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Straight from the Heart brings together an inspiring collection of Buddhist teachings, songs of realization, meditation instructions, and enlightened poetry-all chosen for their power to speak directly to the student. Drawn from Indian Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism as well as from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, some will impress with their beautiful poetry and powerful imagery, others with their profound power of instruction. Still others share personal advice for life that seems to come directly from the mouth of the author, and some serve as immediate and profound practice instructions. Several are just delightfully unconventional, even outrageous, letting in fresh air on petrified views or musty traditions. Most of them are simply unknown precious gems, which deserve a wider audience. Each of the works is preceded by a brief introduction and a short biography of its author. Many of these are legendary accounts of supernatural feats, edifying examples for students on the same spiritual path meant to expand their limited outlook with "mind-blowing" stories. Miraculous deeds, magnificent songs, and pithy instructions distinguish this collection assembled by the Buddhist scholar and translator Karl Brunnhölzl, whose years of work among dharma texts and his skill as a translator yield a rich mine of teachings all chosen for their ability to speak directly to the heart.

Advice and encouragement from a leading young spiritual teacher on how to live with compassion, ethical principles, and bravery in the face of the global challenges facing humanity.In his first major book, the Karmapa, a charismatic 28-year-old emerging leader of Tibetan Buddhism, offers heartfelt advice on how to live with integrity in the modern world. These teachings arose from the questions of sixteen college seniors who spent a month meeting and talking with the Karmapa about their concerns about the world and their own futures."This is not a book about Buddhism. I don't want to talk about Buddhist theory or practice, but about our experience of life. The shared ground we all meet on is our shared concern about our lives and our world, rather than philosophical views. On that ground, we can meet as friends."--from the IntroductionSixteen American college students spent a month in India with His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa. Together, they discussed topics ranging from food justice to gender identities to sustainable compassion. The Karmapa's teachings in this book are the product of those meetings.For those who wish to take up its challenge, this book can serve as a guide to being a friend to this planet and to all of us who share it. The Karmapa describes how to see the world as a global community, in which people are linked by their shared concerns for humanity--and their wish to bring about real change. While acknowledging the magnitude of this undertaking, the Karmapa shows us how to go about it, using the inner resources we have already.

An explanation of the Indian Mahasiddha Tilopa's renowned Gangama Mahamudra meditation instructions, given in a traditional Tibetan context by one of its lineage's most accomplished contemporary masters. These ancient instructions, in the form of a "song of realization," are the original source for all Mahamudra lineages of meditation.All lineages of Mahamudra meditation have their source in a verse teaching--a "song of realization"--sung by the Mahasiddha Tilopa to his disciple Naropa on the banks of the Ganges River more than a thousand years ago. Since that time the meaning of the instructions has been passed directly from master to disciple in a continuous transmission lineage that exists unbroken to this day. Mahamudra meditation, while highly advanced, is yet simple and practical because what is identified and meditated upon is the very essence of one's own mind. This book offers the reader a window into the oral transmission of these instructions, given in a traditional Tibetan context by one of the Kagyu lineage's most learned and accomplished contemporary masters.

Step-by-step lessons in building the skills needed to engage in Tibetan Buddhist philosophical debate and that have proved successful in the college classroom. Debate is the investigative technique used in Tibetan education to sharpen analytical capacities and convey philosophical concepts. Reading and memorization are not enough; students must be able to verbalize their understanding and defend it under the pressure of fierce cross-examination. This book, based on the author's successful undergraduate course in the subject, trains readers to develop the analytical skills used in Tibetan-style debate. Making use of sample debate exchanges and definitions and classification systems drawn from Tibetan Buddhist debate manuals, the book shows how to challenge and defend assertions made in the course of debate.

