Eastern Books - Page 5

Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering

Phillip Moffitt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

  Why do we suffer? Is there a purpose to our pain? Noting that human beings have wrestled with such questions for thousands of years, Phillip Moffitt has found answers for his own life in Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Reflecting on his own journey from Esquire magazine editor-in-chief to Buddhist meditation teacher, Moffitt provides a fresh perspective on the Buddha's ancient wisdom, showing how to move from suffering to new awareness and unanticipated joy.

  In this deeply spiritual book that is sure to become a Buddhist classic, Moffitt explores the twelve insights that underlie the Buddha's core teaching--the Four Noble Truths--and uses these often neglected ideas to guide readers to a more meaningful relationship to suffering. Moffitt write: "These twelve insights teach you to dance with both the joy and pain, finding peace in a balanced mind and calm spirit. As the most specific, practical life instructions I have ever encountered, they serve as an invaluable tool for anyone who seeks a life filled with meaning and well-being." Practicing these twelve insights, as Moffitt suggests, will help readers experience life's difficulties without being filled with stress and anguish, and they will enhance their moments of happiness.

  With engaging writing and a strong message of self-empowerment, Dancing with Life offers a prescriptive path for finding joy and peace that will appeal to meditation students and readers of "Dharma Wisdom," Moffitt's column in Yoga Journal, as well as anyone searching for a more authentic life.

Getting Unstuck

Pema Chodron

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Something everyone should listen to 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This CD set is taken from a series of classes given by Pema Chodron to help us to understand that we can have some control over the thoughts and emotions that enter our minds. Although meditation is the primary tool used by Buddhists to be become of aware of and work with thoughts and emotions, the information given by Pema Chodron is not specific to meditation. We all have trouble dealing with our emotions at times, and these teachings help us to see what it is that we are dealing with and offers advise on how to deal with our emotions. I don't meditate, but I found the information to be very useful and I believe it can be of benefit to everyone. Pema Chodron speaks in a very accessable manner and uses stories and humor to illustrate her teachings, making it very easy to listen to these CD's. I can't imagine that anyone would not appreciate hearing them--I've listened to them several times. I highly recommend this set.

Editorial Review:

An urge comes up, we succumb to it, and it becomes stronger. We reinforce our cravings, habits, and addictions by giving in to them repeatedly. Pema Chödrön guides us through this "sticky feeling" and offers us tools for learning to stay with our uneasiness, soften our hearts toward others, and ourselves and live a more peaceful life in the fullness of the present moment.

Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

Matthieu Ricard

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

I Should Be So Lucky 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I read this book during a bout of depression. It is proverbial that Conspicuous Displays of Contentment push the depressed into even deeper despair more effectively than anything else. Yet I didn't find this book infuriating; it didn't drive me to suicide. No, I enjoyed it immensely and finished it rapidly.

The ramifications of the subject matter are endless. What ancient and modern Western philosophers thought about happiness; what they thought in Asia. The social conditions conducive to happiness, the brain-states that coincide with it. Then what the author's own Tibetan Buddhist tradition has to say about happiness and mental afflictions.

You only have to glance at the design of this book to know you're not going to get any great depth. But that's fine. Always room for compact and lucid accounts of Big Subjects. If you want reams of detail about neurochemistry or Buddhist meditation practices, you can find that elsewhere.

I have only two complaints. One is that, as somebody who has suffered from life-long severe depression, I didn't find anything here that would help me to be happy. Everything here I have seen before, and it doesn't work. It may work if you're already happy, but then, well, you don't need it, do you?

I suspect the reason for this lies in my second complaint. The author tells of his famous father, of his upbringing in elite French cultural and intellectual circles, hobnobbing with luminaries and jetsetters. When he finds all of this... somehow lacking, he toddles off to a sheltered enclave of Ancient Eastern Wisdom, where he hobnobs with the Dalai Lama and endless Rinpoches... (To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how you "hobnob".)

My point is: you Would be happy, wouldn't you? A book about Happiness would be so much more convincing if the author were the child of a Haitian beggar, born with a speech impediment, and... we don't want to get into sick humour territory, but you get my drift. If someone like That managed to be happy, Then I would be impressed.

Editorial Review:

" You may not find happiness in a book, but if reading a book can precipitate a tectonic shift in your life and mind toward robust, genuine, deeply rooted happiness, this would be the book." --JON KABAT-ZINN, AUTHOR OF COMING TO OUR SENSES This is a revolutionary look at happiness, deeply philo-sophical and tremendously engaging, from one of the world's most compelling voices on the subject. Drawing from works of fiction and poetry, contemporary Western philosophy, Buddhist thought, current psychological and scientific research, and personal experience, Ricard weaves an inspirational and forward-looking account of how we can begin to rethink our realities in a fast-moving modern world. With revelatory lessons and exercises that blaze a clear path for readers, this book offers an eloquent and practical guide to a happier life.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead (The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

As False as False can get 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 49 people found this review helpful.

