Justin's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 23 Apr 2025 18:57:54 -0700 60 Justin's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Beautiful Adornment of Mount Meru: A Presentation of Classical Indian Philosophy (24) (Library of Tibetan Classics)]]> 43822212
Beautiful Adornment of Mount Meru by Changkya Rölpai Dorjé (1717�86) is a work of doxography, presenting the distinctive philosophical tenets of the Indian Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools in a systematic manner that ascends through increasingly more subtle views. It is a Tibetan corollary to contemporary histories of philosophy. The “Mount Meru� of the title is the Buddha’s teachings, and Changkya’s work excels in particular in its treatment of the two Mahayana Buddhist schools, the Yogacara (here called the Vijñaptimatra) and the Madhyamaka. Unlike Jamyang Shepa’s (1648�1722) much longer Great Exposition of Tenets , which was one of the key sources and inspirations for Changkya, Beautiful Adornment is often praised for the clarity of its prose and its economical use of citations from Indian texts. At the same time, like Jamyang Shepa’s work, Changkya’s text is not simply a catalog of assertions; it skillfully examines core philosophical issues, including a number of intriguing ancillary discussions. Also like Jamyang Shepa’s text, Changkya’s is very much a Geluk work, drawing heavily on the works of Tsongkhapa and his disciples.

The manageable size of Beautiful Adornment and, more importantly, its lucid literary style, made this work the classic source for the study of Indian thought, used by students the across Tibetan cultural sphere. In contemporary academic circles, it has also been a central source for studying the Tibetan interpretation of the classical Indian philosophical systems.]]> 632 Changkya Rölpai Dorjé 0861714636 Justin 0 currently-reading 4.00 Beautiful Adornment of Mount Meru: A Presentation of Classical Indian Philosophy (24) (Library of Tibetan Classics)
author: Changkya Rölpai Dorjé
name: Justin
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Great Hum: A Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva]]> 214151235 Dive into an ocean of Buddhist wisdom with this masterful immersion in 󲹲Գپ𱹲’s well-known guide to the boundless spirit of the bodhisattva.

󲹲Գپ𱹲’s Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryavatara) is without a doubt one of the greatest masterpieces of Indian Buddhism and the single most influential text on Mahayana ethical theory. Since it was composed in the eighth century, it has continuously animated the living tradition—especially in Tibet, but now in the West as well—as more translations have become available. Its poetic evocations of the spirit of awakening allow readers to enter the mind of the bodhisattva.

Nineteenth-century master Minyak Kunzang Sonam composed what came to be the most extensive commentary in any language on Shantideva's masterpiece. This commentary came to be known as the Great Hum because it fills the entirety of the third or hum volume of the author’s collected works. Citing hundreds of sutras, he shows how 󲹲Գپ𱹲’s verses are beautifully integrated within, and express, the Buddhist textual universe. In particular he ties 󲹲Գپ𱹲’s verses with the Anthology of Training, the thematic collection of scriptural citations also compiled by Shantideva, creating a detailed tapestry of Mahayana thought and practice. Kunzang Sonam’s commentary on the philosophically rich ninth “Wisdom� chapter was published previously as The Profound Reality of Interdependence, and this volume presents his commentary on the first eight chapters, detailing the generation of the spirit of awakening, the cultivation of positive qualities, and the practice of meditation. Embedded in the commentary is a fresh translation of 󲹲Գپ𱹲’s verses, making this an unparalleled guide to appreciating their layers of meaning and applying them in one’s practice and life.]]> 968 Minyak Kunzang Sonam 1614298734 Justin 0 currently-reading 0.0 The Great Hum: A Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva
author: Minyak Kunzang Sonam
name: Justin
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Songs of Spiritual Experience: Tibetan Buddhist Poems of Insight and Awakening]]> 828458 208 Thupten Jinpa 1570625506 Justin 5 4.07 2000 Songs of Spiritual Experience: Tibetan Buddhist Poems of Insight and Awakening
author: Thupten Jinpa
name: Justin
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:
An insightful and heartfelt collection of poems/"songs" of spiritual experience from a variety of epochs and schools of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
]]> <![CDATA[The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy (Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy)]]> 60197252 678 William Edelglass 1138492256 Justin 5 5.00 The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy (Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy)
author: William Edelglass
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Making Sense of Mind Only: Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters]]> 101133079
The Yogacara, or Yoga Practice, school is one of the two schools of Mahayana Buddhism that developed in the early centuries of the common era. Though it arose in India, Mahayana Buddhism now flourishes in China, Tibet, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. While the other major Mahayana tradition, the Madhyamaka (Middle Way), focuses on the concept of emptiness—that all phenomena lack an intrinsic essence—the Yogacara school focuses on the cognitive processes whereby we impute such essences. Through everyday examples and analogues in cognitive science, author William Waldron makes Yogacara’s core teachings—on the three turnings of the Dharma wheel, the three natures, the storehouse consciousness, and mere perception—accessible to a broad audience. In contrast to the common characterization of Yogacara as philosophical idealism, Waldron presents Yogacara Buddhism on its own terms, as a coherent system of ideas and practices, with dependent arising its guiding principle.

The first half of Making Sense of Mind Only explores the historical context for Yogacara’s development. Waldron examines early Buddhist texts that show how our affective and cognitive processes shape the way objects and worlds appear to us, and how we erroneously grasp onto them as essentially real—perpetuating the habits that bind us to samsara. He then analyzes the early Madhyamaka critique of essences.

This context sets the stage for the book’s second half, an examination of how Yogacara texts such as the Samdhinirmocana Sutra and Asanga’s Stages of Yogic Practice ( Yogacarabhumi ) build upon these earlier ideas by arguing that our constructive processes also occur unconsciously. Not only do we collectively, yet mostly unknowingly, construct shared realities or cultures, our shared worlds are also mediated through the storehouse consciousness ( alayavijñana ) functioning as a cultural unconscious. Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses argues that we can learn to recognize such objects and worlds as “mere perceptions� ( vijñaptimatra ) and thereby abandon our enchantment with the products of our own cognitive processes. Finally, Maitreya’s Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Ultimate Nature ( Dharmadharmatavibhaga ) elegantly lays out the Mahayana path to this transformation.

In Waldron’s hands, Yogacara is no mere view but a practical system of transformation. His presentation of its key texts and ideas illuminates how religion can remain urgent and vital in our scientific and pluralistic age.]]> 384 William S. Waldron 1614297266 Justin 5 4.44 Making Sense of Mind Only: Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters
author: William S. Waldron
name: Justin
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Read Classical Tibetan, Vol. 2: Buddhist Tenets]]> 14432712 344 Craig Preston 1559393130 Justin 5 5.00 2009 How to Read Classical Tibetan, Vol. 2: Buddhist Tenets
author: Craig Preston
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Swift Path: A Meditation Manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Wisdom Culture Series)]]> 61272894
The Swift Path by the Second Panchen Lama has long been heralded in the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism as one of the “eight great lamrims,� or works presenting the stages of the path to enlightenment, but it is the last to become widely available in English translation. Composed by a preceptor of two Dalai Lamas, this practical and systematic guide to meditating on the lamrim is based on the Easy Path, a more concise work by the First Panchen Lama. In The Swift Path , Panchen Losang Yeshé expands on the earlier Panchen Lama’s meditation guide with more detailed instructions on how to generate a clear and profound experience of the key recognitions that allow us to advance on our spiritual journey. These include the recognition of the opportunity afforded by our human existence, both its preciousness and its precariousness, and the way to adopt and live out the practices of a bodhisattva. The guided meditations here make use of a visualization of one’s teacher in the guise of Sakyamuni Buddha to unlock our own innate potential for buddhahood, complete enlightenment, to best benefit humanity and all living beings.]]> 376 Panchen Losang Yeshé 1614298254 Justin 5 4.67 The Swift Path: A Meditation Manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Wisdom Culture Series)
author: Panchen Losang Yeshé
name: Justin
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Vol. 3: Philosophical Schools]]> 60806739 Deepen your understanding of meaning and truth with the third volume of the Dalai Lama’s esteemed series Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics.

Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics compiles classical Buddhist explorations of the nature of the material world, the human mind, reason, and liberation, and puts them into context for the modern reader. This ambitious four-volume series—a major resource for the history of ideas and especially the history of science and philosophy—has been conceived by and compiled under the visionary supervision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself. It is his view that the exploratory thinking of the great masters of classical India still has much that is of interest to us today, whether we are Buddhist or not. These volumes make those insights accessible.

In this third volume the focus turns to exploring the philosophical schools of India. The practice of presenting the views of various schools of philosophy dates back to the first millennium in India, when proponents of competing traditions would arrange the diverse sets of philosophical positions in a hierarchy culminating in their own school’s superior tenets. Centuries later, relying on the Indian Buddhist treatises, Tibet developed its own tradition of works on tenets (grub mtha�), often centered on the four schools of Buddhist philosophy, using them to demonstrate the philosophical evolution within their own tradition, and within individual practitioners, as they progressed through increasingly more subtle expressions of the true reality.

The present work follows in this venerable tradition, but with a modern twist. Like its predecessors, it presents the views of seven non-Buddhist schools, those of the Samkhya, Vaisesika, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vedanta, Jaina, and Lokayata, followed by the Buddhist Vaibhasika, Sautrantika, Cittamatra, and Madhyamaka schools, arranging them like steps on a ladder to the profound. But rather than following in the sharply polemical approach of its ancient predecessors, it strives to survey each tradition authentically, relying on and citing the texts sacred to each, allowing the different traditions to speak for themselves. What, it asks, are the basic components of the world we experience? What is the nature of their ultimate reality? And how can we come to experience that for ourselves? See how the rich spiritual traditions of India approached these key questions, where they agreed, and how they evolved through dialogue and debate.

