Spirituality Buddhism

Mention creativity, and what comes to mind? For many of us, creativity is the province of someone with a singular gift toiling away in service to their art. From this perspective, creativity is a solitary endeavor - the struggle of the individual to express their distinctive vision to the world. But what if we looked at creativity through a wider lens, as a dynamic force that animates us and connects us with every being on the planet? From this perspective, creativity is not just a spark igniting the fire of inspiration.

Friends Big Panda and Tiny Dragon journey through the seasons of the year together, day and night, in rain and in sun. Travelling through nature, they find hope and inspiration in the world around them, realising that even in the darkest of days, spring will always return. Feel the calming influence of Big Panda, who reminds us of the bigger picture while appreciating the simplicity of small moments. Explore your surroundings with the inquisitive eye of Tiny Dragon, our friend who is big in heart if not in stature.

Written in India in the early eighth century CE, Santideva's The Bodhicaryavatara takes as its subject the profound desire to become a Buddha and save all beings from suffering. The person who enacts such a desire is a Bodhisattva. Santideva not only sets out what the Bodhisattva must do and become; he also invokes the intense feelings of aspiration which underlie such a commitment, using language which has inspired Buddhists in their religious lives from his time to the present.

A collection of Zen stories to amuse and illuminate. Includes all the stories from classic Zen literature: 101 Zen Stories, The Gateless Gate, The Ten Bulls and Centering. Includes the soundtrack The Mysterious Sound of Wind In the Bamboo - a 43 minute collection of Zen inspired Japanese music by The Matsu Take Ensemble.

In this collection of inspirational writings, novice and experienced practitioners are treated to four key works that rank high in the Zen canon: 101 Zen Stories recounts actual experiences with Zen that span five centuries. The Gateless Gate is a 13th-century collection of mind problems used in the practice of Zen. Ten Bulls is a 12th-century commentary on the stages of awareness that lead to enlightenment. Centering is a 4,000-year-old teaching from India that may have been the source of Zen.

In this collection of never-before-published teachings by Charlotte Joko Beck, one of the most influential Western-born Zen teachers, she explores our “core beliefs” - the hidden, negative convictions we hold about ourselves that direct our thoughts and behavior and prevent us from experiencing life as it is. Wryly humorous and relatable, Beck uses powerfully clear language to show how our lives present us with daily opportunities to move from thinking to experiencing, from compulsivity to confidence, and from anguish to peace.

Devenez un maître de l'art du bonheur avec le livre unique de Chris Prentiss ! Vivre zen, c'est entreprendre chaque action avec une concentration, un calme et une simplicité qui apportent l'illumination de l'esprit et, à travers cette expérience, le bonheur et la sérénité. La science, comme la spiritualité, nous apprend que notre esprit, nos pensées, nos sentiments ont un effet déterminant sur notre corps, jusqu'au cœur de nos cellules.

One of Thich Nhat Hanh’s most beloved books, The Sun My Heart contains the journey, on the path of everyday practice, from mindfulness to insight. Using the objects and events of everyday life in his hermitage in Plum Village—the gradual settling of the pulp in a glass of apple juice or the wind blowing into the room and scattering papers about—Thich Nhat Hanh draws from Buddhist psychology, epistemology, and the world of contemporary literature and science to guide the reader along the path of clarity and understanding.

A book that brings to light the true essence of Buddhism as a religion that inspires in each one of us a yearning for a higher and better life, one full of virtue, spiritual joy, and service to fellow human beings. A book that firmly reminds us that every man must be a fabricator of his own salvation, that The Buddha does not proclaim himself to be a savior but only professes to teach us the way we can liberate ourselves as he has liberated himself.

No matter how rich, well-connected, famous, intelligent, talented and compassionate a person may be, no one can avoid death. Yet how many of us believe death will happen to us? Or wonder what dying will be like? Or imagine what comes after death? Death is certain and inescapable, so wouldn’t it be sensible to at least inform ourselves about an event that we have no choice but to experience? In Living Is Dying, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse presents us with everything we need to face death calmly and confidently.

