Download or read book In This Very Life written by U Pandita and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-30 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Burmese meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita shows us that freedom is as immediate as breathing, as fundamental as a footstep. In this book he describes the path of the Buddha and calls all of us to that heroic journey of liberation. Enlivened by numerous case histories and anecdotes, In This Very Life is a matchless guide to the inner territory of meditation - as described by the Buddha.
Download or read book Living This Life Fully written by Mirka Knaster and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2010-10-12 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anagarika Munindra (1915–2003) was a Bengali Buddhist master and scholar who was teacher to an entire generation of practitioners—including some of the most prominent Insight Meditation teachers in America. His students include Daniel Goleman (author of Emotional Intelligence), Sharon Salzberg (author of Lovingkindness), Jack Kornfield (author of A Path with Heart), and Joseph Goldstein (author of Insight Meditation). As the teacher of a whole generation of American teachers, he was thus himself a pivotal figure in the transmission of Buddhism to the West. This is the first book available about Munindra’s life and teaching, and it features: • A brief biography of Munindra • Never-before-published excerpts of his teachings • Stories and remembrances from Western students including Daniel Goleman, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield • Rare photographs
Download or read book How to Be Sick written by Toni Bernhard and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-09-14 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This life-affirming, instructive and thoroughly inspiring book is a must-read for anyone who is--or who might one day be--sick. And it can also be the perfect gift of guidance, encouragement, and uplifting inspiration to family, friends, and loved ones struggling with the many terrifying or disheartening life changes that come so close on the heels of a diagnosis of a chronic condition or even life-threatening illness. The author--who became ill while a university law professor in the prime of her career--tells the reader how she got sick and, to her and her partner's bewilderment, stayed that way. Toni had been a longtime meditator, going on long meditation retreats and spending many hours rigorously practicing, but soon discovered that she simply could no longer engage in those difficult and taxing forms. She had to learn ways to make "being sick" the heart of her spiritual practice--and through truly learning how to be sick, she learned how, even with many physical and energetic limitations, to live a life of equanimity, compassion, and joy. And whether we ourselves are sick now or not, we can learn these vital arts of living well from "How to Be Sick."
Download or read book Very Life of Life written by Tom Gordon and published by Wild Goose Publications. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A year of daily reflections. When our time is limited, a short reflection can be as much as we can manage. When life is complex and difficult, a simple idea may be all we need. When each day is about making sense of what's happening to us, a reflective sound bite might help us through. Tom Gordon's reflections are simple and direct, but from his experience and wisdom he offers deep insights for the 'very life of life' we are living today.
Download or read book Wisdom Wide and Deep written by Shaila Catherine and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If you are interested in Dharma study, this book belongs in your library."---Phillip Moffitt, author of Dancing with Life "This book can be the guide for cultivating the inner calm we long for."---Christina Feldman, author of Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World "This handbook respects both the ancient tradition and the needs of contemporary lay practitioners, without compromising either. Shaila Catherine blends scriptural references, personal examples, and timeless stories with detailed meditation instructions. The combination of pragmatic style and theoretical knowledge produces a striking invitation for the reader to apply these instructions and master the complete practice for awakening."---from the foreword by Pa-Auk Sayadaw, author of The Workings of Kamma "Catherine has managed a difficult feat---to be simultaneously encyclopedic and charming, all with extraordinary clarity. This meditation manual is a first for the West and will surely become a classic and a support for generations of practitioners."---Kate Wheeler, editor of In This Very Life: Liberation Teachings of the Buddha "Wisdom Wide and Deep is a powerful inspiration both for those who would like a glimpse of what's possible and for those intrepid explorers of the mind who want to bring these teachings to fulfillment. Highly recommended."---Joseph Goldstein, author of A Heart Full of Peace "Written in clear, practical language, this book converts theory into direct experience. It is a detailed exploration of deep calmness as well as insight. The West needs such manuals."---Christopher Titmuss, author of Light on Enlightenment "A valuable work as both a practice guide and a reference manual."---Guy Armstrong, insight meditation teacher
Download or read book The Birth of Insight written by Erik Braun and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insight meditation, which claims to offer practitioners a chance to escape all suffering by perceiving the true nature of reality, is one of the most popular forms of meditation today. The Theravada Buddhist cultures of South and Southeast Asia often see it as the Buddha’s most important gift to humanity. In the first book to examine how this practice came to play such a dominant—and relatively recent—role in Buddhism, Erik Braun takes readers to Burma, revealing that Burmese Buddhists in the colonial period were pioneers in making insight meditation indispensable to modern Buddhism. Braun focuses on the Burmese monk Ledi Sayadaw, a pivotal architect of modern insight meditation, and explores Ledi’s popularization of the study of crucial Buddhist philosophical texts in the early twentieth century. By promoting the study of such abstruse texts, Braun shows, Ledi was able to standardize and simplify meditation methods and make them widely accessible—in part to protect Buddhism in Burma after the British takeover in 1885. Braun also addresses the question of what really constitutes the “modern” in colonial and postcolonial forms of Buddhism, arguing that the emergence of this type of meditation was caused by precolonial factors in Burmese culture as well as the disruptive forces of the colonial era. Offering a readable narrative of the life and legacy of one of modern Buddhism’s most important figures, The Birth of Insight provides an original account of the development of mass meditation.