Buddhism-influenced essays, stories, and reviews by National Book Award winner Charles R. Johnson. This wide and varied collection of essays, reviews, and short stories by the renowned author Charles Johnson offers incisive views on poltics, race, and Buddhism. Johnson notes that in his life the two activities that have anchored him and reinforce each other are creative production and spiritual practice. This book is a crystallization of what he has learned during his passage through American literature, the visual arts, and the Buddhadharma. Essays include: • "And if Peace Is Their Goal . . ." on the principles of enlightened politics • "The King We Need" on the deep and sophisticated moral philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and why King's teachings and example are important to all Americans • "Why Buddhists Should Vote"--Johnson posits that voting can be seen as a way to reduce suffering • "The Meaning of Barack Obama"--an appreciation of the man who became one of the most historic US presidents, even before his first 100 days were through • "Why Buddhism for Black America Now?"--what Buddhism can offer the African-American community in the post-MLK era

Leading psychologists and meditation teachers explain how mindfulness can help us work with our anger--and ultimately transform it into compassion.Anger. For all of us, it's a familiar feeling-jaw clenching, face flushing, hands shaking. We feel it for rational and irrational reasons, on a personal and on a global level. If we know how to handle our anger skillfully, it is an effective tool for helping us recognize that a situation needs to change and for providing the energy to create that change. Yet more often anger is destructive-and in its grip we hurt ourselves and those around us.In recent years scientists have discovered that mindfulness practice can reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance our sense of well-being. It also offers us a way of dealing with strong emotions, like anger. This anthology offers a Buddhist perspective on how we can better work with anger and ultimately transform it into compassion, with insight and practices from a variety of contributors, including Thich Nhat Hanh, Sharon Salzberg, Sylvia Boorstein, Carolyn Gimian, Tara Bennett-Goleman, Pat Enkyo O'Hara, Jules Shuzen Harris, Christina Feldman, Mark Epstein, Ezra Bayda, Judith Toy, Noah Levine, Judy Lief, Norman Fischer, Jack Kornfield, Stan Goldberg, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrül, and many others.

How to meditate-a concise, pocket-size guide that tells you everything you need to know, from the best-selling author of The Buddha Walks into a Bar... This is the ultimate go-to guide for learning how to meditate. It contains all the instructions you'll need to get started in a remarkably short space, but it also shows you how to make meditation practice a permanent part of your life, infusing it with wisdom and compassion as you go about your day. And it's instruction in the voice of the meditation teacher the young spiritual-but-not-religious crowd have come to trust: Lodro Rinzler, a young Buddhist teacher who speaks to the twenty- and thirty-something crowd in a way that has made his first book, The Buddha Walks into a Bar..., a best seller. Lodro begins by challening you to understand why you want to meditate in the first place, then, after the basic instructions, he shows how to prioritize your practice among your other daily activities and make it the center of all of them. He then shows you how to bring the wisdom and insight gained from meditation into all aspects of life.

A revolutionary new approach to meditation: a mindfulness of thinking that accepts and investigates the thoughts that arise as you meditate--from the author of Unlearning Meditation. In most forms of meditation, the meditator is instructed to let go of thoughts as they arise. As a result, thinking is often taken, unnecessarily, to be something misguided or evil. This approach is misguided, says Jason Siff. In fact, if we allow thoughts to arise and become mindful of the thoughts themselves, we gain tranquillity and insight just as in other methods without having to reject our natural mental processes. And by observing the thoughts themselves with mindfulness and curiosity, we can learn a good deal about ourselves in the process.

This new translation of one of the most important texts of Mahayana Buddhism makes a clear case for why we should strive energetically to achieve the unsurpassable state of enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, and having formed that intention, how we should practice the bodhisattva path. The Buddhist masterpiece Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sutras, often referred to by its Sanskrit title, Mahayanasutralaṃkara, is part of a collection known as the Five Maitreya Teachings, a set of philosophical works that have become classics of the Indian Buddhist tradition. Maitreya, the Buddha's regent, is held to have entrusted these profound and vast instructions to the master Asaṅga in the heavenly realm of Tusita. The Ornament provides a comprehensive description of the bodhisattva's view, meditation, and enlightened activities. Bodhisattvas are beings who, out of vast love for all sentient beings, have dedicated themselves to the task of becoming fully awakened buddhas, capable of helping all beings in innumerable and vast ways to become enlightened themselves. To fully awaken requires practicing great generosity, patience, energy, discipline, concentration, and wisdom, and Maitreya's text explains what these enlightened qualities are and how to develop them. This volume includes commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham, whose discussions illuminate the subtleties of the root text and provide valuable insight into how to practice the way of the bodhisattva. Drawing on the Indian masters Vasubandhu and, in particular, Sthiramati, Mipham explains the Ornament with eloquence and brilliant clarity. This commentary is among his most treasured works.

