inside every person, he believes, there is an original, creative self that has been covered over by secondhand ideas, borrowed beliefs, and conditioned behavior. By freeing the capacity for visual expression-a natural human language possessed by everyone-we can awaken and release the full powers of that original self. Among the topics and exercises included are: • How to increase the ability to visualize, fantasize, and dream • Obstacles to the creative encounter and what to do about them • Experimenting with art media as true mediators between imagination and expression • Making masks to reveal the hidden self • Painting with "forbidden" colors • Arranging found objects as metaphors for one's life

Short and accessible teachings from one of America's pioneer woman Zen teachers.Zenkei Blanche Hartman is an American Zen legend. A teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, she was the first female abbot of an American Zen center. She is greatly revered, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has lived and taught for many years. This, her long-awaited first book, is a collection of short teachings taken from her talks on the subject of boundlessness--the boundlessness that sees beyond our small, limited self to include all others. To live a boundless life she encourages living the vows prescribed by the Buddha and living life with the curiosity of a child. The short, stand-alone pieces can be dipped into whenever one is in need of inspiration.

Selected writings from the most influential texts of the samurai era-in a pocket-size edition. The samurai of Japan, who were the country's military elite from medieval times to the end of the nineteenth century, were synonmous with valor, honor, and martial arts prowess. Their strict adherence to the code of bushido ("the way of the warrior"), chivalry, and honor in fighting to the death continues to capture the imagination of people today, inspiring authors, filmmakers, and artists. The Pocket Samurai contains the essential writings of the era by the most esteemed samurai and philosophers of the age, including the iconic Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings; Yamamoto Tsunetomo, author of Hagakure, the best-known explication of the samurai code; Takuan Soho, the Zen priest and adviser to samurai; Yagyu Munenori, whose The Life-Giving Sword describes a deeply spiritual approach to sword fighting; and others.

The theory and practice of creativity-culled from the lifetime of experiences of an esteemed art educator/therapist. With proven techniques he's discovered for jump-starting the creative process. He's spent a career helping people access their creative potential, and now Shaun McNiff is sharing the secrets he's learned from observing his own creative process as well as that of others-both those who identify as artists and those who don't. The result is nothing less than a master class in creativity by one of the great creative theorists-and practitioners-of our time. "This is intended as a practical text," Shaun says," a creativity primer, striving to capture the essential things that have been of use to me and others." The wealth of instruction he provides here in these essential things will be indispensable to artists of all stripes, as well as to all who strive to express themselves with honesty and authenticity using any of the media life makes available.

Teachings on the practice of things-as-they-are, through commentaries on a legendary Chinese Zen figure. The joy of “suchness”—the ultimate and true nature inherent in all appearance—shines through the teachings attributed to Dongshan Liangjie (807–869), the legendary founder of the Caodong lineage of Chan Buddhism (the predecessor of Soto Zen). Taigen Dan Leighton looks at the teachings attributed to Dongshan—in his Recorded Sayings and in the numerous koans in which he is featured as a character—to reveal the subtlety and depth of the teaching on the nature of reality that Dongshan expresses. Included are an analysis of the well-known teaching poem “Jewel Mirror Samadhi,” and of the understanding of particular and universal expressed in the teaching of the Five Degrees. “The teachings embedded in the stories about Dongshan provide a rich legacy that has been sustained in practice traditions,” says Taigen. “Dongshan’s subtle teachings about engagement with suchness remain vital today for Zen people and are available for all those who wish to find meaning amid the challenges to modern lives.”

Explore the Eastern philosophy-inspired garden design principles that inform the work of landscape architect Martin Mosko.This book is a resource for those who want to create a contemplative garden or to better understand what it is to follow a contemplative path. Mosko''s work incorporates principles of Oriental and Western garden design to make bold and original statements in his landscapes. Mosko explains how to deploy the materials of the garden so that their arrangement reflects the contemplative mind. The chief paradigm he uses is the mandala, a symbolic picture of the ideal world used in some form in many of the world''s cultures. Rocks, streams, plants, paths, and structures of the garden each take their place in the mandala as one of its five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space. The means to produce a balance of these elements is the mind conditioned by meditation and a clear understanding of its own nature. Inner harmony is expressed as outer beauty.     Mosko''s approach to landscaping transforms space into spirit, infused with magic. It can be used to create anything from a small courtyard to a country estate, in any environment from the city to the suburbs. After explaining theory and method, the book leads us into five of Mosko''s gardens, each alive with the energy and excitement he brings to his designs. Although located in different parts of the country and created in different styles, each garden is a reflection of the mind of clarity and calm.

