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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Buddhism > Zen Buddhism
Telementation is a variation of what is often called "The Law of
Attraction," where telementation focuses more on feeling reality
into existence rather than believing or visualizing reality into
existence. Telementation is an ancient meditative art form, and it
is the true nature of our real deep inner self. It is virtually
unknown to contemporary, modernized humans, but it is has been
recognized by shamans, mystics, and philosophers as the ultimate
power in the universe, which is possessed by all humans.
Telementation is true consciousness (and true consciousness is the
deepest, innermost part of mental reality, not the surface
emanations), and therefore telementation is what humans actually
are. This book is a short instruction manual on how to carry out
the law of attraction with great ease. Telementation creates a
revolution in a person's life that ends nearly all personal
problems, and it brings a person back to their innate, inalienable
greatness and poetical inner peace. Telementation is particularly
productive for those who want a very simple guidebook on how to
carry out Eastern meditation or Christian mysticism, for those who
have had trouble attaining religious experience despite putting
forth great efforts at meditation, and for those having trouble
overcoming depression by conventional methods.
Through Zen meditation it is possible to find stillness of mind,
even amidst our everyday activities--and this practical book-and-CD
set reveals how. John Daido Loori, one of America's leading Zen
teachers, offers everything needed to begin a meditation practice.
He covers the basics of where to sit (on a cushion, bench, or
chair), how to posture the body (complete with instructional
photographs), and how to practice Zen meditation to discover the
freedom of a peaceful mind.
The accompanying CD is a meditation companion. It has ten- and
thirty-minute timed practice sessions, along with guided
instructions from Daido Loori and an encouraging talk on the
benefits of meditation.
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There is a common misconception that to practice Zen is to practice
meditation and nothing else. In truth, traditionally, the practice
of meditation goes hand-in-hand with moral conduct. In "Invoking
Reality," John Daido Loori, one of the leading Zen teachers in
America today, presents and explains the ethical precepts of Zen as
essential aspects of Zen training and development.
The Buddhist teachings on morality--the precepts--predate Zen,
going all the way back to the Buddha himself. They describe, in
essence, how a buddha, or awakened person, lives his or her life in
the world.
Loori provides a modern interpretation of the precepts and
discusses the ethical significance of these vows as guidelines for
living. "Zen is a practice that takes place within the world," he
says, "based on moral and ethical teachings that have been handed
down from generation to generation." In his view, the Buddhist
precepts form one of the most vital areas of spiritual practice.
This Centenary Commemorative Edition also includes two lesser known
works Buddha and the Intuition of the Universal and Techniques of
Timeless Realization. The volume is complemented by a detailed
Glossary, an Index, an Original Foreword by Aldous Huxley (1955),
an Original Preface by Swami Siddheswarananda (1955), and a
Contemporary Foreword by Professor Asanga Tilakaratne. Benoits
writings on the human predicament and the path to inner freedom
were influenced by his studies in Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis.
There is, as well, an evident dialogue in Benoits writings between
the Gurdjieff teaching and Zen, with insightful ideas about
universal laws, inner work, the human machine, and work in life.
The Supreme Doctrine and The Realization of the Self foreshadow
contemporary transpersonal and integral psychology: through the
re-integration of psychology and metaphysics, Benoit invites us to
make our own journey toward spiritual transformation and the
intuitive understanding of universal truths. This Centenary
Commemorative Edition also includes two lesser known works Buddha
and the Intuition of the Universal and Techniques of Timeless
Realization. The volume is complemented by a detailed Glossary, an
Index, an Original Foreword by Aldous Huxley (1955), an Original
Preface by Swami Siddheswarananda (1955), and a Contemporary
Foreword by Professor Asanga Tilakaratne.
In "Infinite Circle, "one of America's most distinctive Zen
teachers takes a back-to-basics approach to Zen. Glassman
illuminates three key teachings of Zen Buddhism, offering
line-by-line commentary in clear, direct language:
1. " The Heart Sutra: "the Buddha's essential discourse on
emptiness, a central sutra of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition.