This presentation of philosophical schools is introduced by His Holiness and is accompanied by an extensive introduction and survey by Professor Donald LopezJr. of the University of Michigan, who is uniquely qualified to communicate the scope and significance of this literary and spiritual heritage to modern readers.]]> 728 Dalai Lama XIV 1614298130 Justin 5 5.00 Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Vol. 3: Philosophical Schools
author: Dalai Lama XIV
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> On Freedom 204377096 A brilliant exploration of freedom—what it is, how it’s been misunderstood, and why it’s our only chance for survival—by the acclaimed Yale historian and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller On Tyranny

Timothy Snyder has been called “the leading interpreter of our dark times.� As a historian, he has given us startling reinterpretations of political collapse and mass killing. As a public intellectual, he has turned that knowledge toward counsel and prediction, working against authoritarianism here and abroad. His book On Tyranny has inspired millions around the world to fight for freedom. Now, in this tour de force of political philosophy, he helps us see exactly what we’re fighting for.

Freedom is the great American commitment, but as Snyder argues, we have lost sight of what it means—and this is leading us into crisis. Too many of us look at freedom as the absence of state We think we're free if we can do and say as we please, and protect ourselves from government overreach. But true freedom isn’t so much freedom from as freedom to—the freedom to thrive, to take risks for futures we choose by working together. Freedom is the value that makes all other values possible.

On Freedom takes us on a thrilling intellectual journey. Drawing on the work of philosophers and political dissidents, conversations with contemporary thinkers, and his own experiences coming of age in a time of American exceptionalism, Snyder identifies the practices and attitudes—the habits of mind—that will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish. We come to appreciate the importance of traditions (championed by the right) but also the role of institutions (the purview of the left). Intimate yet ambitious, this book helps forge a new consensus rooted in a politics of abundance, generosity, and grace.]]> 359 Timothy Snyder 0593728734 Justin 0 to-read 4.50 2024 On Freedom
author: Timothy Snyder
name: Justin
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Among Tibetan Texts: History and Literature of the Himalayan Plateau (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism)]]> 725968
Smith wrote prefaces to these reprinted books to help clarify and contextualize the particular Tibetan the prefaces served as rough orientations to a poorly understood body of foreign literature. Originally produced in print quantities of twenty, these prefaces quickly became legendary, and soon photocopied collections were handed from scholar to scholar, achieving an almost cult status.

These essays are collected here for the first time. The impact of Smith's research on the academic study of Tibetan literature has been tremendous, both for his remarkable ability to synthesize diverse materials into coherent accounts of Tibetan literature, history, and religious thought, and for the exemplary critical scholarship he brought to this field.]]> 400 E. Gene Smith 0861711793 Justin 0 currently-reading 4.12 2001 Among Tibetan Texts: History and Literature of the Himalayan Plateau (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism)
author: E. Gene Smith
name: Justin
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Meditations to Transform The Mind]]> 2329412 264 The 7Th Dalai Lama 1559391251 Justin 5 4.00 Meditations to Transform The Mind
author: The 7Th Dalai Lama
name: Justin
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:
A collection of writings by the 7th Dalai Lama as applicable to those interested in transforming the mind as when they were written over 275 years ago. These words of advice show that despite technological and historic development during the last 3 centuries, the human condition as well as the possibility and pitfalls of the spiritual path have not substantially changed all that much. Words of advice that strike the heart directly.
]]> <![CDATA[Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way: With Commentary by Gyel-Tsap (Textual Studies and Translations in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism)]]> 2716790 Four Hundred Stanzas was written to explain how, according to Nagarjuna, the practice of the stages of yogic deeds enables those with Mahayana motivation to attain Buddhahood. Both Nagarjuna and Aryadeva urge those who want to understand reality to induce direct experience of ultimate truth through philosophic inquiry and reasoning. Aryadeva's text is more than a commentary on Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way because it also explains the extensive paths associated with conventional truths. The Four Hundred Stanzas is one of the fundamental works of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, and Gyel-tsap's commentary is arguably the most complete and important of the Tibetan commentaries on it.

Mahayana practitioners must eliminate not only obstructions to liberation but also obstructions to the perfect knowledge of all phenomena. This requires a powerful understanding of selflessness, coupled with a vast accumulation of merit, or positive energy, resulting from the kind of love, compassion, and altruistic intention cultivated by bodhisattvas. The first half of the text focuses on the development of merit by showing how to correct distorted ideas about conventional reality and how to overcome disturbing emotions. The second half explains the nature of ultimate reality that all phenomena are empty of intrinsic existence. Gyel-tsap's commentary on Aryadeva's text takes the form of a lively dialogue that uses the words of Aryadeva to answer hypothetical and actual assertions questions and objections. Geshe Sonam Rinchen has provided additional commentary to the sections on conventional reality, elucidating their relevance for contemporary life.

This is a republished version of Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas.ձ> 400 Aryadeva 1559393025 Justin 5 currently-reading 4.63 2008 Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way: With Commentary by Gyel-Tsap (Textual Studies and Translations in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism)
author: Aryadeva
name: Justin
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:
Essential early Madhyamaka text from the direct disciple of Nagarjuna himself
]]> <![CDATA[The All-Pervading Melodious Drumbeat: The Life of Ra Lotsawa]]> 25949945 The story of Tibet’s notorious master of Buddhist sorcery—translated for the first time into EnglishAn essential sacred text of Tibetan Buddhism, The All-Pervading Melodious Drumbeat tells the wondrous story of Ra Lotsawa Dorjé Drak. Though he was can­onized as a saint and a fully enlightened buddha, the eleventh-century Ra Lotsawa’s life story presents a darker path than those taken by Siddhartha Gautama and Milarepa. Viewed by some as a mur­derous villain and by others as a liberator of human suffering, Ra Lotsawa used his formidable power and magical abilities to defeat his rivals, accumulate wealth, and amass a devoted following. His life offers a rare view into the often overlooked roles of magic and sorcery in the Buddhist tradition. Despite this sinister legacy, his fame also rests on an illustrious career as a translator of Buddhist scriptures, through which he helped spark a renaissance of Buddhism in Tibet. This spirited new translation gives readers in English their first opportunity to encounter one of the most colorful and memorable figures in Tibetan Buddhist history.For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 364 Ra Yeshe Senge 0698192168 Justin 0 to-read 3.33 2015 The All-Pervading Melodious Drumbeat: The Life of Ra Lotsawa
author: Ra Yeshe Senge
name: Justin
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cutting Through Appearances: Practice and Theory of Tibetan Buddhism]]> 505990 360 Lhundub Sopa 0937938815 Justin 5 3.90 1989 Cutting Through Appearances: Practice and Theory of Tibetan Buddhism
author: Lhundub Sopa
name: Justin
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk]]> 847240 470 Georges B.J. Dreyfus 0520232607 Justin 5 4.23 2002 The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk
author: Georges B.J. Dreyfus
name: Justin
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:
An insightful, rich description of the mo article education system found in the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. The text explores topics such the role of debate, commentarial approaches, scholasticism's role in delimiting and upholding tradition, and free inquiry with the Geluk monastic education system both pre-1950 Tibet and within the diaspora communities omin India. A great read for anyone who practices within the Geluk school, wants to better understand the education/training Geshes receive, and/or wants a better understanding of the philosophical and pedagogical approaches within the major Geluk monasteries. What adds to this work is its author was the first Western to attain the level of Geshe - and he is not a blind apologist for the tradition so the conclusions he draws from his 20 years of training are insightful and thought provoking.
]]> <![CDATA[Tsongkhapa: The Legacy of Tibet's Great Philosopher-Saint]]> 207298540 Tsongkhapa’s seminal contributions to Buddhist thought and practice, and to the course of history, are illuminated and celebrated by some of his foremost modern interpreters.Few figures have impacted the trajectory of Buddhism as much as the great philosopher and meditator, scholar and reformer, Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (1357�1419), the founder of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism and teacher of the First Dalai Lama. His Ganden tradition spread throughout Central Asia and Mongolia, and today, through figures such as the Dalai Lama, who calls Tsongkhapa a second Nagarjuna, his teachings are shaping intellectual conversations and ethical practice globally. To commemorate the 600th anniversary of Tsongkhapa’s passing, a special conference was held at Ganden Monastery in India in 2019, featuring some of the best translators and interpreters of his teachings today. Highlights of those incisive summations of Tsongkhapa’s special contributions are gathered in this volume. Here we discover Tsongkhapa the philosopher, Tsongkhapa the master of the Buddhist canon, Tsongkhapa the tantric adept, and Tsongkhapa as the visionary force behind a culture marrying wisdom to compassion. Each of the authors featured looks at a distinct facet of Tsongkhapa’s legacy. Donald Lopez provides a global context, Guy Newland distills Tsongkhapa’s Middle Way, Dechen Rochard uncovers the identity view, Jay Garfield examines the conceptualized ultimate, Thupten Jinpa highlights the seminal importance Tsongkhapa placed on ascertainment, David Gray looks at his approach to Cakrasamvara tantra, Gavin Kilty surveys his Guhyasamaja tantra commentary, Roger Jackson surmises his views on Zen and mahamudra, Geshé Ngawang Samten examines his provisional-definitive distinction, Gareth Sparham highlights his scholastic prowess, Mishig-Ish Bataa illuminates his impact in Mongolia, and Bhiksuni Thubten Chodron presents his instructions on how to cultivate compassion. Whether you are well acquainted with Tsongkhapa’s life and thought or you are encountering him here for the first time, you will find The Legacy of Tsongkhapa an illuminating survey of his unique contributions to human flourishing.]]> 264 David Gray 161429755X Justin 5 4.50 Tsongkhapa: The Legacy of Tibet's Great Philosopher-Saint
author: David Gray
name: Justin
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
review:
An insightful collection of essays by modern scholars on the Tibetan philosopher-saint Jé Tsongkhapa in observance of the 600th anniversary of his death. Definitely a must read for anyone who has studied in the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism or anyone who wants a better understanding of why Tsongkhapa is a trailblazer in the world of Tibetan yogis/yoginis and masters - and why his insights are as applicable today as they were 600 years ago.
]]> <![CDATA[Embracing Hope: On Freedom, Responsibility & the Meaning of Life]]> 200875670 A highly anticipated, rediscovered collection from Viktor Frankl, published for the first time in the United States, exploring freedom, responsibility, and how we can draw meaning from the temporary nature of our lives

From the bestselling author of Man's Search for Meaning, which has sold over 16 million copies

The Library of Congress lists Man’s Search for Meaning as one of the ten most influential books in history. Scientists and artists, politicians and celebrities regularly cite Frankl as one of the most important authors every person should read. Now, there is another book for his devoted fans to add to their collections.