Talk about lies

The Author says, once your expired from your current life here, your not dead and finished, you move onto another life, and that your next life depends on this life, so you have to make an effort here and now.

Note I said "here and now" keep this in mind.

To keep this simple and short, how about this:

Everyone knows someone at your job site, someone who has a better position than you, or others below them, yet this person, or even multiple person(s), have a multitude of personality issues.

One of more of the following:

Rude, Arrogant, Self Seeking, Thoughtless about others, Drunkard, Smoker of cigs and or pot, goes to stripper joints, watching porn, and the list goes on but again to make this brief.

How is it, that these people, and again they are everywhere in every job site, promote more than those who are nice and caring, do things for others?

And don't even try and reply to me saying job title and therefore money does not bring happiness or a better life.

That's a lie and you know it, you and just about everyone you know likes to promote at work, to have a nicer house, in a better area, to eat better food, to take more and or nice vacations, and most of all to be able to provide for you kids, no give them what they want, to be able to provide as much as possible for them.

So don't try and twist the words as in, many people with great jobs and money do not have happy lives. I know that, we all know that.

So now that we are on the same track.

So then, why is it that someone at almost every job site, be it an office or construction, whatever, is many things I listed above and is living better than you now?

Who where THEY In the past life? THEY had to be reborn from somewhere
Right?

And this is key, stay on track now, why do most job sites NOT have people at the top who are good and caring people?

See, its all a lie. and in the name of hating organized religion, you want to believe it, for everybody wants to believe in something.

You are smarter than that right?

Editorial Review:

The most prominent expert on Tibetan Buddhism in the West offers a translation of this essential book of Tibetan philosophy that captures the true spirit and poetry of the original work--a profound book that reveals the nature of the mind and its manifestations and offers pure enlightenment.

A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life

Jack Kornfield

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I doubt it will survive as a 'Classic'. 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 11 people found this review helpful.

While it is very 'pragmatic', I think this will be it's downfall. All the mystery is replaced with how 'meditation' will be such an aid in making one righteous. EMPTINESS and NO-SELF (rather wondrous buddhist teachings) are treated, in my opinion, to a very one-sided interpretation. Only those taken with 'sitting' will find this book inspiring.

Here's a sample:
'As our development of self grows and our heart becomes less entangled, we begin to discover a deeper truth about self. We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go or what blocks our heart.' (pg. 209)

This sounds rather too psychological for me. If its psychology we're advocating (very pragmatic) then lets call a spade a spade. Aren't we merely using 'meditation' to work on ourselves? Oh, and all those 'paradoxical' buddhist terms really are nothing more then the way Easterners talk about what we call psychology, only they use 'meditation' instead of a couch! It's ok if one feels that way, however, that may obscure things that don't fit that profile. The real danger here.


"Wishing to get out of birth and death, wishing to attain release, you try to become unified; but one does not attain unification after becoming homogenized. If you try to make yourself unified, you will certainly not attain unification." Chan Master Foyan (1067-1120)

Editorial Review:

Beloved Western Buddhist master Kornfield makes known his personal, practical wisdom, garnered from 25 years of practicing and teaching the path of awakening, as he guides self-searchers to a simplicity of perception that brings alive spiritual practice, peace, and truth in their daily lives.

Night Light: A Devotional for Couples

James C. Dobson, Shirley Dobson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Night Light 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Very pleased with the timely shipping and the condition of the products. They were given as gifts and were greatly admired by the receipents.

This book saved our marriage! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book, along with prayer and communication, helped save our marriage. What a sweet way to end the day...by reading with your partner and discussing the ideas presented. I recommend this book to anyone looking for some good conversation and thought with their loved-one.

Night LIght for Couples 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My husband and I buy this for every newly married couple. It is a time that encourages a closer walk with God and has questions that help the husband and wife grow closer to each other. Yet it is only one page of reading and can be done right before bed. We loved it!

Editorial Review:

Now for the first time in softcover! Whether you're just married or are celebrating your golden anniversary, you need regular, quiet moments with your mate--times to renew love and intimacy with each other and with the Lord. Night Light, by Dr. James Dobson and his wife, Shirley, will help you do just that. This daily devotional offers the personal, practical, and biblical insights that have sustained the Dobsons' marriage for forty years and encouraged couples and families around the world. Let Night Light enrich your marriage too--tonight and every night.

The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

Dalai Lama

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Niels Bohr, Einstein. Their insights shook our perception of who we are and where we stand in the world, and in their wake have left an uneasy coexistence: science vs. religion, faith vs. empirical inquiry. Which is the keeper of truth? Which is the true path to understanding reality?

After forty years of study with some of the greatest scientific minds, as well as a lifetime of meditative, spiritual, and philosophic study, the Dalai Lama presents a brilliant analysis of why all avenues of inquiry—scientific as well as spiritual—must be pursued in order to arrive at a complete picture of the truth. Through an examination of Darwinism and karma, quantum mechanics and philosophical insight into the nature of reality, neurobiology and the study of consciousness, the Dalai Lama draws significant parallels between contemplative and scientific examinations of reality.