Download or read book Vipassan a Universal Buddhist Meditation Technique written by D. C. Ahir and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vipassana means to see things as they really are, not only as they seem to be. The technique of Vipassana is based on the Satipatthana Sutta. Satipatthana means the establishing of mindfulness. This is one of the most original teachings of the Buddha and through it one can cultivate mindfulness and develop awareness. Vipassana meditation aims at the total purification of human beings and at the overcoming of sorrow, lamentation, the destruction of grief and suffering and the reaching of the right path and the attainment of the Nibbanic state. One who practises Vipassana meditation with this aim in mind, even before he attains the final goal, can achieve peace of mind, happiness, calmness, relaxation, tranquility and the ability to face life's daily problems and enjoy a corresponding greater degree of happiness in this very life here and now. -- Publisher description.
Download or read book How to Wake Up written by Toni Bernhard and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-08-19 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intimately and without jargon, How to Wake Up: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow describes the path to peace amid all of life's ups and downs. Using step by step instructions, the author illustrates how to be fully present in the moment without clinging to joy or resisting sorrow. This opens the door to a kind of wellness that goes beyond circumstances. Actively engaging life as it is in this fashion holds the potential for awakening to a peace and well-being that are not dependent on whether a particular experience is joyful or sorrowful. This is a practical book, containing dozens of exercises and practices, all of which are illustrated with easy-to-relate to personal stories from the author's experience.
Download or read book Good Life Good Death written by Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-10-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is a must-read for those who have ever feared death for themselves or for those they love." -Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom By the late Gehlek Rimpoche, the bestselling book that changed the way we think about death Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do we get there? Many have asked these questions, and many have attempted to answer them. But there is another question Good Life, Good Death asks us to contemplate: how does the idea of life after death affect how we live our lives? Gelek Rimpoche tells stories of the mystical Tibet he lived in, as well as the contemporary America he is now a citizen of, and shares the wisdom of the great masters. He asks us to open our minds and see if we can entertain a bigger picture of life after life, even for a moment. He makes the connection between powerful emotions such as anger, obsession, jealousy and pride, and our past as well as our future.
Download or read book Eight Steps to Happiness The Buddhist Way of Loving Kindness written by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and published by Tharpa Publications US. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This inspiring book explains how to meditate on eight beautiful verses that comprise one of Buddhism’s best-loved teachings, Eight Verses of Training the Mind. Composed by the great Tibetan Bodhisattva, Geshe Langri Tangpa, this short poem shows how we can transform all life’s difficulties into valuable spiritual insights. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso reveals practical ways in which we can use this timeless wisdom to find meaning and lasting happiness in our busy modern lives.