Published here for the first time in the United States, Embracing Hope continues Frankl’s enduring life’s work and provides even more lessons for those searching for meaning and purpose. It’s made up of four distinct pieces from Frankl on different themes - all uniting around the idea that we should remain open to life even when we have been subjected to appalling injustice, and even when we are faced with our own mortality and the brief nature of our lives. At a time of global suffering where so many are searching for hope and meaning, Frankl’s work seems more relevant and more important than ever.

Whether you're a devoted follower of Frankl's work or a newcomer seeking to enrich your understanding of life's purpose, this book promises a captivating journey that will leave you pondering its teachings long after you've turned the final page.

Just imagine what would happen, what life would look like, if there were no death. Imagine what it would be like if you could postpone anything and everything, if you could put it off for eternity. You wouldn't have to do anything today or tomorrow. Everything could just as easily be done next week, next month, next year, in a decade, in 100 or 1,000 years. Only in the face of death, only under pressure from the finiteness, the temporal limitation of human existence, is there any point in going about our business, and not only in going about our business, but in experiencing life, and not only in experiencing life but also in loving someone, and even in enduring and surviving something that is inflicted on us.]]> 155 Viktor E. Frankl 0807020443 Justin 0 to-read 4.09 Embracing Hope: On Freedom, Responsibility & the Meaning of Life
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: Justin
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Columbia Readings of Buddhist Literature)]]> 42902697 Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryāvatāra), is known for its eminently practical instructions and its psychologically vivid articulations of the Mahāyāna path. It is a powerful, succinct poem into which are woven diverse Buddhist traditions of moral transformation, meditative cultivation, and philosophical insight. Since its composition, it has seen continuous use as a ritual, contemplative, and philosophical manual, making it one of the crucial texts of the Buddhist ethical and philosophical tradition.

This book serves as a companion to this Indian Buddhist classic. The fifteen essays contained here illuminate the Guide's many philosophical, literary, ritual, and ethical dimensions. Distinguished scholars discuss the historical significance of the text as an innovative piece of Indian literature, illuminate the important roles it played in shaping Buddhism in Tibet, and bring to light its contemporary significance for philosophy and psychology. Whether experienced or first-time students of Buddhist literature, readers will find compelling new approaches to this resonant masterpiece.]]> 320 Jonathan C. Gold 0231192673 Justin 5 5.00 Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Columbia Readings of Buddhist Literature)
author: Jonathan C. Gold
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:
An investigation into the key themes of Shantideva's moral philosophy by modern Tibetan and Western scholars. A great collection of essays that add depth to the themes explored in this key text of 8th century Indian Buddhism. If you are familiar with Shantideva's "Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life" this accompanying text will guide you to investigating the depths of its insights and practices. Highly recommended!
]]> <![CDATA[How to Read Classical Tibetan, Volume One: A Summary of the General Path]]> 2309542 247 Craig Preston 1559391782 Justin 5 4.33 2003 How to Read Classical Tibetan, Volume One: A Summary of the General Path
author: Craig Preston
name: Justin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy]]> 39880270 the desire to defend their positions by sophisticated arguments against criticisms from fellow Buddhists and from non-Buddhist thinkers of classical Indian philosophy; and the need to account for insights gained through the application of specific meditative techniques. While the main focus is the period up to the sixth century CE, Westerhoff also discusses some important thinkers who influenced Buddhist thought between this time and the decline of Buddhist scholastic philosophy in India at the beginning of the thirteenth century. His aim is that the historical presentation will also allow the reader to get a better systematic grasp of key Buddhist concepts such as non-self, suffering, reincarnation, karma, and nirvana.]]> 352 Jan Westerhoff 019873266X Justin 4 4.32 2018 The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy
author: Jan Westerhoff
name: Justin
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Freedom through Correct Knowing: On Khedrup Jé's Interpretation of Dharmakirti]]> 59365328
Composed at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this translation with commentary on key parts of Khedrup Jé’s Clearing Mental An Ornament of Dharmakirti’s “Seven Treatises on Valid Cognition� is intended for all levels of understanding. You’ll learn how a mind realizes its object, which types of consciousness realize their objects, and when a consciousness is considered to be valid in the sense of realizing its object. Having explained valid cognizers, or direct perceivers, which are essential to understanding the four noble truths, Khedrup Jé goes on to brilliantly elucidate this essential teaching of the Buddha and offers a lucid presentation of how to progress on the spiritual paths of liberation and enlightenment, including how to generate yogic perception directly realizing selflessness. With this, one develops an unmistaken realization of the fundamental reality of selflessness of persons and phenomena, which eliminates ignorance, the root cause of all mental afflictions and samsaric suffering.]]> 368 Geshe Tenzin Namdak 1614296995 Justin 0 currently-reading 5.00 Freedom through Correct Knowing: On Khedrup Jé's Interpretation of Dharmakirti
author: Geshe Tenzin Namdak
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Indian Buddhist Philosophy: Metaphysics as Ethics (Ancient Philosophies)]]> 15956276 332 Amber Carpenter 1844652971 Justin 0 currently-reading 3.96 2013 Indian Buddhist Philosophy: Metaphysics as Ethics (Ancient Philosophies)
author: Amber Carpenter
name: Justin
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life]]> 22545857 A transformative, fascinating theory--based on robust and groundbreaking experimental research--reveals how our unconscious fear of death powers almost everything we do, shining a light on the hidden motives that drive human behavior

More than one hundred years ago, the American philosopher William James dubbed the knowledge that we must die “the worm at the core� of the human condition. In 1974, cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Denial of Death, arguing that the terror of death has a pervasive effect on human affairs. Now authors Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski clarify with wide-ranging evidence the many ways the worm at the core guides our thoughts and actions, from the great art we create to the devastating wars we wage.

The Worm at the Core is the product of twenty-five years of in-depth research. Drawing from innovative experiments conducted around the globe, Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski show conclusively that the fear of death and the desire to transcend it inspire us to buy expensive cars, crave fame, put our health at risk, and disguise our animal nature. The fear of death can also prompt judges to dole out harsher punishments, make children react negatively to people different from themselves, and inflame intolerance and violence.

But the worm at the core need not consume us. Emerging from their research is a unique and compelling approach to these deeply existential issues: terror management theory. TMT proposes that human culture infuses our lives with order, stability, significance, and purpose, and these anchors enable us to function moment to moment without becoming overwhelmed by the knowledge of our ultimate fate.]]> 274 Sheldon Solomon 1400067472 Justin 0 currently-reading 4.12 The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life
author: Sheldon Solomon
name: Justin
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Seeing with the Eye of Dhamma: The Comprehensive Teaching of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu]]> 58240990
Dhamma--a Pali word meaning “law of nature� or “truth,� but commonly used to refer to the overall body of Buddhist teachings--has the potential to fundamentally change one's life. In this comprehensive set of teachings, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, perhaps the most influential Thai Buddhist of the twentieth century, introduces the Dhamma to lay practitioners in a relatable and powerful way. Beginning with an extensive discussion of spiritual practice and moving into specific teachings on Dhamma, this book will be an indispensable resource for Theravada Buddhists, Insight Meditation practitioners, and all readers interested in a profoundly committed modern approach to the Buddhist path.]]> 344 Buddhadasa Bhikkhu 1611807662 Justin 0 to-read 4.74 2022 Seeing with the Eye of Dhamma: The Comprehensive Teaching of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
author: Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
name: Justin
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Beatitudes of Peace: Meditations on the Beatitudes, Peacemaking and the Spiritual Life]]> 29145538 176 John Dear 1627851070 Justin 5 4.40 The Beatitudes of Peace: Meditations on the Beatitudes, Peacemaking and the Spiritual Life
author: John Dear
name: Justin
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy]]> 85353 The Twilight of Equality? searches out these links through an analysis of the politics of the 1990s, the decade when neoliberalism-free market economics-became gospel. After a brilliant historical examination of how racial and gender inequities were woven into the very theoretical underpinnings of the neoliberal model of the state, Duggan shows how these inequities play out today. In a series of political case studies, Duggan reveals how neoliberal goals have been pursued, demonstrating that progressive arguments that separate identity politics and economic policy, cultural politics and affairs of state, can only fail. Ultimately, The Twilight of Equality? not only reveals how the highly successful rhetorical maneuvers of neoliberalism have functioned but, more importantly, it shows a way to revitalize and unify progressive politics in the U.S. today.]]> 136 Lisa Duggan 0807079553 Justin 0 to-read 4.03 2003 The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy
author: Lisa Duggan
name: Justin
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings]]> 112809 192 Mahatma Gandhi 1570754322 Justin 0 currently-reading 4.14 1970 Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings
author: Mahatma Gandhi
name: Justin
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death: The End of Self-Improvement]]> 48695368 288 Joan Tollifson Justin 0 to-read 4.43 Death: The End of Self-Improvement
author: Joan Tollifson
name: Justin
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Languishing: How to Feel Alive Again in a World That Wears Us Down]]> 157996035
Emory University sociologist Corey Keyes has spent his career studying the causes and costs of languishing—the neglected middle child of mental health. He examines the ripple effect of languishing on our lives before deftly diagnosing the larger forces behind its rise: the false promises of the self-help industrial complex, a global moment of intense fear and loss, and a failing healthcare system focused on treating rather than preventing illness.

