Geshe Sopa continues his elucidation of Lama Tsongkhapa’s masterwork on the Buddhist path with an explanation of the core meditative practice of śamatha, or calm abiding.
Showing how it is absolutely essential for—and goes hand in hand with—the achievement of insight into reality, he gives practical tips for countering sleepiness, agitation, and their more subtle counterparts. Leading us step by step toward deeper levels of concentration, volume 4 of the Steps on the Path to Enlightenment series brings readers closer to the ultimate goal of śamatha: unlimited and effortless focus.
In Purification in Tibetan Buddhism, Geshe Jampa Gyatso explains The Bodhisattva’s Confession of Downfalls, a daily practice for purifying negativities. This essential practice helps us to clear negative thoughts and actions from our body, speech, and mind.
In his delightfully conversational manner, Geshe Jampa teaches us the details of the law of cause and effect, the powerful use of the four opponent powers, and the proper manner and movements of prostrating, and provides clear descriptions of each of the thirty-five confession buddhas.
Formerly published as Everlasting Rain of Nectar.
Anger is a poison that ruins health and damages relationships. In today’s fast-paced and reactionary world, it’s all too easy for anger to grab hold of us and not let go.
This timely book offers practical advice on how to put aside anger and ego and embrace laughter and reason. Like a friendly family physician, Venerable Sumanasara helps you see what triggers your anger, what effect it has on you, and what you can do about it. In short, bite-sized chapters, he offers wisdom, along with a laugh, that you can use to lead a healthier, happier life finally freed from anger.
Using the traditional Buddhist allegorical image of the Wheel of Life and the teaching of the twelve links of dependent origination, the Dalai Lama deftly illustrates how our existence, though fleeting and often full of woes, brims with the potential for peace and happiness. We can realize that potential by cultivating a wise appreciation of the interdependency of actions and experience, and by living a kind and compassionate life. A life thus lived, the Dalai Lama teaches, becomes thoroughly meaningful for both oneself and for others.
Rediscover the mystery and wonder of life through gentle reflections on death and dying.
What can death teach the living? Former monk and hospice worker Rodney Smith teaches us that through intimately considering our own inevitable end we can reawaken to the sublime miracle of life we so often take for granted. A well of stories, personal anecdotes, and direct advice gleaned from years of working with the dying in their final moments, Lessons from the Dying helps us redefine our conception of what it means to truly live. Each chapter contains guided reflections and exercises that allow the reader to integrate the wisdom in its pages more fully into their lives. With a sense of compassion, Lessons from the Dying provides all the tools of mind one needs to rediscover, in this very moment, the mystery and wonder of a lifetime.
From the foreword by Joseph Goldstein:
“Lessons from the Dying could also be called “lessons for the living” because of the courageous honesty revealed in so many of the stories told here. These accounts reflect back to us our own attitudes toward death and love, and they prompt us to examine the way we are living our lives right now. In the busyness of our lives we rarely take time to consider our mortality and the implications that it might have for the choices we make. Yet when we do cultivate this awareness it becomes a powerful force for wise discrimination.”
Illuminating the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva is a unique presentation of the Buddhist path by Chökyi Dragpa, the foremost Gelug disciple of the famed nineteenth-century Tibetan master Patrul Rinpoche. Its quotations and direct instructions from realized sages of the past reinforce one another, subtly penetrating the mind and preparing it for meditation. This book, while fully accessible to newcomers, is especially powerful for serious, established practitioners.
This book was previously published under the title Uniting Wisdom and Compassion.
Christopher Ives: Zen, Ethics, and the Wildness of Nature
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On this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Christopher Ives, scholar and practitioner in the Zen Buddhist tradition, and author of Zen on the Trail: Hiking as Pilgrimage, recently published by Wisdom. Chris specializes in modern Zen ethics, as well as Buddhist considerations of nature.
In this conversation, you’ll hear Chris talk about his first exposure to American Zen in college during the 1970s, and how his upbringing in New England prepared him for a very different encounter of Zen in Japan, where he spent subsequent years practicing. He notes similarities in the aesthetics of both places and describes how he came to an understanding of Japanese Zen as hyper-grounded in the present moment, rather than being an iconoclastic set of techniques to escape reality. Following his years in Japan, Chris tells the story of how he made his way to California for graduate school and then spent time in the Pacific Northwest, living and practicing with Zen communities there.
Chris also discusses the history of ethics and social engagement in traditional Japanese Zen Buddhism in relation to Japanese institutions and society, and comments on how Americans have since interpreted Buddhist ethics more broadly within a Western context. As both a scholar and practitioner, Chris describes how his study of Zen ethics and encounters with nature throughout his life have contributed to the development of his interest in Buddhist approaches to the environment. He compares the symbolic value of nature in Japanese and Zen culture to the raw and wild nature Gary Snyder writes about in his poetry, and how both have influenced his writing and practice. He then offers ways of enriching our sense of embeddedness within the deeper rhythms of nature, whether through hiking in the mountains or simply sitting outside in our own backyards.
For more information on the topics that Chris covers in this conversation, listeners can check out Wisdom’s wealth of resources related to Zen Buddhism as well as Buddhism and ecology.
About the Interviewee
Christopher Ives is a professor of religious studies at Stonehill College. In his teaching and writing he focuses on ethics in Zen Buddhism and Buddhist approaches to nature and environmental issues. His publications include Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’s Critique and Lingering Questions for Buddhist Ethics; Zen Awakening and Society; Divine Emptiness and Historical Fullness; a translation (with Abe Masao) of Nishida Kitaro’s An Inquiry into the Good; and a translation (with Gishin Tokiwa) of Hisamatsu Shin’ichi’s Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics and is serving on the steering committee of the Religion and Ecology Group of the American Academy of Religion.
