“The Buddha in hell! What kind of sense is that?” Near-death experiences which are frightening, alienating, and/or hellish are the hardest of all to understand. A veteran researcher of distressing NDEs, Nancy Evans Bush, MA, explores questions raised by the experiences which are typically seen as punishment or evidence of bad character, suggestive of the hell described by medieval Christianity. After seventeen hundred years, is that still all we have as explanation? Evans Bush says not. President Emerita of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, she brings straight talk and decades of study to a difficult subject, respecting both religion and science in this age of the Hubble universe. The book is not a collection of distressing NDE accounts but an exploration of finding meaning and purpose in them.

"Prison activist and meditation teacher Fleet Maull shares his journey of transformation and service amidst the anger, violence, darkness and despair of a maximum security federal prison"--Back cover.

"A collection of texts on Buddhist Hell, including, The Great Story, Middle-Length Discourses, Friendly Epistle, Sutra on the Eighteen Hells, Sutra Spoken by the Buddha, Avalokiteswara's Descent into the Hell, Mu-Lien Rescues His Mother, T'ai Tsung in Hell, Essentials of Pure Land Rebirth, The Precious Record, Miao-Shen Visits Hell, and others, plus notes, glossary, links to web resources"--Provided by publisher.

Kiera Van Gelder's first suicide attempt at the age of twelve marked the onset of her struggles with drug addiction, depression, post-traumatic stress, self-harm, and chaotic romantic relationships-all of which eventually led to doctors' belated diagnosis of borderline personality disorder twenty years later. The Buddha and the Borderline is a window into this mysterious and debilitating condition, an unblinking portrayal of one woman's fight against the emotional devastation of borderline personality disorder. This haunting, intimate memoir chronicles both the devastating period that led to Kiera's eventual diagnosis and her inspirational recovery through therapy, Buddhist spirituality, and a few online dates gone wrong. Kiera's story sheds light on the private struggle to transform suffering into compassion for herself and others, and is essential reading for all seeking to understand what it truly means to recover and reclaim the desire to live.

Become a calmer and happier mother with Buddhism for Mothers. 'This is an excellent, practical guide to everyday Buddhism not just for mothers, but for everyone who has ever had a mother. ' Vicki Mackenzie, author of the bestselling Why Buddhism Parenthood can be a time of great inner turmoil for a woman yet parenting books invariably focus on nurturing children rather than the mothers who struggle to raise them. This book is different. It is a book for mothers. Buddhism for Mothers explores the potential to be with your children in the all-important present moment; to gain the most joy out of being with them. How can this be done calmly and with a minimum of anger, worry and negative thinking? How can mothers negotiate the changed conditions of their relationships with partners, family and even with friends? Using Buddhist practices, Sarah Napthali offers ways of coping with the day-to-day challenges of motherhood. Ways that also allow space for the deeper reflections about who we are and what makes us happy. By acknowledging the sorrows as well as the joys of mothering Buddhism for Mothers can help you shift your perspective so that your mind actually helps you through your day rather than dragging you down. This is Buddhism at its most accessible, applied to the daily realities of ordinary parents. Even if exploring Buddhism at this busy stage of your life is not where you thought you'd be, it's well worthwhile reading this book. It can make a difference.

