Understanding Our Mind
Understanding Our Mind

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh

Publisher: Parallax Press

Published: 2002-02-09

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1888375302

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Thich Nhat Hanh pulls from 50 classic Buddhist verses to present the basic teachings of Buddhist applied psychology, exploring the true nature of our feelings and perceptions. Based on the 50 verses on the nature of consciousness taken from the great 5th-century Buddhist master Vasubandhu and the teachings of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Thich Nhat Hanh focuses on the direct experience of recognizing, embracing, and looking deeply into the nature of our feelings and perceptions. Presenting the basic teachings of Buddhist applied psychology, Understanding Our Mind shows us how our mind is like a field, where every kind of seed is planted—seeds of suffering, anger, happiness, and peace. The quality of our life depends on the quality of the seeds in our mind. If we know how to water seeds of joy and transform seeds of suffering, then understanding, love, and compassion will flower. Vietnamese Zen Master Thuong Chieu said, “When we understand how our mind works, the practice becomes easy.”

Awakening of the Heart
Awakening of the Heart

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh

Publisher: Parallax Press

Published: 2011-12-21

Total Pages: 546

ISBN-13: 1937006115

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INTO THE HEART OF BUDDHIST WISDOM: A comprehensive collection of the 9 key Buddhist sutras, with contemporary commentary by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. An essential companion to Happiness, Thich Nhat Hanh’s bestselling collection of meditation and mindfulness practices! Thich Nhat Hanh has a unique talent to make the Buddha’s teachings accessible and applicable to our daily lives and times. Here, he takes us to the heart of Buddhist wisdom, offering illuminating insights on essential Buddhist sutras: • Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra • Diamond Sutra • Sutra on Full Awareness of Breathing • Sutra on The Four Establishments of Mindfulness • Sutra on The Better Way to Catch A Snake • Sutra on The Better Way to Live Alone • Sutra on The Eight Realizations of The Great Beings • Discourse on Happiness • Teachings on the Middle Way With a new introduction and updated commentary, Awakening of the Heart is a wonderful gift for anyone looking to deepen their practice and a unique resource for those looking for an introduction to Buddhism.

How to Understand the Mind
How to Understand the Mind

Author: Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 9781906665821

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This book offers us deep insight into our mind, and shows how an understanding of its nature and functions can be used practically in everyday experience to improve our lives. Part 1 is a practical guide to developing and maintaining a light, positive mind - showing how to recognize and abandon states of mind that harm us, and to replace them with peaceful and beneficial ones. Part 2 describes different types of mind in detail, revealing the depth and profundity of the Buddhist understanding of the mind. It concludes with a detailed explanation of meditation, showing how by controlling and transforming our mind we can attain a lasting state of joy, independent of external conditions.

Buddha Mind, Buddha Body
Buddha Mind, Buddha Body

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh

Publisher: Parallax Press

Published: 2003-03-09

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1935209256

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Revered Zen teacher and best-selling author Thich Nhat Hanh explores the connection between psychology, neuroscience, and meditation to reveal how we can cultivate our own happiness. In his previous book Understanding Our Mind, Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh explored Buddhist psychology and its applications in everyday life. Here, he continues that study by asking, “Is free will possible?” as he examines how the mind functions and how we can work with it to cultivate more freedom and understanding, be in closer touch with reality, and create the conditions for our own happiness. Drawing stories from the life of the Buddha and Hanh's own experiences, Buddha Mind, Buddha Body addresses such topics as: • The importance of creativity and visualization in a mediation practice • Basic Buddhist meditation practices such as sitting and walking meditation • The importance of brotherhood and sisterhood in everyday life Delivered in Hahn’s inimitable light, clear, and often humorous style, Buddha Mind, Buddha Body will appeal to those new and familiar with Buddhist psychology.

Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic
Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic

Author: B. Alan Wallace

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0231158343

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A radical approach to studying the mind. Renowned Buddhist philosopher B. Alan Wallace reasserts the power of shamatha and vipashyana, traditional Buddhist meditations, to clarify the mind's role in the natural world. Raising profound questions about human nature, free will, and experience versus dogma, Wallace challenges the claim that consciousness is nothing more than an emergent property of the brain with little relation to universal events. Rather, he maintains that the observer is essential to measuring quantum systems and that mental phenomena (however conceived) influence brain function and behavior. Wallace embarks on a two-part mission: to restore human nature and to transcend it. He begins by explaining the value of skepticism in Buddhism and science and the difficulty of merging their experiential methods of inquiry. Yet Wallace also proves that Buddhist views on human nature and the possibility of free will liberate us from the metaphysical constraints of scientific materialism. He then explores the radical empiricism inspired by William James and applies it to Indian Buddhist philosophy's four schools and the Great Perfection school of Tibetan Buddhism. Since Buddhism begins with the assertion that ignorance lies at the root of all suffering and that the path to freedom is reached through knowledge, Buddhist practice can be viewed as a progression from agnosticism (not knowing) to gnosticism (knowing), acquired through the maintenance of exceptional mental health, mindfulness, and introspection. Wallace discusses these topics in detail, identifying similarities and differences between scientific and Buddhist understanding, and he concludes with an explanation of shamatha and vipashyana and their potential for realizing the full nature, origins, and potential of consciousness.

