This account explains how the Buddha's path of wisdom and loving kindness grew out of the challenges he encountered in life. It explores enlightenment, nirvana, and the Four Noble Truths, presenting a picture of the Buddha as a very human figure whose success lay not in his perfection, but in his method of positively utilizing the energy generated by personal suffering.

This new commentary by Buddhist teacher and author David Brazier draws back the curtain revealing the deeper meaning of the text in language that will be as transparent to the general reader as it is informative to the specialist.

Buddhism, from Abhidharma to Zen, offers a practical path to harmony of head and heart. For over 2,000 years Buddhists have been developing sophisticated psychologies to guide the work of achieving freedom from mental suffering. Now East and West are beginning to learn from each other.In a readable and practical manner, this book challenges basic assumptions of Western psychology, demystifies Buddhist psychology and presents Zen as a therapy. Giving examples of its effectiveness in...

A beautiful book to treasure: stunning artwork and stylish poems covering major themes from personal love to world crisis. Sometimes provocative, always compassionate.The book has emerged from a creative partnership of poet and artist. You will be charmed, carried along, challenged, seduced, inspired. You will find surprises. War and pain, nature and imagination, loss and love, destruction and restoration. Poems from the heart, the spirit and the gut. Poems of heav...

Meditation techniques, including mindfulness, have become popular wellbeing practices and the scientific study of their effects has recently turned 50 years old. But how much do we know about them: what were they developed for and by whom? How similar or different are they, how effective can they be in changing our minds and biology, what are their social and ethical implications? The Oxford Handbook of Meditation is the most comprehensive volume published on meditation, written i...

What does it mean to be enlightened or spiritually awakened? In The Leap, Steve Taylor shows that this state is much more common than is generally believed. He shows that ordinary people — from all walks of life — can and do regularly “wake up” to a more intense reality, even if they know nothing about spiritual practices and paths. Wakefulness is a more expansive and harmonious state of being that can be cultivated or that can arise accidentally. It may also be a process we are u...

It is comonly thought that enlightenment is unattainable for ordinary people living in modern Western society and is reserved for monks or gurus leading a spiritually dedicated life in remote locations. After researching mystical experiences and interviewing people who claim to have had them, psychologist Steve Taylor found that normal modern-day people from different faiths and walks of life have also reached modes of higher consciousness. In fact, these experiences are more common than w...

Mindfulness-based approaches to medicine, psychology, neuroscience, healthcare, education, business leadership, and other major societal institutions have become increasingly common. New paradigms are emerging from a confluence of two powerful and potentially synergistic epistemologies: one arising from the wisdom traditions of Asia and the other arising from post-enlightenment empirical science.This book presents the work of internationally renowned experts in the fields of Buddhi...

The most in-depth and famed text on Mahamudra ever written, The Ocean of Definitive Meaning by the Ninth Karmapa offers a detailed, uniquely comprehensive presentation. Thrangu Rinpoche has distilled the essence of the Ninth Karmapa’s massive text and gives guidance in implementing the instructions. The availability of the translation of this text has traditionally been restricted to advanced students only. However, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche has consented to the publication of the...

What is inside this book?* Mental Health through Yogic Methods: towards unfolding our potentials for a better Self Management & Self Evolution.* Practical Stress Management through Yoga: in tackling Stress, Anxiety, Depression and other Existential Disorders.* Practical Yoga Meditation & Prayer: on scientific lines towards managing our Personality & Environment, here and now!

Effortless Mindfulness promotes genuine mental health through the direct experience of awakened presence—an effortlessly embodied, fearless understanding of and interaction with the way things truly are. The book offers a uniquely modern Buddhist psychological understanding of mental health disorders through a scholarly, clinically relevant presentation of Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist teachings and practices. Written specifically for Western psychotherapeutic profess...

This modern spiritual classic highlights a trick we play on ourselves and offers a brighter reality: liberation by letting go of the self rather than working to improve itThe Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa calls attention to the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. "The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use," he says, "even spirituality." The universal ...