Healing lies at the heart of Zen in the home, as Paula Arai discovered in her pioneering research on the ritual lives of Zen Buddhist laywomen. She reveals a vital stream of religious practice that flourishes outside the bounds of formal institutions through sacred rites that women develop and transmit to one another. Everyday objects and common materials are used in inventive ways. For example, polishing cloths, vivified by prayer and mantra recitation, become potent tools. The creation of beauty through the arts of tea ceremony, calligraphy, poetry, and flower arrangement become rites of healing. Bringing Zen Home brings a fresh perspective to Zen scholarship by uncovering a previously unrecognized but nonetheless vibrant strand of lay practice. The creativity of domestic Zen is evident in the ritual activities that women fashion, weaving tradition and innovation, to gain a sense of wholeness and balance in the midst of illness, loss, and anguish. Their rituals include chanting, ingesting elixirs and consecrated substances, and contemplative approaches that elevate cleaning, cooking, child-rearing, and caring for the sick and dying into spiritual disciplines. Creating beauty is central to domestic Zen and figures prominently in Arai’s analyses. She also discovers a novel application of the concept of Buddha nature as the women honor deceased loved ones as “personal Buddhas.” One of the hallmarks of the study is its longitudinal nature, spanning fourteen years of fieldwork. Arai developed a “second-person,” or relational, approach to ethnographic research prompted by recent trends in psychobiology. This allowed her to cultivate relationships of trust and mutual vulnerability over many years to inquire into not only the practices but also their ongoing and changing roles. The women in her study entrusted her with their life stories, personal reflections, and religious insights, yielding an ethnography rich in descriptive and narrative detail as well as nuanced explorations of the experiential dimensions and effects of rituals. In Bringing Zen Home, the first study of the ritual lives of Zen laywomen, Arai applies a cutting-edge ethnographic method to reveal a thriving domain of religious practice. Her work represents an important contribution on a number of fronts—to Zen studies, ritual studies, scholarship on women and religion, and the cross-cultural study of healing.

Sharing inspiring stories of her patients, a nurse of 20 years offers an elegant and practical book on Zen and the art of healing and helping. Line drawings.

Healing Breath shows us how we can heal our lives and thereby heal our wounded world. Ruben Habito reveals Zen's potential for positive transformation in the personal, social, and ecological realms. Habito's presentation is deeply resonant with Christ's teachings, and offers a powerful way to draw those teachings more deeply into our day-to-day living. Book jacket.

Can regular people really use the ancient self-healing art of qigong to rapidly improve their health and happiness? While studying at Columbia University, Anthony's life began to fall apart as he wrestled with anxiety, clinical depression, and low back pain. Everything changed for the better after he discovered the amazing art of qigong. This candid book is half memoir and half manifesto. Anthony holds nothing back as he recounts his health struggles and explains, in modern language, how everyone can get remarkable results with qigong. Inside you'll discover: The real secret to healing yourself with qigong. How to practice daily even if you have zero willpower. A practical overview of the history, philosophy, and theory of qigong. How to navigate the world of self-healing, whether you practice qigong, tai chi, meditation, or yoga. Get ready to feel fully alive as you find true healing with qigong!

Green drinks gone boozy Green drinks gone boozy! Create your own delicious cocktails using ingredients you can find in your own backyard, windowsill, or local farmer’s market. Learn to make your own simple syrups and infusions with immune boosting fruits, herbs and veggies that will leave you feeling refreshed and energized. Lavishly illustrated with full-color photographs and offering over 100 fun, simple, and delicious cocktail recipes, Zen and Tonic lets you infuse your life and drinks with healthy, wholesome, revitalizing ingredients.Complete with a thorough introduction to today’s producers of organic and quality spirits, and a spotlight on the wholesome herbs, spices and super foods featured in the recipes, Zen and Tonic, brings a fresh twist to the classic toast: “Let’s drink to your health!”

