Philosophy and Religion

He went from being the worst kind of malevolent sorcerer to a devoted and ascetic Buddhist practitioner to a completely enlightened being all in a single lifetime.

A popular American Buddhist teacher explores the creative relationship between faith and doubt, knowing and not-knowing, and shows how an awakened life results from living from the place in between. Faith is a thorny subject these days.  Its negative expressions cause many to dismiss it out of hand--but Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel urges us to reconsider, for faith is really nothing but our natu

Teachings on the practice of things-as-they-are, through commentaries on a legendary Chinese Zen figure. The joy of “suchness”—the ultimate and true nature inherent in all appearance—shines through the teachings attributed to Dongshan Liangjie (807–869), the legendary founder of the Caodong lineage of Chan Buddhism (the predecessor of Soto Zen). Taigen Dan Leighton looks at the

The classic guide to enlightened living that first presented the Buddhist path of the warrior to Western readers—with a new foreword and cover presentation. There is a basic human wisdom that can help solve the world´s problems. It doesn´t belong to any one culture or region or religious tradition—though it can be found in many of them throughout history. It´s what Chögyam Trung

A bold and provocative work from the late preeminent feminist scholar, which challenges men and women alike to free themselves from attachment to gender.  At the heart of Buddhism is the notion of egolessness—“forgetting the self”—as the path to awakening. In fact, attachment to views of any kind only leads to more suffering for ourselves and others. And what has a greater hold o

A new, four-stage approach to the popular Buddhist practice known as loving-kindness meditation, with the aim of finding unconditional love in our own hearts, in our relationships, and in our perception of the world around us.      The unconditional love that we all long for—in our own lives and in the world around us—can be awakened effectively with this uni

This unique introduction to Zen teaching and practice takes the remarkably accessible form of question-and-answer—making it a most useful reference for looking things up.

Taoism isn’t a spiritual extracurricular activity, it’s an integral practice for living all of life to the fullest. The modern Taoist adept Eva Wong is your guide to living well according to the wisdom of this ancient system.

Short and accessible teachings from one of America's pioneer woman Zen teachers. Zenkei Blanche Hartman is an American Zen legend. A teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, she was the first female abbot of an American Zen center. She is greatly revered, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has lived and taught for many years. This, her long-a

Meditators relax An esteemed modern Tibetan Buddhist teacher presents a system of meditation instructions he devised especially for those affected by the too-fast-paced Western world (i.e., most all of us)--to help them relax, as a way of deepening their meditation practice.

The commentary translated in these pages is unusual and rare. But if the commentary is a rarity, its subject matter—the seven-line invocation of Padmasambhava—is one of the best-known prayers in the Tibetan Buddhist world. The overall significance of the Seven-Line Prayer is perhaps best appreciated in relation to a practice called guru-yoga, or "union with the nature of the guru." T

A radical approach to mindfulness and self-transformation that combines an ancient meditation technique with leading-edge theory With practical teachings and detailed instructions, Ken Wilber introduces Integral Mindfulness, a new way of practicing the widely popular meditation. Integral Mindfulness applies many of the leading-edge insights of Ken Wilber's Integral Theory—the first system

A funny and engaging guide to finding awareness in daily activities beyond sitting meditation—from a rising leader in the Insight Meditation community   Meditation is great, but it's not what Buddhist practice is all about. Deep insight and liberation from suffering can be found in any ordinary activity—from sorting the laundry to data entry—as long as we approach them wit

An illuminating in-depth study of one of the most well-known and recited Buddhist texts, by a renowned modern translator The Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra is among the best known of all the Buddhist scriptures. Chanted daily by many Zen practitioners, it is also studied extensively in the Tibetan tradition, and it has been regarded with interest more recently in the West in various fields of stud

A translation with commentary of one of the earliest of the surviving Buddhist texts, which reveals the teachings to be remarkably simple and free of religious trappings.

The best-selling author of The Wisdom Jesus and The Meaning of Mary Magdalene demystifies the popular Christian meditation method rooted in contemplative prayer Centering Prayer is the path to a wonderful and radical new way of seeing the world. It is not, as is sometimes thought, simply an act of devotional piety, nor is it simply a Christianized form of other meditation metho

Why do things happen the way they do in our lives? How do we create the causes for a happy life? The Buddhist practice of mind training gives us the answer to these questions

In this compelling, poetic memoir of love, loss, and longing, a daughter's pilgrimage to her mother's native Tibet becomes a journey of homecoming and self-discovery. In this beautifully written memoir, a daughter travels to her mother's Tibetan homeland and finds both her own deep connections to her heritage and a people trying to maintain its cultural integrity despite Chinese occupation.

An overview of Tibetan tantric practice that explains its concepts, clarifies its terminology, and shows how its myriad pieces fit together, including an extensive teaching on the bardos, or "between states"--essential for those new to the topic and a welcome source of illumination for longtime students.      Vajrayana methods for realizing the true nature of th

A meditation master illuminates the path trekchö and provides his commentary on the atiyoga dzogchen instructions from the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism The path of trekchö is the way of directly and thoroughly cutting through the misconceptions of samsara to lay bare the primordial purity of the nature of mind. This powerful practice is illuminated by D