Dennis Merzel, one of the most highly regarded American Zen teachers, explains how meditation can gradually lead us to becoming more and more familiar with our minds, allowing us to better understand ourselves and the nature of human life. He explores the practice of meditation in depth, as well as a range of related topics including: connecting meditation practice to everyday life, understanding central Zen concepts, working with a teacher, and practicing meditation in the midst of difficult times.

Activist and public theologian Robyn Henderson-Espinoza inhabits a trans, nonbinary, multiracial body--a body continually in discovery. Drawing from their own body story with the theory and practice of bodywork, they lead us to discover embodiment as the primary place of deep wisdom and a powerful tool to create lasting social change.

For the first time, an award-winning Harvard professor shares his wildly popular course on classical Chinese philosophy, showing you how ancient ideas—like the fallacy of the authentic self—can guide you on the path to a good life today. Why is a course on ancient Chinese philosophers one of the most popular at Harvard? Because it challenges all our modern assumptions about what it takes to flourish. Astonishing teachings emerged two thousand years ago through the work of a succession of Chinese scholars exploring how humans can improve themselves and their society. And what are these counterintuitive ideas? Transformation comes not from looking within for a true self, but from creating conditions that produce new possibilities. Good relationships come not from being sincere and authentic, but from the rituals we perform within them. A good life emerges not from planning it out, but through training ourselves to respond well to small moments. Influence comes not from wielding power but from holding back. Excellence comes from what we choose to do, not our natural abilities. In other words, The Path “opens the mind” (Huffington Post) and upends everything we are told about how to lead a good life. Its most radical idea is that there is no path to follow in the first place—just a journey we create anew at every moment by seeing and doing things differently. “With its…spirited, convincing vision, revolutionary new insights can be gleaned from this book on how to approach life’s multifarious situations with both heart and head” (Kirkus Reviews). A note from the publisher: To read relevant passages from the original works of Chinese philosophy, see our ebook Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi: Selected Passages, available wherever books are sold.

INTEGRAL HEALTH The Path to Human Flourishing Everyone agrees that the mind/body connection is a critical component in healing and well-being. But how do you activate that connection? Practices like yoga, tai chi, reiki, and various types of meditation relate to and promote that connection, but, in themselves, don't produce the qualitative shift needed for the higher level of extraordinary, integral health. Rather than looking outside ourselves for new remedies, techniques, and programs, Elliott S. Dacher, M.D., says we have to redirect our vision from outside to inside. ''To transform health and life we must shift our gaze inward, where we will find the ever-present source of exceptional health and healing, '' writes Dacher. As an internist for twenty-one years, Dr. Dacher was able to relieve his patients' physical suffering, but he grew more and more frustrated when he wasn't able to address his patients' underlying ailments like disabling fatigue, pervasive anxiety, or unrelenting low-level depression. That led him to seek a second medical education in the East, which spoke to him about wisdom, compassion, the alleviation of needless suffering, and the promotion of sustained health, happiness, and wholeness. This book provides the vision and the map that show how to achieve integral health as well as its many fruits. Based on Ken Wilber's integral theory, that path is holistic, evolutionary, intentional, person-centered, and dynamic as it addresses four aspects of human existence - the inner aspects of the psycho spiritual and the interpersonal and the outer aspects of the biological and the interpersonal. The seeker learns how to deal with and advance through each of the aspects, do an integral assessment of all four aspects, design a personalized program of integral practice, and progress toward integral health. By striving for human flourishing, we become co-creators in an evolutionary leap in health and well-being.

This book is meant to give someone in the process of making a life decision at any age—in early adulthood, at the point of middle-age change and later, when we find ourselves at the crossroads without a name—some ideas against which to pit their own minds, their own circumstances. Its purpose, as they wrestle with the process of trying to find and follow their own special call at this new stage of life, is to both provoke thinking and to clarify it. —Joan Chittister In our modern and mobile society, the range of answers to the questions “What am I supposed to do with my life?” and “How do I know when I’ve found my purpose?” can seem endless and overwhelming. Following the Path by Sister Joan brings the insights of her years of teaching and contemplation to bear on this issue, providing readers with a new way forward. Through her examination of spiritual calling and gifts, change and discernment, she leads readers home to the place where, finally, we know we fit, where we are the fullest of ourselves and a gift to the world, a timely and much needed message that many will be happy to hear.

The second volume of the 15th-century spiritual classic that condenses Buddhist teachings into one easy-to-follow meditation manual The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Tib. Lam rim chen mo) is one of the brightest jewels in the world’s treasury of sacred literature. The author, Tsong-kha-pa, completed it in 1402, and it soon became one of the most renowned works of spiritual practice and philosophy in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. Because it condenses all the exoteric sūtra scriptures into a meditation manual that is easy to understand, scholars and practitioners rely on its authoritative presentation as a gateway that leads to a full understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. Tsong-kha-pa took great pains to base his insights on classical Indian Buddhist literature, illustrating his points with classical citations as well as with sayings of the masters of the earlier Kadampa tradition. In this way the text demonstrates clearly how Tibetan Buddhism carefully preserved and developed the Indian Buddhist traditions. This first of three volumes covers all the practices that are prerequisite for developing the spirit of enlightenment (bodhicitta).

Throughout life, we're invited to go through various levels of transformation, but many of us decide not to answer the calls. Instead, we stay in our comfy boxes where everything makes sense. In doing so, we thwart and limit our world of possibilities, and don't get a chance to move beyond our caterpillar like shells and turn into the beatiful butterfly that we are meant to be. In Path to Freedom, Nader Vasseghi reflects on his own journey of transformation and distills a practical set of insights and guideposts to help readers discover and connect to their purpose, access and bring out fullness of their creativity, and lead a life of joy, impact and abundance. The path to freedom starts with opening to and recognizing our own true self, finding our way of being and feeling at home with it, and honoring and living in alignment with our heart's deepest desires.