"This collection of thirty-one essays by contemporary teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, both Western teachers and Tibetan lamas, provides readers a multifaceted glimpse of the Buddhist practice within the Dzogchen tradition, from its biggest authorities. Sogyal Rinpoche, the author of the bestselling Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, is the primary contributor, contributing seven of the teachings included here, but the collection also includes teachings from the Dalai Lama, Ringu Tulku, Francesca Fremantle, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Dzogchen Pönlop Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, and many others. From basic advice on turning the mind toward spiritual concerns through expressions of the highest insights on mind and reality, readers will discover how to integrate Buddhist ideas and practices with the activities and experiences that make up our day-to-day lives. "

This book addresses key historical, scientific, legal, and philosophical issues surrounding euthanasia and assisted suicide in the United States as well as in other countries and cultures. Euthanasia was practiced by Greek physicians as early as 500 BC. In the 20th century, legal and ethical controversies surrounding assisted dying exploded. Many religions and medical organizations led the way in opposition, citing the incompatibility of assisted dying with various religious traditions and with the obligations of medical personnel toward their patients. Today, these practices remain highly controversial both in the United States and around the world. Comprising contributions from an international group of experts, this book thoroughly investigates euthanasia and assisted suicide from an interdisciplinary and global perspective. It presents the ethical arguments for and against assisted dying; highlights how assisted dying is perceived in various cultural and philosophical traditions—for example, South and East Asian cultures, Latin American perspectives, and religions including Islam and Christianity; and considers how assisted dying has both shaped and been shaped by the emergence of professionalized bioethics. Readers will also learn about the most controversial issues related to assisted dying, such as pediatric euthanasia, assisted dying for organ transplantation, and "suicide tourism," and examine concerns relating to assisted dying for racial minorities, children, and the disabled.

An esteemed modern Tibetan Buddhist teacher presents a system of meditation instructions designed for achieving relaxation in our stressful, fast-paced world In the late 1990s, shortly after arriving in the United States, it became clear to Dza Kilung Rinpoche that his Western students responded to traditional meditation instructions differently from his students back in Asia. The Westerners didn't know how to relax—and their pressured, fast-paced lifestyles carried over into meditation. With this in mind, Dza Kilung Rinpoche set out to create a meditation system that could break through the noise of Western life. The Relaxed Mind contains instructions for the seven-phase practice that he developed for students in the West. It is adapted from traditional instructions to counteract the overwhelming distraction that is becoming a global culture these days, not only in the West. Beginners will find a wealth of useful, easy-to-understand information while more experienced meditators may be surprised to find their practice deepening through letting go of tension.

Walk step by step through the stages of this tantric ritual of purification with inspired commentary and forty full-color illustrations. The force of our past actions makes it hard to attain our goals, including success in meditation. And so Buddhism has developed methods for purifying our past, clearing the obstacles to success and fulfillment. One of the most popular methods for karmic housekeeping, one common to all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, is the preparatory practice of visualizing the buddha Vajrasattva and reciting his hundred-syllable mantra. It is considered an essential foundation for the success of spiritual endeavor. The practice of Vajrasattva is often the first experience practitioners have of trying to perform tantric ritual. Combining prayers, visualizations, mantra recitations, and multiple styles of meditation, it can be hard for those who did not grow up in the tradition to know how to proceed. This friendly volume by a young Tibetan lama with many followers in China lays out the practice step by step accompanied by sixty color illustrations.

One of the world's most popular Tibetan lamas shares accessible advice for working with adversity and living a spiritual life. Enjoy a variety of meditations on topics from flattery and jealousy to karma and compassion. In each brief chapter Khenpo Sodargye weaves in stories from ancient classics and modern headlines. Drawing on adages from the Buddha, Confucius, and even Mark Twain, he delivers simple and timeless insights about facing adversity and developing a good heart. With this English-language edition, you can now join the tens of millions who have already benefitted from this ageless advice on money, relationships, mortality, and more.

Drawing on historical sociology, transnational histories and Asian traditions, Duara seeks answers to the pressing global issue of environmental sustainability.

In this one-of-a-kind mindfulness workbook for teens, New York Times-bestselling artist and author of Start Where You Are, Meera Lee Patel, presents an entire year of calming, stress-relieving zentangle-style drawings for young, first-time zen drawers to help relax and enjoy a truly mindful moment of creativity. Few activities are as spiritually satisfying as the art of the meditative “tangle” drawing. With this book, teens can find a quiet moment to craft an intaglio of intricate, mandala-like drawings that will calm and bring on a peaceful state that clears the mind and facilitates creativity and relaxation. Offering a different hand-illustrated prompt for each day of the year, Daily Zen Doodles inspires kids to lose themselves in the contemplative act of sketching beautifully repeating patterns and abstract designs. Whether it’s the outline of a nautilus shell, the petals of a lotus blossom, or the spokes of the Buddhist wheel, the mindfulness-inspiring ideas in this book foster focus and help unlock that budding inner artist. Accompanied by apt quotes from spiritual leaders and famed philosophers to provide you with an added spark of inspiration, each drawing prompt is an invitation to an improved mindset and elevated state of inner peace.

In Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self, Les Roberts extends his earlier work on spatial anthropology to consider questions of time, spaciousness and the phenomenology of self. Across the book’s four main chapters – which range from David Bowie’s long-standing interest in Buddhism, to street photography of 1980s Liverpool, to the ambient soundscapes of Derek Jarman’s Blue, or to the slow, contemplative cinema of Tsai Ming-Liang – Roberts lays the groundwork for the concept of ‘dwellspace’ as a means by which to unpick the shifting spatial, temporal and experiential modalities of everyday mediascapes. Understood as a particular disposition towards time, Roberts’s foray into dwellspace proceeds from a Pascalian reflection on the self/non-self in which being content in an empty room vies with the demands of having content in an empty room. Taking the idea of posthuman Buddhism as a heuristic lens, Roberts sets in motion a number of interrelated lines of enquiry that prompt renewed focus on questions of boredom, distraction and reverie and cast into sharper relief the psychosocial and creative affordances of ambience, spaciousness and slowness. The book argues that the colonisation of ‘empty time’ by 24/7 digital capitalism has gone hand-in-hand with the growth of the corporate mindfulness industry, and with it, the co-option, commodification and digitisation of dwellspace. Posthuman Buddhism is thus in part an exploration of the dialectics of dwellspace that orbits around a creative self-praxis rooted in the negation and dissolution of the self, one of the foundational cornerstones of Buddhist theory and practice.

This volume addresses an important problem in social scientific research on global religions and spirituality: How to evaluate the role of diverse religious and spiritual (R/S) beliefs and practices within the rapid evolution of spiritual globalization and diversification trends. The book examines this question by bringing together a panel of international scholars including psychologists, sociologists, and researchers in religious studies, public health, medicine, and social work. The content includes chapters describing innovative concepts of post-Christian spirituality, Eastern forms of meditation, afterlife beliefs associated with the three dominant cultural legacies, various non-religious worldviews, spiritual Jihad, and secular and religious reverence. The book also covers such important themes as spiritual well-being, faith, struggle, meaning making, modeling, and support, as well as mysticism and using prayer to cope with existential crises. This book advances the understanding of the role of R/S across different faiths and cultural systems, including both Western and non-Western ones, and enriches the mainstream of psychological sciences and practices. It appeals to students, educators, researchers, and clinicians in multiple related fields and disciplines.