Brave, Generous, & Undefended is for all who desire freedom from confusion, self-absorption, and suffering. Rich with insight, humor, and fearless love, Barbara Du Bois’s fresh, direct heart-teachings on the timeless 37 Bodhisattva Practices encourage and guide seekers and practitioners at all levels, in any spiritual tradition. Composed in the 14th century by Tibetan teacher Tokme Zangpo, the 37 Bodhisattva Practices show clearly, and definitely, how to cultivate the expansive, freeing compassion and love that cut the tree of suffering at its root, for the benefit of others and ourselves. This is the way of the bodhisattva—one dedicated to the well-being, happiness, and liberation of all—and Brave, Generous, & Undefended is a profound teaching on living forth in ordinary life this highest of callings. The author, Barbara DuBois, a contemporary Western Dharma teacher, brings her energetic, penetrating wisdom from the heart to Tokme Zangpo’s classic text. The bodhisattva training contained in this book turn one’s self-absorption inside out, revealing the good heart that seeks ultimate freedom―for all. As a longtime practitioner, familiar with the tricks of conditioned mind and what it is hiding from, Du Bois includes and embraces us as participants in these intimate, dynamic discussions that vividly demonstrate the transformational power of the bodhisattva intention. Readers may find that arrows of love and truth pierce their illusions of self and separation, showing how, in the ever-present union of absolute and relative, we already are what we aspire to become: embodiments of truth and love. Her mind and my mind are one; whatever I know, she knows... I am asking all my friends to make sure you read this precious book. —His Eminence Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche, from the Foreword This profound yet practical book will inspire, support, guide, and invigorate beginning seekers and advanced practitioners in every tradition, as well as those without a formal spiritual focus or path. The author’s Dharma training and wisdom, together with her psychological, phenomenological, and sociological perspectives, are uniquely angled to illumine our most evident and our most hidden dilemmas and confusions―as well as the gifts we bring to the path of awakening and to all our companions on the way.

Brave, Generous, and Undefended is a profound teaching on how to become and how to live as a bodhisattva, dedicated to the liberation of all. To the classic pith instructions of "The 37 Bodhisattva Practices," by 14th-century Tibetan teacher Tokme Zangpo, contemporary Western teacher Barbara Du Bois brings her fresh, energetic, penetrating wisdom from the heart. Rich with insight and fearless love, these teachings embrace us as participants in intimate, dynamic discussions that vividly demonstrate the transformational power of the bodhisattva intention in relation to life purpose, suffering, relationships, and spiritual path. Arrows of love and truth pierce our illusions of self and separation, showing us that we already are what we aspire to become: embodiments of truth and love. This profound and practical book will encourage, guide, and invigorate beginning seekers and advanced practitioners in any tradition, as well as those with or without a formal spiritual path. "The 37 Bodhisattva Practices," considered the essence of the enlightenment path, require no erudite explanations or secret initiations, but they do upend our minds, so it is helpful to have a teacher unpack them for us. Du Bois delights in the task, as a longtime practitioner familiar with both the tricky conditioned mind and what it is hiding from. Addressing both our own longings for happiness and freedom and the root causes of our confusion and pain, the bodhisattva trainings turn our self-absorption inside out, revealing the good heart that seeks ultimate freedom - for all. Du Bois's teachings show clearly how love and compassion bring us onto the bodhisattva path, in the intentional, wholehearted process that transmutes mind of self-grasping to the "awakening mind," bodhicitta. Her invitation: take what speaks to you and test it for yourself; contemplate and practice on it until you attain confidence, and then continue, for the benefit of all.