Showing titles in Buddhism

As it turns out, Buddha had quite a lot to say on the subject of gratitude, including citing it as one of the four keys to the Gate of Heaven. Studies show - and experts counsel - that gratitude is a key component of our happiness. People who are grateful about events and experiences from the past, who celebrate triumphs instead of focusing on losses or disappointments, tend to be more satisfied. Gratitude can help us transform our fears into courage, our anger into forgiveness, our isolation into belonging, and another’s pain into healing.

In this user’s guide to psychedelic Buddhism, Lama Mike Crowley presents techniques for Buddhists who wish to incorporate psychedelics into their practice as well as for psychonauts who are interested in the maps of inner space provided by Buddhism. The author details how psychedelics have led to spontaneous awakening experiences, such as “Indra’s net” and universal voidness, that were once thought to be available only to advanced meditators.

This instructive audiobook carries in itself a life-transforming value. None who listens to it with the needed interest and attention will ever feel inclined to remain unchanged in personal nature and untransformed in conduct and character.  

For thousands of years, humans have been using Tibetan singing bowls for healing and meditation. Their vibrations open up energies, stimulate the mind and have a wholesome effect on the body. Enjoy the mystical powers of the singing bowls. Their pulsating sounds allow the body to vibrate in resonance, which supports self-healing processes and letting go of tension. Treat yourself to a state of complete deep relaxation that calms the nervous system, regenerates the body and lifts up the soul.

Mindfulness doesn't make other people less irritating, it makes us less irritable. I understand why you do what you do, because the ego in me sees the ego in you. Each chapter in this book is an episode from the "Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast", offering food for thought about the non-judgmental benefits of recognizing and acknowledging both the ego and the divinity within us all. It's not about living in a bubble where nobody pushes your buttons—it's about getting to a point where you don't have any buttons that can be pushed.

Twenty-four of the Buddha's most distinguished disciples are brought to life in ten chapters of rich narration. They include monks who were very close to him throughout his life, including Sariputta and Mahamoggallana; his cousin and companion Ananda; his principal women disciples, including the nun Isidasi and his lay disciple, the courtesan Ambapali; and the serial killer Angulimala, whose character was transformed after meeting the Buddha.

The teachings of Shunryu Suzuki have served for innumerable people as the gateway to Zen practice and meditation. In Zen Is Right Now, devoted student and biographer David Chadwick sheds new light on Suzuki’s presence and teachings through selected quotes from his lectures and a variety of stories told by his students.

Now you can transform driving, shopping, or waiting in line into calming experiences of mindfulness. This unique audio course was carefully distilled from Jack Kornfield's most popular retreat, a 5-week workshop on mindful meditation. Kornfield shows listeners how to benefit from the 2,500-year-old system for becoming fully aware of how our actions in each moment create the fabric of our lives.

Tibetan monks have held anti-aging secrets in the Himalayan Mountains for centuries but now share them with the Western world. In the Western world, there's nothing more mysterious and more confusing to our Western sensibilities and culture than that of the East, especially when it comes to religious practices. In fact, there are so many people in the West that don't really have a firm grasp on what it means to be Buddhist, a Taoist, a Confucian, or any of the other Eastern philosophies that populate the world.

There is a famous Zen story about a disciple, Riko, who once asked his master, Nansen, to explain to him the old Zen koan of the goose in the bottle. Namely, if a man puts a gosling into a bottle and feeds the gosling through the bottle's neck until it grows and becomes a goose - and then there is simply no more room inside the bottle - how can the man get it out without killing the goose or breaking the bottle? In response, Nansen shouts, "Riko!" and gives a great clap with his hands.

The most well-known Buddhist teachers on the planet all have something in common: they are excellent communicators. This is not by accident, as the Buddha taught what are called the four elements of right speech over 2,600 years ago. In this one-of-a-kind book, certified meditation and mindfulness instructor Cynthia Kane has taken the four elements of right speech and developed them into a modern practice based on mindful listening, mindful speech, and mindful silence.

Theravada Buddhism, often understood as the school that most carefully preserved the practices taught by the Buddha, has undergone tremendous change over time. Prior to Western colonialism in Asia—which brought Western and modernist intellectual concerns, such as the separation of science and religion, to bear on Buddhism—there existed a tradition of embodied, esoteric, and culturally regional Theravada meditation practices.

There's been a major breakthrough in the world's oldest research experiment. For over 2,500 years, Buddhist meditators have investigated the human psyche. Now with the help of modern neuroscience, we have gained an unprecedented understanding of how the brain responds to meditation practice - which gives you powerful tools for changing your own brain for more happiness, love, and wisdom.

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.

The Dīghanikāya or Long Discourses of the Buddha is one of the four major collections of teachings from the early period of Buddhism. Its 34 suttas (in Sanskrit, sutras) demonstrate remarkable breadth in both content and style, forming a comprehensive collection. The Art of Listening gives an introduction to the Dīghanikāya and demonstrates the historical, cultural, and spiritual insights that emerge when we view the Buddhist suttas as oral literature.

Being-Time thoroughly explores Dogen's teaching on how we practice as Buddhas by understanding the relationship between being and time as it is—and as we perceive it to be. Using Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji (The True Dharma Eye, Being-Time), Shinshu Roberts offers a twofold analysis of this teaching: the meaning of the text and practice with the text, giving examples how we apply Dogen's complex teaching to our daily lives.

In this masterwork of an authentic spirit person (Thomas Berry), Buddhist teacher and anthropologist Joan Halifax Roshi delves into the fruitful darkness - the shadow side of being, found in the root truths of Native religions, the fecundity of nature, and the stillness of meditation. In this highly personal and insightful odyssey of the heart and mind, she encounters Tibetan Buddhist meditators, Mexican shamans, and Native American elders, among others.

Many of us speak to ourselves in demeaning and hurtful ways, using language we would never use with anyone else. To make matters worse, we often don't even realize when we are doing this, as these old mental tapes play in repeating loops without our awareness. In Talk to Yourself Like a Buddhist, certified mindfulness and meditation instructor Cynthia Kane introduces the Middle Path of Self-Communication, which consists of five mindful tools - Listen, Explore, Question, Release, and Balance - all of which are grounded in Buddhist principles.

Conflict is going to be part of your life - as long as you have relationships, hold down a job, or have dry cleaning to be picked up. Bracing yourself against it won't make it go away, but if you approach it consciously, you can navigate it in a way that not only honors everyone involved but makes it a source of deep insight as well. Seasoned mediator Diane Hamilton provides the skill set you need to engage conflict with wisdom and compassion, and even - sometimes - to be grateful for it.

More than 2,500 years ago, Gautama the Buddha walked the earth, teaching to all who would listen. Buddhist lore has it that shortly after he passed away, his disciples met to recall all that they were able of the truths that Buddha had spoken. These sayings were compiled into The Dhammapada, an anthology of 423 verses containing the essence of his principles.