An accessible introduction to the profound experience of enlightenment—with instructions on how to wake up to, and feel confident about, our true nature We can realize the highest truth in each moment when we learn to see through the illusion of the self. Anam Thubten, in remarkably easy-to-understand language, provides teachings for doing exactly that, based on the wisdom of the Buddhist traditions. He illuminates the path of going beyond the misconceptions of the ego to experience the reality of our true nature, which is already enlightened. He communicates with clarity, humor, and refreshing honesty, lighting the way to a life full of love, compassion, and true satisfaction.
THE MAGIC OF YOUR TRUE NATURE is a guidebook to developing the qualities of our essential nature and navigating the spiritual journey. It outlines a path that is big on heart and direct experience. This broad-strokes approach is relevant both to those who follow a particular tradition and those who are finding their own way. Written by a seasoned author, the book is practical, highly accessible, and funny. It covers a large area: from stopping the world to loving your dark places, from living with an open heart to how to hold suffering, from the deep mysticism of spiritual poverty to issues relevant to the current scene, like our relationship with spiritual authority and the war against ego. All in a voice filled with more wonder than authority.
In this colorful journal, writer-illustrator Barbara Bash has re-created her chronicles of meditation and contemplative wandering during a series of solitary country retreats. Combining beautifully hand-calligraphed journal notes with watercolor-and-pencil drawings, she captures exquisite moments of magic in the natural environment: a dragonfly's brief pause, a surprised deer in tall grass, a lumbering skunk's visit, the woods at twilight. Nature lovers, gardeners, and anyone who enjoys solitary country walks will recognize in Barbara a kindred spirit and will find hours of pleasure in these pages.
Featuring easy-to-use exercises, spells, rituals, and meditations, this enlightening book helps you reconnect with healthy, natural living and wake up your buried instincts. Jessica Marie Baumgartner shows you how to embrace the power and wisdom of your inner voice, which strengthens your magical practice and inspires you to live with purpose. As technology has advanced, we have distanced ourselves from nature--but our connection still remains. Now is the time to reopen that line of communication. This down-to-earth book is full of guidance on preparing the body, mind, and spirit as you hike, hunt, swim, garden, sleep outdoors, and more. You'll even find practices to use when you can't be directly in nature. This indispensable resource is perfect for enhancing your spirituality, tuning in to the natural energies around you, and learning to trust in yourself.
Author of Oprah’s Book Club Pick—The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self “The best known life coach in America” (Psychology Today) and bestselling author of Finding Your Own North Star provides a new transformational program for creating an unconventional life path to a sustainable way of life. Martha Beck’s program has been practiced by Oprah and featured on Super Soul Sunday! Finding Your Way in a Wild New World reveals a remarkable path to the most important discovery you can make: the knowledge of what you should be doing with your one wild and precious life. It’s the thing that so fulfills you that, if you knew what it was, you’d run straight toward it through brambles and fire. Life coach and bestselling author of Finding Your Own North Star Martha Beck guides you to find out how you got to where you are now and what you should do next, with clear instructions on tapping into the deep, wordless knowledge you carry in your body and soul. You probably have sensed that you have a higher calling and a quiet power that could change the world—you lack only the tools. With her sparkling prose, Beck draws from ancient wisdom and modern science to help you consciously tap into that power and develop those tools for transformation. You’ll also find your inner identity and your external “tribe” of like-minded people, experience the spark of inspiration, and take action to make a lasting impact on the world. Compassionate and inspirational, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World is a revolutionary journey of self-discovery that leads to miraculous change.
A practical and empowering approach to the age-old quest to let go of the thoughts and feelings that block happiness, impede change, and hinder self-acceptance Anyone who has dipped a toe into any of the world's spiritual traditions knows that letting go and letting be are key. But how? In this fresh, frank, and powerful guide, Peter Russell allows readers to see that the things we get hung up on are generally not tangible problems in the present, but are instead thoughts, feelings, interpretations, beliefs, or expectations we have about them. These are not actual things; they exist only in our minds. And we can strip these "no-things" of their power and let them go by making a simple change of mind. Russell boils this letting go down to remarkably easy methods of accepting, acknowledging, recognizing, and even befriending what we tend to run from. This paradoxical practice generates peace of mind, fresh perspectives, and wisdom in action. In turbulent times like ours, this is a true power, one available to us all.