A fascinating account of Thomas Merton''s conflicted relationship with his abbot, Dom James Fox—by an esteemed modern Merton scholar.     In the 1950s and ''60s, Thomas Merton, a monk of the Trappist monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky, published a string of books that are among the most influential spiritual books of the twentieth century--including the mega-best seller The Seven-Storey Mountain. He was something of a rock star for a cloistered monk, and from his monastic cell he enjoyed a wide and lively correspondence with people from the worlds of religion, literature, and politics. During that period he also explored and wrote extensively on Buddhism, Sufism, art, and social action. The man to whom he owed obedience in the cloistered life was a much more traditional Catholic, his abbot, Dom James Fox. To say that these two men had a conflicted relationship would be an understatement, but the tension their differences in orientation brought actually led to creative results on both sides and to a kind of hard-won respect and love. Roger Lipsey''s portrait of this unusual relationship is compelling and moving; it shows Merton in the years his imagination was taking him far beyond the walls of the monastery, and eventually, literally to Asia.

Are your kids unable to step away from the screens?  Here is a practical, step-by-step guide that gives parents the tools to teach children, from toddlers to teens, how to gain control of their technology use. As children spend more of their time on tablets and smartphones, using apps specially engineered to capture their attention, parents are concerned about the effects of so much technology use--and feel powerless to intervene. They want their kids to be competent and competitive in their use of technology, but they also want to prevent the attention problems that can develop from overuse. Lucy Jo Palladino shows that the key is to help kids build awareness and control over their own attention, and in this guide she gives parents the tools to do exactly that, in seven straightforward, evidence-based steps.      Parents will learn the best practices to guide children to understand and control their attention—and to recognize and resist when their attention is being "snatched." This approach can be modified for kids of all ages. Parents will also learn the critical difference between voluntary and involuntary attention, new findings about brain development, and what puts children at risk for attention disorders.

This new translation of Padampa Sangye's One Hundred Verses, beautifully rendered into English, provides timely guidance for people trying to practice the Buddhist path in the workaday world. The urgency of spiritual practice has seldom been as simply and powerfully conveyed as it is in Padampa Sangye's One Hundred Verses. This Tibetan Buddhist classic is an antidote to the tendency we all have to waste our precious human lives. Khenchen Thrangu's lively commentary on the text brings to light its subtleties and amplifies its applicability to our daily struggles, showing how an understanding of its teaching on impermanence is the key to working with common difficulties such as loneliness, craving, betrayal, competitive colleagues, or squabbling families. It speaks to us today as profoundly as it did to the people of Dingri, Tibet, to whom it was first addressed a millennium ago.

A groundbreaking study of the lost tradition of Tibetan Zen containing the first translations of key texts from one thousand years ago. Banned in Tibet, forgotten in China, the Tibetan tradition of Zen was almost completely lost to us. According to Tibetan histories, Zen teachers were invited to Tibet from China in the 8th century, at the height of the Tibetan Empire. When doctrinal disagreements developed between Indian and Chinese Buddhists at the Tibetan court, the Tibetan emperor called for a formal debate. When the debate resulted in a decisive win by the Indian side, the Zen teachers were sent back to China, and Zen was gradually forgotten in Tibet. This picture changed at the beginning of the 20th century with the discovery in Dunhuang (in Chinese Central Asia) of a sealed cave full of manuscripts in various languages dating from the first millennium CE. The Tibetan manuscripts, dating from the 9th and 10th centuries, are the earliest surviving examples of Tibetan Buddhism. Among them are around 40 manuscripts containing original Tibetan Zen teachings. This book translates the key texts of Tibetan Zen preserved in Dunhuang. The book is divided into ten sections, each containing a translation of a Zen text illuminating a different aspect of the tradition, with brief introductions discussing the roles of ritual, debate, lineage, and meditation in the early Zen tradition. Van Schaik not only presents the texts but also explains how they were embedded in actual practices by those who used them.

