The Book of Equanimity contains the first-ever complete English language commentary on one of the most beloved classic collections of Zen teaching stories (koans), making them vividly relevant to spiritual seekers and Zen students in the twenty-first century. Continually emphasizing koans as effective tools to discover and experience the deepest truths of our being, Wick brings the art of the koan to life for those who want to practice wisdom in their daily lives. The koan collection Wick explores here is highly esteemed as both literature and training material in the Zen tradition, in which koan-study is one of two paths a practitioner might take. This collection is used for training in many Zen centers in the Americas and in Europe but has never before been available with commentary from a contemporary Zen master. Wick's Book of Equanimity includes new translations of the preface, main case and verse for each koan, and modern commentaries on the koans by Wick himself.

Equanimity: The Spirit Within is a book of memoirs and experiences which the author Samuel D. Bartoli started creating the day after he woke up from the most amazing journey of his life. This voyage led him through a trial by fire where he was face to face with the Devil himself in a battle for his soul. Samuel was a former amateur boxer who had spent the last five and a half years of his life trying to make it from the local boxing scene to the big time as a professional prizefighter. After developing a form of Pugilistic Dementia which he can only classify as a first stage impairment of the mental senses he began to develop: Slowed motor skills, impaired speech, lack of concentration while communicating along with shaky hands and blurred vision. Eventually knowing that this battle was going nowhere he could hear the final bell. Calling out to God, the Creator (Father Almighty) comforted and protected Samuel leading him away from the enemy and into Christ's saving light. The book is a form of rebirth for any person looking for not only a new way in which to handle their fears or problems but to grab hold of life and truly enjoy it for its beauty and grace for which God has so richly blessed them with.

Buddha was a revolutionary. His practice was subversive; his message, seditious. His enlightened point of view went against the norms of his day—in his words, "against the stream." His teachings changed the world, and now they can change you too. Presenting the basics of Buddhism with personal anecdotes, exercises, and guided meditations, bestselling author Noah Levine guides the reader along a spiritual path that has led to freedom from suffering and has saved lives for 2,500 years. Levine should know. Buddhist meditation saved him from a life of addiction and crime. He went on to counsel and teach countless others the Buddhist way to freedom, and here he shares those life-changing lessons with you. Read and awaken to a new and better life.

The Equanimous Mind (2nd Edition) chronicles the author's first ten-day Vipassana meditation camp experience at the end of 2010 and the life-changing impact it has had on his personal and professional life since that time. This new second edition comes at an important milestone in Manish’s journey as ten years have passed since that first ten-day retreat. A new epilogue in this 10th anniversary edition has been expanded and enriched with updates on his progress since the journey began a decade ago. The book describes a ten-day Vipassana meditation course in the tradition of S. N. Goenka from the standpoint of someone encountering meditation for the first time. It contains a detailed, journal-like narrative of the rich and complex sequence of events that unrolls during the retreat. The author’s capacity to recall and sequence vivid details by the hundreds gives the book the feeling of an experience rather than merely of a recounting. The Equanimous Mind has a particular heartwarming quality because of the earnestness with which the author seeks to grow into being the best possible person he can be. Many people will benefit from this volume of clear sentences, deep feelings, and important messages. ============= Out of gratitude for the benefits the author has received from the practice of Vipassana meditation, he will be donating the proceeds from this book to spreading awareness about the technique, so that others can draw value from it as well. =============

Without proper support, navigating the icy waters of grief may feel impossible. The grieving person may feel spiritually bankrupt and often the loss is so painful that the bereaved may lose faith in what they once held dear. Mindfulness meditation can restore hope by offering a compassionate safe haven for healing and self-reflection. While nobody can predict the path of someone else's grief, this book will guide the reader forward through the grieving process with simple mindfulness-based exercises to restore mind, body and spirit. These easy-to-follow meditations will help the reader to cope with the pain of loss, and embark on a healing journey. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of grief, and the guided meditations will calm the mind and increase clarity and focus. Mindfulness and Grief will help readers to begin the process of reconstructing the shattered self that is left in the wake of any major loss.

In The Gateless Gate, one of modern Zen Buddhism's uniquely influential masters offers classic commentaries on the Mumonkan, one of Zen's greatest collections of teaching stories. This translation was compiled with the Western reader in mind, and includes Koan Yamada's clear and penetrating comments on each case. Yamada played a seminal role in bringing Zen Buddhism to the West from Japan, going on to be the head of the Sanbo Kyodan Zen Community. The Gateless Gate would be invaluable if only for the translation and commentary alone, yet it's loaded with extra material and is a fantastic resource to keep close by: An in-depth Introduction to the History of Zen Practice Lineage charts Japanese-to-Chinese and Chinese-to-Japanese conversion charts for personal names, place names, and names of writings Plus front- and back-matter from ancient and modern figures: Mumon, Shuan, Kubota Ji'un, Taizan Maezumi, Hugo Enomiya-Lasalle, and Yamada Roshi's son, Masamichi Yamada. A wonderful inspiration for the koan practitioner, and for those with a general interest in Zen Buddhism.