2. "The Identity of Relative and Absolute": an eighth-century poem
by Shih-t'ou His-ch'ien, a key text of the Soto Zen school.
3. The Zen precepts: the rules of conduct for laypeople and monks.
His commentaries are based on workshops he gave as Abbot of the
Zen Community of New York, and they contain within them the
principles that became the foundation for the Greyston Mandala of
community development organizations and the Zen Peacemaker
Order.
The author began the practice of Zen meditation a decade ago under
the tutelage of a Jesuit priest. This book is the fruit of his
spiritual journey. Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh were and are
two of the foremost spiritual writers of their times. They met only
once. "Individually," says Robert King, "they are important, but
considered together they may be even more significant. For although
their lives developed independently of one another and took quite
different forms, they shed light on each other in wonderful and
unexpected ways. What binds the two is the theme of contemplation
and action - a form of religious practice that could serve as a
unifying paradigm for the world's religions in an age of
globalization".
Here is a book on a topic of increasing interest among American
students of Buddhism. "Dzogchen", the direct experience of
enlightenment, is a practice from Tibetan Buddhism that is being
explored by teachers of many different schools, from the Dalai Lama
to best-selling author Lama Surya Das, to the popular leaders of
the Insight Meditation Soceity such as Sharon Salzberg and Joseph
Goldstein. Without claiming that dzogchen is easy to understand -
much less to achieve - the authors present this seemingly esoteric
idea in down-to-earth terms that anyone who is interest can
understand. While remaining assiduously true to their Tibetan
Lamas' precise instructions, the authors present these ancient
teachings with directness, humor, and gentleness. "Roaring Silence"
walks the reader through the meditation techniques that "enable us
to side-step the bureaucracy of intellectual processes and
experience ourselves directly". Surprisingly, the approach is very
pragmatic. Offering an investigation of the necessary steps, the
authors begin with how to prepare for the journey: the lama is
essential, as is a sense of humour, inspiration, and
determination.They continue by describing the path to realisation
of dzogchen: from sitting meditation to the direct perception of
reality. The chapters include exercises for exploring, for example,
the presence of our awareness, a simple visualisation, the feeling
of trying to "remain uninvolved" with mental activity for a period,
with follow-up guidance on how to view our experiences - all with
the caveat, "be kind to yourself, don't push yourself beyond your
limits."
CLASSIC ZEN TEXT THAT INCLUDES THE ESSENCE OF INNER BEING AND
MEDITATION
This collection of essays and lectures by D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966)
covers a wide range, from Mahayana Buddhism generally and the Zen
school in particular, to Japanese art and culture, to the
relationship between Zen Buddhism and Western psychology. Suzuki,
whose work has had a profound and lasting influence, communicates
his insights clearly and energetically. The clarity of his
presentation makes "The Awakening of Zen " a book for novice and
scholar alike.
The Prajnaparamita ("perfection of wisdom") sutras are one of the
great legacies of Mahayana Buddhism, giving eloquent expression to
some of that school's central concerns: the perception of
"shunyata," the essential emptiness of all phenomena; and the ideal
of the bodhisattva, one who postpones his or her own enlightenment
in order to work for the salvation of all beings.
The Prajnaparamita literature consists of a number of texts
composed in Buddhist India between 100 BCE and 100 CE. Originally
written in Sanskrit, but surviving today mostly in their Chinese
versions, the texts are concerned with the experience of profound
insight that cannot be conveyed by concepts or in intellectual
terms. The material remains important today in Mahayana Buddhism
and Zen.
Key selections from the Prajnaparamita literature are presented
here, along with Thomas Cleary's illuminating commentary, as a
means of demonstrating the intrinsic limitations of discursive
thought, and of pointing to the profound wisdom that lies beyond
it.