Ultimately, Keyes presents a counterintuitive approach to breaking the cycles keeping us stuck and finding a path to true flourishing. Unlike self-improvement systems offering quick-fix mood boosts, his framework focuses on functioning well: taking simple but powerful steps to hold our emotions loosely, becoming more accepting of ourselves and others, and carving out daily moments for the activities that create cycles of meaning, connection, and personal growth.

Languishing is for anyone tempted to downplay emptiness and lack of motivation as they struggle to haul themselves through the day, and for those eager to build a higher tolerance for adversity and the pressures of modern life. We can expand our vocabulary for describing our inner experiences and deepest needs—and with it, our potential to flourish.]]> 287 Corey Keyes 0593444639 Justin 0 to-read 4.06 2024 Languishing: How to Feel Alive Again in a World That Wears Us Down
author: Corey Keyes
name: Justin
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Jesus and the Disinherited 208180 102 Howard Thurman 0807010294 Justin 4 4.49 1949 Jesus and the Disinherited
author: Howard Thurman
name: Justin
average rating: 4.49
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> King: A Life 62039291
The first full biography in decades, Eig mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk and accessible storytelling to forge the definitive life for our times.

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.―and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father―as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.

Includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs]]> 688 Jonathan Eig 0374279292 Justin 0 currently-reading 4.65 2023 King: A Life
author: Jonathan Eig
name: Justin
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Buddha's Words for Tough Times: An Anthology]]> 176443566
Change and loss have always been part of the human condition, but in today’s world, the pace and intensity of uncertainty has reached new extremes. The Buddha observed the truth of impermanence more than 2,500 years ago and diagnosed the source of the anxiety it engenders so incisively that his prescription still resonates and heals here and now.

In Buddha’s Words for Tough Times , Peter Skilling, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Buddhist scripture, brings the reader face to face with the wealth of Buddhist literature, from a teaching in a single word, to a seminal collection of verses on impermanence, to narrations of the Buddha’s teaching journeys across the Gangetic Plain. Translating from sources in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Pali, he uncovers the complex history of the vast writings of the Buddhist canons, and his skill in revealing the meaning of twenty gems from within those riches brings them alive for English readers. We could have no better guide for this exploration, an exploration whose value is more urgent than ever.]]> 552 Peter Skilling 1614298890 Justin 5 5.00 Buddha's Words for Tough Times: An Anthology
author: Peter Skilling
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:
Important textual selections and amazing pictures/images that complement the text. I really enjoyed the way the scriptural excerpts were presented in the front half of the book and then later expounded upon from historic, linguistic, and philosophical perspectives in the second part of the text. A great text with critically important lessons from the Buddhist tradition that can act as a guide through difficult life experiences, which we will all inevitably have to face head on sooner or later.
]]> <![CDATA[A Textbook in Classical Tibetan]]> 61992980 376 Joanna Bialek 1032123567 Justin 4 4.50 2022 A Textbook in Classical Tibetan
author: Joanna Bialek
name: Justin
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:
Great Classical Tibetan language textbook whose author has an obvious formal linguistics background. I used this book after studying Classical Tibetan for the last 4 years and it made for a good supplement. I'll definitely return to it in the future as a reference. I don't think this would be a good beginner's text unless you are using it as part of a class or if you have a tutor who is already proficient in Classical Tibetan to guide you through the material - but that is just my opinion as someone who learned primarily in the system created by Joe Wilson and Jeffrey Hopkins and continued by Craig Preston - all utilizing the system of translation developed over the last 50 years at the University of Virginia.
]]> <![CDATA[The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War]]> 195607632
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Fort Sumter.

Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.�

At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.

Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.]]> 559 Erik Larson 0385348754 Justin 0 to-read 4.37 2024 The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
author: Erik Larson
name: Justin
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Svatantrika-Prasangika Distinction: What Difference Does a Difference Make?]]> 1616087 416 Georges B.J. Dreyfus 0861713249 Justin 0 to-read 4.14 2002 The Svatantrika-Prasangika Distinction: What Difference Does a Difference Make?
author: Georges B.J. Dreyfus
name: Justin
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Recognizing Reality: Dharmakirti's Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations (Suny Series in Buddhist Studies)]]> 1282556 622 Georges B.J. Dreyfus 0791430979 Justin 0 to-read 4.59 1996 Recognizing Reality: Dharmakirti's Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations (Suny Series in Buddhist Studies)
author: Georges B.J. Dreyfus
name: Justin
average rating: 4.59
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence]]> 142204691 440 John Dear 1626985332 Justin 0 currently-reading 4.50 The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence
author: John Dear
name: Justin
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tibetan Book of Everyday Wisdom: A Thousand Years of Sage Advice (Library of Tibetan Classics 1)]]> 39932483 Enjoy popular Tibetan collections of advice, fables, and aphorisms for following the way of the wise and avoiding the paths of fools.

The Tibetan Book of Everdyay A Thousand Years of Sage Advicepresents a genre of Tibetan works known as “wise sayings� (lekshé). While most Tibetan literature focuses on the Buddhist path, “wise sayings� literature has traditionally been a centerpiece of secular education in Tibet and in the cultivation of social mores and an honorable way of life. Drawing inspiration from classical Indian literature on human virtue and governance (nitisastra), including the folktales in thePañcatantra, the authors of these Tibetan works strove to educate young minds in the ways of the civilized world, especially by distinguishing the conduct of the wise from that of the foolish.

This anthology includes some of the best-loved classics of Tibetan literature, such as Sakya Pandita’sJewel Treasury of Wise Sayings, Panchen Sönam Drakpa’sGanden Wise Sayings, and Gungthang’sTreatise on TreesandTreatise on Water. The final work is the intriguingKaché Phalu’sAdvice.Ostensibly written by a wise Tibetan Muslim, this versified text enjoys great popularity within Tibetan-speaking communities, such that most people are able to recite at least a few verses from memory.]]> 694 Thupten Jinpa 1614295131 Justin 0 to-read 4.00 The Tibetan Book of Everyday Wisdom: A Thousand Years of Sage Advice (Library of Tibetan Classics 1)
author: Thupten Jinpa
name: Justin
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In Praise of Great Compassion 52759015 Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, which has sold nearly 15,000 copies to date.

In Praise of Great Compassion, the fifth volume of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion, continues the Dalai Lama’s teachings on the path to awakening. While previous volumes focused on our present situation and taking responsibility for creating the causes for the happiness we seek, this volume is about opening our hearts to others and generating the compassion, joy, and fortitude to make our lives meaningful by benefiting them.

We are embedded in a universe with other beings, all of whom have been kind to us in one way or another. More than any other time in human history, we depend on one another to stay alive and flourish. We are sometimes oblivious to their kindness, or take it for granted, which leads to feelings of discontent. But when we look closely, it becomes apparent that we have been the recipient of great kindness and naturally we want to repay it.

To do this, we begin by cultivating a positive attitude toward others by contemplating the four immeasurables—immeasurable love, compassion, empathic joy, and equanimity—and the altruistic intention of bodhicitta. We learn to challenge the deluded logic of the self-centered attitude that leads to misery and replace it with a more realistic perspective that helps us to remain balanced when we experience either happiness or suffering. This enables us to make all circumstances favorable to the path to awakening.]]> 420 Dalai Lama XIV 1614296820 Justin 5 4.19 In Praise of Great Compassion
author: Dalai Lama XIV
name: Justin
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings]]> 6531274
Buddhist Philosophy fills that lacuna. It collects important philosophical texts from each major Buddhist tradition. Each text is translated and introduced by a recognized authority in Buddhist studies. Each introduction sets the text in context and introduces the philosophical issues it addresses and arguments it presents, providing a useful and authoritative guide to reading and to teaching the text. The volume is organized into topical sections that reflect the way that Western philosophers think about the structure of the discipline, and each section is introduced by an essay explaining Buddhist approaches to that subject matter, and the place of the texts collected in that section in the enterprise.

This volume is an ideal single text for an intermediate or advanced course in Buddhist philosophy, and makes this tradition immediately accessible to the philosopher or student versed in Western philosophy coming to Buddhism for the first time. It is also ideal for the scholar or student of Buddhist studies who is interested specifically in the philosophical dimensions of the Buddhist tradition.]]> 457 William Edelglass 0195328175 Justin 0 to-read 3.95 2009 Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings
author: William Edelglass
name: Justin
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom]]> 51167747
As a specialist in both medical ethics and the treatment of older patients, Dr. L. S. Dugdale knows a great deal about the end of life. Far too many of us die poorly, she argues. Our culture has overly medicalized death: dying is often institutional and sterile, prolonged by unnecessary resuscitations and other intrusive interventions. We are not going gently into that good night—our reliance on modern medicine can actually prolong suffering and strip us of our dignity. Yet our lives do not have to end this way. Centuries ago, in the wake of the Black Plague, a text was published offering advice to help the living prepare for a good death. Written during the late Middle Ages, ars moriendi � The Art of Dying —made clear that to die well, one first had to live well and described what practices best help us prepare. When Dugdale discovered this Medieval book, it was a revelation. Inspired by its holistic approach to the final stage we must all one day face, she draws from this forgotten work, combining its wisdom with the knowledge she has gleaned from her long medical career. The Lost Art of Dying is a twenty-first century ars moriendi, filled with much-needed insight and thoughtful guidance that will change our perceptions. By recovering our sense of finitude, confronting our fears, accepting how our bodies age, developing meaningful rituals, and involving our communities in end-of-life care, we can discover what it means to both live and die well. And like the original ars moriendi, The Lost Art of Dying includes nine black-and-white drawings from artist Michael W. Dugger. Dr. Dugdale offers a hopeful perspective on death and dying as she shows us how to adapt the wisdom from the past to our lives today. The Lost Art of Dying is a vital, affecting book that reconsiders death, death culture, and how we can transform how we live each day, including our last.ձ> 271 Lydia S. Dugdale 0062932659 Justin 0 to-read 4.05 2020 The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom
author: Lydia S. Dugdale
name: Justin
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love]]> 6656720 From the New York Times bestselling author of All About Love, a brave and astonishing work that challenges patriarchal culture and encourages men to reclaim the best part of themselves.Everyone needs to love and be loved—even men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving. In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a fundamental part of who they are—whatever their age, marital status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. But toxic masculinity punishes those fundamental emotions, and it’s so deeply ingrained in our society that it’s hard for men to not comply—but hooks wants to help change that. With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks addresses the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society, in new and challenging ways. She believes men can find the way to spiritual unity by getting back in touch with the emotionally open part of themselves—and lay claim to the rich and rewarding inner lives that have historically been the exclusive province of women.]]> 208 bell hooks Justin 0 to-read 4.47 2003 The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
author: bell hooks
name: Justin
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion]]> 15992204 The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding.

