A prominent Insight Meditation teacher presents the Buddhist concept of “no-self” in an easy-to-understand way that will radically change your perspective on lifeAnatta is the Buddhist teaching on the nonexistence of a permanent, independent self. It’s a notoriously puzzling and elusive concept, usually leading to such questions as, “If I don’t have a self, who’s reading this sentence?” It’s not that there’s no self there, says Rodney Smith. It’s just that...

An amazingly succinct and accessible answer to the question “What is enlightenment?”—from one of America's most prominent teachers of Insight MeditationFormer Buddhist monk and highly regarded Insight Meditation teacher Rodney Smith describes the process of enlightenment in a way anyone can understand—demonstrating in clear language why we operate with the illusion of separation, how we can move out of it to the realization of emptiness and no-self, and how we can ...

An Insight Meditation teacher explores the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, an essential teaching that transcends all Buddhist traditions and provides a path to true liberationAwakening manifests through the application of mindfulness to four areas: body, feelings, mind, and dharmas. Buddhists of all the traditions share this foundational principle, which is defined in the Satipatthana Sutta and has been expounded upon since the time of the Buddha himself....

Buddhas befreiende Lehre des Nicht-Selbst. Es gibt keine spirituelle Praxis, wenn wir nicht die Selbsttäuschung hinter uns lassen und damit aufhören uns abzumühen, spirituelle Zustände erreichen zu wollen. Wir müssen das aufgeben, sonst gibt es keine Spiritualität. Rodney Smith ist wohl am ehesten als ein buddhistischer Revolutionär zu beschreiben, der sich nicht mit formelhaften Ausdrucksweisen zufrieden gibt, sondern sich in den Kern vertieft hat. Er dankt vor allem seinen Lehrern Ajahn ...

At the NSW state election in 2011, the public turned on the 16-year-old Labor administration with unprecedented fury. The Government that had won spectacular victories in 1999 and 2003 was defeated with a swing that was an Australian postwar record. How did it manage to stay in power for four terms? What were its achievements and why did things unravel so badly?In From Carr to Keneally respected experts analyse the four terms of Labor government in NSW: the premiers and th...

Power couples aren't a modern phenomenon. The greatest American couple ever to have served America in a public capacity was the country's fourth president, James Madison, and his wife, who is considered to be our "first, First Lady," Dolley Madison.In his heartwarming, lively, and accessible book Dolley and James Madison: An Unlikely Love Story that Saved America, Rodney K. Smith, who directs the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University, chronicles two remarkable...

Global Backlash is the first book to move beyond the monolithic portrayal of the globalization protests that have escalated since Seattle and are not likely to abate soon. With trenchant analysis and dozens of primary documents from a variety of popular and uncommon sources, Robin Broad explores proposals and initiatives coming from the backlash to answer the question, 'But what do they want?' A range of sophisticated propositions and a vibrant debate among segments of the backlash emerge....

It's uncertain that Howard Thurman made the remark often attributed to him, "I have been writing this book all my life," but there is little doubt that he was deeply immersed in reflection on the times that bear an uncanny resemblance to the present day, which give voice to the Black Lives Matter movement.Our "life's book" is filled with sentence upon sentence of marginalization, pages of apartheid, chapters of separate and unequal. Now this season reveals volumes of violence again...

More than 200 years later, James Madison’s message still rings true: There is no liberty without faith.James Madison was a man of quiet faith who was also intellectually inspired in miraculous ways. Often called the Father of the Constitution, Madison believed rights of conscience were gifts of God, and he was thoroughly committed to establishing a nation conceived in liberty.Throughout his life, thousands of seemingly insignificant events and decisions eve...

Part prose, part album, and part photographic essay, Western Skies is singer-songwriter Darden Smith's stunning homage to the mythologies of Texas and companion to his music release of the same name.Amid a series of road trips across West Texas, Darden Smith-Austin-based musician, author, and creative-found himself writing songs at the wheel and taking Polaroid photographs of the stark and ghostly terrain. Inspired by the spirit of the landscape, Smith scr...

Ten personal narratives reveal the shared and distinct struggles of being Black in the Church, facing historic and modern racism.It’s uncertain that Howard Thurman made the remark often attributed to him, “I have been writing this book all my life,” but there is little doubt that he was deeply immersed in reflection on the times that bear an uncanny resemblance to the present day, which give voice to the Black Lives Matter movement.Our “life’s book” is fill...

Have campaign finance reform laws actually worked? Is money less influential in electing candidates today than it was thirty years ago when legislation was first enacted? Absolutely not, argues Rodney A. Smith in this passionately written, fact-filled, and provocative book. According to Smith, the laws have had exactly the opposite of their intended effect. They have increased the likelihood that incumbents in the House and Senate will be reelected, and they have greatly diminished the cha...