Awakening My Heart

Informative interviews and profiles of the likes of Ram Dass, Tina Turner, Jane Goodall, and more, plus other writings offer insight on the Buddhist life. From Andrea Miller—an editor and staff writer at Lion’s Roar, the leading Buddhist magazine in the English-speaking world—comes a diverse and timeless collection of essays, articles, and interviews. Miller talks to Buddhist teachers, thinkers, writers, and celebrities about the things that matter most and she frames their wisdom with her own lived experience. In Awakening My Heart, we hear Tina Turner on the power of song, Ram Dass on the importance of service, Jane Goodall on the compassion that exists in the natural world, and Robert Jay Lifton on the darkest deeds of humanity—and how to prevent such things from ever happening again. Moreover, Miller—with her gently probing questions—gets to the bottom of the friendship between Zen master Bernie Glassman and Hollywood’s Jeff Bridges, and she also takes a playful look at the difference between Michael Imperioli, the serious Buddhist practitioner, and the unhinged mobster character he played in The Sopranos. Insight teacher Gina Sharpe coaches Miller on how to start facing the racism that exists even in the most liberal communities, while Robert Waldinger, a Zen priest and the leader of the world’s longest running study of human happiness, teaches her the key to being truly happy. Miller also brings the wisdom of a thirteenth-century Zen text into her very own galley kitchen and takes a look at animals through a quirky dharma lens. Finally, she goes on retreat with two of the world’s most beloved contemporary Buddhist teachers, Pema Chödrön and Thich Nhat Hanh, and travels to India to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha himself. Praise for Awakening My Heart “A lovely repast of stories and inspiring conversations with Buddhist masters and celebrities, reminding us to relax and smile. The good medicine of the dharma comes in a thousand forms.” ―Jack Kornfield “This book is a concise, witty, and intelligible way to understand Buddhism.” ―bell hooks, author of All About Love “Andrea Miller is one of contemporary Buddhism’s most original and arresting voices. Awakening My Heart has that rare combination of insight and empathy that distinguishes the very best spiritual literature. It is an inspiring, expansive, and probing exploration of what it means to be alive and practicing the dharma today.” —Shozan Jack Haubner, author of Zen Confidential “These lovely pieces span a huge, eclectic range from rock stars and actors to gurus and birds. There is joy in these pages, and the stories here will cause you to love life, and people, all the more.” ―Barry Boyce, Editor-in-Chief, Mindful magazine

Winner of a first-place award for best front-cover artwork from the Catholic Media Association and second-place honors in collections of prayers from CMA and in the prayer category from the Association of Catholic Publishers. Do you feel as if you are running on empty? Have you fallen asleep to the glory of God and his love being revealed to you each day? Bestselling and award-winning author and popular YouTuber Emily Wilson Hussem has been there too. She invites you on a year-long transformational journey of practicing gratitude, becoming more closely aware of God’s presence in your every day and serving others in his name. These fifty-two reflections will help you cultivate a deeper prayer life, find freedom from the frenzy of tasks and the noise of the culture, and discover the lasting joy that can only blossom in a heart awakened to the beauty of God’s quiet, loving presence. Awaken My Heart is an invitation to become aware of the presence of God in your life. Emily Wilson Hussem provides a road map for replacing busyness and distraction with intentional moments of noticing God’s abiding love and practicing gratitude for his many gifts—big and little blessings such as a visit from a friend, a call from your sister, the laughter of your children, a setting sun, or crumbs on the floor. These fleeting moments and everyday happenings can seem insignificant, but when you behold them with intention and thank God for making them possible, you’ll find yourself in regular conversation with Jesus, the lifeblood of your deep connection with God. This fifty-two-week devotional blends spiritual insights, authentic vulnerability, and wise guidance for women of every age who want to have a heart fully awakened to God’s presence and the beautiful bouquet of blessings he’s put in your life. The reflection for each week includes a specific focus for the upcoming seven days. With stories, challenges, and insights into scripture, each reflection is designed to draw you deeper into awareness of Christ’s love and the love he is calling you to share with the world. Wilson Hussem also offers practical ways to choose to love—visiting the elderly, calling your mom, or pausing to pray for a special intention—that are simple enough for even the busiest lifestyle. How and when you use the devotional is completely flexible: You can start on any day of the week and return to it as often as you need to. Each week’s focus is designed to draw you deeper into the heart of God by learning to love Jesus, others, and yourself more fully.

