Autobiography of a Yogi
by Paramahansa Yogananda, W. Y. Evans-Wentz
Listed under Yogananda
Anger
: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
by Nhat Hanh, et al
Anger can be one of the most frustrating emotions, carrying us headlong
away from ourselves and depositing us into separation and dismay. Vietnamese
monk and world teacher Thich Nhat Hanh tackles this most difficult of emotions
in Anger. A master at putting complex ideas into simple, colorful packages,
Nhat Hanh tells us that, fundamentally, to be angry is to suffer, and that
it is our responsibility to alleviate our own suffering. The way to do
this is not to fight our emotions or to "let it all out" but to transform
ourselves through mindfulness. Emphasizing our basic interdependence, he
teaches us how to help others through deep listening and how to water the
positive seeds in those around us while starving the negative seeds. Serious
though lighthearted, Anger is a handbook not only for transforming anger
but for living each moment beautifully. --Brian Bruya - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 227 pages
Riverhead Books; ISBN: 1573221872; (September 10, 2001)
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
by Dalai Lama, et al
Listed under Dalai Lama
An
Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life
by Bstan-Dzin-Rgya-Mtsho, et al
In the summer of 1999, the Dalai Lama addressed an audience of over
40,000 in Central Park on how to live a better life. Open Heart is derived
from this and other popular lectures given in New York. Here, the Dalai
Lama progresses beyond his bestsellers The Art of Happiness and Ethics
for the New Millennium by introducing specific practices that can engender
happiness. Spiritual practice, according to the Dalai Lama, is a matter
of taming unwanted emotions, which means becoming aware of how the mind
works. Through the methods of analytical and settled meditation, the Dalai
Lama shows how we can cultivate helpful states of mind and eliminate harmful
states, leading us to develop compassion for others and happiness for ourselves.
But there is no preaching of a single, right method. This revered but humble
monk merely invites the reader to understand the causes of one's suffering
and consider how best to alleviate it. Open Heart should draw crowds to
the bookstores and lead us all to more satisfactory living. --Brian
Bruya - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 208 pages
Little Brown & Company; ISBN: 0316989797; 1st edition
(September 25, 2001)
Bones of the Master : A Journey to Secret Mongolia
by George Crane
Listed under Mongolia
Buddha
(Penguin Lives)
by Karen Armstrong
Books on Buddhism may overflow the shelves, but the life story of the
Buddha himself has remained obscure despite over 2,500 years of influence
on millions of people around the world. In an attempt to rectify this,
and to make the Buddha and Buddhism accessible to Westerners, the beloved
scholar and author of such sweeping religious studies as A History of God
has written a readable, sophisticated, and somewhat unconventional biography
of one of the most influential people of all time. Buddha himself fought
against the cult of personality, and the Buddhist scriptures were faithful,
giving few details of his life and personality. Karen Armstrong mines these
early scriptures, as well as later biographies, then fleshes the story
out with an explanation of the cultural landscape of the 6th century B.C.,
creating a deft blend of biography, history, philosophy, and mythology.
At the age of 29, Siddhartha Gautama walked away from the insulated
pleasure palace that had been his home and joined a growing force of wandering
monks searching for spiritual enlightenment during an age of upheaval.