Simple mindfulness practices to help your child (ages 5-12) deal with anxiety, improve concentration, and handle difficult emotions. Includes a 60-minute audio CD of guided exercises read by Myla Kabat-Zinn.Mindfulness-the quality of attention that combines full awareness with acceptance of each moment, just as it is-is gaining broad acceptance among mental health professionals as an adjunct to treatment. This little book is a very appealing introduction to mindfulness meditation for children and their parents. In a simple and accessible way, it describes what mindfulness is and how mindfulness-based practices can help children calm down, become more focused, fall asleep more easily, alleviate worry, manage anger, and generally become more patient and aware. The book contains eleven practices that focus on just these scenarios, along with short examples and anecdotes throughout. Included with purchase is an audio CD with guided meditations, voiced by Myla Kabat-Zinn, who along with her husband, Jon Kabat-Zinn, popularized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a therapeutic approach.

A unique, adaptable model for meditation practice that ties together elements of the various Buddhist traditionsThe deceptively simple three-phase method presented in Three Steps to Awakening is a meditation practice that can be worked with for a lifetime. Larry Rosenberg looks to Zen, Insight Meditation, and the teachings of J. Krishnamurti to find three kinds of meditation that anyone can do and that complement each other in a wonderful way: (1) breath awareness, (2) breath as anchor, and (3) choiceless awareness.Having the three methods in one's repertoire gives one meditation resources for any life situation. In a time of stress, for example, one might use breath awareness exclusively. Or on an extended retreat, one might find choiceless awareness more appropriate. The three-step method has been taught to Larry's students at the Cambridge Meditation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for many years.After teaching the three-step method, Larry goes on to show how to bring the awareness gained in meditation to the world off the cushion, into relationships and into all areas of daily life.

A knitting book focusing on the sheep-to-shawl process by a well-known knitter, shepherd, and artisanal yarn producer. Gain an insider's view on fiber farming and yarn craft, from sheep to skein, all told through the eyes of shepherd and textile artisan Barbara Parry. Follow her flock over the course of a year and discover all the facets of life with sheep: from shearing day and lambing season, to preparing fiber for yarn. Along the way you'll find projects for the fiber obsessed by top knitwear designers, essays on country life, and over 100 stunning photographs. With the growing locavore movement, the rising trend in sustainable farming, and the ever-increasing interest in crafting, this book is perfect for those who yearn for a closer connection to a rural lifestyle and who enjoy making things by hand.

Life is rising up to meet us at every moment. The question is: Are we there to meet it or not? Diane Rizzetto presents a simple but supremely effective practice for meeting every moment of our lives with mindfulness, using the Zen precepts as tools to develop a keen awareness of the motivations behind every aspect of our behavior—to "wake up to what we do"—from moment to moment. As we train in mindfulness of our actions, every situation of our lives becomes our teacher, offering priceless insight into what it really means to be happy. It's a simple practice with transformative potential, enabling us to break through our habitual reactions and to see clearly how our own happiness and well-being are intimately, inevitably connected to the happiness and well-being of everyone around us.

This guide provides readers with essential background information for studying and practicing with Patrul Rinpoche's Words of My Perfect Teacher- the text that has, for more than a century, served as the reliable sourcebook to the spiritual practices common to all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. By offering chapter-by-chapter commentary on this renowned work, Khenpo Pelzang provides a fresh perspective on the role of the teacher; the stages of the path; the view of the Three Jewels; Madhyamika, the basis of transcendent wisdom; and much more.