Deepening Insight

Deepening Insight presents a selection of passages from the early Buddhist discourses that provide perspectives on the cultivation of liberating insight into vedanā, “sensation,” “feeling,” or “feeling tone.” For meditators, such passages can be of considerable help as a reference point for deepening insight. A metaphor that can offer considerable help when facing vedanās describes bubbles arising on the surface of a pond during rain...they arise and soon enough burst and disappear. Contemplation of the changing nature of vedanā provides a firm foundation for the growth of insight into not self. Such insight proceeds through successive layers of the mind’s ingrained habit of self-referentiality. Based on relinquishing the explicit view of affirming the existence of a permanent self, increasingly subtler traces of conceit and possessiveness need to be successively overcome until with full awakening all selfing in any form will be removed for good. Deepening Insight is based on textual sources that reflect “early Buddhism,” which stands for the development of thought and practices during roughly the first two centuries in the history of Buddhism, from about the fifth to the third century BCE. These sources are the Pāli discourses and their parallels, mostly extant in Chinese translation, which go back to instructions and teachings given orally by the Buddha and his disciples. In those times in India, writing was not employed for such purposes, and for centuries these teachings were transmitted orally. The final results of such oral transmission are available to us nowadays in the form of written texts. Bhikkhu Anālayo's presentation is meant to provide direct access, through the medium of translation, to the Chinese Āgama parallels to relevant Pāli discourses. In commenting on such passages, his chief concern throughout is to bring out practical aspects that are relevant to actual insight meditation. Endorsements In spring 1990 S.N. Goenka initiated an international seminar named The Importance of Vedanā and Sampajañña. It had the purpose to disseminate the prominence of sensations (vedanā) as a core object of meditation to recognize the intrinsic nature of change and impermanence. Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo now provides a thorough, comprehensive and well selected collection on vedanā as maintained in the original early Pāli Canon. Along with the comparison to the Chinese Āgama, otherwise hardly available, this collection if adapted and applied to practice may indeed serve as an inspiring source for deepening insight. —Klaus Nothnagel, Pāli teacher and Center Teacher for Dhamma Pallava in Poland

Deepening Your Personal Relationships was written by three experts in the field. Their combined expertise will help you in Developing Emotional Intimacy and Good Communication, which will be beneficial in all types of relationships. The book explains how to achieve healthy and fulfilling interpersonal relationships by using effective communication, empathy, shared transformational development, and constructive conflict resolution. Deepening Your Personal Relationships provides original, meaningful, and transformational insights that are especially helpful in understanding how to overcome our subconscious resistance against emotional intimacy and good communication. Readers wanting to enhance their personal relationships, gain insight into transformational self-help, and achieve social transformation will find this book especially helpful. It will also be of keen interest to professional relationship counselors, such as marriage counselors, family counselors, and conflict mediators. The goal is to understand how good relationships can produce enhanced levels of spiritual development, psychological healing, self-understanding, creative functioning, inner peace and happiness, and ultimately, fulfillment in life.

"A courageous book for courageous therapists. This book will become a treasured companion in the search for a radically ethical practice." Donna Orange, Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, Duquesne University, USA "[In Taylor’s hands] Trauma, a problem that in a post-pandemic world affects everyone, patients and therapists alike, becomes an opportunity to become better human beings, more able to connect with each other." Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Psy.D., Istituto di Gestalt HCC, Italy “A thought-provoking and scholarly study illustrated with stories, real-life examples and invitations to practices.” Kim S Golding, CBE, Clinical Psychologist and Author, UK How can therapists work with individuals affected by trauma to develop therapeutic relationships? This book explores how trauma is embedded in our fragmented world; the relational space in the therapy session; and finally, the Gestalt premise that the complex and interconnected network of relationships is greater than the sum of its parts. Moving beyond individualism, the book examines how trauma is an outcome of profound disconnection and how healing requires reconnection in equally multiple layers. Deepening Trauma Practice: •Takes a broad overview of collective and intergenerational trauma •Examines how echoes of collective trauma shape the work in the consulting room •Redefines what we understand as relational therapy •Considers the self-hood of the therapist, and takes a fresh look at the ethics of self-care as a key intervention •Argues for an ecological perspective on healing Using clinical vignettes and reflection points alongside theoretical discussion, the major themes of the book are woven together through the metaphor of the Trickster. As a companion volume to Miriam Taylor’s first book Trauma Therapy and Clinical Practice, this book is an invaluable and unique contribution for therapists and those working in the field of trauma. Miriam Taylor is a British Gestalt psychotherapist, supervisor and international trainer. With nearly 30 years’ experience of working with trauma, her work is supported by her embodied relationship with the natural world. She is on the Leadership Team of Relational Change in the UK.

What is past is left behind The future is yet unreached Whatever quality is present You clearly see right there Not taken in, unshaken That is how you develop the heart. --- Gauthama Buddha Do you find yourself hopping from one task to another, juggling and multitasking in a desperate attempt to stay afloat in the endless sea of tasks laid out before you? Do you ever wish you could pause the button in your ceaseless race against time? Dr. Innisai Aranganathan guides the path towards ‘the art of mindful living ‘,’ through simple practices which can be easily inculcated in one’s day to day challenges. She beautifully teaches how to be fully engaged with whatever is happening right here, right now, without your mind playing hopscotch between the past and future. Once learnt, the experience is so lovely that the sense of who you are, what you do, where you come from, and whatever the plan is for tomorrow all vanish for a moment, you find yourself being the fantastic you. ‘Here and Now’ the book beautifully illustrates and unravels the mysteries of mindfulness with stories, quotes and practical exercises that will tickle your curiosity and light the path to inner serenity. It will help you to lead a mindful, peaceful, and successful life. Happy reading!

