Zen Buddhism

The teachings of Shunryu Suzuki have served for innumerable people as the gateway to Zen practice and meditation. In Zen Is Right Now, devoted student and biographer David Chadwick sheds new light on Suzuki’s presence and teachings through selected quotes from his lectures and a variety of stories told by his students.

The Abhidharma, one of the three major text collections of the original Buddhist canon, frames the psychological system of Buddhism, explaining the workings of reality and the nature of the human mind. Because of its complexity, the Abhidharma has traditionally been reserved only for academic or monastic study; now, for the first time, clinical psychologist Beth Jacobs brings this dynamic body of work to general listeners, using practical explanation, personal stories, and vivid examples to gently untangle the technical aspects of the Abhidharma.

In frightening times, we wish the world could be otherwise. With a touch of imagination, it can be. Imagination helps us see what’s hidden, and it shape-shifts reality’s roiling twisting waves. In this inspiring reframe of a classic Buddhist teaching, Zen teacher Norman Fischer writes that the paramitas, or “six perfections” - generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyful effort, meditation, and understanding - can help us reconfigure the world we live in.

Conflict is going to be part of your life - as long as you have relationships, hold down a job, or have dry cleaning to be picked up. Bracing yourself against it won't make it go away, but if you approach it consciously, you can navigate it in a way that not only honors everyone involved but makes it a source of deep insight as well. Seasoned mediator Diane Hamilton provides the skill set you need to engage conflict with wisdom and compassion, and even - sometimes - to be grateful for it.

The night Brad Warner learns that his childhood friend Marky has died, Warner is about to speak to a group of Zen students in Hamburg, Germany. It’s the last thing he feels like doing. What he wants to do instead is tell his friend everything he never said, to explain Zen and what he does for a living and why he spends his time “Sitting. Sitting. Sitting. Meditating my life away as it all passes by. Lighting candles and incense. Bowing to nothing.” So, as he continues his teaching tour through Europe, he writes to his friend all the things he wishes he had said.

With essays on "cosmic consciousness" (including Alan Watts' account of his own ventures into this inward realm); the paradoxes of self-consciousness; LSD and consciousness; and the false opposition of spirit and matter, This Is It: And Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience is a truly mind-opening audiobook collection.

Exploring Buddha’s core teachings, the author shares his own secular and accessible interpretations of the Four Noble Truths, the Three Treasures, and the Eightfold Path within the context of his lineage and the teachings of his teacher and the teachers before him. He looks at Buddha’s teachings on our singular reality that appears as a multiplicity of things and on the “self” that perceives reality, translating powerful spiritual experience into the vernacular of modern life.

You’re about to discover everything behind Zen and be guided in adapting this practice in life. You will learn how Zen can make you realize who you truly are and rediscover your true nature as it sheds away the masks society has built around your original self. You will also get to know the positive impact of Zen in your life and how the practice of Zazen can contribute to your personal well-being. Armed with the complete steps in executing the basic Zazen postures, this book will guide you through the proper meditation exercises.

Thich Nhat Hanh illuminates the path to peace through practices of gratitude and daily affirmations, including a "peace treaty" and the "diet for a mindful society". Practical and highly accessible, Touching Peace: Practising the Art of Mindful Living is an essential guide for mindful living in today’s world.

The seventh book in the bestselling Mindfulness Essentials series, a back-to-basics collection from world-renowned Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh that introduces everyone to the essentials of mindfulness practice. Profound and always approachable, Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us the art of looking deeply—in to our knee-jerk assumptions and runaway thoughts—so we can recognize the true meaning and essence of our lives. How to See teases apart the act of seeing—both inside and outside of ourselves, and points the way to developing true clarity.

Koans are the record of paradoxical and provocative exchanges between Zen masters and their students that developed in medieval China. These exchanges, though often elaborated through commentary, have also been boiled down to one-line questions or statements to be held in meditation and daily life. Famous examples include, "What is the sound of one hand?" and "Not knowing is most intimate." In Through Forests of Every Color, renowned Zen teacher Joan Sutherland reimagines the koan tradition with allegiance to the root spirit of the koans.

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.

Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself - and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. "Remarkably researched, exquisitely written", Where the Heart Beats weaves together "a great many threads of cultural history" (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) to illuminate Cage’s struggle to accept himself and his relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s.

At twenty-five, activist Cristina Moon faced an impossible task: preparing for the possibility of arrest and torture inside military-ruled Myanmar. Her response? Learning Buddhist meditation. So began what would become a decades-long spiritual path—eventually leading her to a Zen temple and martial arts dojo in Hawai'i with a timeless method of warrior Zen training.

The Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra is among the best known of all the Buddhist scriptures. Chanted daily by many Zen students, it is also studied extensively in the Tibetan tradition, and it has been regarded with interest more recently in the West in various fields of study - from philosophy to quantum physics. In just 35 lines, it expresses the truth of impermanence and the release from suffering that results from the understanding of that truth with a breathtaking economy of language.

Dinty Moore set out to explore America's fascination with Buddhism and found himself enthralled. You will be too, as Moore takes you into the world of American-style Buddhism, from a mountain retreat for executives learning to deal with stress to a Tibetan Freedom Concert with the Beastie Boys.

In a distant city, an old cat considers himself as wise as can be, until he hears of an ancient pine far away, under the boughs of which infinite wisdom can be found. Thus, the Cat embarks on a journey deep into the forest to search for the tree. Along the way, he meets new friends—the Hare, the Magpie, the Wolf Cub, the Monkey, the Tortoise, and the Tiger—and comes across the energetic young Kitten. What wisdom does the Cat have to impart to his friends, and, perhaps more importantly, what does he still have to learn?

Shunryu Suzuki, author of the beloved classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, is lovingly remembered as one of the greatest spiritual teachers of the 20th century - whose legacy is felt in every facet of American Zen. This monumental biography of Suzuki, written and read by his student David Chadwick, weaves together a rich tapestry of stories and memories of Suzuki’s students, family, and friends. In this updated and revised audiobook edition, Chadwick also offers rare excerpts from archived recordings of Suzuki’s teachings in the great Zen master's own voice.

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.

Empower yourself through living in the present moment and letting go with mindfulness. In this audiobook, you will find out how to take charge of your life and make the decision to live the way you would like. By choosing to live a life with more meaning, one that makes you better connected, you are off to a great start toward the mindfulness that you seek. The peace you will gain while learning to live a life of mindfulness is priceless.