Nichtern examines the Buddhist concept of the Eight Worldly Winds, the four paired opposites of praise and blame, pleasure and pain, fame and insignificance, and success and failure. By delving into these dichotomies, listeners gain invaluable insights into their relationships with others (including teachers, friends, leaders, the disgraced, and the adored) and themselves. With four transformative meditation exercises, this book empowers listeners to cultivate and access their innate confidence and wisdom.

Many regard alchemy as a metaphor for inner transformation. But this is only half the story. According to Catherine MacCoun, alchemy is no mere metaphor. It’s real magic. Transforming the inner world is, for the alchemist, a way to transform the outer world. Through studying the principles of alchemy, we can achieve extraordinary effects from ordinary actions by understanding how the world really works.

A broken heart is traumatic. When a relationship ends, the anguish and disappointment can be devastating. Typical recommendations to keep busy, move on, repair your hidden flaws, and then forget about it are not helpful. In these chapters, relationship writer Susan Piver reveals that heartbreak actually creates an opportunity for genuine emotional and spiritual transformation, enabling you to emerge on the other side stronger, softer, and capable of loving with renewed confidence.

There is a basic human wisdom that can help solve the world’s problems. It doesn’t belong to any one culture or region or religious tradition—though it can be found in many of them throughout history. It’s what Chögyam Trungpa called the sacred path of the warrior.

A concise, jargon-free guide to learning what Buddhist meditation is - and isn't - with advice on how to start a meditation practice. If you want to meditate but have no idea where to begin, this book by best-selling author and Buddhist teacher Susan Piver will help you: It contains everything you need to know to start a meditation practice and, even more important, to continue one.

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.

Take a trip through the realms of hell with a man whose temporary visitor's pass gave him a horrifying - and enlightening - preview of its torments. This true account of Sam Bercholz's near-death experience has more in common with Dante's Inferno than it does with any of the popular feel-good stories of what happens when we die.

The Buddha's teaching on karma (literally, "action") is nothing other than his compassionate explanation of the way things are: our thoughts and actions determine our future, and therefore we ourselves are largely responsible for the way our lives unfold. Yet this supremely useful teaching is often ignored due to the misconceptions about it that abound in popular culture, especially oversimplifications that make it seem like something not to be taken seriously.

From elementary schools to psychotherapy offices, mindfulness meditation is an increasingly mainstream practice. At the same time, trauma remains a fact of life. Drawing on a decade of research and clinical experience, psychotherapist and educator David Treleaven shows that mindfulness meditation - practiced without an awareness of trauma - can exacerbate symptoms of traumatic stress. This raises a crucial question: How can we minimize the potential dangers of mindfulness for survivors while leveraging its powerful benefits?

In Opening to Oneness, Zen teacher Nancy Baker offers a detailed path of practice for Zen students planning to take the precepts and for anyone, Buddhist or non-Buddhist, interested in deepening their personal study of ethical living.

Reframing aging as "a passage of discovery and engagement", Palmer says, "Old is just another word for nothing left to lose, a time to take bigger risks on behalf of the common good." On the Brink of Everything is not a "guide to" or "handbook for" getting old. Instead, it's Palmer turning the prism of insight on his experience as a way of encouraging listeners to do the same with theirs. In elegant prose and lyrical poetry, he offers a set of meditations on the meanings of one's life - past, present, and future.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few. So begins this most beloved of all American Zen works. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as this famous opening line of Shunryu Suzuki's classic. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it's all about. An instant teaching in the first minutes. And that's just the beginning.

When we feel alone, cut off, or trapped, we can let those difficulties steer us onto a path toward an authentic, flourishing life—living in a way that allows us to find the wholeness that lies within. Even when we’re alone, a sense of community can accompany us through the stormy times. Our words, hearts, and actions can line up with a larger vision, rather than the smaller views our anxious, fearful thoughts arouse in us. To live in a less constricted way—Salzberg says we need to get real about what’s most important.

Tara, the Buddhist goddess of compassion, can manifest within all of us. In this introduction to Tara's twenty-one forms, respected female Buddhist teacher and practitioner Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton shows you how to invite Tara's awakened energy to come alive in yourself. The relatable stories from Buddhist history and the author's personal reflections will give you the tools to live a more compassionate life, befriend your fears, and overcome everyday challenges.

Igniting a long-overdue dialogue about how the legacy of racial injustice and white supremacy plays out in society at large and Buddhist communities in particular, this urgent call to action outlines a new dharma that takes into account the ways that racism and privilege prevent our collective awakening. In a society where profit rules, people's value is determined by the color of their skin, and many voices - including queer voices - are silenced, Radical Dharma recasts the concepts of engaged spirituality, social transformation, inclusiveness, and healing.