His starting point is moral intuition—the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong. Haidt shows us how these intuitions differ across cultures, including the cultures of the political left and right. He blends his own research findings with those of anthropologists, historians, and other psychologists to draw a map of the moral domain, and he explains why conservatives can navigate that map more skillfully than can liberals. He then examines the origins of morality, overturning the view that evolution made us fundamentally selfish creatures. But rather than arguing that we are innately altruistic, he makes a more subtle claim—that we are fundamentally groupish. It is our groupishness, he explains, that leads to our greatest joys, our religious divisions, and our political affiliations. In a stunning final chapter on ideology and civility, Haidt shows what each side is right about, and why we need the insights of liberals, conservatives, and libertarians to flourish as a nation.]]> 530 Jonathan Haidt 0307907031 Justin 0 to-read 4.34 2012 The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Justin
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Meditations of the Heart 23838622 220 Howard Thurman 0807010839 Justin 4 4.60 1953 Meditations of the Heart
author: Howard Thurman
name: Justin
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Seven-Point Mind Training: A Tibetan Method For Cultivating Mind And Heart]]> 19275241 A guide to the Tibetan Buddhist practice of lojong meditation—or mind training—as a way to pause, reflect, and discover the true meaning and value of lifeIn this society, with its hurly-burly pace demanding of our time, it is ever so easy to let life slip by. Looking back after ten, twenty, thirty, years—we wonder what we have really accomplished. The process of simply existing is not necessarily meaningful. And yet there is an unlimited potential for meaning and value in this human existence.The Seven-Point Mind Training is one eminently practical way of tapping into that meaning. At the heart of the Seven-Point Mind Training lies the transformation of the circumstances that life brings us, however hard as the raw material from which we create our own spiritual path. The central theme of the Seven-Point Mind Training is to make the liberating passage from the constricting solitude of self-centeredness to the warm kinship with others which occurs with the cultivation of cherishing others. This Mind Training is especially well-suited for an active life. It helps us to reexamine our relationships—to family, friends, enemies, and strangers—and gradually transform our responses to whatever life throws our way]]> 160 B. Alan Wallace 1559398787 Justin 0 to-read 4.52 2001 The Seven-Point Mind Training: A Tibetan Method For Cultivating Mind And Heart
author: B. Alan Wallace
name: Justin
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Other Lives: Mind and World in Indian Buddhism]]> 56198929
Other Lives offers a deep engagement with Vasubandhu’s account of mind in a global philosophical perspective. Sonam Kachru takes up Vasubandhu’s challenge to think with perspective-diversifying contexts, showing how his novel theory draws together action and perception, minds and worlds. Kachru pieces together the conceptual system in which Vasubandhu thought to show the deep originality of the argument. He reconstructs Vasubandhu’s ecological concept of mind, in which mindedness is meaningful only in a nexus with life and world, to explore its ongoing philosophical significance. Engaging with a vast range of classical, modern, and contemporary Asian and Western thought, Other Lives is both a groundbreaking work in Buddhist studies and a model of truly global philosophy. The book also includes an accessible new translation of The Twenty Verses , providing a fresh introduction to one of the most influential works of Buddhist thought.]]> 320 Sonam Kachru 0231200013 Justin 0 to-read 3.43 Other Lives: Mind and World in Indian Buddhism
author: Sonam Kachru
name: Justin
average rating: 3.43
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-Vijnana in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought]]> 1656428 This important study reveals how the Buddhist unconscious illuminates and draws out aspects of current western thinking on the unconscious mind. One of the most intriguing connections is the idea that there is in fact no substantial 'self' underlying all mental activity; 'the thoughts themselves are the thinker'. William S. Waldron considers the implications of this radical notion, which, despite only recently gaining plausibility, was in fact first posited 2,500 years ago.]]> 269 William S. Waldron 0415298091 Justin 0 to-read 4.17 2003 The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-Vijnana in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought
author: William S. Waldron
name: Justin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu's Unifying Buddhist Philosophy]]> 22329500 Paving the Great Way reveals another dimension of his legacy: his integration of several seemingly incompatible intellectual and scriptural traditions, with far-ranging consequences for the development of Buddhist epistemology and the theorization of tantra.

Most scholars read Vasubandhu's texts in isolation and separate his intellectual development into distinct phases. Featuring close studies of Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasya, Vyakhyayukti, Vimsatika, and Trisvabhavanirdesa, among other works, this book identifies recurrent treatments of causality and scriptural interpretation that unify distinct strands of thought under a single, coherent Buddhist philosophy. In Vasubandhu's hands, the Buddha's rejection of the self as a false construction provides a framework through which to clarify problematic philosophical issues, such as the nature of moral agency and subjectivity under a broadly causal worldview. Recognizing this continuity of purpose across Vasubandhu's diverse corpus recasts the interests of the philosopher and his truly innovative vision, which influenced Buddhist thought for a millennium and continues to resonate with today's philosophical issues. An appendix includes extensive English-language translations of the major texts discussed.]]> 336 Jonathan C. Gold 0231168268 Justin 0 to-read 4.31 2014 Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu's Unifying Buddhist Philosophy
author: Jonathan C. Gold
name: Justin
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Essence of Superfine Gold: A Guide on Stages of the Paths to Enlightenment]]> 24562059 Also included in this volume is Je Tsongkhapa’s A Song of Experience, plus a brief biography of the Third Dalai Lama and the relevant Tibetan texts for both teachings.]]> 119 Dalai Lama III Justin 5 4.67 2014 Essence of Superfine Gold: A Guide on Stages of the Paths to Enlightenment
author: Dalai Lama III
name: Justin
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eight Verses for Training the Mind]]> 801854 112 Geshe Sonam Rinchen 1559392592 Justin 5 4.67 1901 Eight Verses for Training the Mind
author: Geshe Sonam Rinchen
name: Justin
average rating: 4.67
book published: 1901
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion through Training the Mind]]> 177171
For many centuries Indian and Tibetan Buddhists have employed this collection of pithy, penetrating Dharma slogans to develop compassion, equanimity, lovingkindness, and joy for others. Known as the lojong —or mind-training—teachings, these slogans have been the subject of deep study, contemplation, and commentary by many great masters.

In this volume, Traleg Kyabgon offers a fresh translation of the slogans as well as in-depth new commentary of each. After living among and teaching Westerners for over twenty years, his approach is uniquely insightful into the ways that the slogans could be misunderstood or misinterpreted within our culture. Here, he presents a refreshing and clarifying view, which seeks to correct points of confusion.]]> 320 Traleg Kyabgon 1590303784 Justin 0 to-read 4.33 2007 The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion through Training the Mind
author: Traleg Kyabgon
name: Justin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of Atisha's Seven Point Mind Training]]> 408924 120 Dilgo Khyentse 1559390239 Justin 0 to-read 4.65 1993 Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of Atisha's Seven Point Mind Training
author: Dilgo Khyentse
name: Justin
average rating: 4.65
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Parting from the Four Attachments: A Commentary on Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen's Song of Experience on Mind Training andthe View]]> 408899 200 Chogye Trichen Rinpoche 1559391936 Justin 0 to-read 4.60 2003 Parting from the Four Attachments: A Commentary on Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen's Song of Experience on Mind Training andthe View
author: Chogye Trichen Rinpoche
name: Justin
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Discourses on Bodhicaryavatara: An English transation.]]> 55228435 New 335 Dalai Lama XIV 9387023079 Justin 5 4.33 Discourses on Bodhicaryavatara: An English transation.
author: Dalai Lama XIV
name: Justin
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Wisdom Culture Series)]]> 55711007
Tsongkhapa (1357�1419), the author of the well-known Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment and the teacher of the First Dalai Lama, is renowned as one of the greatest scholar-saints that Tibet has ever produced. A dozen years after writing the Great Treatise , he wrote the Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of the Path , presented here in its first complete English translation.

Half the length of the well-known Great Treatise , this work similarly presents a systematic overview of the Buddhist path. Tsongkhapa begins by abridging the longer work, distilling its explanations for quicker integration. He presents a series of meditations, beginning with recognizing the rarity of our human existence and the great opportunities it affords, followed by reflections on impermanence, suffering, and the promise of liberation from our past actions, until proceeding to the path of bodhisattvas, whose universal compassion seeks to free every being from suffering. Tsongkhapa gives especially detailed instructions on samatha , the deep meditative concentration that is a precondition for the highest insight into the nature of reality. The final and largest section, on that very insight, is unique to this work, particularly Tsongkhapa’s presentation of conventional truth and ultimate truth.