A comprehensive, single-volume collection of the Buddha’s key sutras, translated with contemporary commentary by an internationally known Zen master An essential companion to Thich Nhat Hanh’s bestselling collection of meditation and mindfulness practices, Happiness, this book captures the heart of Buddhist wisdom and Thich Nhat Hanh’s unique talent to make the Buddha’s teachings accessible and applicable to our daily lives and times. This is a wonderful gift for anyone looking to deepen their practice and understanding of the teachings, as well as a unique resource to understand the fundamentals of Buddhism from its source. With a new introduction and updated commentary, Awakening of the Heart contains the following sutras: • Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra • Diamond Sutra • Sutra on Full Awareness of Breathing • Sutra on The Four Establishments of Mindfulness • Sutra on The Better Way to Catch A Snake • Sutra on The Better Way to Live Alone • Sutra on The Eight Realizations of The Great Beings • Discourse on Happiness • Teachings on the Middle Way

In this little treasure, Thich Nhat Hanh offers a Buddhist view of love along with techniques for manifesting it in our daily lives. In his characteristically direct, simple, and compassionate style, he explores the four key aspects of love as described in the Buddhist tradition: lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and freedom. In order to love in a real way, Thich Nhat Hanh explains, we need to learn how to be fully present in our lives. In True Love he offers readers the technique of conscious breathing as a method for synchronizing the mind and body to establish the conditions of love. He goes on to offer a mantra practice for generating love that consists of expressing four key statements or intentions in our relationships. These include: "Dear one, I am really there for you"; "Dear one, I know that you are there, and I am really happy about it"; "Dear one, I know that you are suffering, and that is why I am here for you"; and "Dear one, I am suffering, please help me." In the concluding section of the book, Thich Nhat Hanh explains how love can help us to heal our own pain, fear, and negativity. He explains that we must not regard negative emotions as bad and repress them. We must recognize them as part of us and allow them into our consciousness, where they can be cared for by the "loving mother of mindfulness."

Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, p, e, i, s, t.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts begins a new trilogy of adventure, romance, and magick in The Awakening. In the realm of Talamh, a teenage warrior named Keegan emerges from a lake holding a sword—representing both power and the terrifying responsibility to protect the Fey. In another realm known as Philadelphia, a young woman has just discovered she possesses a treasure of her own... When Breen Kelly was a girl, her father would tell her stories of magical places. Now she’s an anxious twentysomething mired in student debt and working a job she hates. But one day she stumbles upon a shocking discovery: her mother has been hiding an investment account in her name. It has been funded by her long-lost father—and it’s worth nearly four million dollars. This newfound fortune would be life-changing for anyone. But little does Breen know that when she uses some of the money to journey to Ireland, it will unlock mysteries she couldn’t have imagined. Here, she will begin to understand why she kept seeing that silver-haired, elusive man, why she imagined his voice in her head saying Come home, Breen Siobhan. It’s time you came home. Why she dreamed of dragons. And where her true destiny lies—through a portal in Galway that takes her to a land of faeries and mermaids, to a man named Keegan, and to the courage in her own heart that will guide her through a powerful, dangerous destiny...

Addressing daily concerns, Betty J. Eadie gives readers the keys to an elemental, healing life force. She examines the course of her life source, and reveals the profound power that unites us all.

Can a meditative practice assist and promote the healing relationship between psychotherapist and patient? The notable contributors to this practical book draw on a wide range of Eastern and Western disciplines—psychoanalysis, Gestalt, Aikido, and various Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist contemplative traditions—to show that it can. What they propose is a meeting between the Western psychotherapeutic approach—grounded in working with the personal problems and the need to carve out a strong awareness of self—and Eastern tradition, which emphasizes a larger kind of awareness and equanimity as a continuously available source of clarity and health for those who know how to find it. They show that joining psychotherapy with meditation can mutually awaken the hearts of both therapist and client, sparking them both to open more fully. Jacob Needleman, Erich Fromm, Robin Skynner, Ram Dass, Karl Sperber, Roger Walsh, Chögyam Trungpa, and Thomas Hora are among the contributors.