Armstrong traces Gautama's journey through yoga and asceticism and grounds
it in the varied religious teachings of the time. In many parts of the
world during this so-called axial age, new religions were developing as
a response to growing urbanization and market forces. Yet each shared a
common impulse--they placed faith increasingly on the individual who was
to seek inner depth rather than magical control. Taoism and Confucianism,
Hinduism, monotheism in the Middle East and Iran, and Greek rationalism
were all emerging as Gautama made his determined way towards enlightenment
under the boddhi tree and during the next 45 years that he spent teaching
along the banks of the Ganges. Armstrong, in her intelligent and clarifying
style, is quick to point out the Buddha's relevance to our own time of
transition, struggle, and spiritual void in both
his approach--which was based on skepticism and empiricism--and his
teachings. Despite the lack of typical historical documentation, Armstrong
has written a rich and revealing description of both a unique time in history
and an unusual man. Buddha is a terrific primer for those interested in
the origins and fundamentals of Buddhism. --Lesley Reed - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 205 pages
Viking Press; ISBN: 0670891932; (February 15, 2001)
The
Buddha in Your Mirror : Practical Buddhism and the Search for Self
by Woody Hochswender, et al
Paperback: 248 pages
Middleway Press; ISBN: 0967469783; (October 2001)
Buddhism
Plain and Simple
by Steve Hagen
(Paperback -- December 29, 1998)
The
Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Strategies for Managing Your Business and
Your Life
by Michael Roach
(Hardcover -- February 15, 2000)
Emotional
Alchemy : How the Mind Can Heal the Heart
by Tara Bennett-Goleman
According to ancient legends, alchemists use a magical philosopher's
stone to transmute lead into gold. In Emotional Alchemy, Tara Bennett-Goleman
shows readers how they can use this alchemist metaphor to transform emotional
confusion (lead) into insightful clarity (gold). And what does the magic
stone represent? "Mindfulness," a lifelong practice that can bring readers
more joy and contentment than the gold, according to Bennett-Goleman. "Mindfulness
means seeing things as they are without trying to change them," she writes.
"The point is to dissolve our reactions to disturbing emotions, being careful
not to reject the emotion itself." Those who have never entered this practice
will find a concise and articulate teacher in Bennett-Goleman, who leads
national workshops with her husband, author Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence).
What make this book such an exciting breakthrough is Bennett-Goleman's
ability to apply Buddhist mindfulness to Western psychology. She shows
how emotional alchemy can be used to address typical habits, such as mistrust,
fear of rejection, feeling unlovable. Readers will also find fascinating
scientific facts on how emotional alchemy affects brain chemistry and even
cancer survival. --Gail Hudson - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 341 pages
Harmony Books; ISBN: 0609607529; (January 9, 2001)
A
Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night: A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way
of Life (Shambhala Dragon Editions)
by Bstan- Dzin-Rgya-Mtsho, et al
(Paperback -- April 1994)
How to Practice : The Way to a Meaningful Life
by His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Listed under Dalai Lama
The
Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy,
& Liberation: The Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and
Other
by Thich Nhat Hanh
What should we think when on the one hand Buddhism tells us that life
is suffering and on the other we are told to enjoy life's every moment?
Loved around the world for his simple, straightforward explanations of
Buddhism, Thich Nhat Hanh has finally turned his hand to the very core
of Buddhism and conundrums such as this. In the traditional way, Thich
Nhat Hanh takes up the core teachings one by one--the Four Noble Truths,
the Noble Eightfold Path, the Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising--but
his approach is as fresh as a soft breeze through a plum orchard. For illustration,
he dips into the vast stores of Buddhist literature right alongside contemporary
anecdotes, pointing out subtleties that can get glossed over in other popular
introductions. He also includes three short but key sutras, essential source
teachings from which all Buddhism flows. Studying the basics of Buddhism
under Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is like learning basketball from Michael
Jordan. --Brian Bruya - Amazon.com
(Paperback -- May 4, 1999)
If
the Buddha Dated: A Handbook for Finding Love on a Spiritual Path
by Charlotte Sophia, Phd. Kasl, Charlotte Davis Kasl
(Paperback -- February 1999)
In Defense of Dharma: Just-War Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka
by Tessa J. Bartholomeusz
Listed under Sri Lanka
A
Path With Heart : A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual
Life
by Jack Kornfield
In undertaking a spiritual life, we must make certain that our path
is connected with our heart, according to author and Buddhist monk Jack
Kornfield. Since 1974 (long before it gained popularity in the 1990s),
Kornfield has been teaching westerners how to integrate Eastern teaching
into their daily lives. Through generous storytelling and unmitigated warmth,
Kornfield offers this excellent guidebook on living with attentiveness,
meditation, and full-tilt compassion. Part of what makes this book so accessible
is Kornfield's use of everyday metaphors to describe the elusive lessons
of spiritual transformation. For example, he opens with "the one seat"