Included selections from:
"The Scripture on Perfect Insight Awakening to Essence" "The
Essentials of the Great Scripture on Perfect Insight" "Treatise on
the Great Scripture on Perfect Insight" "The Scripture on Perfect
Insight for Benevolent Rulers" "Key Teachings on the Great
Scripture of Perfect Insight" "The Questions of Suvikrantavikramin"
Maurine Stuart who died in 1990, was one of the few American women
to practice Buddhism and become a Zen master. This book is a
collection of her talks, drawing on her friendship with Japanese
Zen teachers, earthy Zen stories, and her experiences as a concert
pianist, to show how the inner meanings of Buddhism are clarified
through practising nowness, unselfishness, compassion and goodwill.
Stuart teaches that the Zen path is ruled by the experience of
direct insight into the reality of the present moment.
This work is Storlie's memoir of growing up through the upheavals
of the 1960s, a portrait of a generation that turned away from
traditional culture and embraced a world of drug-induced states of
consciousness, alternative lifestyles, and Eastern spirituality. It
begins in Berkeley, experimenting among friends with Zen meditation
and LSD. But when chemical enlightenment failed to ignite, Storlie
retreated to the wilderness where he realized the importance of
meditation practice. For many years Storlie studied under Shunryu
Suzuki and Dainin Katagiri, both Zen masters. His intimate
portraits of these men combine with accounts of three decades on
the Dharma trail, to provide a vivid account of one man's search
for meaning in modern America.
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Essential Zen
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Kazuaki Tanahashi, David Schneider; Kazuaki Tanahashi, David Schneider
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The best collection of Zen wisdom and wit since Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: koans, sayings, poems, and stories by Eastern and American Zen teachers and students capture the delightful, challenging, mystifying, mind-stopping, outrageous, and scandalous heart of Zen.
Throughout Zen history, stories and anecdotes of Zen masters and
their students have been used as teaching devices to exemplify the
enlightened spirit. Unlike many of the baffling dialogues between
Zen masters preserved in the koan literature, the stories retold
here are penetratingly simple but with a richness and subtlety that
make them worth reading again and again. This collection includes
more than one hundred such stories--many appearing here in English
for the first time--drawn from a wide variety of sources and
involving some of the best-known Zen masters, such as Hakuin,
Bankei, and Shosan. Also presented are stories and anecdotes
involving famous Zen artists and poets, such as Sengai and Basho.
Zen mind connects to the heart of recovery in this compelling blend
of East and West. Courageously drawing from his lifetime of
experience as an abused child, alcoholic, Zen student, and dharma
teacher, author Mel Ash gives readers a solid grounding in the
Twelve Steps and the Eightfold Path and shows their useful
similarities for those in recovery.
The author, one of the foremost writers in the history of
religions, intended this book to be the starting point for those
searching for a personal religious experience and begins with an
examination of the nature of mystical states and their
differentiation from drug-induced states. He proceeds to the
question of whether there is religious experience to either state.
He offers those impatient with a traditional Christianity alternate
routes to explore, by examining Zen, the Upanishads, Huxley,
Bonhoeffer, Leary, Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and commenting upon
each with his ascerbic wit. This reprint of the 1972 American
edition published by Pantheon contains a new foreword by one of
Zaehner's former Oxford students, William L. Newell.
Layman P'ang (740-808) was a Chan/Zen Buddhist who serves as a
model for Buddhist practice for all those who choose to lead the
spiritual life outside the bounds of institutionalized monasticism.
He was a successful merchant, with a wife, son, and daughter, who
gave up his possessions and wealth in order to study the Buddhist
sutras-and he brought his family along with him. His family adopted
the Zen life most enthusiastically, becoming extremely well-versed
in Buddhist philosophy themselves, especially his daughter, Ling
Zhao, who, from the stories about her, seems to have become an even
greater Zen adept than her father.Layman P'ang is the source of one
of the most famous sayings in the literature of Chinese Zen, a
joyous statement about the miracle of everyday activities: How
miraculous and wondrous! Hauling water and carrying firewood. The
sayings of and stories about Layman P'ang contained in this classic
text are charming, mysterious, and funny and will be an inspiration
to spiritual practice for anyone.