A compilation of Sangharakshita’s teachings on meditation. Whether dipped into, consulted on a specific subject, or read from cover to cover, this collection offers practical, inspiring and encouraging advice for new and experienced meditators alike. It is deeply imbued with the Buddhist vision of the role of meditation in the quest for Enlightenment.

Author Donald Kirkpatrick is one of the leading voices on human resources and training and development. For more than forty years, Kirkpatrick’s four-level performance evaluation model has been the standard throughout the world, and has revolutionized the way enterprises manage, monitor, and optimize employee performance. The new edition of Improving Performance Through Appraisal and Coaching contains all the wisdom and step-by-step processes of the original, with all the guidance and tools you’ll need to implement a program that gets maximum results. The book starts with a 40-question test about your organization and its processes and attitudes regarding performance appraisal and coaching. Taking the test both before and after reading the first section of the book will highlight exactly where your existing initiatives can be improved and new ones put in place. Kirkpatrick then goes on to describe in detail how a culture of coaching builds and enhances performance, and how to build this culture across the entire organization. Examples and eye-opening Notes from the Field both reinforce and complement the author’s sage recommendations, illustrating how his approaches can be adopted in their entirety or deployed piecemeal, depending on your organization’s specific needs. The case studies, both from major employers, prove the overarching value of a proactive performance appraisal program and vibrant coaching environment. The book is packed with ready-to-use forms and, more important, instructions and observations on their effective use. Plus, every chapter is designed for practical application, featuring accessible charts and figures, lists of key points, specific suggestions, cause-and-effect relationships, and much more. While workplaces and jobs have changed dramatically, some truths seem everlasting. One is that in order to obtain exceptional employee performance, you need to build a thorough and consistent appraisal mechanism and coaching program. The other is that there is no one more knowledgeable about how to do it than Donald Kirkpatrick.

This volume is rich in both quantity and quality. It offers beautiful insights into the world of the mind in its relation to the body on the one hand, and to the soul on the other. Interestingly, in the conception of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the mind includes the heart: thinking and feeling are not separate. The matter is discussed from three different angles. In the Book of Health Hazrat Inayat Khan presents a picture of health and healing which rises above the controversies between traditional and 'western' professionals. Moreover, it appeals directly to both ordinary man and healers. It sets forth the basic laws governing the divine healing power as well as several methods for its application. Quite another perspective is offered in Mental Purification. This collection of papers deals with the workings and hygiene of the mind and heart. One comes to the understanding of how to "manage" the mind, both for living everyday life and for spiritual development. Rather it implies how leaving the world physically or mentally. Rather it implies how to deal with life and yet keep your balance by proper attunement. The Mind-world expands on this subject matter resulting in a sort of travel guide` through the world of the mind. Although it is highly practical, yet it never substitutes for your own options and decisions. It is like a foundation on which to build your individual life. Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan (Baroda 1982-Delhi 1927) provides a beautiful guidebook for your inner path. It contains neither prescriptions nor do's and don'ts. You may be provided with insight and understanding which may be as a welcome in the circle of Sufi friends, or as a silent companion on your further way. "The soul is called Atman, which means happiness or bliss itself. It is not that happiness belongs to the soul; it is that the soul itself is happiness." This inspiring book covers almost all aspects of the life of someone who chooses to go the way of self-unfoldment and self-realization. It refers to the struggle of life, its intoxication and its deeper side. The aim, meaning and purpose of life are discussed. What is wanted in life? Essential for the answer to this question are concepts like the art and development of personality, attitude, interest and indifference, purity of life, and the ideal. All these are discussed in separate chapters dealing with these items in an inspiring and uplifting manner, nevertheless remaining realistic as to daily life's requirements. Life is presented as an opportunity to gain experience both within and without, stressing their mutual interdependence. The second half of the book discusses, amongst others, inner life, the kingly road from limitation to perfection, and the stages of his destiny, in the context of the continuity of life. This the fourth volume of the Sufi Message by Hazrat Inayat Khan. It includes three works- the first, Healing is a collection of teachings on spiritual healing. In this work, the Suri mystic discusses the basic laws governing the mind's influence on the body, which he considers greater than that of the physical body on the mental existence, and he emphasises the need for a stronger awareness of the possibilities which spiritual healing can offer. Mental Purification is a collection of lectures on the working and hygiene of the mind in relation to the spirit. This part conveys in a beautiful way the synthesis that can be gained between inner life and life in the world. The volume concludes with the Mind World- which in the terms of the Sufi poets is called 'The palace of Mirrors' - an expression which Inayat Khan takes as symbolising on different levels, the whole of life.

Why is America again unjustly at war? Why is its politics distorted by wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage? Why is anti-Semitism still so powerfully resurgent? Such contradictions within democracies arise from a patriarchal psychology still alive in our personal and political lives in tension with the equal voice that is the basis of democracy. This book joins a psychological approach with a political-theoretical one that traces both this psychology (based on loss in intimate life) and resistance to it (based on the love of equals) to the Roman Republic and Empire and to three Latin masterpieces: Virgil's Aeneid, Apuleius's The Golden Ass, and Augustine's Confessions. In addition, this book explains many other aspects of our present situation including why movements of ethical resistance are often accompanied by a freeing of sexuality and why we are witnessing an aggressive fundamentalism at home and abroad.