This breathtakingly personal examination is a tribute to the Dalai Lama’s teachers—both of science and spirituality. The legacy of this book is a vision of the world in which our different approaches to understanding ourselves, our universe, and one another can be brought together in the service of humanity.

The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving Kindness

Pema Chodron

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good book but not as good as others 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good book, but there are just a couple of things about it that make it not quite as good as I was hoping. First, her interpretation of the Four Noble Truths is problematic in my eyes. Basically she take Tibetan teachings on egolessness (which are great teachings in their own right) and superimposes them on the Four Noble Truths. Her interpretation does not ring true for me - she states that the 2nd Noble Truth is "resisting life causes suffering" and that the 3rd Noble Truth is learning to let go of our "selves"/ego. These are valuable teachings but do not represent the more usual (and probably academically correct, as well as more powerful, in my opinion) translations that I have read: that (very summarily put) the 2nd Noble Truth is that that craving/desire/grasping causes suffering and the 3rd Noble Truth is that ceasing to crave/desire/grasp results in the cessation of suffering. Her interpretation is not wrong, but it is a bit of a Chinese whispered version of the Four Noble Truths and I would have liked her book better had she not re-interpreted them like this. Secondly, she writes "from above" a little. I feel that she comes across like a lovely, cosy, caring and wise Aunty. For me this made her teachings have less impact. I preferred Tara Brach's "Radical Acceptance" (which deals with a similar subject - accepting life as it is) to "The Wisdom of No Escape": Brach's writing is a bit more raw and personal and she writes like one sister to another sister (or brother)).

Editorial Review:

This book is about saying yes to life in all its manifestations—embracing the potent mixture of joy, suffering, brilliance, and confusion that characterizes the human experience. Pema Chödrön shows us the profound value of our situation of "no escape" from the ups and downs of life.

Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World

Lama Surya Das

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 103 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Lama Surya Das, the most highly trained American lama in the Tibetan tradition, presents the definitive book on Western Buddhism for the modern-day spiritual seeker.

The radical and compelling message of Buddhism tells us that each of us has the wisdom, awareness, love, and power of the Buddha within; yet most of us are too often like sleeping Buddhas.  In Awakening the Buddha Within, Surya Das shows how we can awaken to who we really are in order to lead a more compassionate, enlightened, and balanced life.  It illuminates the guidelines and key principles embodied in the noble Eight-Fold Path and the traditional Three Enlightenment Trainings common to all schools of Buddhism:

Wisdom Training: Developing clear vision, insight, and inner understanding -- seeing reality and ourselves as we really are.
Ethics Training: Cultivating virtue, self-discipline, and compassion in what we say and do.
Meditation Training: Practicing mindfulness, concentration, and awareness of the present moment.

With lively stories, meditations, and spiritual practices, Awakening the Buddha Within is an invaluable text for the novice and experienced student of Buddhism alike.

Buddhism For Dummies (For Dummies (Religion & Spirituality))

Jonathan Landaw, Stephan Bodian

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Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the outside, Buddhism seems like a bundle of contradictions wrapped inside a paradox. It is a religion without a god, a belief system without rules, and a faith that encourages its adherents to question everything, including its own teachings. You could spend a lifetime studying Buddhist texts and following its observances and still feel like you’ve only just barely scratched the surface. Yet, over the past 2500 years, this lovely religion that preaches compassion, generosity, tolerance, selflessness and self-awareness has commanded the fervent devotion of hundreds of millions of people around the world who believe it to be the true path to enlightenment.

If you’re curious about Buddhism but feel intimidated by all the exotic jargon and strange trappings, this book is for you. Written by two leading American Buddhist teachers and scholars, it offers you a uniquely friendly way to explore the fascinating history of Buddhism and discover:

• Who Buddha was and his significance in world history and spirituality
• How the practice of Buddhism can enrich your everyday life
• How Buddha’s teachings combine to create a path to enlightenment
• Daily observances and meditation practices
• How to fulfill your highest potential through Buddhism

In plain English, experts Jonathan Landaw and Stephan Bodian define the important terms, explain the key concepts and explore, in-depth a wide range of topics, including:

• Buddha’s life and teachings and the evolution of the major Buddhist traditions
• How Buddhism works as a religion, philosophy of life and a practical approach to dealing with life’s problems, all rolled into one
• The idea that the mind is the source of all happiness and suffering
• How the practices of wisdom and compassion can connect you with your inner spiritual resources
• Meditation and other core Buddhist practices and how they can affect your everyday life
• How to apply Buddhist teachings at each stage along the spiritual path

Whether you’re a searcher of truth, a student of religions, or just curious about what’s got Richard Gere and all the rest of those celebrity Buddhists so excited, Buddhism For Dummies is your intro to Buddhism basics.