Almost one in five near-death experiences are not peaceful suggestions of heaven. In a wide-ranging and far from gloomy look at “the other near-death experience,” Nancy Evans Bush gives the first comprehensive look at a fascinating but neglected topic: NDEs and deathbed visions of fear, emptiness, and even hell. A wonderfully readable book, grounded in thirty years of experience and research, Dancing is packed with first-person accounts, engrossing discussion and factual answers to a myriad of questions, both religious and secular, with practical suggestions for integrating such an experience or encountering one as a caregiver. Here are ways of thinking about the subject that will be new to many readers. What becomes evident is that to see these only as a terrible threat about death is largely to miss their point. “…absolutely enthralling—literary, adventurous, incisive, informative and smart… one of the strongest, most thought-provoking books on the paranormal I've ever seen.” ~Steve Volk Fringe-ology “The book is an outstanding piece of work. It is a wonderfully comprehensive and rich history of what can be known and what might be considered about NDEs [and] bursts with anecdote and commentary, reinforcing for the reader that there is always another way to see things.” ~ Wayne Rollins, MDiv, PhD Soul and Psyche, Jung and the Bible, and other titles “Dancing Past the Dark is what we have all been waiting for… a must for any experiencer of…any type of encounter with the numinous. ~ P. M. H. Atwater, LHD Near-Death Experiences: The Rest of the Story “A valuable contribution to the NDE literature and engagingly written. It needs to be seen and read by the wider public.” J. Harold Ellens, MDiv, PhD Nancy Evans Bush holds a Masters Degree in Pastoral Ministry and Spirituality from St. Joseph University, Connecticut. She was Executive Director and later President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies and a member of its Board of Directors for many years. She is considered the world expert on distressing NDEs.

Alys’s whole world was comprised of the history project that was due, her upcoming violin audition, being held tightly in the arms of her boyfriend, Ben, and laughing with her best friend, Delilah. At least it was—until she found herself on the wrong end of a shotgun in the school library. Her suburban high school had become one of those places you hear about on the news—a place where some disaffected youth decided to end it all and take as many of his teachers and classmates with him as he could. Except, in this story, that youth was Alys’s own brother, Luke. He killed fifteen others and himself, but spared her—though she’ll never know why. Alys’s downward spiral begins instantly, and there seems to be no bottom. A heartbreaking and beautifully told story.

Ed is having a hard time - at work, in his love life and, well, generally. Then he meets an unlikely Buddhist - who drinks and smokes and talks his kind of language. Bit by bit, things begin to change... Ed doesn't always take Geoff's advice. Or, when he does he lapses at the crucial moment. His path to understanding is not a straight one, especially as life keeps throwing more and more 'stuff' at him. Often he fails - like most of us, in fact. But sometimes he manages to get it right. And when he does, surprising things begin to happen ... In The Buddha, Geoff and Me Edward Canfor-Dumas brings all his skills to bear in an absorbing story of everyday city life, where the characters stand out with all their human strengths and weaknesses, and the ending brings Ed - and perhaps all of us? - a hope we didn't necessarily expect. The Buddha, Geoff and Me - for anyone who's ever begun to wonder what the whole damn thing is all about ...

World-renowned psychic medium and Oxford-educated attorney Mark Anthony bridges the divide between faith and science in this fascinating afterlife exploration, taking you around the globe, from the cosmic to the subatomic, and into the human soul itself. Combining physics, neuroscience, and riveting true stories, this book: • reveals how our “electromagnetic soul” is pure eternal energy that never dies. • takes spirit communication, near-death experiences, and deathbed visions out of the shadows of superstition and into the light of twenty-first-century science. • presents Anthony’s RAFT technique to recognize contact with spirits, accept it as real, feel it without fear, and trust in the experience. • provides hope for recovery from grief, PTSD, survivor’s guilt, or a loved one’s suicide or homicide. • illuminates how contact with spirits is a powerful instrument of healing and love.

Does Buddhism require faith? Can an atheist or agnostic follow the Buddha’s teachings without believing in reincarnation or organized religion? This is one man’s confession. In his classic Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor offered a profound, secular approach to the teachings of the Buddha that struck an emotional chord with Western readers. Now, with the same brilliance and boldness of thought, he paints a groundbreaking portrait of the historical Buddha—told from the author’s unique perspective as a former Buddhist monk and modern seeker. Drawing from the original Pali Canon, the seminal collection of Buddhist discourses compiled after the Buddha’s death by his followers, Batchelor shows us the Buddha as a flesh-and-blood man who looked at life in a radically new way. Batchelor also reveals the everyday challenges and doubts of his own devotional journey—from meeting the Dalai Lama in India, to training as a Zen monk in Korea, to finding his path as a lay teacher of Buddhism living in France. Both controversial and deeply personal, Stephen Batchelor’s refreshingly doctrine-free, life-informed account is essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhism.