English Buddha

In Great Buddha Gym for All Mens and Womens, author Sallie Tisdale so richly evokes her pilgrimage to the four vital sites related to Buddha Shakyamuni's life and enlightenment that the listener feels as if she's tripping alongside Tisdale every crowded, colorful, and sensuous step of the way. The challenges of travel in modern India are daunting. The ancient sites are overrun with tourists and seekers. Merchants hawking spiritual goods are everywhere.

Do you see the meditativeness of the trees surrounding you? Such stillness! Just as you are listening to me, they are listening to me, not even a leaf moving. The birds are singing.

The Web site Tiny Buddha began as a quote-a-day Twitter account, @tinybuddha, in 2008. Lori Deschene's daily wisdom posts about mindfulness, nonattachment, and happiness became so popular that she now has more than 200,000 Twitter followers who share quotes and stories about inspiration in their daily lives.

Hell realms, gods, and hungry ghosts - these are just a few of the images on the Buddhist wheel of life. In Awakening from the Daydream, discover how these ancient symbols are still relevant to our modern life. In Awakening from the Daydream, meditation teacher David Nichtern reimagines the ancient Buddhist allegory of the Wheel of Life. Famously painted at the entryway to Buddhist monasteries, the Wheel of Life encapsulates the entirety of the human situation.

Psychologists Dr Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm explore the human ambition for personal change and its possible illusions, with a focus on yoga and meditation. They examine the psychological and biological evidence, from early research on transcendental meditation to recent brain-imaging studies on mindfulness. They also include personal accounts from practitioners, as well as recounting their own experiences of testing the effects of meditation and yoga on incarcerated criminals.

What is the Dharma? To walk in the footsteps of the Buddha we need a clear and thorough guide to the essential principles of Buddhism. Whether we have just begun our journey or are a practitioner with more experience, What is the Dharma? is an indispensable exploration of the Buddha's teachings as found in the main Buddhist traditions. Constantly returning to the question "how can this help me?", Sangharakshita examines a variety of fundamental principles.

The Book of Buddha traces the various stages of the spiritual journey undertaken by a man who started out as Siddhartha the Seeker, achieved understanding as Shakyamuni the Sage, and attained supremacy as Tathagata the Master - finally reaching transcendence as Jina the Victor when he was transformed into the Buddha and became the Enlightened One. Combining personal insight with a deep understanding of Buddhist philosophy, Arundhathi Subramaniam gives the listener a sensitive and revealing portrait of the Buddha and his role in shaping and transfiguring the course of history.

In Sit Down and Shut Up, Brad Warner tackles one of the great works of Zen literature, the Shobogenzo by 13th century Zen master Dogen. Illuminating Dogen's enigmatic teachings in plain language, Warner intertwines sharp philosophical musings on sex, evil, anger, meditation, enlightenment, death, God, sin, and happiness with an exploration of the power and pain of the punk rock ethos.

It is common in both Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis to treat desire as if it is the root of all suffering and problems, but psychiatrist Mark Epstein believes this to be a grave misunderstanding. In his controversial defense of desire, he makes clear that it is the key to deepening intimacy with ourselves, each other, and our world. Proposing that spiritual attainment does not have to be detached from intimacy or eroticism, Open to Desire begins with an exploration of the state of dissatisfaction that causes us to cling to irrational habits.

In this book, Mark Westmoquette speaks from a place of profound personal experience. A Zen monk, he has endured two life-changing traumas caused by other people: his sexual abuse by his own father, and his stepfather’s death and mother’s very serious injury in a car crash due to the careless driving of an off-duty policeman. He stresses that by bringing awareness and kindness to these relationships, our initial stance of “I can’t stand this person, they need to change” will naturally shift into something much broader and more inclusive.

The wise and insightful "If the Buddha" books have won Charlotte Kasl thousands of devoted fans. In her latest work, she turns her attention to parenthood, a stage of life that leaves most of us searching for answers. If the Buddha Had Kids applies Kasl's signature blend of spiritual guidelines, exercises, and practical advice to help parents raise peacemakers in our increasingly turbulent times, emphasizing that finding peace within a family is the first step toward creating a peaceful world.

From the moment of his birth, Siddhartha Gautama never doubted his specialness. He arrived with magnificently webbed digits and could lick his own earlobes. His karma had been that good. Thus, the question was never whether he would become a king, but rather, what type of king he would become. Siddhartha's journey took a sudden spiritual turn when he came to the first of his many realizations: things die, and before they die, they suffer, a lot, for real.

The Dhammapada is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. Each saying was made on a different occasion in response to a unique situation that had arisen in the life of the Buddha and his monastic community. It is a good introductory primer on Buddhist thought.

Drawn from the sacred books of Buddhism, this collection reveals the insights and beliefs at the heart of the world’s fourth-largest religion. Siddhartha Guatama, a sixth-century Hindu warrior prince, renounced the world in his search for the meaning of life and became the Buddha, or “Enlightened One,” while meditating at Bodh Gaya. From that moment forward the Buddha sought to share his own enlightenment with all of mankind.

In the heart of ancient India, amidst the opulence of palaces and the cries of suffering, one man embarks on a journey that will change the course of history. Siddhartha Gautama, the heir to a kingdom, forsakes his princely comforts in search of something greater: the elusive truth beyond worldly riches. Driven by an insatiable thirst for understanding, Siddhartha wanders the lands, encountering the depths of human suffering and the fleeting pleasures of existence.

While many accounts of the Buddha’s life mix legend and history, this compelling new biography discriminates between fact and fiction to reveal Gautama, the remarkable human being behind the myth, and sheds new light on his teachings. Plunging us into the noises, smells and jostling streets of Gautama’s world, Vishvapani Blomfield brings the Buddha to life as a passionate and determined individual - a strikingly modern figure who rejected contemporary beliefs.

One of the earliest of all Buddhist texts, the Atthakavagga, or Book of Eights, is a remarkable document, not only because it comes from the earliest strain of the literature - before the Buddha, as the title suggests, came to be thought of as a "Buddhist" - but also because its approach to awakening is so simple and free of adherence to any kind of ideology. Instead the Atthakavagga points to a direct and simple approach for attaining peace without requiring the adherence to doctrine.

The Tao of Tranquility is the definitive translation and explanation of the Qingjing Jing, the Taoist classic from the Tang Dynasty more than a 1,000 years ago. It has a special place in the history of Eastern thought, because it is the only sutra to weave Tao insights and Buddhist teachings together. This forms a wondrous tapestry of enlightenment and creates a synergistic fusion that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Now, for the first time, Western listeners can explore this ancient treasure and reap the benefits of its wisdom.

The Eightfold Path is the most widely known formulation of the Buddha's teaching. It is ancient, reaching back to the Buddha's very first discourse, and it is highly venerated as a unique treasury of wisdom and practical guidance. The teaching of the Eightfold Path challenges us to grasp the implications of that vision, and asks us to transform ourselves in its light. Like the teaching itself, this work covers every aspect of life.

Time to Stand Up retells the story of the historical Buddha, one of the greatest sacred activists of all time, as a practical human being whose teachings of freedom from suffering are more relevant than ever in this time of global peril. Evolving onward from the patriarchal template of spiritual warriors and their quests, former nun Thanissara explores awakening from within a feminine view where the archetypes of lover and nurturer are placed as central and essential for a sustainable world.