lesson taught to him by his esteemed teacher. Literally it means sitting
in the center of a room and not being swayed or moved by all the people
and dramas happening around you. On a spiritual level it means sticking
"with one practice and teacher among all of the possibilities," writes
Kornfield; "inwardly it means having the determination to stick with that
practice through whatever difficulties and doubts arise until you have
come to true clarity and understanding." The same could be said for this
"one book." Among all the spiritual self-help books, this is a classic
worth sticking with and returning to--a highly approachable teacher that
can only lead to greater clarity and understanding. --Gail Hudson - Amazon.com
Paperback: 352 pages
Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd Pap); ISBN: 0553372114;
(July 1993)
Peace
Is Every Step : The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
by Thich Nhat Hanh, Arnold Kotler (Editor)
Thich Nhat Hanh's writing is deceptive in its subtlety. He'll go on
and on with stories about tree-hugging or metaphors involving raw potatoes;
he'll tell you how to eat mindfully, even how to breathe and walk; he'll
suggest looking closely at a flower and to see the sun as your heart. As
the Zen teacher Richard Baker commented, however, Nhat Hanh is "a cross
between a cloud, a snail, and piece of heavy machinery." Sooner or later,
it begins to sink in that Nhat Hanh is conveying a depth of psychology
and a world outlook that require nothing less than a complete paradigm
shift. Through his cute stories and compassionate admonitions, he gradually
builds up to his philosophy of interbeing, the notion that none of us is
separately, but rather that we inter-are. The ramifications are explosive.
How can we mindlessly and selfishly pursue our individual ends, when we
are inextricably bound up with everyone and everything else? We see an
enemy not as focus of anger but as a human with a complex history, who
could be us if we had the same history. Suffice it to say, that after reading
Peace Is Every Step, you'll never look at a plastic bag the same way again,
and you may even develop a penchant for hugging trees. --Brian Bruya
- Amazon.com
Paperback: 134 pages
Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553351397; Reissue edition (March
1992)
The
Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
by Pema Chodron
Pema Chödrön may have more good one-liners than a Groucho Marx retrospective,
but this nun's stingers go straight to the heart: "The essence of bravery
is being without self-deception"; "When we practice generosity, we become
intimate with our grasping"; "Difficult people are the greatest teachers."
These are the punctuations to specific teachings of fearlessness. In The
Places That Scare You, Chödrön introduces a host of the compassionate
warriors' tools and concepts for transforming anxieties and negative emotions
into positive living. Rather than steeling ourselves against hardship,
she suggests we open ourselves to vulnerability; from this comes the loving
kindness and compassion that are the wellsprings of joy. How do we achieve
it? Through meditation, mindfulness, slogans, aspiration, and several other
practices, such as tonglen, which is taking in the pain and suffering of
others while sending out happiness to all--emphasis on the all. Chödrön
introduces each of these practices in turn, backing them up with succinct
practical reasoning and a framework of ideas that offers fresh interpretations
of familiar words like strength, laziness, and groundlessness. Chödrön
is the type of person you'd like to have with you in an emergency, and
to deal with the extremes of daily life. In her absence, The Places That
Scare You will do nicely. --Brian Bruya - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 144 pages
Shambhala Publications; ISBN: 1570624097; (August 21,
2001) |
| |
Open
Your Mind, Open Your Life: A Little Book of Eastern Wisdom
by Taro Gold
Hardcover: 96 pages
Andrews McMeel Publishing; ISBN: 0740714465; Miniature
edition (April 2001)
The
Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom : With the Divisions of the Abhisamayalankara
Paperback - 697 pages Reprint edition (February 1985)
University of California Press; ISBN: 0520053214
One
Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism
by Joseph Goldstein
(Hardcover -- June 4, 2002)
The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects
by Alexandra David-Neel
Listed under Alexandra David-Neel
Throwing
the Elephant: Zen and the Art of Managing Up
by Stanley Bing
(Hardcover -- March 15, 2002)
The
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
by Satchidananda, et al
(Paperback -- October 1990)
Shoes
Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center
by Michael Downing
Why did the richest, most influential, highest flying Zen center in
America crash and burn in 1983? Novelist Michael Downing wondered the same
thing, and after three years of interviewing members and poring over documents,
his Shoes Outside the Door tells the story. Womanizing, BMW-driving Richard
Baker was the abbot and visionary behind the rapid growth of the San Francisco
Zen Center, but in many ways he was the antithesis of his teacher and predecessor,
the inimitable and revered Shunryu Suzuki, who would choose the bruised
apples out of compassion. After the early death of Suzuki, a blind and
driven cult formed around Baker, seemingly filling the void until this
"Dick Nixon of Zen" finally slept with his best friend's wife and brought
his world crashing to the ground. Working with direct quotations from students
and workers of the Center and its many enterprises, Downing delivers a
page-turning exposé of a community that is as laudable as it is laughable.
