This inspiring and enlightening collection of 70 Buddhist stories told by Dharma Master Cheng Yen exemplifies how the karmic law of cause and effect plays out in people's lives--unwholesome karma is created by deeply rooted negative habitual tendencies, eventually leading to undesirable consequences. By learning the Dharma, however, people will understand the truths of suffering and will come to realize the manifold blessings in their lives. They will be further inspired to tread the Bodhisattva Path and to practice the Six Paramitas. It is only by doing so that they can return to their original, intrinsic, and pure Buddha-nature, which is inherent in all living beings. People are sentient beings with an intrinsic Buddha-nature, but when they are influenced by their environment, inauspicious causes and conditions cause them accumulate complex and negative habitual tendencies, which can cause them to turn away from their Buddha-nature. In order for them to return to their pure and wholesome nature, they must follow the right method. This means that they must walk the Bodhisattva-path, putting the teachings into practice and trusting in the karmic law of cause and effect. By liberating themselves from suffering and working to eliminate negative habitual tendencies, the purity of their Buddha-nature can shine forth again. 'The sutras are a path; this path is a road for us to walk on.' Ordinary people traveling on life's journey do not realize that one ignorant thought can create subtle afflictions. If we do not clearly recognize karma and its nature, habitual tendencies in thoughts and actions can become deeply rooted and give rise to more karma. Going from the worldly path to the path of the Bodhisattva, we abide by the Four Great Vows in our hearts and practice the Four Infinite Minds and the Six Paramitas in our actions. Only then can we penetrate the essence of the sutras and thus return to our pure nature. Only then will we realize that the mind, the Buddha, and sentient beings are no different in their nature. Everyone has Buddha-nature, and everyone is innately capable of attaining the same virtue as the Buddha!'

Return to Nature--the reissue of Adolf Just’s Return to Nature The True Natural Method Of Healing And Living & The True Salvation Of The Soul (1904). Learn how natural baths, light, air, clothing, earth's magnetic field, clay therapy, nutrition, meat and milk consumption affect health; cases and cures of illness from pneumonia to blindness; biblical references, child-rearing, farming and more-- "advanced" knowledge that's been around for over a century! (320pp; 6"x9"; ISBN:9781721870240) https://www.agelessadept.com

Twentieth-century Catholic theology was strongly affected by Henri de Lubac's claim that the western theological tradition went awry by allowing that one could have an adequate idea of human nature without reference to humanity's supernatural end. According to de Lubac, the culprits were early modern scholastics, and their mistake was the idea of pure nature. Aquinas's Notion of Pure Nature and the Christian Integralism of Henri de Lubac: Not Everything Is Grace contributes to the current literature criticizing de Lubac's thesis. Specifically, it offers an explanation for its enduring power and popularity with particular attention to the contemporary Radical Orthodoxy movement.

Discover the new science and ancient wisdom on why nature makes us healthier and happier in body and soul from the co-author of The Spirit Almanac and mindbodygreen’s Senior Sustainability Editor. For centuries, we have known that getting outside is good for us. Yet we have become increasingly disconnected from the earth that nourishes us, with most of us spending 87% of our days indoors. In response, writer and environmentalist Emma Loewe demonstrates the power of nature’s healing properties in a guidebook organized by eight landscapes. In each chapter, you'll find research-backed ways to explore that landscape right now and protect it in the future, so that it can be healthy and nurturing for generations to come. Drawing off modern science and innate wisdom, she uncovers: Why being by the ocean makes you measurably happier How living near greenery helps you lives longer The staggering, illuminating statistic that forests can make you more relaxed within 90 seconds of walking among trees. Alongside beautiful four-color illustrations that inspire us all to get outside in big and small ways, this stunning book—more urgent than ever—will appeal to anyone looking to connect with the world around them, whether in their neighborhood park or on a backpacking getaway.

A renowned Zen teacher and contemporary of Shunryu Suzuki explores the many pillars of Zen spirituality, explaining how we can bring these practices into our daily lives For twenty-five hundred years Buddhism has taught that everyone is Buddha—already enlightened, lacking nothing. But still there is the question of how we can experience that truth in our lives. In this book, Dainin Katagiri points to the manifestation of enlightenment right here, right now, in our everyday routine. Genuineness of practice lies in “just living” our lives wholeheartedly. The Zen practice of sitting meditation (zazen) is not a means to an end but the activity of enlightenment itself. That is why Katagiri Roshi says, “Don't expect enlightenment—just sit down!” Based on the author's talks to his American students, Returning to Silence contains the basic teachings of the Buddha, with special emphasis on the meaning of faith and on meditation. It also offers a commentary on “The Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance” from Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo, which speaks in depth about the appropriate actions of those who guide others in the practice of the Buddha Way. Throughout these pages, Katagiri Roshi energetically brings to life the message that “Buddha is your daily life.”

The author of A Wild, Rank Place focuses on the osprey, capturing their magnificent beauty while chronicling their return on the east coast after a two decades absence. BOMC.

Using the lens of ecopsychology, Returning the Self to Nature shows that the pervasive and extreme forms of narcissism we find in many modern societies are fundamentally the result of alienation from the natural world. But it doesn't have to be that way. Returning the Self to Nature is written for the person who no longer wishes to function in a world that revolves around selfish, disconnected identity models and yearns to step into healthy relationships with one’s self, one’s community, and our planet. Seeing the suffering of the planet and that of humans as inseparably linked—the ecological crisis as psychological crisis, and vice versa—opens the door to a mutuality of healing between people and nature. At the heart of both chronic and acute forms of narcissism is a socially constructed false self—an isolated, damaged ego in a delusional cycle of selfishness. Through unflinching analysis and meditation practices that encourage visualizing and embodying the wild naturalness of being human, the reader will gain skills to begin experiencing a courageous, pluralistic, and ecological self. This book is an invitation to wake up from the dream of the false self and join the movement toward social and planetary healing.

Could it be that we have lost touch with some basic human realities in our day of high-tech efficiency, frenetic competition, and ceaseless consumption? Have we turned from the moral, the spiritual, and even the physical realities that make our lives meaningful? These are metaphysical questions -questions about the nature of reality- but they are not abstract questions. These are very down to earth questions that concern power and the collective frameworks of belief and action governing our daily lives. This book is an introduction to the history, theory, and application of Christian metaphysics. Yet this book is not just an introduction, it is also a passionately argued call for a profound change in the contemporary Christian mind. Paul Tyson argues that as Western culture's Christian Platonist understanding of reality was replaced by modern pragmatic realism, we turned not just from one outlook on reality to another, but away from reality itself. This book seeks to show that if we can recover this ancient Christian outlook on reality, reframed for our day, then we will be able to recover a way of life that is in harmony with human and divine truth.