Many lay Buddhists struggle to carry the benefits of their studies and meditation practice into their twenty-first-century lives. How might our daily experience of both life and the Buddha's teachings shift if there were no separation between them?In A Whole-Life Path, Gregory Kramer invites us to see the noise, complexity, and challenges of today's world as doorways to fully embodied Dhamma wisdom. Drawing on decades of meditation, study, and teaching, he explores the ess...

Insight Dialogue is a way of bringing the tranquility and insight attained in meditation directly into your interactions with other people. It’s a practice that involves interacting with a partner in a retreat setting or on your own, as a way of accessing a profound kind of insight. Then, you take that insight on into the grind of everyday human interactions. Gregory Kramer has been teaching the practice (which he originated) for more than a decade in retreats around the world. It...

A leading meditation teacher and the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society offers “an intelligent, thorough, startlingly clear” overview of Buddhism and Western vipassana practice” (Los Angeles Times)In Insight Meditation, Joseph Goldstein provides an overview of Buddhist practice and its context generally while focusing on vipassana meditation specifically. He cov...

An esteemed Insight Meditation teacher leads you through the sublime qualities of Buddhism—kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity—and how they can enrich your lifeCompassion, kindness, equanimity, and joy are not only the fruits of the awakened life but also the path to it—attitudes of mind that can be cultivated through intention and dedication. Also known as the brahma viharas (sublime abodes) and the “Four Immeasurables,” these enobling qualities are...

A master of Tibetan Buddhism cuts through prevalent misconceptions around karma and rebirth to get to the root cause of our suffering—and how we can end itThe Buddha’s teaching on karma (literally, “action”) is nothing other than his compassionate explanation of the way things are: our thoughts and actions determine our future, and therefore we ourselves are largely responsible for the way our lives unfold. Yet this supremely useful teaching is often ignored due to...

Why do we suffer? Is there a purpose to our pain? Noting that human beings have wrestled with such questions for thousands of years, Phillip Moffitt has found answers for his own life in Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Reflecting on his own journey from Esquire magazine editor-in-chief to Buddhist meditation teacher, Moffitt provides a fresh perspective on the Buddha's ancient wisdom, showing how to move from suffering to new awareness and unanticipated joy.In this dee...

Meditation without instructions—a path to tranquility and insight that you can discover all on your ownWhen we meditate, our minds often want to do something other than the meditation instructions we've been taught. When that happens repeatedly, we may feel frustrated to the point of abandoning meditation altogether.Jason Siff invites us to approach meditation in a new way, one that honors the part of us that doesn't want to do the instructions. He...

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...

Fresh and direct Buddhist teachings on how our natural wish to be happy is the best tool we have for true spiritual growthBuddhahood, says Dzigar Kongtrül, is nothing but an unobstructed experience of the nature of mind, boundlessly spacious and limitlessly compassionate. The trick is that in order to see the mind accurately, we must use the particular aspect of mind he calls natural intelligence.Natural intelligence enables us to discriminate between what ...

Published in 1904 (CW 10)"While we cannot all instantly become 'seers,' the cognitive insights of a person who has such vision can nevertheless provide healthy food for all. All of us can apply these insights to our lives; and if we do so, we shall soon realize not only the possibilities of life in every area but also what life lacks when we exclude these insights."--Rudolf SteinerThis is the bestselling classic account of the modern...

A guide to understanding the relationship between Western psychology and the contemplative sprituality of the East—and how one’s spiritual journey can be enriched by bothHow can we connect the spiritual realizations of Buddhism with the psychological insights of the West? In Toward a Psychology of Awakening John Welwood addresses this question with comprehensiveness and depth, building on his innovative psychospiritual approach to health, healing, and spir...

One of the great gifts of the yogic path is that it returns us to a life of simplicity, even as we go about our lives in a world of growing complexity. Through practice, we ultimately find the freedom to be who we really are, and allow others do the same.This was Patañjali's original intention when he penned his legendary sutras. But when a text is over 2,000 years old, important things can get lost in translation. For today's yoga student looking to take their practice “off the mat...