The Embodied Mind
The Embodied Mind

Author: Thomas R. Verny

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1643138006

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As groundbreaking synthesis that promises to shift our understanding of the mind-brain connection and its relationship with our bodies. We understand the workings of the human body as a series of interdependent physiological relationships: muscle interacts with bone as the heart responds to hormones secreted by the brain, all the way down to the inner workings of every cell. To make an organism function, no one component can work alone. In light of this, why is it that the accepted understanding that the physical phenomenon of the mind is attributed only to the brain? In The Embodied Mind, internationally renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas R. Verny sets out to redefine our concept of the mind and consciousness. He brilliantly compiles new research that points to the mind’s ties to every part of the body. The Embodied Mind collects disparate findings in physiology, genetics, and quantum physics in order to illustrate the mounting evidence that somatic cells, not just neural cells, store memory, inform genetic coding, and adapt to environmental changes—all behaviors that contribute to the mind and consciousness. Cellular memory, Verny shows, is not just an abstraction, but a well-documented scientific fact that will shift our understanding of memory. Verny describes single-celled organisms with no brains demonstrating memory, and points to the remarkable case of a French man who, despite having a brain just a fraction of the typical size, leads a normal life with a family and a job. The Embodied Mind shows how intelligence and consciousness—traits traditionally attributed to the brain alone—also permate our entire being. Bodily cells and tissues use the same molecular mechanisms for memory as our brain, making our mind more fluid and adaptable than we could have ever imaged.

Understanding Our Mind
Understanding Our Mind

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com

Published: 2008-11

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 1427095140

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Understanding Our Mind is an accessible guide for anyone who is curious about the inner workings of the mind. Originally released as Transformation at the Base, a finalist for the 2001 Nautilus Award, this seminal work on Buddhist applied psychology features a new introduction by Dharma teacher Reb Anderson. Understanding Our Mind is based on fifty verses on the nature of consciousness taken from the great fifth-century Buddhist master Vasubandhu. With compassion and insight, Nhat Hanh reveals how these ancient teachings can be applied to the modern world. Nhat Hanh focuses on the direct experience of recognizing and embracing the nature of our feelings and perceptions. The quality of our lives, he says, depends on the quality of the seeds in our minds. Buddhism teaches us how to nourish the seeds of joy and transform the seeds of suffering so that our understanding, love, and compassion can flower....THICH NHAT HANH is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk whose lifelong efforts to generate peace and reconciliation moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He travels regularly, leading retreats on the art of mindful living. He lives in southwest France, where he teaches, writes, and gardens. He is author of Energy of Prayer, Being Peace, and many other books.

Us and Them
Us and Them

Author: David Berreby

Publisher: Hutchinson Radius

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780091801113

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US AND THEM: Understanding your tribal mind reveals how and why we convince ourselves that we belong to differing human kinds - tribe-type categories like races, religions, classes, street gangs and high school cliques. Why do we see these divisions? Why do we care about them so much? Why do we kill and die for them? We see it every day on the news. Why have high schools in the US become killing zones? Why does strife continue in Northern Ireland? How do terrorists learn to torture and kill anyone who isn't one of them? Members Only answers these questions by looking at their common root in human nature. Politics and culture are invoked, of course, but the heart of the book is the individual mind. David Berreby describes how each person creates their own mind map, identifies others with similar mind maps and ostracises all those who are different. Based in solid scientific research, David Berreby exposes new discoveries about the mind and brain that will eventually overturn many of our familiar notions about human kinds and how we perceive them. This is a crucial subject that touches all of our lives in ways both large and small, obvious and subtle. Human kind thinking is part of human nature.

Buddha's Brain
Buddha's Brain

Author: Rick Hanson

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com

Published: 2011-07-13

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1459624157

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Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Gandhi, and the Buddha all had brains built essentially like anyone else's, yet they were able to harness their thoughts and shape their patterns of thinking in ways that changed history. With new breakthroughs in modern neuroscience and the wisdom of thousands of years of contemplative practice, it is possible for us to shape our own thoughts in a similar way for greater happiness, love, compassion, and wisdom. Buddha's Brain joins the forces of modern neuroscience with ancient contemplative teachings to show readers how they can work toward greater emotional well-being, healthier relationships, more effective actions, and deepened religious and spiritual understanding. This book will explain how the core elements of both psychological well-being and religious or spiritual life-virtue, mindfulness, and wisdom--are based in the core functions of the brain: regulating, learning, and valuing. Readers will also learn practical ways to apply this information, as the book offers many exercises they can do to tap the unused potential of the brain and rewire it over time for greater peace and well-being.