Inside the Flower Garland Sutra

“Ben Connelly’s contemporary commentary on thirty verses of a Huayen classic brings the profundity of an ancient tradition right into the palm of our hands. It skillfully evokes awe with the interconnectedness of everything in magical display, illuminating this very moment.”—Judith Simmer-Brown, Naropa University and author of Dakini’s Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism

“Ben Connelly’s writing goes straight to my heart and strengthens my spirit. In this jewel of a book, he does what he knows how to do so well—he shows me that my own twenty-first-century life and a seventh-century Buddhist text can talk to each other. Whether you are a scholar of Buddhism or someone who has just begun to meditate, this book will encourage you.” —Susan Moon, co-editor of The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women

“Each chapter reflects the author's curiosity, delight, and unfolding personal spiritual insights that arise as he immerses himself in the dazzling abundance of Huayan Buddhism.”—Mushim Patricia Ikeda, Buddhist teacher and community activist

“Ben Connelly reaffirms the invitation for us, offering a set of pointers that can open us to a view of that glorious world of enlightenment depicted in the Flower Garland Sutra, taking a set of verses of thirty lines composed by Uisang, a seventh-century Korean monk, as guideposts in the adventure.”—Ruben L. F. Habito, author of Total Liberation: Zen Spirituality and the Social Dimension

“Ben Connelly’s Inside the Flower Garland Sutra is a significant landmark in the development of Western Buddhist practice. I am deeply grateful to him for this excellent book, so supportive as we face a time of challenge.”—Taigen Dan Leighton, author of Faces of Compassion and Dogen’s Extensive Record

Huayan Buddhism and the Modern World

Ben Connelly

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Coming soon! This book will be available in July 2025. Enter your name and email below to be notified when this book is available for purchase.

A Soto Zen teacher explores the core teachings of the ancient Flower Garland school of Buddhism through an innovative and engaging narrative showing how to put these teachings into practice.

Huayan Buddhism arose in the sixth century in China rooted in the Mahayana Flower Garland Sutra. The teachings of Huayan and the sutra that inspired it had a profound influence on Chan and Zen. Huayan is relational, practical, and positive. Its emphasis on interdependence, celebration of the sensual world, and diversity of people and practices provides inspiration for what Thich Nhat Hanh called “engaged Buddhism”.

With Inside the Flower Garland Sutra Zen teacher Ben Connelly explains the significance of Huayan teachings for Buddhist practice. Each chapter is a commentary on one of the thirty lines of Uisang’s “Song of Dharma Nature”—a seminal Korean text that summarizes key aspects of Huayan thought—thus providing a broad overview of Huayan teachings and their practical implications for contemporary life, with a mix of testimonies from real-life situations and references to influential Buddhist texts.

Arising fifteen hundred years ago, Huayan has made a deep impact on East Asian Buddhism, and has much to offer during this era when many folks see ever-deepening divisions. Connelly explores how Huayan offers particular wisdom for those concerned about how to care for their own lives as they work to end harms such as ecological devastation, poverty, militarism, addiction, marginalization, and exploitation.

book information

Paperback
232 pages, 5 x 8 inches
$19.95
ISBN 9781614298779

about the author

Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts including police and corporate training, correctional facilities, and addiction recovery and wellness groups. Ben is based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center and travels to teach across the United States. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For teaching inquiries contact: [email protected]

Other books by Ben Connelly:
Vasubandhu’s “Three Natures”
Mindfulness and Intimacy
Inside the Grass Hut
Inside Vasubandhu’s Yogacara

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It may seem as though living ecologically and engaging in activism sacrifices our own enjoyment and happiness on the altar of doing the right thing. In this book, professor, naturalist, and Buddhist author Christopher Ives offers an alternative: a way of living that can actually be more fulfilling than the modern consumerist lifestyle. Rather than deprivation, it can bring us richness.

In Zen Ecology, Chris outlines his environmental ethic as a series of concentric circles, beginning with ourselves and then moving outward into our communities, all the while focusing on spaciousness, mindfulness, generosity, and contentment. At the individual level, we deal with distraction, clutter, and ecological harm. Here, Chris offers ways to help us pay attention, simplify our lives, and lower our impact. Then, we explore how to envision our home as a “place of the Way,” with Zen monastic life as a model for this—without having to be a monk! Next, we realize our embeddedness in nature and emplace ourselves in community with others, including other forms of life. Finally, we build on this basis to engage in activism to create a world that is more supportive of ecological health and spiritual fulfillment.

