Spirituality Buddhism

A new, four-stage approach to the popular Buddhist practice known as loving-kindness meditation, with the aim of finding unconditional love in our own hearts, in our relationships, and in our perception of the world around us. The unconditional love that we all long for - in our own lives and in the world around us - can be awakened effectively with this unique approach to the Tibetan Buddhist practice of loving-kindness meditation.

The Surangama Sutra, one of the most important works of Mahayana Buddhism, dates from some time before the 8th Century when the first Chinese translation was written, probably from an Indian original. It has long been a seminal work for Buddhist practitioners in East and South-East Asia, especially China and Korea. Indeed this “Sutra of the Indestructible”, as it is often translated, is regarded as a staple manual of practice for newly-ordained monks of the Ch'an and Zen schools, giving instruction, through the words of the Buddha himself.

The Dhammapada is a work familiar to every devout Buddhist and to every serious student of Buddhism. This small collection of 423 verses on the Buddha’s doctrine is so rich in insights, that it might be considered the perfect compendium of the Dhamma in its practical dimensions. Learn more about this central text in this audiobook.

Dzigar Kongtrul met ici à la portée de tous ce thème clé du bouddhisme tibétain : le tséwa. Qu'est-ce que le tséwa ? Comment activer cette qualité et vaincre les résistances, les attachements du moi qui s'y opposent ? Dzigar Kongtrul prend l'amour maternel comme modèle : avant même de savoir qui est ou ce que deviendra le nouveau-né, une mère aime son enfant de façon inconditionnelle. Voilà le mouvement initial du tséwa.

The Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path, classically taught by the Buddha in the Dharmacakra Pravartana Sutra, read by Emma Hignett.

From jewelry to meditation pillows to tourist retreats, religious traditions are being commodified as never before. Imitated and rebranded as “new age” or “spiritual,” they are marketed to secular Westerners as an answer to suffering in the modern world. In Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi, Sophia Rose Arjana examines the appropriation and sale of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam in the West today, the role of mysticism and Orientalism in the religious marketplace, and how the commodification of religion impacts people’s lives.

A new look at Advaita through the eyes of the most unlikely of sages - Wayne Liquorman. Wayne is a former alcoholic and drug addict who shortly after being “struck sober” began a spiritual quest that led him to his guru, Ramesh Balsekar, and then to Ultimate Understanding. Wayne’s expression of his spiritual understanding is at once irreverent and profound. We laugh sometimes joyously, sometimes uncomfortably, but always with the recognition that we are in the presence of a master. Edited from talks at Wayne’s house by Catherine Asche.

Leigh takes you on a 10-day journey of meditative vipassana retreat two years after suffering multiple strokes at the age of 38, abruptly cutting short a fast-paced lifestyle complete with the city job, big house, and fancy car. Ten days of no technology, no talking, and no connection! Beautifully and boldly told, this is a story for anyone interested in the 2,500-year-old tradition of vipassana or curious about how a very sociable, chatty, tech-addicted guy handled sitting in silence for 10 days after relinquishing his smartphone!

The Spirit of Harriet Tubman, who was called the Moses of her people, is rising again, and we can call forth her spirit to embody incredible strength and unwavering courage. Combining direct transmissions of Harriet's message with insightful explorations of her life and legacy, this extraordinary book gives us support and inspiration to deepen our roots of resilience and become powerful conductors of love and truth in our own lives.

Miguel’s realistic. He knows it’ll never be all sunshine and peaches. And yet, he is (for the most part) at peace with the world and with himself. It shocks even him sometimes. But he’s come to see the interconnectedness of all things, the beauty of life...even the parts that suck. Each short chapter ends with a hands-on practice that the listener can put into action right away - and each practice offers a distilled “TL;DL” takeaway point.

This book shows how we can move beyond secular mindfulness and compassion techniques to the cultivation of insight - seeing into and thereby becoming free of the repetitive thinking that keeps us trapped in cycles of suffering. Most books in the secular mindfulness tradition stop with mindfulness and self-compassion but do little to uncover the root causes of our suffering. Drawing on both Buddhist analyses of mind and current findings in psychology and neuroscience, the book explains how our thinking becomes fixed through our engaging with unconscious preferences and reactions.

With Transitory Nature, radical Buddhist and spiritual guide Sue Hunt walks listeners through a nine-month Consciousness Design Process to dismantle Binary Worldview and challenge existing hierarchies of power. From our interactions with our inner selves, to how we interface with both the public sphere and our own intergenerational inheritance and cultural programming, Hunt shows how liberation lies in stepping into the contemplative vision of self and surrounding reality which she terms “non-binary worldview".

Breath Perception is your companion to understanding the power of breath and using it as a tool to improve your physical and mental health. Partly because we take breath for granted and do not work with it, we are somewhat unaware of the potential it holds to reduce stress, change metabolism, and increase our supply of energy. Breath Perception presents 261 simple exercises - one for every Monday through Friday - for using breath to attain greater well-being.

"Everyone dies, but no one is dead," goes the Tibetan saying. It is with these words that Advice on Dying takes flight. Using a 17th-century poem written by a prominent scholar-practitioner, His Holiness the Dalai Lama draws from a wide range of traditions and beliefs to explore the stages we all go through when we die, which are the very same stages we experience in life when we go to sleep, faint, or reach orgasm (Shakespeare's "little death").

In these chapters, the Karmapa shares his vision for bringing social action into daily life, on a scale we can realistically manage through the choices we make every day - what to buy, what to eat, and how to relate honestly and bravely with our friends and family and coworkers. His fresh and encouraging perspective shows us that we have the strength to live with kindness in the midst of the many challenges we face as socially and environmentally conscious beings.

Listeners will be awakened by deep spiritual truths within this famous poem as Walters sings the verses, reads the quatrains, and follows each with Yogananda's expanded, clarified meaning.

Perpetually bored, anxious, fatigued, and overweight, modern society has failed to deliver the happiness it promised. The remedy, Jevan Pradas argues, is in a unique synthesis of a Paleolithic lifestyle and Buddhist meditation. A sprawling journey, featuring Jevan's adventures with naked Amazonian tribes and retreats with enlightened monks to learn the secrets of optimal well-being, The Awakened Ape will teach you how to achieve deep states of bliss. All while shaping your body into the fit and healthy animal millions of years of evolution programmed you to be.

Originally written in 1955 and now published for the first time in audiobook form, Wake Up is Kerouac's retelling of the life of Prince Siddartha Gotama, who as a young man abandoned his wealthy family and comfortable home for a lifelong searchfor Enlightenment. Distilled from a wide variety of canonical scriptures, Wake Up serves as both a penetrating account of the Buddha's life and a concise primer on the principal teachings of Buddhism.

On the spiritual path we speak of enlightenment. But how do we reconcile the idea of enlightenment with what we see when we look in the mirror - when insecurities, doubts, and self-centered tendencies arise in our minds? Dzigar Kongtrül suggests that we need not feel "doomed" when these experiences surface. In fact, such experiences are not a problem if we are able to simply let them arise without judging them or investing them with so much meaning. This approach to experience is what Kongtrül calls self-reflection.

With war and violence flaring all over the world, many of us are left feeling vulnerable and utterly helpless. In this book Pema Chödrön draws on Buddhist teachings to explore the origins of aggression, hatred, and war, explaining that they lie nowhere but within our own hearts and minds. She goes on to explain that the way in which we as individuals respond to challenges in our everyday lives can either perpetuate a culture of violence or create a new culture of compassion.