An esteemed Insight Meditation teacher leads you through the sublime qualities of Buddhism—kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity—and how they can enrich your life Compassion, kindness, equanimity, and joy are not only the fruits of the awakened life but also the path to it—attitudes of mind that can be cultivated through intention and dedication. Also known as the brahma viharas (sublime abodes) and the “Four Immeasurables,” these enobling qualities are far more than simply the “feel-good” states they are often mistaken for. They must be pursued sincerely as a spiritual practice—not just as a means of getting a “spiritual high”—in order to experience the full extent of their power. In Boundless Heart, Christina Feldman presents teachings on the Four Immeasurables, exploring how they balance each other in a way that enhances them all. Her simple practices will lead you toward a life infused with kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity—and to a way of being that promotes those qualities to the world at large.

A master yoga teacher introduces his personal, step-by-step program--which incorporates yoga practice, diet modification, and guided meditation--to help readers transform their lives and promote complete mind-body-spirit well-being.

Tom Harlan brings his Oath of Empire series to a shattering conclusion in The Dark Lord. In what would be the 7th Century AD in our history, the Roman Empire still stands, supported by the twin pillars of the Legions and Thaumaturges of Rome. The Emperor of the West, the Augustus Galen Atreus, came to the aid of the Emperor of the East, the Avtokrator Heraclius, in his war with the Sassanad Emperor of Persia. But despite early victories, that war has not gone well, and now Rome is hard-pressed. Constantinople has fallen before the dark sorceries of the Lord Dahak and his legions of the living and dead. Now the new Emperor of Persia marches on Egypt, and if he takes that ancient nation, Rome will be starved and defeated. But there is a faint glimmer of hope. The Emperor Galen's brother Maxian is a great sorcerer, perhaps the equal of Dahak, lord of the seven serpents. He is now firmly allied with his Imperial brother and Rome. And though they are caught tight in the Dark Lord's net of sorcery, Queen Zoe of Palmyra and Lord Mohammed have not relinquished their souls to evil. Powerful, complex, engrossing --Thomas Harlan's Oath of Empire series has taken fantasy readers by storm. The first three volumes, The Shadow of Ararat, The Gate of Fire, and The Storm of Heaven have been universally praised. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Pursuit of Value This book re-examines the big questions of life through the auspices of value and consciousness, and through their roles in human activities such as ethics, religion, romance, and purpose. A meaningful life, for example, is ostensibly one that is worthwhile or valuable, and ethical principles are values that guide 'right' conduct. But both value and consciousness are beset by theoretical problems as well as holding out promises of explanation and resolution. Thinkers from Nietzsche to Ronald Dworkin agree that values are amongst the most crucial aspects of life, lying at the heart of politics, religion, morality and social order. But they are also amongst the least understood. Basic questions remain unanswered such as: what are values, how can apparently subjective values be objective, and perhaps more importantly, how does value enter into our experience of the quality and meaning of our lives? The phenomenon of consciousness offers solutions as well as additional problems. The classic 'mind-body' issue continues to reveal uncertainty over the status of mind as either an aspect of the physical world or as some other species of 'being'. Less widely discussed, an error theory of consciousness-comparable to Mackie's error theory of value-is presented here to explain both the neglect or obfuscation of personal existence, and the 'mysteriousness' of that existence, seemingly evoked by a non-referential form of perception to which every self-conscious individual is subjected. Further questions of free-will, personal identity, and the development of cognitive faculties are also illuminated by a consideration of consciousness, or rather a graduated conception of consciousness attributable with different levels or degrees. It's almost a truism that self-consciousness is a precondition of free-will, personal identity, and certain cognitive faculties, that typically pre-reflective 'animal' consciousness doesn't enjoy. Questions of value also call upon theory of mind, or in our case, a structural conception of consciousness, once favoured in phenomenology. Harking back to Sartrean relations between value, selection and choice, structural features such as graduation, divisibility and 'intentionality' can further explain the origins of value as well as how it can both propel itself and be constrained by its own choices for value. Thrust into the world of reason, intentional objects and the unavoidability of choice, additional constraints bear upon value, and thereby upon our experience of the world. The problematic 'fact-value' and 'is-ought' distinctions in human action and ethics are also offered resolution in a structural account where value isn't just a product of consciousness, but provides a foundation for further value and values. In a structural perspective, the phenomenon of 'choice', for instance, can be understood as both an integral property of consciousness and a final arbiter of moral decision. A resolution of the seeming contradiction between a choice that is both 'free' and 'objectively moral' comes within reach with explanations of value in terms of structures of consciousness that provide both a graduated notion of free-will and a 'relative objectivity' with normative features. Further explanations of value with reference to its quality, resilience and sufficiency, in relation to supporting cognitive objects, sets us on a certain trajectory, on route to a value 'preference', and on a path towards an experience of a 'good' and meaningful life, that we outline here.