The Dhammapada for Awakening


Book Description

With a refreshing and timely perspective to ancient wisdom, Abbot George's unique background shows seekers of inner peace how they can effectively lead a spiritual life in the modern world. The Dhammapada for Awakening explores the Buddha's answers to the urgent questions, such as "How can I find find lasting peace, happiness and fulfillment that seems so elusive?" and "What can I do to avoid many of the miseries big and small that afflict all of us?". Drawing on the proven wisdom of different ancient traditions, and the contemporary masters of spiritual life, as well as his own studies and first-hand knowledge of the mystical traditions of East and West, Swami Nirmalananda illumines the practical wisdom of Buddha in the Dhammapada – and more importantly, and make that makes that teaching relevant to present day spiritual seekers. The Dhammapada is the first collection of Gautama Buddha's practical teachings for those seeking Nirvana, compiled only three months after his passing away by his enlightened disciples, who named it Dhammapada: The Way of Dharma. It is a distillation of forty-five years of the Buddha's teaching. Swami Nirmalananda says of the Dhammapada, "Over and over in the teachings of Buddha we find that he is giving us only that which can be applied in our daily lives in order to fit ourselves for freedom from all that binds us." In The Dhammapada for Awakening you will learn: • An esoteric understanding of the mind and how to deal with it. • How we create our destinies by our thoughts and actions, and how we can use that knowledge to shape a better present and future for ourselves. • What are the obstacles to reaching our full potential, and how we can avoid those obstacles. Whether a person is Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, simply spiritual, or merely discontent with the status quo of their lives, the universal spiritual principles in The Dhammapada for Awakening will prove helpful in empowering seekers to tread the path to Freedom, that they may become finders.




Light of Soham


Book Description

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a young crippled boy in North India met a spiritual teacher in the Nath tradition of the great teachers Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath, who imparted to him the precious knowledge of yoga meditation. The boy began to apply himself to this meditation practice and became a very unusual saint indeed.Gajanan Murlidhar Gupte, later known as Gajanana Maharaj, led an unassuming life, to all appearances a normal unmarried man of contemporary society. Crediting his personal transformation to the practice of the Soham mantra, he freely shared this practice with a small number of disciples, whom he simply called his friends. Strictly avoiding the trap of gurudom, he insisted that his friends be self-reliant and not be dependent on him for their spiritual progress. Yet he was uniquely able to assist them in their inner development.Gajanana Maharaj taught the ajapa-japa of the Soham mantra with the breath. In Light of Soham his teachings for success in Soham sadhana and spiritual life in general have been collected from the writings of himself and his disciples. An appendix by Abbot George Burke on the method of Soham Yoga gives detailed instruction on how to practice this method of meditation.




Buddhism without Beliefs


Book Description

A national bestseller and acclaimed guide to Buddhism for beginners and practitioners alike In this simple but important volume, Stephen Batchelor reminds us that the Buddha was not a mystic who claimed privileged, esoteric knowledge of the universe, but a man who challenged us to understand the nature of anguish, let go of its origins, and bring into being a way of life that is available to us all. The concepts and practices of Buddhism, says Batchelor, are not something to believe in but something to do—and as he explains clearly and compellingly, it is a practice that we can engage in, regardless of our background or beliefs, as we live every day on the path to spiritual enlightenment.




The Dhammapada


Book Description

Trembling and quivering is the mind, Difficult to guard and hard to restrain. The person of wisdom sets it straight, As a fletcher does an arrow. The Dhammapada introduced the actual utterances of the Buddha nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, when the master teacher emerged from his long silence to illuminate for his followers the substance of humankind’s deepest and most abiding concerns. The nature of the self, the value of relationships, the importance of moment-to-moment awareness, the destructiveness of anger, the suffering that attends attachment, the ambiguity of the earth’s beauty, the inevitability of aging, the certainty of death–these dilemmas preoccupy us today as they did centuries ago. No other spiritual texts speak about them more clearly and profoundly than does the Dhammapada. In this elegant new translation, Sanskrit scholar Glenn Wallis has exclusively referred to and quoted from the canonical suttas–the presumed earliest discourses of the Buddha–to bring us the heartwood of Buddhism, words as compelling today as when the Buddha first spoke them. On violence: All tremble before violence./ All fear death./ Having done the same yourself,/ you should neither harm nor kill. On ignorance: An uninstructed person/ ages like an ox,/ his bulk increases,/ his insight does not. On skillfulness: A person is not skilled/ just because he talks a lot./ Peaceful, friendly, secure–/ that one is called “skilled.” In 423 verses gathered by subject into chapters, the editor offers us a distillation of core Buddhist teachings that constitutes a prescription for enlightened living, even in the twenty-first century. He also includes a brilliantly informative guide to the verses–a chapter-by-chapter explication that greatly enhances our understanding of them. The text, at every turn, points to practical applications that lead to freedom from fear and suffering, toward the human state of spiritual virtuosity known as awakening. Glenn Wallis’s translation is an inspired successor to earlier versions of the suttas. Even those readers who are well acquainted with the Dhammapada will be enriched by this fresh encounter with a classic text.