Life can be stressful, overwhelming, and sometimes difficult to cope with. Modern medical professionals will tell you to take various prescription medications, which can ultimately do more harm than good. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Healing is all in the mind and can be attained through finding harmony in your own life and resorting to natural remedies already provided by the very environment in which you live. Blogger Tara Mackey, who has a background in science, shares her own experiences with stress, depression, and anxiety and teaches you how to break free from them. Growing up, Tara suffered from dependency on various prescription drugs for depression, anxiety, and ADHD. She witnessed her best friend’s decline and suicide and watched helplessly as the effects of heroin addiction took a hold of her mother. At age twenty-four, she decided that enough was enough and quit her prescription meds cold-turkey in search for happiness. Today, she is drug-free, stress-free, and happy. Cured by Nature is Tara’s personal story combined with her knowledge and advice to battling personal demons and coming out victorious. Follow Tara as she shows you how to adapt and grow, using various herbal remedies, breathing exercises, and mind-strengthening techniques that will help you be a happier and better you.
So much of the experience of everyday life, says Osho in this insightful guide, is shaped by religious and social conditioning — and we are not even aware of the fact. We are constantly being pulled away from the unique nature that is our birthright. In place of that original and unique self, a false self called the “ego” is constructed that eventually gains control of our creativity, our ideas about what it means to be successful, our relationships, and our very experience of who we are. At the same time, he argues, the collection of egos known as “society” shapes our political, educational, and religious institutions, which in turn combine to force the same old patterns onto new generations. In this book, Osho shows how to discard these old patterns in favor of a new and nurturing trinity of watchfulness, awareness, and alertness. The bundled DVD lets readers directly experience the insights of this important modern mystic.
The True Nature of Sharks is a full scale exploration of wild shark behavior. Drawn from fifteen years of observing sharks underwater as animals and individuals, it reveals a new dimension of understanding of their lives. This timely book will make the mysterious world of sharks come alive for you.You will learn how their complex actions reveal that sharks are thinking, rather than acting on instinct alone. For they are not the dangerously stupid automatons that popular media will have us believe. Neither are they monsters, nor the cold and senseless creatures described by fisheries science.They are ordinary animals, thinking about the events in their lives and responding intelligently.By their actions, sharks reveal that they are self-aware, form companionships, make swift decisions depending on the circumstances, and can plan to influence an event in the future. They enjoy socializing, communicate through posturing and gestures, and are capable of influencing each other. They can become highly emotional, yet are peaceful among themselves. Unlike many other animals, including humans, they do not fight!If you love discovering new, intelligent wildlife behavior, you will love this beautifully written and illustrated book, which presents a wealth of unexpected insights and tantalizing implications as it integrates field observations with facts from other branches of science. The author's clear writing and vivid prose makes you feel as if you are there with the sharks in the submarine realm, and the detailed analysis of the behavior of these important and unusual animals is captivating.As one of the world's few shark ethologists, the author is the only researcher to study sharks long-term by observing them underwater. Already familiar with terrestrial wildlife, she saw at once that they are very different from the mammals and birds we know best, and after several intriguing incidents with them, launched an intensive, seven year study. Following the precepts of cognitive ethology, she kept track of about six hundred reef sharks, and could recognize more than three hundred on sight. To supplement her findings, she watched wild tiger, bull, and lemon sharks for shorter periods. Her methods resulted in her being credited with finding a way to study sharks without killing them, and the revelation that sharks are sensitive, conscious animals provides another important reason to protect them from being fished into extinction.Once you understand the true nature of these unusual animals, you will never think of them in the same way again."Awareness of the cognitive abilities of these animals forever changes our perception of them, and their place in nature, and ours."~ Alan C. Kamil ~ Emeritus Professor of Biology and Psychology,University of Nebraska
A Tibetan Buddhist teacher offers guidance on maintaining a state of awareness—demonstrating how enlightenment can be found at any time, in our everyday lives The paradox of awareness is very profound and yet very simple. It can't be described because it has no objective qualities and no limitation. Sometimes it comes naturally to the surface when we are fully in the present moment and no longer lost in thought or mental projections. Pure consciousness is neither high nor low, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, neither good nor bad. No matter where we are, no matter what we are doing, we always have an immediate access to that inner stillness. It can be experienced in an instant in all circumstances once we know how to pay attention to it. It is utterly peaceful and it is also insightful, so it sees through all illusions. Whenever there is a moment of being deluded, we can use that moment to practice settling in the very perfect sphere of the Buddha mind without trying to change anything. When we reside in that liberated mind, we find the very thing we have been seeking all along.
