Hell realms, gods, and hungry ghosts—these are just a few of the images on the Buddhist wheel of life. In Awakening from the Daydream, discover how these ancient symbols are still relevant to our modern life. In Awakening from the Daydream, meditation teacher David Nichtern reimagines the ancient Buddhist allegory of the Wheel of Life. Famously painted at the entryway to Buddhist monasteries, the Wheel of Life encapsulates the entirety of the human situation. In the image of the Wheel we find a teaching about how to make sense of life and how to find peace within an uncertain world. Nichtern writes with clarity and humor, speaking to our contemporary society and its concerns and providing simple practical steps for building a mindful, compassionate, and liberating approach to living.

A friendly, funny, practical guide for creatives and entrepreneurs, written by a four-time Emmy award-winning and two-time Grammy-nominated composer-guitarist-producer who has worked with Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Jerry Garcia, Lana Del Rey, and Krishna Das, among many others. Also a beloved and highly regarded Buddhist teacher, David teaches readers how to integrate their creative process with their spiritual practice and livelihood. “How do I make a living doing what I love?” “Am I a sellout as an artist if I want to be successful?” “How do I integrate my spiritual principles with the art of running a business? And actually, um, how do I run a business?” Wondering how to reconcile your calling with your need to make a living wage, or what to do once your art starts selling, or how to achieve success in your field, or what it even means to be successful? David Nichtern offers his lived, learned experience as an entrepreneur, musician, and Buddhist teacher to first help you figure out what “success” means to you and then show you how to get there. He offers advice on the creative process and principles of business and ethics—everything from “listen to the muse!” to “protect your intellectual property!”—and provides mindfulness exercises to help you integrate inspiration and aspiration, vocation and avocation—to go from surviving to thriving. Whether you’re a baker trying to grow from the farmer’s market to a brick-and-mortar or a CEO exploring how taking care of your employees can be the same as taking care of your business—if you’re trying to align your spiritual, creative, and financial pursuits and discover what it means to truly live well, this book is for you.

A concise, jargon-free guide to learning what Buddhist meditation is—and isn't—with advice on how to start a meditation practice If you want to meditate but have no idea where to begin, then best-selling author and Buddhist teacher Susan Piver is here to help. Her book Start Here Now contains everything you need to know in order to begin—and maintain—your own meditation practice. Piver covers a variety of essential topics such as: · What meditation is (and what it is not) · The three most common misconceptions about meditation · How to overcome obstacles that get in the way of your practice · The positive effects of meditation on relationships, creativity, and difficult emotions · Frequently asked questions Piver presents meditation as something more than the self-help technique du jour—it is a path to love, joy, and courage. This book contains two self-paced meditation programs to help you start here—now!

Renowned meditation master Chögyam Trungpa challenges popular misconceptions of the Buddhist doctrines of karma and rebirth, in the process showing how to step beyond karma on the path to awakening. Karma has become a popular term in the West, often connected with somewhat naive or deterministic ideas of rebirth and reincarnation or equated with views of morality and guilt. Chögyam Trungpa unpacks this intriguing but misunderstood topic. He viewed an understanding of karma as good news, showing us that liberation is possible and that the future is never predetermined. His unique approach to presenting the Buddhist teachings lends itself to an insightful and profound view of karma, its cause and effects, and how to cut the root of karma itself.

John Wheeler met Bob Adamson (a student of Nisargadatta Maharaj) on a trip to Australia in 2003. In short order, Bob cleared up John's doubts and questions and pointed out to him the fact of our real nature: self-shining, ever-present awareness. Bob Adamson has encouraged John to share this understanding of 'who we really are.'The articles contained in this book (extended by another 30 articles in this edition) cover some of John's experiences with meeting 'Sailor' Bob Adamson and various aspects of the understanding which subsequently unfolded. Interspersed with these are chapters of email correspondence with enquirers who have been drawn to this radical and direct approach to self-realisation.

From the bestselling author of Awareness and The Way to Love comes a classic reissue of lessons to inspire readers every day of the year. With more than two million books sold and countless admirers throughout the world, Anthony de Mello is regarded as one of the most influential religious teachers of the past fifty years. Since his death in 1987, widespread recognition of his work’s enduring value has continued to grow. In Awakening, de Mello explores “the wisdom that cannot be conveyed in human speech.” Through 365 meditations, blending the mystical traditions of both East and West, he creates the lessons of a profound “master” to his “pupil,” illustrating our common need for harmony and enlightenment. The daily parables, sometimes cryptic and often witty, are not meant so much to instruct as to awaken the understanding deep within the human heart.

Elevate your consciousness and heal your life. In Awakening to the Fifth Dimension, author Kimberly Meredith offers readers something truly revolutionary—a new dimension of healing. Discovering her healing gifts after two near death experiences in 2013, she is now one of the most in-demand medical intuitive healers in the nation, traveling the country to speak at events, appearing at major consciousness and global virtual events, and offering healing to those who so desperately in need. Here in these pages, Kimberly shares her gift for the first time with a wider audience, giving readers the tools to implement this healing in their own lives. Whether you are wrestling with chronic illness, seemingly untreatable symptoms, or other mental, emotional, or physical ailments, Kimberly’s gentle wisdom offers a way forward towards happiness and freedom. Filled with instruction, case studies, testimonials, nutritional advice, and practical methods to raise your consciousness Awakening to the Fifth Dimension will empower readers to confront their own health struggles and find true, lasting healing.

Translation of a series of lectures in Tibetan given in London, 1984.

Sailing Ten Years and 20,000 Miles In Search of Surf and Self

An engagingly contemporary approach to Buddhism—through the lens of an iconic film and its memorable characters Humorous yet spiritually rigorous in the tradition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Tao of Pooh, drawing from pop culture and from personal experience, The Dharma of “The Princess Bride” teaches us how to understand and navigate our most important personal relationships from a twenty-first-century Buddhist perspective. Friendship. Romance. Family. These are the three areas Ethan Nichtern delves into, taking as departure points the indelible characters from Rob Reiner’s perennially popular film—Westley, Fezzik, Vizzini, Count Rugen, Princess Buttercup, and others—as he also draws lessons from his own life and his work as a meditation teacher. Nichtern devotes the first section of the book to exploring the dynamics of friendship. Why do people become friends? What can we learn from the sufferings of Inigo Montoya and Fezzik? Next, he leads us through all the phases of illusion and disillusion we encounter in our romantic pursuits, providing a healthy dose of lightheartedness along the way by sharing his own Princess Buttercup List and the vicissitudes of his dating life as he ponders how we idealize and objectify romantic love. Finally, Nichtern draws upon the demands of his own family history and the film’s character the Grandson to explore the dynamics of “the last frontier of awakening,” a reference to his teacher Chogyam Trungpa’s claim that it’s possible to be enlightened everywhere except around your family. With The Dharma of “The Princess Bride” in hand, we can set out on the path to contemporary Buddhist enlightenment with the most important relationships in our lives.