Zen Buddhism is often said to be a practice of mind-to-mind transmission without reliance on text—in fact, some great teachers forbid their students to read or write. But Buddhism has also inspired some of the greatest philosophical writings of any religion, and two such works lie at the center of Zen: The Heart Sutra, which monks recite all over the world, and The Diamond Sutra, said to contain answers to all questions of delusion and dualism. This is the Buddhist teaching on the perfection of wisdom and cuts through all obstacles on the path of practice.

In A Heart as Wide as the World, one of America’s most popular and beloved Buddhist teachers offers encouragement and inspiration for anyone on the spiritual path. In short sections that include many stories and anecdotes drawn from her years as a student and teacher of Buddhist meditation, Sharon Salzberg reveals how our own happiness is found in the capacity to open our hearts to others—and that this capacity is far vaster than we ever thought possible.

Lama Yeshe didn't see a car until he was 15 years old. In his quiet village, he and other children ran in fields with yaks and mastiffs. The rhythm of life was anchored by the pastoral cycles. Food was carefully apportioned and eaten together, everyone was family. The arrival of Chinese army cars one day in 1959 changed everything. In the wake of the deadly Tibetan Uprising, he escaped to India through the Himalayas to start over as a refugee.

The most well-known Buddhist teachers on the planet all have something in common: they are excellent communicators. This is not by accident, as the Buddha taught what are called the four elements of right speech over 2,600 years ago. In this one-of-a-kind book, certified meditation and mindfulness instructor Cynthia Kane has taken the four elements of right speech and developed them into a modern practice based on mindful listening, mindful speech, and mindful silence.

You’ve heard the expression, “It’s the little things that count.” Research has shown that little daily practices can change the way your brain works, too. This book offers simple brain-training practices you can do every day to protect against stress, lift your mood, and find greater emotional resilience. Just One Thing is a treasure chest of over 50 practices created specifically to deepen your sense of well-being and unconditional happiness.

A Garland of Views presents both a concise commentary by the eighth-century Indian Buddhist master Padmasambhava on a chapter from the Guhyagarbha Tantra on the different Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical views, including the Great Perfection (Dzogchen), and an explicative commentary on Padmasambhava’s text by the 19th century scholar Jamgön Mipham (1846-1912).

Immersed in Buddhist psychology prior to studying Western psychiatry, Dr. Mark Epstein first viewed Western therapeutic approaches through the lens of the East. This posed something of a challenge. Although both systems promise liberation through self-awareness, the central tenet of Buddha's wisdom is the notion of no-self, while the central focus of Western psychotherapy is the self. This book wrestles with the complex relationship between Buddhism and psychotherapy.

For over 30 years, Opening the Hand of Thought has offered an introduction to Zen Buddhism and meditation unmatched in clarity and power. This is the revised edition of Kosho Uchiyama's singularly incisive classic. This new edition contains even more useful material: new prefaces, an index, and extended endnotes, in addition to a revised glossary.

This classic memoir by the remarkable French explorer and Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel is the one of the greatest Buddhist travelogues of the 20th century. She was the first European woman to meet the Dalai Lama (in the 1920s) and in 1924 became the first to enter the forbidden Tibetan capital, Lhasa. She had already spent a decade travelling through China and Sikkim, India; lived and meditated in a cave on the Tibetan border; and everywhere learned about Buddhism from hermits, mystics and bandits.

Being-Time thoroughly explores Dogen's teaching on how we practice as Buddhas by understanding the relationship between being and time as it is—and as we perceive it to be. Using Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji (The True Dharma Eye, Being-Time), Shinshu Roberts offers a twofold analysis of this teaching: the meaning of the text and practice with the text, giving examples how we apply Dogen's complex teaching to our daily lives.