And as an outsider to both the community and Buddhism, he does it with
wit and an even hand. --Brian Bruya - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 384 pages
Counterpoint Press; ISBN: 1582431132; (October 16, 2001)
When
Things Fall Apart : Heart Advice for Difficult Times
by Pema Chodron
Much like Zen, Pema Chodron's interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism takes
the form of a nontheistic spiritualism. In When Things Fall Apart this
head of a Tibetan monastery in Canada outlines some relevant and deceptively
profound terms of Tibetan Buddhism that are germane to modern issues. The
key to all of these terms is accepting that in the final analysis, life
is groundless. By letting go, we free ourselves to face fear and obstacles
and offer ourselves unflinchingly to others. The graceful, conversational
tone of Chodron's writing gives the impression of sitting on a pillow across
from her, listening to her everyday examples of Buddhist wisdom. Amazon.com
Paperback: 147 pages Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1570623449; (September 12, 2000)
What
the Buddha Taught
by Walpola Sri Rahula, Paul Demieville (Foreword)
Beneath the enormous umbrella of Buddhism, there is a diverse galaxy
of customs and beliefs, but there is also a kernel of truth that every
sect holds dear. Rahula Walpola, scholar and monk, discovers this foundation
of Buddhism for us first through straightforward explication, never skipping
over a point that has yet to be substantiated, then through translations
from key scriptures. Logical and focused, these are the essentials of Buddhism;
know them first, then move comfortably on to other Buddhist works. Amazon.com
(Paperback -- April 1986)
What
Would Buddha Do at Work? 101 Answers to Workplace Dilemmas
by Franz Metcalf, BJ Gallagher Hateley
ith the better part of our lives spent at work, it's a wonder there
aren't more books devoted to practical living in the workplace. Franz Metcalf,
a Buddhist scholar and author of What Would Buddha Do? has teamed up with
management consultant BJ Gallagher Hateley to apply the Buddha's insights
to life on the job. What would Buddha do at work? Of course, he'd quit
and go find a comfortable spot in the forest to meditate. But those of
us for whom early retirement is not an option can still profit from the
Buddha's wisdom. Buddha's advice is not always obvious but certainly always
helpful. What would Buddha do to get promoted? To influence others? To
maintain job security? The answer to the first two questions is that he
would simply do his job well. You would think that would also be the answer
to the third question. But for the third, our authors teach us the Buddhist
notion of impermanence--that in a world that is always changing, job security
is an illusion. So although the Buddha himself was focused on liberation,
he also offered guidance for the workaday world that, with elaboration
from Metcalf add Gallagher Hateley, can itself prove liberating. --Brian
Bruya - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 180 pages
Ulysses Pr; ISBN: 1569753008; (July 10, 2001)
The
Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving-Kindness (Shambhala Classics)
by Pema Chodron
(Paperback -- August 21, 2001)
The Work of Kings : The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka
by H. L. Seneviratne
Listed under Sri Lanka
Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game
by Joseph Parent
Listed under Golf
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
by Robert M. Pirsig
Listed under Robert M Pirsig
The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation; Or, the Method of Realizing
Nirvana Through Knowing the Mind
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