According to the Buddha, the path of kindness is the path of happiness. Now Sylvia Boorstein, nationally bestselling author of It’s Easier Than You Think, has taken the 2500-year-old practice of developing the qualities of a compassionate heart—the core of the Buddha’s own practice—and made it accessible to all. Pay Attention for Goodness’ Sake is the first book ever to guide Western readers on the path of the Buddha’s Ten Paramitas, the Perfections of the Heart. Boorstein combines traditional Buddhist teachings and parables with stories from her own life, as well as easy-to-follow meditations, to show how the practice of Mindfulness—paying attention in everyday life—can lead to these perfections that all of us strive for, including Generosity, Morality, Wisdom, Energy, Patience, Determination, and Equanimity. When we take on this practice, Boorstein notes, “our vision becomes transformed. We see, with increasing clarity, the confusion in our own minds and the suffering in our own hearts. . . . And we also see the extraordinariness of life, how amazing it is that life exists.” Boorstein’s lively and practical lessons about everyday generosity, morality, making and mending mistakes, the bliss of blamelessness, and other human concerns and frailties, help to clarify our distractions and connect us with our own goodness, “the part of ourselves that wishes it had done differently.” For Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike, Pay Attention for Goodness’ Sake is a cheerful, inspiring book that offers the possibility of a transformed life.

Using delightful and deceptively powerful stories from everyday experiences, beloved Buddhist teacher Sylvia Boorstein demystifies spirituality, charts the path to happiness through the Buddha's basic teachings, shows how to eliminate hindrances to clear seeing, and develops a realistic course toward wisdom and compassion. A wonderfully engaging guide, full of humor, memorable insights, and love.

A lively, topical guide on how to respond to life’s inevitable difficulties—from personal crises to broader societal challenges The issue of difficulty in life is at the very essence of Buddhism. One can reasonably translate the first noble truth as, “life is full of difficulties,” with the remaining noble truths serving as Buddhism’s analysis of those difficulties and how to work with them. In Solid Ground, celebrated Buddhist teachers Sylvia Boorstein, Zoketsu Norman Fisher, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche use their diverse wisdom to address the immediate and practical concerns of our lives, including individual crises as well as the political, economic, and social challenges society is currently facing. Together, they explore the most basic and profound questions of Buddhism: the difficulty of life in general and how we can work with that and ameliorate it. Filled with humor and personal stories, Solid Ground offers specific teachings for concrete situations as well as a way to explore the larger questions of finding equanimity in difficult times.

Get away from doing and into being with this lively, down-to-earth guide to your own meditation retreat by beloved mindfulness meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein. Presenting what Jon Kabat-Zinn has called "endearingly personal mindfulness wisdom," she offers a three-day retreat plan accompanied by timeless lessons -- always grounded in real life -- on how anyone can achieve calm, clarity and joy through meditation practices.

Advance praise for Happiness Is an Inside Job "This book will convince you that your own happiness really is much more available to you than you may have thought. Sylvia skillfully shares her inner life and her outer life and lovingly trains your mind and heart in the real practice of meditation, which is always about how you live your life right here and right now."-Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Coming to Our Senses "Sylvia Boorstein's lessons, gleaned from a life of internal reflection and mindful teaching, are delivered with such openness, love, and affection that it feels as if you are sitting with Sylvia in her living room soaking in the wisdom of an enlightened friend-wisdom that is also consistent with findings about how mindfulness changes the brain."-Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., author of The Mindful Brain "A wonderful book, heartwarming and wise . . . It conveys the essence of what the Buddha taught-in the voice of a gifted storyteller, teacher, friend, and compassionate human being."-Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindess "Reading this wonderful book is like having a heart-to-heart with Sylvia. It is wise, warm, and full of great stories that will make you smile. Best of all, it will cheer your spirit by showing you how to practice happiness." -Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart "This is a truly delightful book, filled with simple wisdom for the journey."-Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big Life "A generous gift for all of us to enjoy, to savor, and to learn from."-Judith S. Wallerstein, Ph.D., co-author of What About the Kids? "Sylvia Boorstein has always been a world-class storyteller. But the stories in Happinessare altogether at a new level. I found myself talking back to this book repeatedly, saying, 'Yes! That's it! Exactly!' It should be required reading for all human beings." -Stephen Cope, author of The Wisdom of Yoga "From the Hardcover edition."

Merging Buddhist mindfulness practices with the Twelve Step program, this updated edition of the bestselling recovery guide One Breath at a Time will inspire and enlighten you to live a better, healthier life. Many in recovery turn to the Twelve Steps to overcome their addictions, but struggle with the spiritual program. But what they might not realize is that Buddhist teachings are intrinsically intertwined with the lessons of the Twelve Steps, and offer time-tested methods for addressing the challenges of sobriety. In what is considered the cornerstone of the most significant recovery movement of the 21st century, Kevin Griffin shares his own extraordinary journey to sobriety and how he integrated the Twelve Steps of recovery with Buddhist mindfulness practices. With a new foreword by William Alexander, the author of Ordinary Recovery, One Breath at a Time takes you on a journey through the Steps, examining critical ideas like Powerlessness, Higher Power, and Moral Inventory through the lens of the core concepts of Buddhism—the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, mindfulness, loving-kindness, and more. The result is a book that presents techniques and meditations for finding clarity and awareness in your life, just as it has for thousands of addicts and alcoholics.

The inspiring life-story of from the bestselling author of Mindfulness in Plain English—updated and expanded in honor of his 90th birthday. Bhante Gunaratana—Bhante G., as he is affectionately called—has long been among the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West. Ordained at twelve, he would eventually become the first Buddhist chaplain at an American university, the founder of a retreat center and monastery, and a bestselling author. Here, Bhante G. lays bare the often-surprising ups and downs of his more than ninety years, from his boyhood in Sri Lanka to his decades of sharing the insights of the Buddha, telling his story with the "plain-English" good-humored approach for which he is so renowned. This expanded anniversary edition includes four new chapters in which Bhante reflects on the impact of the tsumani that struck his homeland in 2004 and his subsequent appearance on Larry King Live, his brief experiment in ordaining nuns at his monastery, as well intimate reflections on the loss of family members, and his own aging and infirmity—providing a model an inspiring model to us all of gracious equanimity.

In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humour and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart – to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; to look to John le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O’ Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail; to be inspired by Emily Brontë ’ s structural nuance and Charles Dickens’ s deceptively simple narrative techniques. Most importantly, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted, and reminds us that good writing comes out of good reading.

While the fierce debate over religion in public schools receives ample media attention, we rarely consider the implications of religious schools on moral education and liberal democracy. In this groundbreaking work, Walter Feinberg opens up a critical new dialogue to offer a complete discussion of the important role religious schools play in the formation of a democratic citizenry. Feinberg, a leading philosopher of education, approaches the subject of religious education with a rare evenhandedness, drawing on examples from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim schools and exploring topics as disparate as sex education and creationism. For Goodness Sake provides a much-needed take on a controversial topic, demonstrating that the relationship between religion and schooling is not simply the exclusive concern of members of a given religious community, but a relevant and vital issue for everyone who cares about education.

Missiologist and church planter JR Woodward offers a blueprint for the missional church--not small adjustments around the periphery of the infrastructure but a radical revisioning of how a church ought to look that entails changing how we think about leadership and what we expect out of discipleship.