Consciousness Buddhism

An interdisciplinary deep dive into Buddhist jhāna meditation and how it can transform our understanding of self and consciousness.

In simple and straightforward language, Bhante Gunaratana shares the Buddha's teachings on mindfulness and how we can use these principles to improve our daily lives, deepen our mindfulness, and move closer to our spiritual goals. Based on the classic Satipatthana Sutta, one of the most succinct yet rich explanations of meditation, Bhante's presentation is nonetheless thoroughly modern.

For modern science, the transitional states of consciousness lie at the forefront of research in many fields. For a Buddhist practitioner, these same states present crucial opportunities to explore and transform consciousness itself. This book is the account of a historic dialogue between leading Western scientists and the Dalai Lama of Tibet. Revolving around three key moments of consciousness - sleep, dreams, and death - the conversations recorded here are both engrossing and highly listenable.

Learn to make every moment a once-in-a-lifetime experience with this definitive guide to the Japanese art of ichigo ichie, from the best-selling authors of Ikigai. Every moment in our life happens only once, and if we let it slip away, we lose it forever - an idea captured by the Japanese phrase ichigo ichie. Often spoken in Japan when greeting someone or saying goodbye, to convey that the encounter is unique and special, it is a tenet of Zen Buddhism and is attributed to a 16th-century master of the Japanese tea ceremony.

Lucidly and beautifully written, Peace Is Every Step contains commentaries, meditations, personal anecdotes, and stories from Nhat Hanh's experiences as a peace activist, teacher, and community leader. It begins where the listener already is - in the kitchen, office, driving a car, walking - and shows how deep meditative presence is available now.

I am bringing to my listeners knowledge that I have obtained by favor rather than by effort. It will not be found the less valuable on that account; I venture, on the contrary, to declare that it will be found of incalculably greater value, easily as I have obtained it, than any results in a similar direction that I could possibly have procured by ordinary methods of research, even had I possessed, in the highest degree, that which I make no claim to possess at all - oriental scholarship.

No-one is perfect. But that doesn't stop us from imagining ourselves as smarter, funnier, richer or thinner and how much happier we would then be. Love for Imperfect Things, by the best-selling Korean monk Haemin Sunim, shows how the path to happiness and peace of mind includes not only strong relationships with others but also letting go of worries about ourselves. Packed with his typical spiritual wisdom, Sunim teaches us to embrace our flaws rather than trying to overcome them and demonstrates that love has very little to do with perfection.

What if you could cultivate the mind of a bodhisattva -- one who has dedicated one's life to the benefit of others? According to Pema Chödrön, best-selling author and American-born Buddhist nun, you can. On Bodhisattva Mind, she examines sheshin, or "guarding alertness", and the other qualities of mind we need to develop on the path to enlightenment.

The School for Broken Hearts, founded by bestselling mega-monk Haemin Sunim, provides a safe and caring space for people going through a difficult stage in life. Following on from his first two immensely successful books (where the first was about slowing down, and the second was about accepting imperfection), this time, it's about finding one's path. In this book, which offers ancient wisdom for modern living, he shows how you too can find both inner tranquillity and 'small but certain happiness', whatever burden you are carrying.

With a unique combination of ancient and contemporary wisdom from Tibetan Buddhism, The Diamond Cutter presents readers with empowering strategies for success in their personal and professional lives.

The jhānas are eight progressive altered states of consciousness that can be identified with the aspect of the Buddha’s Eightfold Path called Right Concentration. Training in concentration leads to these states, each of which yields a deeper and subtler state of awareness than the previous one. The jhānas are not in themselves awakening, but they are a skillful means for stilling the mind in a way that leads in that direction, and they are attainable by anyone who devotes the time and sincerity of practice necessary to realize them.

This new book from Zen teacher, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and critical favorite, Barry Magid, inspires us to outgrow the impossible pursuit of happiness, and instead make peace with the perfection of the way things are. Including ourselves! Using wryly gentle prose, Magid invites readers to consider the notion that our certainty that we are broken may be turning our pursuit of happiness into a source of more suffering.

The Art of Stopping Time guides the listener through 100 practices to help busy people practice mindfulness and a slowing of time wherever they might be: in the shower, sitting in traffic, or dealing with an overflowing inbox. Our perception of the scarcity of time is coupled with the epidemic of stress in the modern world, and when we don't have a positive connection with the flow of time, we lack purpose as well as develop health problems.

These enlightened and enlightening words of the great "Avadhoot" of India, Bhagawan Nityananda, were carefully recorded by his devoted devotee, Tulsi Amma, from 1920 to 1927. Nityananda's esoteric words are like arrows that guide the soul beyond mediocre obsessions and into the heart of self realization, the great space of supreme Consciousness that is Chidakash.

Bridging the gap between the world of science and the realm of the spiritual, Wallace, a pioneer of modern consciousness research, offers a practical and revolutionary method for exploring the mind that combines the keenest insights of contemporary physics and philosophers with the time-honored meditative traditions of Buddhism.

For many years Josephine Moon struggled with the question of eating meat, fervently wishing to live as a vegetarian yet requiring meat in her diet. From Josephine’s philosophical, spiritual and physical battle with eating meat came, Buddhism for Meat Eaters - a book for animal lovers, the environmentally and ethically conscious, and generally thoughtful people who eat meat but perhaps aren’t entirely comfortable doing so.

In theoretical as well as applied psychology, no term is more misleading, or confusing, than the term consciousness. We use the term often in our conversation; we come across it in our study; but when we are asked to define it properly, to explain its significance, its meaning, or the idea for which that word stands, we are unable to do so. And that is because there are so many varied ideas concerning consciousness.

Leadbeater discusses his own struggles in occult initiation, through both astral and physical trials, which eventually led him to the ability to access what he describes as the Buddhic consciousness. He describes how each master has his own plan and that every path is different. Also, he discusses the relationship between the student and the teacher and gives examples of what a new student on the path might expect.

Wie erleben wir den Augenblick? Wie nehmen wir das Leben mit all seinen Facetten wahr und kosten es richtig aus? Wie finden wir wieder Kontakt zu uns selbst? Und wie gelangen wir zu wahrer Gelassenheit? Diese Auswahl der schönsten Worte des großen Weisheitslehrers Thich Nhat Hanh öffnet uns die Augen für die vielen Wunder des Daseins. Und sie lassen uns das Leben in seiner ganzen Tiefe erfahren.

The present society continues to run like a mad elephant toward global catastrophe. Why do we continue on this road that leads us to a dead end, with our own self-destruction in the end view?The answer to this question lies in human consciousness itself, the cause of every problem, while superconsciousness is the solution to every difficulty.