What the Buddha Taught


Book Description

“A terrific introduction to the Buddha’s teachings.” —Paul Blairon, California Literary Review This indispensable volume is a lucid and faithful account of the Buddha’s teachings. “For years,” says the Journal of the Buddhist Society, “the newcomer to Buddhism has lacked a simple and reliable introduction to the complexities of the subject. Dr. Rahula’s What the Buddha Taught fills the need as only could be done by one having a firm grasp of the vast material to be sifted. It is a model of what a book should be that is addressed first of all to ‘the educated and intelligent reader.’ Authoritative and clear, logical and sober, this study is as comprehensive as it is masterly.” This edition contains a selection of illustrative texts from the Suttas and the Dhammapada (specially translated by the author), sixteen illustrations, and a bibliography, glossary, and index. “[Rahula’s] succinct, clear overview of Buddhist concepts has never been surpassed. It is the standard.” —Library Journal




The Doctrine of Awakening


Book Description

Italian philosopher Julius Evola pares away centuries of adaptations to reveal Buddhist practice in its original context. Most surprisingly, he argues that the widespread belief in reincarnation is not an original Buddhist tenet. Evola presents actual practices of concentration and visualization, and places them in the larger metaphysical context of the Buddhist model of mind and universe.




The Dhammapada


Book Description

Trembling and quivering is the mind, Difficult to guard and hard to restrain. The person of wisdom sets it straight, As a fletcher does an arrow. The Dhammapada introduced the actual utterances of the Buddha nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, when the master teacher emerged from his long silence to illuminate for his followers the substance of humankind’s deepest and most abiding concerns. The nature of the self, the value of relationships, the importance of moment-to-moment awareness, the destructiveness of anger, the suffering that attends attachment, the ambiguity of the earth’s beauty, the inevitability of aging, the certainty of death–these dilemmas preoccupy us today as they did centuries ago. No other spiritual texts speak about them more clearly and profoundly than does the Dhammapada. In this elegant new translation, Sanskrit scholar Glenn Wallis has exclusively referred to and quoted from the canonical suttas–the presumed earliest discourses of the Buddha–to bring us the heartwood of Buddhism, words as compelling today as when the Buddha first spoke them. On violence: All tremble before violence./ All fear death./ Having done the same yourself,/ you should neither harm nor kill. On ignorance: An uninstructed person/ ages like an ox,/ his bulk increases,/ his insight does not. On skillfulness: A person is not skilled/ just because he talks a lot./ Peaceful, friendly, secure–/ that one is called “skilled.” In 423 verses gathered by subject into chapters, the editor offers us a distillation of core Buddhist teachings that constitutes a prescription for enlightened living, even in the twenty-first century. He also includes a brilliantly informative guide to the verses–a chapter-by-chapter explication that greatly enhances our understanding of them. The text, at every turn, points to practical applications that lead to freedom from fear and suffering, toward the human state of spiritual virtuosity known as awakening. Glenn Wallis’s translation is an inspired successor to earlier versions of the suttas. Even those readers who are well acquainted with the Dhammapada will be enriched by this fresh encounter with a classic text.




The Truth of Suffering and the Path of Liberation


Book Description

Chögyam Trungpa’s in-depth exploration of the Four Noble Truths—the foundational Buddhist teaching about the origin of suffering and its cessation—emphasizes their profound relevance not just as an inspiration when we set out on the path, but at every other moment of our lives as well, showing how we can join view (intellectual understanding) of the teaching with practical application in order to interrupt suffering before it arises.




The Dhammapada


Book Description

The Dhammapada is a collection of aphorisms that illustrate the moral teachings of Buddha - the spiritual path to the supreme Truth. Probably compiled in the third century BCE, the verses are arranged according to theme, covering ideas such as self-possession, good and evil, watchfulness and endurance. Together they describe how an individual can attain the enlightenment of Nirvana, the supreme goal of Buddhism. The road to Nirvana, as illustrated in The Dhammapada, is narrow and difficult to negotiate, but the reward of eternal life gives hope and determination to the traveller.




Treasury of Truth


Book Description