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Coming soon! This book will be available in August 2025. Enter your name and email below to be notified when this book is available for purchase.

Immerse yourself in the extraordinarily transcendent practice of the yoga of Niguma.

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Click here to watch the author read the poem “Something and Nothing” from Dharma Talk.

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In a collection of talks and anecdotes, Jakusho Kwong-roshi, a Dharma successor of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, presents his approach to Buddhist teaching. Containing photos of Kwong-roshi with his teachers, as well as a selection of his vibrant calligraphy, Mind Sky explores the profound beauty of Zen history and practice, nature, and the philosophy of the ancient Zen master Eihei Dōgen.

With an elegant simplicity, Kwong-roshi shows how Zen is experiential rather than intellectual. And with persistent practice, realization is already yours.

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Following the Buddha’s pragmatic approach, Shaila guides you through five steps for overcoming distraction and focusing the mind:

Replace unwholesome thoughts with wholesome thoughts.
Examine the dangers of distracting thoughts.
Avoid it, ignore it, forget it.
Investigate the causes of distraction.
Apply determination and resolve.

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This is a story about love.

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Click here for an animated video based on the story.

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Tibetan Yoga

Discover ancient Tibetan yogic practices that integrate body, breath, and mind on the journey to personal cultivation and enlightenment.

Tibetan Yoga offers accessible instructions for performing the ancient yogic techniques of Tibet’s Bön religion. This is Tibetan yoga, or trul khor, a deeply authentic yogic practice. Drawing on thirty years of training with Bön’s most senior masters as well as advanced academic study, Dr. Alejandro Chaoul offers expert guidance on practices that were first developed by Bön masters over a millennia ago, framing them according to the needs of contemporary yoga practitioners and meditators.

No matter their level of experience, dedicated practitioners of Tibetan yoga will discover their ability to clear away obstacles and give rise to meditative states of mind. In Tibetan Yoga, you’ll learn what it means to practice for the benefit of all beings and to experience your body as a mandala, from center to periphery. These movements help you live in a more interconnected mind-breath-body experience, with benefits including better focus, stress reduction, the elimination of intrusive thoughts, better sleep, and general well-being.

Save 20% on the Tibetan Yoga online course when you buy this book! Your discount code is at the end of the book.

Awake Where You Are

“Embodied awareness is the way back home—intimacy with where and how we are right now, with what is happening and how we are meeting it. This book will lead you into the heart of your life, into your body, where everything happens—with quality of listening rather than knowledge, of feeling rather than reaction. Practicing in this way is radically transformative.”
—Martin Aylward

Pulled around by desires and distractions, we’re so easily disconnected from ourselves. Life is happening right in front of us, and within us—but still, we manage to miss so much of it.

Awake Where You Are provides the antidote, inviting us to go deep into our own bodies, to inhabit our sensory experience carefully; to learn the art of living from the inside out, and in the process to find ease, clarity, and an authentic, unshakeable freedom.

The practices in the book literally bring us back into our skin, where we can reconnect with a more rich, meaningful, and peaceful life. Aylward writes with sophisticated subtlety, as well as the heart-opening simplicity and clarity born of deep experience.

More than a meditation guide, this book is a guide to living an embodied life. You’ll learn about the following areas and practices:

- Understanding and liberating our primal human drives.
- Integrating psychological understanding with meditative practice.
- Investigating the nuances of love.

“Martin is a marvelous teacher and offers us the refreshing wisdom of an embodied life.”
—Jack Kornfield, author of No Time Like the Present

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Storied Companions

“With my diagnosis of grade IV brain cancer, I no longer observe the truth of impermanence from a critical, analytical distance. I am crashing into it, or it into me.”

Facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, Karen Derris—professor, mother, and Buddhist practitioner—instinctually turned to books. By rereading ancient Buddhist stories with fresh questions and a new purpose in mind, she discovered evolving ways to make them immediate and real. Storied Companions interweaves Karen’s memoir of her lived experiences of trauma and terminal illness with stories from Buddhist literary traditions, sharing with the reader how she found ways to live fully even with the reality that she won’t live as long as she needs—or wants.

Using her knowledge, practice, and imagination, Karen illustrates how placing yourself within narratives can turn them from distant and static sources into companions, and from companions into guides. Reading along with her, you’ll realize how this practice of reading and these ancient narratives can help us come to terms with impermanence, develop empathy and compassion, and realize our own interconnectedness.

Honest, powerful, and insightful, Storied Companions itself becomes an invaluable companion, guiding the reader to discover new ways of facing and experiencing life, death, and impermanence.