Those new to Tibetan Buddhist teachings will benefit from the approachable style of this classic handbook for enlightenment, and beginners and longtime practitioners alike will cherish the clear guidance from one of Tibet’s great luminaries.]]> 488 Tsongkhapa 1614294437 Justin 5 4.80 The Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Wisdom Culture Series)
author: Tsongkhapa
name: Justin
average rating: 4.80
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Prince and the Zombie: Tibetan Tales of Karma]]> 22716569
In this series of tales, a prince must capture and bring back to his country a zombie who is endowed with magical powers—but in order to succeed, he must keep himself from speaking even one word to the zombie. The zombie is wily, and during the long journey he recounts fascinating tales to the prince, who is carrying him in a sack on his back. Spellbound by the stories, the prince is drawn into making some comment on them. But the very moment he opens his mouth, the zombie escapes, and the prince has to go back to India to catch the zombie all over again. This same scenario occurs over and over, tale after tale, journey after journey—until the prince truly learns his lesson.

These zombie stories, known as the Vetalapancavimsati in Sanskrit, are engrossing teaching tales that originated in ancient India but have become popular in the Buddhist culture of Tibet, as well as in other Asian cultures. This Tibetan version of the stories conveys the values of Buddhism, particularly those related to karma (the laws of cause and effect), happiness, and suffering. Through these tales, the reader learns that Buddhism is a path of knowledge that leads to liberation from suffering.]]> 144 Tenzin Wangmo 1611802067 Justin 4 3.90 2015 The Prince and the Zombie: Tibetan Tales of Karma
author: Tenzin Wangmo
name: Justin
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Small Boat, Great Mountain 22836648 163 Ajahn Amaro 1870205294 Justin 0 to-read 4.53 2003 Small Boat, Great Mountain
author: Ajahn Amaro
name: Justin
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sound of Silence: The Selected Teachings]]> 732835
Always skillful and good humored, Ajahn Sumedho's teachings defy boundaries. Anyone--from laypeople looking to deepen their grasp of the Buddha's message, to lifetime Buddhist monastics--will appreciate the author's sparkling insights into to such key Buddhist themes as awareness, consciousness, identity, relief from suffering, and mindfulness of the body. The Sound of Silence represents the best of Ajahn Sumedho's masterful work to help us all see each life with a new and sustaining clarity.]]> 376 Ajahn Sumedho 0861715152 Justin 0 to-read 4.57 2007 The Sound of Silence: The Selected Teachings
author: Ajahn Sumedho
name: Justin
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (The Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices)]]> 418428 336 Paul Williams 0415025370 Justin 4 3.96 1989 Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (The Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices)
author: Paul Williams
name: Justin
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Heart Sutra: An Oral Teaching]]> 1210647 127 Sonam Rinchen 1559392010 Justin 5 4.38 2003 The Heart Sutra: An Oral Teaching
author: Sonam Rinchen
name: Justin
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stages of the Path and the Oral Transmission: Selected Teachings of the Geluk School (6) (Library of Tibetan Classics)]]> 60320356
Although it was the last major school to emerge in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the Geluk school has left an indelible mark on Buddhist thought and practice. The intellectual and spiritual brilliance of its founder, the great Tsongkhapa (1357�1419), has inspired generations of scholars and tantric yogis to place him at the heart of their daily meditative practice. The Geluk tradition’s close ties to the Dalai Lamas have also afforded it an outsized influence in all aspects of Tibetan life for centuries. At its peak its combined monasteries boasted a population in the tens of thousands, and its sway encompassed the religious landscape of Mongolia and much of Central Asia.

This widespread religious activity fostered a rich literary tradition, and fifteen seminal works are featured here representing four genres of that tradition. They include works on the stages of the path, or lamrim, the genre for which the Geluk is most renowned; works on guru yoga, centered around the core Geluk ritual Offering to the Guru (Lama Chöpa); teachings from the unique oral transmission of Geluk mahamudra, meditation on the nature of mind; and instructions on the three essential points—what to practice in life, at death, and in the bardo.

Your guide to these riches, Thupten Jinpa, maps out their historical context and spiritual significance in his extensive introduction.]]> 936 Thupten Jinpa 0861714458 Justin 5 5.00 Stages of the Path and the Oral Transmission: Selected Teachings of the Geluk School (6) (Library of Tibetan Classics)
author: Thupten Jinpa
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:
A classic from a world-class translator who deeply steeped in both Tibetan Buddhism (as a trained Geshe Lharampa in the Gelug tradition) and western philosophy (as a PhD in philosophy from Cambridge). One of those books you want with you on a desert island - and one I will come back to again and again throughout this life.
]]> <![CDATA[Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun]]> 1283150 170 Nam-Kha Pel 8185102716 Justin 5 4.73 1992 Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun
author: Nam-Kha Pel
name: Justin
average rating: 4.73
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:
A unique text that blends the two Tibetan Buddhist streams of Lam.rim ("Stages of the Path to Enlightenment/Awakening") and Lo.jong ("Mind Training") traditions into one powerful text. Definitely helpful to have a background in these 2 traditions before tackling this text, but not impenetrable to those with a background in Tibean Buddhism.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century (Shambhala Library)]]> 225806 128 Thomas Merton 1590300394 Justin 5 3.91 1960 The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century (Shambhala Library)
author: Thomas Merton
name: Justin
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:
Read this book as it has been on my "to read" list for a while. Nit sure why now was the time to pick it up, but I am glad I did. Short, pithy says from desert hermits of the early Christian tradition that read much like the pithy wisdom of the Dhammapada. This book was a stark reminder that the laws of nature (Dharma/Dhamma) are evident and available to all who open and look for the truths of this life - regardless of tradition. Highly recommended book.
]]> Cujo 59053818 Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

The #1 national bestseller for Stephen King’s rabid fans, Cujo “hits the jugular� (The New York Times) with the story of a friendly Saint Bernard that is bitten by a sick bat. Get ready to meet the most hideous menace ever to savage the flesh and devour the mind.

Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether.

Meanwhile, Vic and Donna Trenton, and their young son Tad, move to Maine. They are seeking peace and quiet, but life in this small town is not what it seems. As Tad tries to fend off the terror that comes to him at night from his bedroom closet, and as Vic and Donna face their own nightmare of a marriage on the rocks, there is no way they can know that a monster, infinitely sinister, waits in the daylight.

What happens to Cujo, how he becomes a horrifying vortex inescapably drawing in all the people around him, makes for one of the most heart-stopping novels Stephen King has ever written. “A genuine page-turner that grabs you and holds you and won’t let go� (Chattanooga Times), Cujo will forever change how you view man’s best friend.]]> 402 Stephen King Justin 0 to-read 4.32 1981 Cujo
author: Stephen King
name: Justin
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Long Walk 209080212 In this #1 national bestseller, master storyteller Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, tells the tale of the contestants of a grueling walking competition where there can only be one winner—the one that survives.

Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as the Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without ever stopping...with the winner being awarded “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of his life. But, as part of this national tournament that sweeps through a dystopian America year after year, there are some harsh rules that Garraty and ninety-nine others must adhere to in order to beat out the rest. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow down under the speed limit and you’re given a warning. Three warnings and you’re out of the game—permanently...

From Publishers Weekly
Ray Garraty--along with 99 other teen boys--has entered the Long Walk, a grueling march at four miles per hour that continues until only one person is standing. The losers receive bullets to the head. As the march progresses, the numbers dwindle, the challenges of continued marching increase, and the senselessness wears on the participants' state of mind. King (writing as his alter ego, Richard Bachman) delivers another psychologically dark tale with commentary on society, teenage life, and cultural entertainment that is still poignant decades after its original publication.
]]> 319 Stephen King Justin 0 to-read 3.92 1978 The Long Walk
author: Stephen King
name: Justin
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 11/22/63 12530184 On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force.

Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history.

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life � a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best.

]]> 866 Stephen King Justin 0 to-read 4.41 2011 11/22/63
author: Stephen King
name: Justin
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Essential Ayurveda: What It Is and What It Can Do for You]]> 8808994 278 Shubhra Krishan 1577317297 Justin 5 3.95 2003 Essential Ayurveda: What It Is and What It Can Do for You
author: Shubhra Krishan
name: Justin
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ornament of Abhidharma: A Commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa (Library of Tibetan Classics Book 23)]]> 52467743 The single greatest Tibetan commentary—never previously translated—on one of the most well-known and cited works of classical Indian Buddhism.This work by a scholar of the Kadam school is the most authoritative Tibetan commentary on Vasubandhu’sTreasury of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakosa). In terms of stature and authority, Vasubandhu’sTreasuryrivals Buddhaghosa’s contemporaneousPath of Purificationand deals with such central themes as the dynamics of emotions and karma, of mental and meditative states; it treats both the cosmos and the life within. Chim Jampalyang’s exposition of it is the greatest flowering of Abhidharma studies in Tibet. Usually referred to as theChimzö, it is to this day a key textbook in the great monastic universities. A veritable encyclopedia, it spans all areas of classical Indian Buddhist knowledge and is an indispensable reference for scholars of Buddhism. The Library of Tibetan Classicsis a special series being developed by the Institute of Tibetan Classics to make key classical Tibetan texts part of the global literary and intellectual heritage. Eventually comprising thirty-two large volumes, the collection will contain over two hundred distinct texts by more than a hundred of the best-known Tibetan authors. These texts have been selected in consultation with the preeminent lineage holders of all the schools and other senior Tibetan scholars to represent the Tibetan literary tradition as a whole.]]> 1296 Chim Jampaiyang 1614295344 Justin 0 to-read 5.00 Ornament of Abhidharma: A Commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa (Library of Tibetan Classics Book 23)
author: Chim Jampaiyang
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Buddhist and the Ethicist: Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World]]> 125376191
An unlikely duo—Professor Peter Singer, a preeminent philosopher and professor of bioethics, and Venerable Shih Chao-Hwei, a Taiwanese Buddhist monastic and social activist—join forces to talk ethics in lively conversations that cross oceans, overcome language barriers, and bridge philosophies. The eye-opening dialogues collected here share unique perspectives on contemporary issues like animal welfare, gender equality, the death penalty, and more. Together, these two deep thinkers explore the foundation of ethics and key Buddhist concepts, and ultimately reveal how we can all move toward making the world a better place.]]> 264 Peter Singer 1645472175 Justin 4 3.68 2024 The Buddhist and the Ethicist: Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World
author: Peter Singer
name: Justin
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism]]> 646258 224 Joseph Goldstein 0062517015 Justin 5 4.15 2002 One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism
author: Joseph Goldstein
name: Justin
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin]]> 9938498
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the New Germany, she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Goring and the expectedly charming—yet wholly sinister—Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.]]> 448 Erik Larson 0307408841 Justin 4 3.87 2011 In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
author: Erik Larson
name: Justin
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[October: The Story of the Russian Revolution]]> 31578250
This is the story of the extraordinary months between those upheavals, in February and October, of the forces and individuals who made 1917 so epochal a year, of their intrigues, negotiations, conflicts and catastrophes. From familiar names like Lenin and Trotsky to their opponents Kornilov and Kerensky; from the byzantine squabbles of urban activists to the remotest villages of a sprawling empire; from the revolutionary railroad Sublime to the ciphers and static of coup by telegram; from grand sweep to forgotten detail.

