The Human Buddha

The Message for the New Millennium presents a vision of Awakening which reveals the human face of the Buddha. It is essential at this moment in our evolution to return to a more realistic perspective of enlightenment. Most seekers cannot relate to the concept of enlightenment for they feel intimidated by the image of the 'flawless' Buddha. Here, The Human Buddha is no longer a spiritual superman who denies natural longings, desires and human imperfections. The Human Buddha is indeed a sensitive being, a child of the Beloved like all of us. The Human Buddha openly acknowledges the gentle and vulnerable quality of his or her heart.

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.

Critically exploring medical thought in a cultural milieu with no discernible influence from the European Enlightenment, Being Human in a Buddhist World reveals an otherwise unnoticed intersection of early modern sensibilities and religious values in traditional Tibetan medicine. It further studies the adaptation of Buddhist concepts and values to medical concerns and suggests important dimensions of Buddhism's role in the development of Asian and global civilization. Through its unique focus and sophisticated reading of source materials, Being Human adds a crucial chapter in the larger historiography of science and religion. The book opens with the bold achievements in Tibetan medical illustration, commentary, and institution building during the period of the Fifth Dalai Lama and his regent, Desi Sangye Gyatso, then looks back to the work of earlier thinkers, tracing a strategically astute dialectic between scriptural and empirical authority on questions of history and the nature of human anatomy. It follows key differences between medicine and Buddhism in attitudes toward gender and sex and the moral character of the physician, who had to serve both the patient's and the practitioner's well-being. Being Human in a Buddhist World ultimately finds that Tibetan medical scholars absorbed ethical and epistemological categories from Buddhism yet shied away from ideal systems and absolutes, instead embracing the imperfectability of the human condition.

In writing that sparkles and inspires, Anne Klein (Lama Rigzin Drolma) shows us how to liberate our buddha nature to be both human and a buddha too. This first volume in the House of Adzom series centers on Longchenpa’s seven trainings in bodhicitta, our awakened mind, the ultimate purpose of our practice and training. Anne Klein’s original composition masterfully weaves in Adzom Paylo Rinpoche’s commentary and Jigme Lingpa’s five pith practices and commentary on the trainings, in keeping with Longchenpa’s skillful integration of sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen, to resolve our most challenging questions about what awakening involves and how it relates to the truth of our human situation right now. As foundational teachings for Dzogchen practitioners, the seven trainings are framed as contemplations on impermanence, the adventitiousness of happiness and its short duration, the multiple causes of death, the meaninglessness of our worldly activities, reliance on the Buddha’s good qualities, the teacher’s pith instructions, and, ultimately, nonconceptual meditation on bliss and emptiness, clarity and emptiness, and reality itself.

From one of America’s most brilliant writers, a New York Times bestselling journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. At the heart of Buddhism is a simple claim: The reason we suffer—and the reason we make other people suffer—is that we don’t see the world clearly. At the heart of Buddhist meditative practice is a radical promise: We can learn to see the world, including ourselves, more clearly and so gain a deep and morally valid happiness. In this “sublime” (The New Yorker), pathbreaking book, Robert Wright shows how taking this promise seriously can change your life—how it can loosen the grip of anxiety, regret, and hatred, and how it can deepen your appreciation of beauty and of other people. He also shows why this transformation works, drawing on the latest in neuroscience and psychology, and armed with an acute understanding of human evolution. This book is the culmination of a personal journey that began with Wright’s landmark book on evolutionary psychology, The Moral Animal, and deepened as he immersed himself in meditative practice and conversed with some of the world’s most skilled meditators. The result is a story that is “provocative, informative and...deeply rewarding” (The New York Times Book Review), and as entertaining as it is illuminating. Written with the wit, clarity, and grace for which Wright is famous, Why Buddhism Is True lays the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age and shows how, in a time of technological distraction and social division, we can save ourselves from ourselves, both as individuals and as a species.

“Sapiens doesn't mean being smart - it means being smart enough to know the most suitable, productive and progressive combination of intellect and emotions in a certain situation and to make that combination manifest most graciously through behavior.” Abhijit Naskar, a globally acclaimed author delves deep into the neuronal realm of one of humanity’s most glorious teachers—Buddha. Naskar unravels the neuropsychological processes underneath the divine enlightenment of Buddha and thereafter the rise of the religion known as Buddhism. In his captivating explanatory ways, Naskar takes us inside the protoplasmic realm of the mind of Siddhartha Gautama, more popularly known as Buddha and reveals to us how the rowdy attitude and actions of this conscientious man shook the very foundation of religious orthodoxy in the fifth century BC. “Rowdy Buddha” is the work of a twenty-first century humanitarian thinker about one of his earliest predecessors from the fifth century BC.

Edited version of several talks previously published separately in Chinese.

Many people who are drawn to Buddhism today are seeking for spiritual knowledge as opposed to simple faith or sectarian belief. Hermann Beckh had a profound personal connection to the Buddhist path and the noble truths it contains, yet he was also dedicated to a radical renewal of Christianity. Assimilating the groundbreaking research of Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), Beckh’s comprehension of Buddhism was neither limited to historical documents nor scholarly research in philology. Rather, from his inner meditation and spiritual understanding, he saw the earlier great world religions as waymarks for humanity’s evolving consciousness. In the modern world, the apprehension of Christianity needed to be grounded firmly in a universally-valid, inner cognition and experience: ‘In this light, knowledge becomes life.’ Hermann Beckh – Professor of Tibetan Studies and Sanskrit in Berlin, subsequently a founding priest of The Christian Community – first published this mature study in 1925. Having already produced the comprehensive Buddha’s Life and Teaching in 1916, Beckh’s sweeping perspectives combined with his extensive academic knowledge provided a unique grounding for authoring this work. As he notes, From Buddha to Christ follows a path of development, ‘both of method and goal’. Thus, studying this book is itself a path of knowledge and potential initiation. Beckh’s universal insights remain relevant – and if anything have gained in value – to twenty-first century readers. This edition features an additional essay, ‘Steiner and Buddha: Neo-Buddhist Spiritual Streams and Anthroposophy’ (1931), in which Beckh, for the first and last time, explains his lifelong personal connection to the Buddhist path.