NAUTILUS BOOK AWARDS GOLD-MEDAL WINNER FOR 2015 There’s no trying in meditation. Just as water runs naturally downhill … just as leaves float naturally to the ground … we can all settle naturally into meditation. Not trying, just allowing—not doing, just being. The key is effortlessness. Whether you’re a complete novice or you’ve “tried it before,” if you can breathe you can meditate. Guided by veteran teacher Dean Sluyter’s easy-going, down-to-earth approach, you’ll test-drive a variety of meditative “vehicles,” such as breath, sound, the senses, the sky, and the simple sense of “I,” and discover which ones fit you best. You’ll find all the practical tips you need for adapting these methods to your daily life, even for a few minutes a day on the subway or in an office cubicle. And as your life opens to deep happiness, clarity, peace, and creative energy, you’ll be inspired to keep on practicing—naturally.

Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa “shows us how the tremendous power of medical meditation can heal not only the body but also the mind and soul” (Deepak Chopra) in this practical and engaging guide to natural healing. Proven effective by scientific research and presented here by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa and Cameron Stauth, the practice of Medical Meditation revolutionizes the healing process. By balancing and regenerating the body's ethereal and physical energies through simple meditations, Medical Meditation unites the mind, body, and spirit into a powerful triad. Each Medical Meditation here has a specific physiological effect, targeting afflictions from arthritis to ulcers to cancer. Dr. Khalsa details the five unique attributes that endow this type of meditation with far more power than standard meditation. The combination of special postures and movements; exact positioning of the hands and fingers; particular mantras; specific breathing patterns; and a unique focus of concentration can change your entire biochemical profile, easing you into a calm, healing state. Practiced in conjunction with conventional or alternative medical treatments, cutting-edge Medical Meditation activates the healing force within you.

“Nature deficit disorder” has become an increasingly challenging problem in our hypermodern world. In Awake in the Wild, Mark Coleman shows seekers how to remedy this widespread malady by reconnecting with nature through Buddhism. Each short (two to three pages) chapter includes a concrete nature meditation relating to such topics as Attuning to the Natural World, Reflecting the Rhythms of Nature, Walking with Compassion, Releasing the Inner Noise, Freeing the Animal Within, Coming into the Peace of Wild Things, Weathering the Storms of Life, and more. Incorporating anecdotes from the author’s many nature retreats, Buddhist wisdom and teachings, important nature writings by others, and nature itself, the book invites readers to participate in, not just observe, nature; develop a loving connection with the earth as a form of environmental activism; decrease urban alienation through experiencing nature; embody nature’s peaceful presence; and connect with ancient spiritual wisdom through nature meditations.

NAUTILUS BOOK AWARDS GOLD-MEDAL WINNER FOR 2015 There’s no trying in meditation. Just as water runs naturally downhill … just as leaves float naturally to the ground … we can all settle naturally into meditation. Not trying, just allowing—not doing, just being. The key is effortlessness. Whether you’re a complete novice or you’ve “tried it before,” if you can breathe you can meditate. Guided by veteran teacher Dean Sluyter’s easy-going, down-to-earth approach, you’ll test-drive a variety of meditative “vehicles,” such as breath, sound, the senses, the sky, and the simple sense of “I,” and discover which ones fit you best. You’ll find all the practical tips you need for adapting these methods to your daily life, even for a few minutes a day on the subway or in an office cubicle. And as your life opens to deep happiness, clarity, peace, and creative energy, you’ll be inspired to keep on practicing—naturally.

Please note this is an updated edition of Enza Vita's Always Already Free which was published in 2015. This book is a practical guide to accessing an awakened state, offering a spiritual practice, "Instant Presence", that is based on Enza Vita's own profound encounter with enlightenment. She gets to the heart of what is wrong with so much of our spiritual strivings: if a practice is bound to a goal then that is an obstacle, because in reality there is no goal to be achieved. What we are looking for is here now and has always been. Using a helpful question-and-answer format that highlights ways of embracing her "no-practice practice", Enza guides readers in searching for the individual "I" and realizing that this "I" does not exist. She explains the meaning of real meditation, which lies in letting go of control rather than in seeking to control the experience, and offers "presence pause" exercises and many hints and tips for letting your thoughts be and accessing true awareness. Her book shows that sudden awakening is an ever-present possibility, as well as revealing the power and seduction of our thoughts and emotions that keep us held in narrow self-definitions and create endless suffering. Enza seeks always to support readers' spiritual journey from their initial search through the integration of spiritual enlightenment into everyday life, showing that true awakening is not a faraway dream or mere intellectual knowledge but the direct realization of our true nature that is always available here and now. This brilliant contribution to our modern understanding of authentic identity and Presence brings us to a new awareness of ourselves and our innate wholeness and completeness." – Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening the Buddha Within. "This is a great contribution to our appreciation of the genuine voice of Pure Presence. It brings us to a deeper awareness of what it means to study the self and our intrinsic true nature as that which is already perfect, whole and complete. It is certainly worthy of your time and attention." – Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel, author of Big Mind, Big Heart.

Dzogchen Mahamudra and the Dynamic Awakening of Consciousness: the core practice, the highest approach to immediate enlightenment via the rapid path of Natural Mind Meditation, this text begins at the very beginning while aiming to take the path of Vision through all the stages of higher Development, culminating at the level of No More Seeking. The instruction is clearly based on ancient authoritative tradition, but now at long last taught by a skilled Western expert in the field of spiritual counseling, Buddhist psychotherapy and Mahamudra Meditation, thus making a book that is ideal for the Western reader. The context for this practice is set within the wider scope of human evolution, its sources in the Ancient Wisdom, and the Wisdom Teachings of the world's great religions.

Make time to slow down, breathe, be awake, be aware, and appreciate. Natural Meditation offers easy-to-follow meditation cues for meditating in natural settings or meditating on natural images or objects. Sidebars throughout the book provide suggestions on how to incorporate nature into your mindfulness practice. The short entries allow readers to open to a page during lunch break, at home in the evening, or on the weekend for a short "retreat," setting off down a quiet, natural path. This book acknowledges that nature has a lot to teach us about going with the flow, letting go, awareness, calm, silence, and pausing. Whether you practice these meditations in actual natural settings or on a cushion at home, the book's entries will inspire you to spend more time in nature. Natural Meditation emphasizes the spiritual, moral, and other tangible benefits of nature. The focus is on training the mind in relaxation, visualization, creativity, and rejuvenation, incorporating natural settings, plants, and animals. Sometimes a respite or quiet path is just what one needs in this crazy world.