Here is a comprehensive introduction to Zen Buddhism for those who don't know how or where to begin, nor what to expect once they have started practicing. It includes the fundamentals of meditation practice (posture, technique, clothing), descriptions of the basic teachings and major texts, the teacher-student relationship, and what you will find when you visit a zendo, plus a history of Zen from the founding of Buddhism to its major schools in the West. In addition to answering the most frequently asked questions, it offers a listing of American Zen centers and resources, an annotated bibliography, and a glossary.
Jean Smith's enormously practical approach ensures that The Beginner's Guide to Zen Buddhism will become the book teachers and students alike will recommend.
"Enjoying religion" seems to be a contradiction because religion is
generally perceived as a serious or even suppressive phenomenon.
This volume is the first to study the increase of enjoying religion
systematically by presenting eleven new case studies, occurring on
four continents. The volume concludes that in our late modern
secular societies the enjoyment of religion or of its loose
elements is growing. In particular when scholars concentrate on
"lived religion" of ordinary people, the cheerful experiences
appear to prevail. Many people use pleasant (elements of) religion
to add meaning to their lives, to find spiritual fulfillment or a
way to salvation, and to experience belonging to a larger unity. At
the same time, diverse cultural dynamics of late modern society
such as popular culture, commercialization, re-enchantment, and
feminization influence this trend of enjoying religion. In spite of
secularization, playing with religion appears to be attractive.
What is spirituality? Does it enable us to be better persons? Is
spirituality related to religion? These days, is it even relevant?
On college campuses, does it promote student well-being? Does it
further moral growth? Can spirituality make a difference in
healthcare? What about social justice and service to the
marginalized? This rich collection of essays by respected scholars
and practitioners in diverse fields in academic, healthcare, social
justice, and interfaith contexts addresses these questions in
strikingly profound and meaningful ways. Their voices offer
alternatives to the prevailing notion of spirituality as a purely
private matter, and make a case for living spiritually through deep
and genuine engagement with others, bridging our inherent and
original fault-line of Self and Other. Their keen observations
resuscitate the spiritual fabric of defiance against and liberation
from forces of oppression which show their face not only through
chronic inequities and social injustice but in consumer
capitalism's grip on our souls. This volume's dispatch to our minds
and hearts is timely in an age of looming cynicism, pessimism,
fear, and distrust. In carving out a renewed sense of what lies at
the heart of living a life of the spirit, or spirituality, it
offers an antidote to our widespread hermeneutic of suspicion. None
of the authors claims to encapsulate one, pure meaning of the
spiritual. Yet they share one collective voice: spirituality is
indeed genuine when it calls forth compassion and wears the worn
and tangled face of humaneness, freeing ourselves from the prison
of ego. Here we find messages of hope, much needed in a time when
our society seems increasingly shadowed by dark clouds. These
essays remind us of what's right in the world.
Zen rituals--such as chanting, bowing, lighting incense before the
Buddha statue--are ways of recognizing the sacredness in all of
life. A ritual is simply a deliberate and focused moment that
symbolizes the care with which we should be approaching all of
life, and practicing the Zen liturgy is a way of cultivating this
quality of attention in order to bring it to everything we do.
Here, John Daido Loori demystifies the details of the Zen rituals
and highlights their deeper meaning and purpose. We humans are all
creatures of ritual, he teaches, whether we recognize it or not.
Even if we don't make ritual part of some religious observance, we
still fall into ritual behavior, whether it be our daily grooming
sequence or the way we have our morning coffee and paper. We run
through our personal rituals unconsciously most of the time, but
there is great value to introducing meaningful symbolic rituals
into our lives and to performing them deliberately and
mindfully--because the way we do ritual affects the way we live the
rest of our lives. The book includes instructions for a simple Zen
home liturgy, as it is practiced by students of the Mountains and
Rivers Order of Zen.
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