Showing titles in Buddhism

In The Heretic’s Handbook, the internationally bestselling author of The Secret History of the World has collected and codified ancient, secret wisdom from around the world, formulating a complete philosophy on how to live a happy and successful life. An acclaimed author and public speaker, Black shows how this body of knowledge has been declared ‘heretical’ both by the established church and by today’s atheistic intellectual elite.

The Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra is among the best known of all the Buddhist scriptures. Chanted daily by many Zen students, it is also studied extensively in the Tibetan tradition, and it has been regarded with interest more recently in the West in various fields of study - from philosophy to quantum physics. In just 35 lines, it expresses the truth of impermanence and the release from suffering that results from the understanding of that truth with a breathtaking economy of language.

The Shaolin Monastery charts for the first time in any language the history of the Shaolin Temple and the evolution of its world-renowned martial arts. In this meticulously researched and eminently readable study Meir Shahar considers the economic political and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the 21st century have spread throughout the world.

In 2001, Toni Bernhard got sick and, to her and her partner’s bewilderment, stayed that way. As they faced the confusion, frustration, and despair of a life with sudden limitations - a life that was vastly different from the one they’d thought they’d have together - Toni had to learn how to be sick. In spite of her many physical and energetic restrictions (and sometimes, because of them), Toni learned how to live a life of equanimity, compassion, and joy.

Lojong is a powerful Tibetan Buddhist practice created especially for training the mind to work with the challenges of everyday living. It teaches our hearts to soften, reframes our attitude toward difficulty, and allows us to discover a wellspring of inner strength. In this recorded retreat, Pema Chödrön introduces the lojong teachings and explains how we can apply them to any situation in our life—because, as Pema says, "every moment is an opportunity for awakening."

For 15 centuries the realized masters of the tantric path used the crucible of their own lives to develop a powerful and accelerated means to enlightenment. Today, these teachings remain alive within the usually hidden inner courtyard of the Vajrayana vehicle of Tibetan Buddhism, a tradition that requires the courage to engage your body, your human desires, and your most challenging life obstacles as the basic fuel for insight.

What would happen if we looked with fresh eyes at the struggles and "impossible situations" that we face every day - and found there four gifts that changed everything? For decades, Pema Chödrön has brought clarity and heart to the core teachings of the Buddha, helping to make them relevant and useful in our everyday lives. With The Truth of Our Existence, she immerses us in one of Buddhism’s essential distillations of written wisdom known as The Four Marks of Existence.

Bring Me the Rhinoceros is an unusual guide to happiness and a can opener for your thinking. For fifteen hundred years, Zen koans have been passed down through generations of masters, usually in private encounters between teacher and student. This book deftly retells more than a dozen traditional koans, which are partly paradoxical questions dangerous to your beliefs and partly treasure boxes of ancient wisdom. John Tarrant brings the heart of the koan tradition out into the open, reminding us that the old wisdom remains as vital as ever.

Fifteen years after his number one New York Times best seller, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Deepak Chopra revisits "the forgotten miracle" – the body's infinite capacity for change and renewal. You cannot take advantage of this miracle, Chopra says, unless you are willing to completely reinvent your body, transforming it from a material object to a dynamic, flowing process. "Your physical body is a fiction," Chopra contends. Every cell is made up of two invisible ingredients: awareness and energy.

Volume 1, Approaching the Buddhist Path, contained introductory material that set the context for Buddhist practice. This second volume, The Foundation of Buddhist Practice, describes the important teachings that will help us establish a flourishing Dharma practice.

Ryokan (1758–1831) is, along with Dogen and Hakuin, one of the three giants of Zen in Japan. But unlike his two renowned colleagues, Ryokan was a societal dropout, living mostly as a hermit and a beggar. He was never head of a monastery or temple. He liked playing with children. He had no dharma heir. Even so, people recognized the depth of his realization, and he was sought out by people of all walks of life for the teaching to be experienced in just being around him.

Through a study of the way of the samurai, Nitobe identifies the seven virtues most widely recognized by the Japanese: rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, honor, and loyalty. In sharing these moral guidelines, handed down over generations, Nitobe gives the world unique insight into a previously unexplored code of honor.

The Four Immeasurables - the cultivation of loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity - is a rich suite of practices that open the heart, counter the distortions in our relationships to ourselves, and deepen our relationships to others. Alan Wallace presents a unique interweaving of teachings on the Four Immeasurables with instruction on meditative quiescence, or shamatha practice, to empower the mind. This book includes both guided meditations and lively discussions on the implications of these teachings for our life.

I love the statement that the "man of Zen walks in Zen and sits in Zen" for the simple reason that meditation cannot be just a part of your life. You cannot make a fragment of your life meditative.

In this book, B. Alan Wallace explains a fundamental type of mental training that is designed to shift our attitudes so that our minds become pure wellsprings of joy instead of murky pools of problems, anxieties, fleeting pleasures, hopes, and frustrations. The lojong—or mind-training—teachings have been the subject of profound study, contemplation, and commentary by many great masters. Wallace shows us the way to develop our capacity for spiritual awareness through his relatable and practical commentary on the mind-training slogans.

It is common in both Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis to treat desire as if it is the root of all suffering and problems, but psychiatrist Mark Epstein believes this to be a grave misunderstanding. In his controversial defense of desire, he makes clear that it is the key to deepening intimacy with ourselves, each other, and our world. Proposing that spiritual attainment does not have to be detached from intimacy or eroticism, Open to Desire begins with an exploration of the state of dissatisfaction that causes us to cling to irrational habits.

Shi Heng Yi eröffnet mit diesem Hörbuch Einsichten in einer bisher unveröffentlichten Form der Shaolin-Tradition – anwendbare Praktiken für das alltägliche Leben, untermauert mit Sichtweisen, um Bekanntes neu zu erkennen. "Shaolin Spirit – Meistere dein Leben!" Wünschst du dir mehr Disziplin, Willensstärke, Mut, Ausdauer und tief empfundene Loyalität? Shi Heng Yi bietet dir auf Basis seines eigenen Lebensweges Werkzeuge, die dein Leben leichter machen – indem du stärker wirst. Das Geheimnis der inneren Stärke basiert auf den Tugenden der Shaolin.

Andrew Skilton - Senior Research Fellow in Buddhist Studies, Kings College, London - explains the development of the basic concepts of Buddhism and its spread across the continents during its 2,500 years of history. He begins with a close look at Buddhism in India, where it flourished until the 12th/13th century CE, charting the growth of different schools and practices. By the time it disappeared from its homeland midway through the millennium, it had become established in Central Asia and the Far East in a variety of forms.

Pain, loss, shame, sadness - suffering is an unavoidable part of being human. The practice of tonglen offers us a way to transform our relationship with suffering - our own and that which is all around us. In The Courage to Love the World, beloved teacher Pema Chödrön shares insightful and heartfelt stories about tonglen, along with direct instruction and guided practice.

Providing an inside view into the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the tenets of Bön, one of the world’s oldest but least known religions, this book chronicles the true story of three Bön monks who heroically escaped occupied Tibet and went on to rebuild their culture through incredible resilience, determination, and passion.