A graphic novel portrait of the wild antics and legendary poetry of the "Laughing Pair"—Han Shan and Shih Te, two of China''s greatest poets.     This is a smart, funny graphic novel exploring the life, legend, and lore of two of the greatest poets in Chinese history—Han Shan (known as "Cold Mountain") and Shih Te—who reportedly lived during the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE). They were critics of authority (both secular and religious) and champions of social justice who left their poetry on tree trunks and rocks. They were also reportedly monastics, drunks, cave dwellers, immortals, and many other wild and wondrous things. There is much delightful uncertainty about this "Laughing Pair"—including whether or not they actually existed. What is known is that the poetry attributed to them was greatly influential in both China and Japan, and to the Beat writers in the United States during the 1950s and ''60s.     Acclaimed manga creator Sean Michael Wilson has brought these renegade poets to life, showing the places they went and the philosophical and meditative aspects of their lives, as well as revealing their humor and wackiness and their penetrating insights into the human condition.Their poetry is interwoven throughout—translations by J. P. Seaton, one of the most respected tranlsators of Chinese poetry in the United States.

Creative ways to use the garden to inspire learning, for kids ages 4-8Packed with garden-based activities that promote science, math, reading, writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts, The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoor play and learning ideas—however big or small your garden.Every garden offers children a rich, sensory playground, full of interesting things to discover and learn about. There''s a whole lot of science happening right before their eyes. The garden can also be a place to develop math and literacy skills, as the outdoors offers up plenty of invitations to weave learning into everyday gardening. The garden classroom is a place where plants grow, and where children grow too.

This book is a translation of a teaching text and commentary by the Nyingma master Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche (1920-2009). It's also the latest offering from well-known Tibetan translator and scholar Anne Carolyn Klein, professor of religious studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas. For anyone interested in Tibetan Buddhist practice and philosophy, particularly the Dzogchen teachings of the Nyingma lineage, this book gives detailed instruction and friendly and inspiring advice, offering guidance on how to approach the path and giving instruction for specific meditation and contemplation techniques.

Most of us, at one time or another, would like to help a friend, family member, or acquaintance through a challenging time. But do we really know how to give meaningful support and guidance? And why do our best efforts at helping others often come up short? Here is a practical guide that will be of special interest to helping professionals-and anyone who wants to make a positive difference in the lives of people they care about. To be truly helpful to others, Karen Wegela explains, we must begin by focusing on ourselves. We must develop greater awareness, steadiness of mind, fearlessness, and self-compassion. Only then can we extend these qualities to the people we'd like to help. Drawing on her experiences as a psychotherapist and on her longtime study of Buddhist meditation, Wegela emphasizes the benefits of mindfulness, or learning to become fully present in our moment-to-moment experience. Through mindfulness we develop a fearless, compassionate presence in our daily lives-and we become better listeners, take wiser actions, and give more valuable, effective guidance to the people we'd like to help.

A weekly spiritual practice for developing a strong and open heart-drawn from Judaism's Mussar traditionMussar draws from the vast storehouse of Jewish wisdom, law, revelation, and text and brings it right home in a way that is completely practical. Judaism teaches that Torah (the collective wisdom of the tradition) provides the blueprint for human experience-and so the more of it we acquire, the more we gain a clearer, truer perspective on life and learn how to navigate its pathways. The phrase "acquiring Torah" is code for the process of internalizing this wisdom to bring about a genuine transformation of the inner self.In short, accessible chapters, this book describes forty-eight methods through which we can acquire Torah-and turns them into a straightforward practice. These methods include cultivating humility, joy, awe, goodheartedness, closeness with friends, not taking credit for oneself, judging others favorably, and so on. The fruits of working through each quality or method are a refined soul and a strong and open heart.