"Zen - the art of living consciously - instructions for a modern and fulfilled attitude to life" Welcome to a world of mindfulness and inner harmony. Our lives are often hectic and overwhelming. My book "Zen - the art of living consciously - instructions for a modern and fulfilled attitude to life" can also help you to experience a calm and clear perspective and fill your life with peace and relaxation. This book is a comprehensive guide on how you can integrate Zen practices into your everyday life in order to lead a more conscious, fulfilled and balanced life. It is aimed at everyone who longs for inner peace and has the desire to bring more mindfulness into their daily life. Zen is a millennia-old practice that has its origins in the Buddhist tradition. It is about calming the mind, living in the present moment and looking at the world with clear and open eyes. Zen teaches us to appreciate life in its simplicity and beauty and to find inner peace, regardless of external circumstances. Learn the basic principles of Zen. You will learn how important it is to calm the mind and live in the here and now. Through simple but effective exercises, you will be shown how to integrate mindfulness into your everyday life. Breathing exercises, meditation techniques and the art of conscious walking are just some of the methods that will help you clear your mind and find inner peace. Learn to apply the principles of Zen in your daily activities. Whether you are working, eating or even cleaning - every moment offers the opportunity to practice mindfulness. You will learn how to transform routines into mindful rituals and thus bring more joy and satisfaction into your life. Nature plays a central role in Zen. Learn how connecting with nature can give you deeper insights and a sense of connection with the world around you. Walking in the forest, observing plants and animals and consciously experiencing the seasons are powerful methods of practicing mindfulness and finding inner peace. An essential part of Zen is the ability to let go. In this chapter, you will learn how to let go of negative thoughts and emotions to make room for positive experiences and feelings. Through practical exercises and meditations, you will be shown how to free yourself from stressful thought patterns and live a lighter, freer life. Zen can also have a profound effect on our interpersonal relationships. My book offers instructions on how to create more harmonious and fulfilling relationships through mindfulness and compassion. You will learn how to build a deeper connection with those around you through conscious listening, patience and empathy. Zen can have a positive impact on our physical and mental health. Learn how mindfulness and meditation can reduce stress, strengthen the immune system and contribute to an overall feeling of well-being. Practical tips and exercises show you how to integrate Zen practices into your health routine. This book encourages you to follow the path of Zen. It reminds you that Zen is a lifelong journey - a journey to greater awareness, peace and fulfillment. Ultimately, this book is more than just an introduction to Zen practice. It is a companion on your path to a more conscious, fulfilled and harmonious life. Immerse yourself in the art of Zen and discover the infinite possibilities that are hidden in every moment. Yours, Hermann Candahashi

“A warm, profound and cleareyed memoir. . . this wise and sympathetic book’s lingering effect is as a reminder that a deeper and more companionable way of life lurks behind our self-serious stories."—Oliver Burkeman, New York Times Book Review A remarkable exploration of the therapeutic relationship, Dr. Mark Epstein reflects on one year’s worth of therapy sessions with his patients to observe how his training in Western psychotherapy and his equally long investigation into Buddhism, in tandem, led to greater awareness—for his patients, and for himself For years, Dr. Mark Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. Content to use his training in mindfulness as a private resource, he trusted that the Buddhist influence could, and should, remain invisible. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings, he was surprised to learn how many were eager to learn more. The divisions between the psychological, emotional, and the spiritual, he soon realized, were not as distinct as one might think. In The Zen of Therapy, Dr. Epstein reflects on a year’s worth of selected sessions with his patients and observes how, in the incidental details of a given hour, his Buddhist background influences the way he works. Meditation and psychotherapy each encourage a willingness to face life's difficulties with courage that can be hard to otherwise muster, and in this cross-section of life in his office, he emphasizes how therapy, an element of Western medicine, can in fact be considered a two-person meditation. Mindfulness, too, much like a good therapist, can “hold” our awareness for us—and allow us to come to our senses and find inner peace. Throughout this deeply personal inquiry, one which weaves together the wisdom of two worlds, Dr. Epstein illuminates the therapy relationship as spiritual friendship, and reveals how a therapist can help patients cultivate the sense that there is something magical, something wonderful, and something to trust running through our lives, no matter how fraught they have been or might become. For when we realize how readily we have misinterpreted our selves, when we stop clinging to our falsely conceived constructs, when we touch the ground of being, we come home.