Download or read book The Art of Living Vipassana Meditation as Taught by S N Goenka written by William Hart and published by Pariyatti. This book was released on 2020 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Fragile Life written by Todd May and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “His discussion of the ways in which those who try to make themselves invulnerable . . . undermine what makes us most human, is clear and bracing.” —Los Angeles Review of Books In a moving examination of life and the trials that beset it, Todd May shows that our fragility, our ability to suffer, is actually one of the most important aspects of our humanity. May starts with a simple but hard truth: suffering is inevitable. At the most basic level, we suffer physically—a sprained ankle or a bad back. But we also suffer insults and indifference. We suffer from overburdened schedules and unforeseen circumstances, from moral dilemmas and emotional heartaches. Even just thinking about our own mortality—the fact that we only live one life—can lead us to tremendous suffering. No wonder philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism, Stoicism, and even Epicureanism—all of which counsel us to rise above these plights—have had appeal over the centuries. May highlights the tremendous value of these philosophies and the ways they can guide us toward better lives, but he also exposes a major drawback to their tenets: such invulnerability is too emotionally disengaged from the world, leading us to place too great a distance between ourselves and our experience. Rather than seeking absolute immunity, he argues most of us just want to hurt less and learn how to embrace and accept what suffering we do endure in a meaningful way. Offering a guide on how to positively engage suffering, May ultimately lays out a new way of thinking about how we exist in the world.
Download or read book A Very Capable Life written by John Leigh Walters and published by Athabasca University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Written in his mother's unique voice, John Leigh Walters pushes the boundaries of memoir in A Very Capable Life, the extraordinary journey of a seemingly ordinary woman." "Zarah Petri was a child when her family left Hungary to establish a new life in Canada in the 1920s. With courage and innovation, Zarah and her family survived the Depression - even if it meant breaking the law to do so. In celebrating Zarah Petri, A Very Capable Life pays homage to all "ordinary" women of the early twentieth century who challenged society's conventions for the sake of survival." --Book Jacket.
Download or read book Where the Heart Beats written by Kay Larson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-07-30 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “heroic” biography of John Cage and his “awakening through Zen Buddhism”—“a kind of love story” about a brilliant American pioneer of the creative arts who transformed himself and his culture (The New York Times) Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself—and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. “Remarkably researched, exquisitely written,” Where the Heart Beats weaves together “a great many threads of cultural history” (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) to illuminate Cage’s struggle to accept himself and his relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s. Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Allan Kaprow, Morton Feldman, and Leo Castelli were among those influenced by his ‘teaching’ and ‘preaching.’ Where the Heart Beats shows the blossoming of Zen in the very heart of American culture.
Download or read book The Life of the Buddha written by Bhikkhu Nyanamoli and published by Buddhist Publication Society. This book was released on 1992 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the numerous lives of the Buddha, this volume may well claim a place of its own. Composed entirely from texts of the Pali Canon, the oldest authentic record, it portrays an image of the Buddha which is vivid, warm, and moving. Chapters on the Buddha's personality and doctrine are especially illuminating, and the translation is marked by lucidity and dignity throughout.
Download or read book Tuesdays with Morrie written by Mitch Albom and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-06-29 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A special 25th anniversary edition of the beloved book that has changed millions of lives with the story of an unforgettable friendship, the timeless wisdom of older generations, and healing lessons on loss and grief—featuring a new afterword by the author “A wonderful book, a story of the heart told by a writer with soul.”—Los Angeles Times “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was his college professor Morrie Schwartz. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live. “The truth is, Mitch,” he said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.
Download or read book Nowhere for Very Long written by Brianna Madia and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • USA TODAY! BESTSELLER In this beautifully written, vividly detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures traveling across the deserts of the American West in an orange van named Bertha and reflects on an unconventional approach to life. A woman defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van, filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the canyons of Utah with her husband. Nowhere for Very Long is her deeply felt, immaculately told story of exploration—of the world outside and the spirit within. However, pursuing a life of intention isn’t always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring, exhausting, and even desperate—when Bertha overheated and she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of South Dakota highway; when the weather was bitterly cold and her water jugs froze beneath her as she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she worried about money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But Brianna was committed to living a life true to herself, come what may, and that made all the difference. Nowhere for Very Long is the true story of a woman learning and unlearning, from backroads to breakdowns, from married to solo, and finally, from lost to found to lost again . . . this time, on purpose.