Historians have debated the revolution for a hundred years, its portents and possibilities: the mass of literature can be daunting. But here is a book for those new to the events, told not only in their historical import but in all their passion and drama and strangeness. Because as well as a political event of profound and ongoing consequence, Miéville reveals the Russian Revolution as a breathtaking story.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 369 China Miéville 1784782777 Justin 4 3.90 2017 October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
author: China Miéville
name: Justin
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2017/11/15
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Caring for the Dying: The Doula Approach to a Meaningful Death]]> 32564744 Caring for the Dying describes a whole new way to approach death and dying. It explores how the dying and their families can bring deep meaning and great comfort to the care given at the end of a life. Created by Henry Fersko-Weiss, the end-of-life doula model is adapted from the work of birth doulas and helps the dying to find meaning in their life, express that meaning in powerful and beautiful legacies, and plan for the final days. The approach calls for around-the-clock vigil care, so the dying person and their family have the emotional and spiritual support they need along with guidance on signs and symptoms of dying. It also covers the work of reprocessing a death with the family afterward and the early work of grieving.

Emphasis is placed on the space around the dying person and encourages the use of touch, guided imagery, and ritual during the dying process. Throughout the book Fersko-Weiss tells amazing and encouraging stories of the people he has cared for, as well as stories that come from doulas he has trained and worked with over the years.

What is unique about this book is the well-conceived and thorough approach it describes to working skillfully with the dying. The guidance provided can help a dying person, their family, and caregivers to transform the dying experience from one of fear and despair into one that is uplifting and even life affirming. You will see death in a new light and gain a different perspective on how to help the dying. It may even change the way you live your life right now.]]> 256 Henry Fersko-Weiss 1573246964 Justin 5 4.34 Caring for the Dying: The Doula Approach to a Meaningful Death
author: Henry Fersko-Weiss
name: Justin
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2017/11/15
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mindfully Facing Disease and Death: Compassionate Advice from Early Buddhist Texts]]> 29633649 320 Bhikkhu Anālayo 1909314722 Justin 4 4.46 2016 Mindfully Facing Disease and Death: Compassionate Advice from Early Buddhist Texts
author: Bhikkhu Anālayo
name: Justin
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide]]> 42218981 279 Analayo 1911407112 Justin 5 4.69 Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide
author: Analayo
name: Justin
average rating: 4.69
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> The Sane Society 40717990
One of Fromm’s main interests was to analyze social systems and their impact on the mental health of the individual. In this study, he reaches further and asks: �Can a society be sick?� He finds that it can, arguing that Western culture is immersed in a “pathology of normalcy� that affects the mental health of individuals.

In The Sane Society, Fromm examines the alienating effects of modern capitalism, and discusses historical and contemporary alternatives, particularly communitarian systems. Finally, he presents new ideas for a re-organization of economics, politics, and culture that would support the individual’s mental health and our profound human needs for love and freedom.]]> 386 Erich Fromm Justin 5 4.26 1955 The Sane Society
author: Erich Fromm
name: Justin
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/30
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought]]> 21035285 158 Bhikkhu Katukurunde Nanananda Justin 5 4.53 1997 Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought
author: Bhikkhu Katukurunde Nanananda
name: Justin
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/10
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America]]> 36228413 "Belew's book helps explain how we got to today's alt right."―Terry Gross, Fresh Air

The white power movement in America wants a revolution. Its soldiers are not lone wolves but highly organized cadres motivated by a coherent and deeply troubling worldview made up of white supremacy, virulent anticommunism, and apocalyptic faith. In Bring the War Home, Kathleen Belew gives us the history of a movement that consolidated in the 1970s and 1980s around a potent sense of betrayal in the Vietnam War and made tragic headlines in Waco and Ruby Ridge and with the Oklahoma City bombing and is resurgent under President Trump.

Returning to an America ripped apart by a war they felt they were not allowed to win, a small group of veterans and active-duty military personnel and civilian supporters concluded that waging war on their own country was justified. They unified people from a variety of militant groups, including Klansmen, neo-Nazis, skinheads, radical tax protestors, and white separatists to form a new movement of loosely affiliated independent cells to avoid detection. The white power movement operated with discipline and clarity, undertaking assassinations, armed robbery, counterfeiting, and weapons trafficking. Its command structure gave women a prominent place and put them in charge of brokering alliances and birthing future recruits.

Belew's disturbing and timely history reminds us that war cannot be contained in time and space: grievances intensify and violence becomes a logical course of action. Based on years of deep immersion in previously classified FBI files and on extensive interviews, Bring the War Home tells the story of American paramilitarism and the birth of the alt-right.]]> 352 Kathleen Belew 0674286073 Justin 4 4.20 2018 Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America
author: Kathleen Belew
name: Justin
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Nectar of Bodhicitta: Motivations for the Awakening Mind]]> 59243060 219 Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1891868934 Justin 4 4.71 The Nectar of Bodhicitta: Motivations for the Awakening Mind
author: Lama Zopa Rinpoche
name: Justin
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/19
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution]]> 55801224 A startling new look at quantum theory, from the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of Time.

One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving.

Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious.

As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness.

Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.]]> 233 Carlo Rovelli 0593328884 Justin 4 4.07 2020 Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
author: Carlo Rovelli
name: Justin
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Highest Yoga Tantra 1375679 Daniel Cozort 1559392355 Justin 4 4.10 1986 Highest Yoga Tantra
author: Daniel Cozort
name: Justin
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:
A short, pthy text that provides one of the most comprehensive overviews of Vajrayana from the Gelugpa perspective. But it is not a beginner's text and requires some previous knowledge and study of Vajrayama generally to unlock the gems inside.
]]> <![CDATA[Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind]]> 104960 288 Jeremy W. Hayward 1570628939 Justin 3 4.22 1992 Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind
author: Jeremy W. Hayward
name: Justin
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Jesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideri's Mission to Tibet]]> 6906231
Based on close readings of a wide range of primary sources in Tibetan, Italian, and Latin, Jesuit on the Roof of the World follows Desideri's journey across the great Western deserts of Tibet, his entry into the court of the Mongol chieftain Lhazang Khan, and his flight across Eastern Tibet during the wars that shook Tibet during the early-eighteenth century. While telling of these harrowing events, Desideri relates the dramatic encounter between his Jesuit philosophy and the scholasticism of the Geluk monks; the personal conflict between his own Roman Catholic beliefs and his appreciation of Tibet religion and culture; and the travails of a variety of colorful characters whose political intrigues led to the invasion of Zünghar Mongols of 1717 and the establishment of the Chinese protectorate in 1720.

As the Tibetans fought among themselves, the missionary waged his own war against demons, sorcerers, and rival scholastic philosophers. Towering over all in the mind of the missionary was the "fabulous idol" Avalokitesvara and its embodiment in the Sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso. In describing his spiritual warfare against the Tibetan "pope," the missionary offers a unique glimpse into theological problem of the salvation of non-Christians in early modern theology; the curious-and highly controversial-appeal of Hermetic philosophy in the Asian missions; the political underbelly of the Chinese Rites Controversy; and the persistent European fascination with the land of snows.]]> 320 Trent Pomplun 0195377869 Justin 3 3.40 2009 Jesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideri's Mission to Tibet
author: Trent Pomplun
name: Justin
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Good Book: A Secular Bible]]> 11249464 609 A.C. Grayling 0802778380 Justin 4 3.93 2011 The Good Book: A Secular Bible
author: A.C. Grayling
name: Justin
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/26
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> King: A Life 65146135
The first full biography in decades, Eig mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk and accessible storytelling to forge the definitive life for our times.

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.―and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father―as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.

Includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs]]> 853 Jonathan Eig 0374719675 Justin 0 to-read 4.71 2023 King: A Life
author: Jonathan Eig
name: Justin
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living]]> 25329903 326 Rory McEntee 1608335534 Justin 0 currently-reading 4.17 2015 New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living
author: Rory McEntee
name: Justin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Pet Sematary 45030607 Now a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures starring John Lithgow, Jason Clarke, and Amy Seimetz!

Stephen King’s #1 New York Times bestseller Pet Sematary, a “wild, powerful, disturbing� (The Washington Post Book World) classic about evil that exists far beyond the grave—among King’s most iconic and beloved novels.

When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for himself sometimes, dead is better…]> 561 Stephen King Justin 5 4.33 1983 Pet Sematary
author: Stephen King
name: Justin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tibetan Book of Everyday Wisdom: A Thousand Years of Sage Advice (Library of Tibetan Classics 1)]]> 39931941
The Tibetan Book of Everdyay Wisdom: A Thousand Years of Sage Advicepresents a genre of Tibetan works known as “wise sayings� (lekshé). While most Tibetan literature focuses on the Buddhist path, “wise sayings� literature has traditionally been a centerpiece of secular education in Tibet and in the cultivation of social mores and an honorable way of life. Drawing inspiration from classical Indian literature on human virtue and governance (nitisastra), including the folktales in thePañcatantra, the authors of these Tibetan works strove to educate young minds in the ways of the civilized world, especially by distinguishing the conduct of the wise from that of the foolish.

