Bücher veröffentlicht von Shambhala Publications Inc

Mahamudra and Dzogchen are perhaps the most profound teachings within all of Tibetan Buddhism. The experience of Mahamudra, or "great symbol," is an overwhelming sense of extraordinary clarity, totally open and nondualistic. Dzogchen, or "great perfection," is the ultimate teaching according to the Nyingma tradition and also represents the pinnacle of spiritual development. These are the two paths that provide practitioners with the most skillful means to experience the fully awakened state and directly taste the reality of our mind and environment. And yet these concepts are notoriously difficult to grasp and challenging to explain. In Wild Awakening, Tibetan Buddhist master Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche presents these esoteric teachings in a style that reveals their surprising simplicity and great practical value, emphasizing that we can all experience our world more directly, with responsibility, freedom, and confidence. With a straightforward approach and informal style, he presents these essential teachings in a way that even those very new to Tibetan Buddhism can understand.

In this book a teacher of insight meditation offers personal testament, healing words, and wise instruction to help meet the suffering that comes with catastrophic life events. Speaking openly about his own struggles with memories of childhood sexual abuse and with the HIV diagnosis he received in 1989, Gavin Harrison reveals how compassion offers refuge and help for all who suffer from similar crises of body, heart, and spirit. Among the topics covered are: • Dealing with fear, anger, and self-hatred • Working with difficult relationships • Confronting physical pain and the fear of death • Transforming the legacy of sexual abuse • The question of karma and "Why me?" • Grappling with issues of faith, freedom, hope, and miracles • Basic insight meditation instructions, plus guided meditations for forgiveness, compassion, and equanimity

Drawing on her experience at more than one hundered companies, Deborahann Smith guides the reader throughout the world of temporary employment with humor, common sense, a Zen-like appreciation for the ever-changing present moment—and a healthy dose of enlightened self-interest. Among the topics are:    •  Marketing yourself    •  Dealing with agencies    •  Negotiating pay and benefits    •  Getting through the first day    •  Community in the workplace    •  Difficult relationships    •  Job recognition    •  Surviving job lulls    •  Going permanent

This Zen classic is a collection of talks by the great Japanese Zen Master Dogen, the founder of the Soto School. They were recorded by Ejo, one of Dogen's first disciples, and later his foremost successor. The talks and stories in this volume were written in the thirteenth-century Japan, a time when Buddhism was undergoing a "dark age" of misinterpretation and corruption. It was in this atmosphere that Dogen attempted to reassert the true essence of the Buddhist teachings and to affirm "the mind of the Way" and the doctrine of selflessness. Dogen emphasizes the disciplinary aspect of Zen: meditation practice is presented here as the backbone without which Buddhism could not exist. The stories in this volume are often humorous and paradoxical, relating the Buddhist teachings by means of example. Commonly in the Zen tradition, discussions between teacher and student and the telling of tales are used to point to a greater truth, which mere theory could never explain. Dogen relates interesting stories of his travels in China, where the inspiration he found lacking in Japanese Buddhism was flourishing in the Ch'an school of Chinese Buddhism.

The radical challenge of Zen Buddhism is to drop all assumptions and prejudices and experience the truth directly. American Zen teacher Dennis Genpo Merzel brings new life to this ancient wisdom through his commentaries on a classic Chinese Zen scripture, "Verses on Faith-Mind," by the Third Patriarch of Zen, Sosan Zenji. The author strikes to the heart of Zen with clarity and force, expressing in modern terms, to an American audience, the essential wisdom and compassion of Sosan Zenji's famous poem. Full of colorful Zen lore and personal anecdotes from Dennis Genpo Merzel's life, these talks impart the Buddha's teaching directly and intimately, illuminating in simple words the timeless questions and problems of day-to-day life.

This book is both a fascinating account of dream therapy and an exploration of the symbolism of the hare in myth and fable around the world. John Layard, a British Jungian analyst, first reconts his treatment of a devout Christian woman whose dream of the sacrafice of the hare marked a turning point in her spiritual and psychological healing. He then goes on the examine the meaning of the hare in the mythology of Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Among the many manifestations of this universal archetype are the hare as trickster-hero, as a goddess associated with the moon, as a Buddhist symbol of spiritual transformation, and as the Easter Rabbit of the Christian tradition.

These inspirational and poetic teachings, written by a modern Taoist master, will be a compelling source of reflection for all those acquainted with the Tao-te Ching, the Analects of Confucius, the Buddhist sutras, or the Zen poetry of Han Shan, Basho, and Ryokan. Loy Ching-Yuen stresses the importance of practice rather than speech or ideals. Viewing the heart as the center of right-mindedness and self-empowerment, he teaches benevolence, humility, and meditation in a refreshing approach to living simply and honestly in the world.

