The Buddha For Modern Minds

How can the Buddha's teachings help me? Here? Now? In MY life?A practical, feet-on-the-ground book answering all the questions and misconceptions that arise for people curious about the Buddha's teachings and what they offer in this modern life of ours. For those with little or no knowledge this is a secular introduction. For those already practicing, it's a secular reference book for key concepts and several of the Buddha's important lists. Clear explanations of often-confusing concepts are brought alive with personal examples of the powerful impact of practicing the Buddha's wisdom - the dropping away of stress, angst and upset and the arrival of calm, clarity, energy, joy and open-heartedness. Cutting through the array of orthodox Buddhisms that often confuse beginners, this book strips away the trappings of the cultures through which they came to us, helping us know the Buddha, his core teachings, how meditation and mindfulness fit in, what happened to the teachings after his death, and how to practice them now. As the Buddha did, it puts aside unknowable issues like rebirth which are unnecessary for fully practicing the teachings. Worse, they're a distraction from the very real and practical project at the heart of his wisdom - flourishing in this life. Here. Now.

Talks given by Martine and Stephen Batchelor during a Sŏn (Chan/Zen) retreat in England in 2016. Leading us through the practice of radical questioning at the heart of this Korean Buddhist tradition, the authors show how anyone at all can benefit from this form of radical inquiry today.

"Eminently readable and extremely meaningful. The contributors tackle essential questions about the relationship of art and life. The book is also very timely, offering a way to approach Buddhism through unexpected channels."--Lynn Gumpert, Director, Grey Art Gallery, New York University

This young Tibetan lama is calling on spiritual seekers, especially today's youth, to go against the status quo of complacency and invoke the "rebel buddha" within to wake up and instigate inner change. Ethan Nichtern, author of One City: A Declaration of Interdependence, says that "Rinpoche's voice roars with the relaxed confidence of authenticity, and the fierce urgency of now". Dzogchen Ponlop offers an extraordinary introduction to Buddhist philosophy and practice. Extraordinary because it is both completely fresh in its viewpoint and language, and because it's completely authentic to the Buddhist tradition and true to his training as a Tibetan lama.

Joel and Michelle Levey have taught thousands of people around the globe to live in greater harmony and balance. Field-tested and refined over many years, the Leveys' unique approach to stress-mastery and personal development offers step-by-step guidance for developing personal strengths, enhancing the quality of life, and making a real contribution to the world. The Fine Arts of Relaxation, Concentration and Meditation offers a treasury of their most useful teachings: Waking up throughout the day--finding your meditation practice and sticking to it. Balancing breath, brain, and mind-mastering stress--enhancing performance in every arena of your life. Creative intelligence--the dynamic synergy of active and quiet mind skills. Mastery, mystery, and meditation--awakening to your true nature. Inspired Work--relaxation, concentration, and meditation on the job. A vital blend of profoundly practical skills, advice, instruction, and encouragement makes Fine Arts a complete course for awakening more fully to your highest potentials in each moment of your life.

Sleep deprivation is a growing problem worldwide. We go to our doctors for advice, but they seem to have nothing but pills to counteract this predicament, and these quick fixes fail to get to the root of the problem.Buddha's Book of Sleep is the first book to treat sleep disorders from the perspective of mindfulness meditation. Yet this is a natural choice - mindfulness meditation has proven effective for other psychological problems such as stress, depression and anxiety and these very issues are what become sleep problems when our heads hit the pillow. Divided into two sections, this book attacks sleep disorders with a combination of wisdom and practical meditation exercises. The first section describes the reasons why mindfulness meditation's basis in self-awareness is appropriate for dealing with this problem, detailing the practices of this popular form of meditation. The second section contains seven specific exercises to practice at bedtime or in the wee hours of the morning, depending on when sleeping problems occur. Supplying readers with a new perspective on why they cannot fall asleep (even when they feel exhausted), and arming them with easy-to-use tools from the practices of mindfulness meditation, Buddha's Book of Sleep will help the reader calm their hurried thoughts and rest easy.

Are there Buddhist conceptions of the unconscious? If so, are they more Freudian, Jungian, or something else? If not, can Buddhist conceptions be reconciled with the Freudian, Jungian, or other models? These are some of the questions that have motivated modern scholarship to approach ālayavijñāna, the storehouse consciousness, formulated in Yogācāra Buddhism as a subliminal reservoir of tendencies, habits, and future possibilities. Tao Jiang argues convincingly that such questions are inherently problematic because they frame their interpretations of the Buddhist notion largely in terms of responses to modern psychology. He proposes that, if we are to understand ālayavijñāna properly and compare it with the unconscious responsibly, we need to change the way the questions are posed so that ālayavijñāna and the unconscious can first be understood within their own contexts and then recontextualized within a dialogical setting. In so doing, certain paradigmatic assumptions embedded in the original frameworks of Buddhist and modern psychological theories are exposed. Jiang brings together Xuan Zang’s ālayavijñāna and Freud’s and Jung’s unconscious to focus on what the differences are in the thematic concerns of the three theories, why such differences exist in terms of their objectives, and how their methods of theorization contribute to these differences. Contexts and Dialogue puts forth a fascinating, erudite, and carefully argued presentation of the subliminal mind. It proposes a new paradigm in comparative philosophy that examines the what, why, and how in navigating the similarities and differences of philosophical systems through contextualization and recontextualization.

Millions of people meditate daily but can meditative practices really make us ‘better’ people? In The Buddha Pill, pioneering psychologists Dr Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm put meditation and mindfulness under the microscope. Separating fact from fiction, they reveal what scientific research – including their groundbreaking study on yoga and meditation with prisoners – tells us about the benefits and limitations of these techniques for improving our lives. As well as illuminating the potential, the authors argue that these practices may have unexpected consequences, and that peace and happiness may not always be the end result. Offering a compelling examination of research on transcendental meditation to recent brain-imaging studies on the effects of mindfulness and yoga, and with fascinating contributions from spiritual teachers and therapists, Farias and Wikholm weave together a unique story about the science and the delusions of personal change.