This unique biography explores the inner journey of a woman whose outer life was a thrilling story of passion and adventure. Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969), born in Paris to a socially prominent family, once boasted, "I learned to run before I could walk!" In the course of a lifetime of more than one hundred years, she was an acclaimed operatic soprano, a political anarchist, a religious reformer, an intrepid explorer who traveled in Tibet for fourteen years, a scholar of Buddhism, and the author of more than forty books. But perhaps the most intriguing of all her adventures was the spiritual search that led her from a youthful interest in socialism and Freemasonry to the teachings of the great sages of India and culminated in her initiation into the secret tantric practices of Tibetan Buddhism. This book reveals the penetrating insight and courage of a woman who surmounted physical, intellectual, and social barriers to pursue her spiritual quest.

Rinpoche's commentary on the instructions on the "Preliminaries to the Great Perfection Teaching" contains the classical Nying-ma presentation of the Dzogchen preliminaries and practices that lead to Buddhahood. It is an oral commentary on Patrul Rinboche's Kunzang Lamai Shelung (Words of My Perfect Teacher). "The Recitation of the Preliminaries to the Heart Essence of Vast Openness Illuminating the Good Path to Omniscience" by Jigme Lingpa is included.

What we call modern physics says something entirely new about the world and how it behaves. For many years, these theories have been accepted as the most accurate descriptions we have ever had about our world. Nevertheless, medicine has been reluctant to incorporate these ideas into itself, continuing to view the body as a clockwork mechanism, in which illness is caused by a breakdown of "parts." Drawing on his long experience in the practice of internal medicine and his knowledge of modern science, Dr. Dossey shows how medicine can and must be updated. Discussing the new theories of Bell, Godel, and others, he opens up startling questions for medicine: Could the brain be a hologram, in which every part contains the whole? Why have ordinary people been able to raise and lower blood pressure at will, control heart rate, body temperature, even one minute blood vessel, in a way no one can explain? What is the role of consciousness in health and illness? Perhaps the most startling of Dr. Dossey's discussions concerns nonlinear time. There is evidence that our obsession with time and our belief that time "flows" (a belief refuted by the new physics) may profoundly affect our health. "Time sickness" is becoming an accepted medical concept, a possible cause of the greatest killer of all-heart disease. Dr. Dossey presents remarkable clinical data showing that by changing their view of time, people have been able to positively affect the course of disease. Just as the clockwork picture of the universe was abandoned in the onslaught of new data, our mechanistic view of health and illness will give way to new models which, too, will be more consistent with the true face of the universe.

The collecting of esoteric knowledge is not, in itself, sufficient to produce any kind of transformation or enlightenment in the seeker. True change begins with the opening of one's mind to new ideas and the transformation of understanding that can follow. Vincent G. Stuart, longtime student of the teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, provides a clearly expressed, realistic description of how to cultivate such qualities as openness that are necessary to form the ground of understanding into which esoteric ideas may be planted.

This powerful collection of essays by such notables as D. H. Lawrence, Robert Bly, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and Rainer Maria Rilke focuses on the challenges of love between men and women, addressing the questions and difficulties arising for people in relationships today. Anyone who is, has been, or hopes to be in an intimate relationship with a person of the opposite sex will find this book "must" reading. The first group of essays deals with the contradictions and possibilities inherent in erotic love, leading to the question posed in the next section: What do men and women really want? The contributors then explore marriage as an ongoing path of personal transformation. That opens into a look at sexuality itself as an especially vivid meeting of two different worlds. The book closes with a group of writings that consider relationship as a vehicle for developing power, wisdom, and inner truth. Carefully selected, threaded together by Welwood's insightful commentary, the essays presented here approach the challenge of intimacy with bravery and gentleness, inspiring the reader toward becoming a "warrior of the heart."

"This book is a widely ranging exploration of the principles of Buddhist psychology and one of the first to make abhidharma psychology understandable to the west. Dr. Fryba's commentary and reflections show how these principles can bring understanding and be applied to modern life. I highly recommend it." - Jack Kornfield

“It was not always easy to be the guru’s wife,” writes Diana Mukpo. “But I must say, it was rarely boring.” At the age of sixteen, Diana Mukpo left school and broke with her upper-class English family to marry Chögyam Trungpa, a young Tibetan lama who would go on to become a major figure in the transmission of Buddhism to the West. In a memoir that is at turns magical, troubling, humorous, and totally out of the ordinary, Diana takes us into her intimate life with one of the most influential and dynamic Buddhist teachers of our time. Diana led an extraordinary and unusual life as the "first lady" of a burgeoning Buddhist community in the American 1970s and ''80s. She gave birth to four sons, three of whom were recognized as reincarnations of high Tibetan lamas. It is not a simple matter to be a modern Western woman married to a Tibetan Buddhist master, let alone to a public figure who is sought out and adored by thousands of eager students. Surprising events and colorful people fill the narrative as Diana seeks to understand the dynamic, puzzling, and larger-than-life man she married—and to find a place for herself in his unusual world. Rich in ambiguity, Dragon Thunder is the story of an uncommon marriage and also a stirring evocation of the poignancy of life and of relationships—from a woman who has lived boldly and with originality.

In The Silent Question, Packer provides fresh insights on using the experiences of life that are raw, messy, painful, and sometimes full of laughter, to open a way to compassion. She urges us to let go of our thoughts and to sit "in the stillness of not knowing" in order to reflect upon the essential question of who we are. Packer encourages us to discover that life, energy, and insight come from the questioning, the looking, the listening.

Darlene Cohen discovered the secret to finding happiness in the midst of debilitating pain. She shares her knowledge in her popular workshops and now in this book. Cohen, who has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for eighteen years, was hobbling painfully to her local Zen center one day, when she made a discovery that changed her life: if she focused on the foot that was in the air rather than the one that was hitting the pavement, her stamina increased enormously. It was the beginning of a completely different approach to the crippling pain that had beset her for so long. As she demonstrates here, this approach can be expanded to all types of pain: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Cohen-a certified massage and movement therapist and Zen teacher-proposes a radically liberating alternative to the usual desperate search for pain relief: paradoxically, she says, release from suffering lies in paying closer attention to it. When we keep pain at bay, we keep pleasure at bay, too. The two are interdependent, and our ability to experience each is totally dependent on our understanding of the other. "Enrich your life exponentially," Cohen advises. If your pain is one of the ten things you are aware of, then it constitutes a tenth of your total awareness. Expand your awareness to a hundred things, however, and your pain is only a hundredth of your awareness. With stories, strategies, exercises, and an awareness born of long Zen practice, Cohen shows us how to tap into that enrichment-and how we can lead a satisfying and even joyful life in the very midst of pain. This book was published in hardcover under the title Finding a Joyful Life in the Heart of Pain.

In Holding Yin, Embracing Yang, Eva Wong presents translations of three key texts containing the highest teachings of the Eastern and Western schools of Taoist internal alchemy-the discipline of cultivating health, longevity, and immortality by transforming the energetic structures of body and mind. The texts are primarily concerned with meditation, breathing practices, and sexual yoga with a partner-all as means for developing within ourselves the same life-giving energy that sustains and nourishes the universe. The texts in this collection offer a clear view of the physical, mental, and spiritual methods of Taoist practice, showing why they are important and how these methods all can work together in the cultivation of mental peace, radiant health, and longevity. This collection will provide inspiration and the essential foundation necessary to begin Taoist practice under the guidance of a teacher. The three classics translated here are: Treatise on the Mysterious Orifice by Xuanweilun (sixteenth century), Discussion on the Cavity of the Tao by Daojiaotan (nineteenth century), and Secret Teachings on the Three Wheels by Sanjubizhi (nineteenth century). Included is an introduction in which Wong discusses the various schools of internal alchemy, as well as their main practices.

Treasures of the Sakya Lineage is a rich collection of teachings by both contemporary and ancient Sakya masters, showing a thousand years of lineage continuity. It provides an overview of the history, view, key lineage figures, and crucial teachings of the oldest continuously operating institution among the four lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. The Sakya School has long been known for its balanced approach to study and practice. The writings of Sakya scholars have been deeply influential in every school of Tibetan Buddhism and they continue to be now. A great resource for students and practitioners of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, this volume contains teachings from great Sakya scholars and meditation masters, including:H. H. Sakya Trizin, Khenpo Appey, Sakya Pandita, Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen, Chogye Trinchen, Choegyal Phagpa, Migmar Tseten

From the author of "Perceiving Ordinary Magic," this book proposes that both science and Buddhism offer powerful insights into human nature that can help to bring about profound changes in our lives and our society. Jeremy Hayward argues that a radical uprooting of our beliefs about reality is necessary if we are to resolve our confusion about our world and ourselves. Only a profound examination of human perception--a process by which worlds and selves are created and re-created every moment--will provide the clarity and confidence we seek. "Shifting Worlds, Changing Minds" is an in-depth, nontechnical analysis of the perceptual process, drawing on the latest data from cognitive science--the "new science of mind." Added to these are insights gained from the Buddhist practice of mindfulness-awareness meditation. The results of this analysis and practice can free us from dependence on belief systems. We are presented with a genuine revolution in the understanding of consciousness, and the possibilities for awareness and compassion are revealed.

Throughout Zen history, stories and anecdotes of Zen masters and their students have been used as teaching devices to exemplify the enlightened spirit. Unlike many of the baffling dialogues between Zen masters preserved in the koan literature, the stories retold here are penetratingly simple but with a richness and subtlety that make them worth reading again and again. This collection includes more than one hundred such stories—many appearing here in English for the first time—drawn from a wide variety of sources and involving some of the best-known Zen masters, such as Hakuin, Bankei, and Shosan. Also presented are stories and anecdotes involving famous Zen artists and poets, such as Sengai and Basho.