This anthology includes some of the best-loved classics of Tibetan literature, such as Sakya Pandita’sJewel Treasury of Wise Sayings, Panchen Sönam Drakpa’sGanden Wise Sayings, and Gungthang’sTreatise on TreesandTreatise on Water. The final work is the intriguingKaché Phalu’sAdvice.Ostensibly written by a wise Tibetan Muslim, this versified text enjoys great popularity within Tibetan-speaking communities, such that most people are able to recite at least a few verses from memory.]]> 694 Thupten Jinpa Justin 0 to-read 5.00 The Tibetan Book of Everyday Wisdom: A Thousand Years of Sage Advice (Library of Tibetan Classics 1)
author: Thupten Jinpa
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva]]> 51733811 A fresh translation and commentary to Tibet's most famous text on living like a bodhisattva

Who are bodhisattvas and what do they practice? In the fourteenth century, the Tibetan Buddhist master Gyalse Tokm� Zangpo answered these questions in a now classic teaching called the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. This text, consisting of inspiring verses distilling the entire Mahayana path of compassion, continues to inspire modern-day Buddhist masters, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

One of the most important commentaries on the Thirty-Seven Practices is by the twentieth-century master Dzatrul Ngawang Tenzin Norbu, known as the Buddha of Dza Rongphu, and is translated here along with associated meditation instructions for the first time. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who requested this translation by Christopher Stagg, provides an informative overview to the history of the text and commentary, introducing the reader to the world of one of Tibet's most widely studied texts.]]> 320 Ngawang Tenzin Norbu 1559394919 Justin 5 5.00 A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva
author: Ngawang Tenzin Norbu
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Buddhist Meditation: Classic Teachings from Tibet]]> 177192322
A Penguin Classic

Drawn from Tibet's rich contemplative literature, Buddhist Meditation offers classic exercises focused on the opportunities and challenges of life; cultivating inner calm; fostering a wider perspective on oneself in relationship to others; working with negative emotions, and the highest values of the Buddhist tradition, love and compassion. Several dozen meditation instructions are collected in twelve chapters. All major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism are represented. The book is structured on "foundation practices", practice manuals that immerse the reader in the search for meaningful and compassionate responses to the ubiquity of human suffering, and in the contemplative techniques that translate that search into consequential action.
Spiritual exercises introduce 1) the opportunity for self-betterment and to be of benefit to other living beings; 2) the inescapable persistence of suffering in life, and the reality of death; 3) the workings of ethical cause and effect, otherwise known as karma; and 4) the ever-repeating succession of frustration known as cyclic existence, or samsara. The second set of foundation practices provide tools to build upon 5) taking refuge in Buddhism—a deep formal commitment to integrate Buddhist contemplative and ethical teachings into one's life; 6) cultivating love and compassion for all living beings; 7) clearing away cognitive, emotional, and behavioral impediments to actualizing love and compassion; 8) developing with wisdom and the experience and excellent qualities necessary to put love and compassion into practice; and 9) dedicating oneself to a spiritual mentor to serve as a guide through this intensive program of training.
Part existential philosophy, part ethics, part self-help program, part cosmology—the foundation exercises present a complete Buddhist picture of life, the ethical universe, and the first steps in making a positive impact in life for ourselves and others, steps anyone can begin to take by dedicating themselves to train in contemplative exercises.]]> 256 Kurtis R. Schaeffer Justin 5 3.64 Buddhist Meditation: Classic Teachings from Tibet
author: Kurtis R. Schaeffer
name: Justin
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Light of the Jedi (Star Wars: The High Republic)]]> 51788222 Long before the First Order, before the Empire, before even The Phantom Menace. . . Jedi lit the way for the galaxy in The High Republic

It is a golden age. Intrepid hyperspace scouts expand the reach of the Repubic to the furthest stars, worlds flourish under the benevolent leadership of the Senate, and peace reigns, enforced by the wisdom and strength of the renowned order of Force users known as the Jedi. With the Jedi at the height of their power, the free citizens of the galaxy are confident in their ability to weather any storm But the even brightest light can cast a shadow, and some storms defy any preparation.

When a shocking catastrophe in hyperspace tears a ship to pieces, the flurry of shrapnel emerging from the disaster threatens an entire system. No sooner does the call for help go out than the Jedi race to the scene. The scope of the emergence, however, is enough to push even Jedi to their limit. As the sky breaks open and destruction rains down upon the peaceful alliance they helped to build, the Jedi must trust in the Force to see them through a day in which a single mistake could cost billions of lives.

Even as the Jedi battle valiantly against calamity, something truly deadly grows beyond the boundary of the Republic. The hyperspace disaster is far more sinister than the Jedi could ever suspect. A threat hides in the darkness, far from the light of the age, and harbors a secret that could strike fear into even a Jedi's heart.]]> 407 Charles Soule Justin 0 to-read 4.04 2021 Light of the Jedi (Star Wars: The High Republic)
author: Charles Soule
name: Justin
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness]]> 24820845
For modern science, the transitional states of consciousness lie at the forefront of research in many fields. For a Buddhist practitioner these same states present crucial opportunities to explore and transform consciousness itself. This book is the account of a historic dialogue between leading Western scientists and the Dalai Lama of Tibet. Revolving around three key moments of consciousness--sleep, dreams, and death--the conversations recorded here are both engrossing and highly readable. Whether the topic is lucid dreaming, near-death experiences, or the very structure of consciousness itself, the reader is continually surprised and delighted.

Narrated by Francisco Varela, an internationally recognized neuroscientist, the book begins with insightful remarks on the notion of personal identity by noted philosopher Charles Taylor, author of the acclaimed Sources of Self. This sets the stage for Dr. Jerome Engel, Dr. Joyce MacDougal, and others to engage in extraordinary exchanges with the Dalai Lama on topics ranging from the neurology of sleep to the yoga of dreams.

Remarkable convergences between the Western scientific tradition and the Buddhist contemplative sciences are revealed. Dr. Jayne Gackenbach's discussion of lucid dreaming, for example, prompts a detailed and fascinating response from the Dalai Lama on the manipulation of dreams by Buddhist meditators. The conversations also reveal provocative divergences of opinion, as when the Dalai Lama expresses skepticism about "Near-Death Experiences" as presented by Joan Halifax. The conversations are engrossing and highly readable. Any reader interested in psychology, neuroscience, Buddhism, or the alternative worlds of dreams will surely enjoy Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying.]]> 254 Dalai Lama XIV Justin 5 4.50 1997 Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness
author: Dalai Lama XIV
name: Justin
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Being Human and a Buddha Too: Longchenpa's Seven Trainings for a Sunlit Sky (House of Adzom)]]> 148005031
This first volume in the House of Adzom series centers on Longchenpa’s seven trainings in bodhicitta, our awakened mind, the ultimate purpose of our practice and training. Anne Klein’s original composition masterfully weaves in Adzom Paylo Rinpoche’s commentary and Jigme Lingpa’s five pith practices and commentary on the trainings, in keeping with Longchenpa’s skillful integration of sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen, to resolve our most challenging questions about what awakening involves and how it relates to the truth of our human situation right now. As foundational teachings for Dzogchen practitioners, the seven trainings are framed as contemplations on impermanence, the adventitiousness of happiness and its short duration, the multiple causes of death, the meaninglessness of our worldly activities, reliance on the Buddha’s good qualities, the teacher’s pith instructions, and, ultimately, nonconceptual meditation on bliss and emptiness, clarity and emptiness, and reality itself.]]> 280 Anne Klein Justin 0 to-read 5.00 Being Human and a Buddha Too: Longchenpa's Seven Trainings for a Sunlit Sky (House of Adzom)
author: Anne Klein
name: Justin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Life of the Buddha (Penguin Classics)]]> 22571487
The story of Shakyamuni Buddha’s epic journey to enlightenment is perhaps the most important narrative in the Buddhist tradition. Tenzin Chögyel’s The Life of the Buddha , composed in the mid–eighteenth century and now in a vivid new translation, is a masterly storyteller’s rendition of the twelve acts of the Buddha. Chögyel’s classical tale seamlessly weaves together the vast and the minute, the earthly and the celestial, reflecting the near-omnipresent aid of the gods alongside the Buddha’s moving final reunion with his devoted son, Rahula. The Life of the Buddha has the power to engage people through a deeply human story with cosmic implications.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 160 Tenzin Chögyel 0143107208 Justin 0 to-read 3.24 2015 The Life of the Buddha (Penguin Classics)
author: Tenzin Chögyel
name: Justin
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Change the Story of Your Health: Using Shamanic and Jungian Techniques for Healing]]> 31213557
Through journaling exercises and expanded-awareness practices, many of which involve working with and in nature, and which are influenced by Jungian and shamanic traditions, anyone can tap into hidden resources for healing and work with them effectively. Whether gaining insights and balancing energies outdoors, dialoguing and interacting with the earth or a river or lake, or working with dreams, an inner healer, or a symbol encountered on a shamanic journey, readers will find they are able to learn why they have struggled to change their habits and will be empowered to experience greater wellness within a satisfying health story. "Change the Story of Your Health" focuses on four key chapters of a person's health

* Eating and drinking, and weight
* Movement/exercise, flexibility, balance, stamina, and strength
* Sexuality, body image and acceptance, and changes due to midlife hormonal shifts (commonly known as menopause and andropause)
* Management of an acute ailment or symptoms of a chronic condition

It also helps readers revise their health stories as their health changes as a result of aging or unexpected challenges. Gaining insights into their health, letting go of what is standing in the way of optimal health and well-being, and bringing in what is needed to make a preferred new health story a reality--all are possible when readers take on the challenge of "Change the Story of Your Health" and begin using the practices regularly.
Winner of an American Bookfest Best Book Awards best book in alternative medicine in 2017
Winner of a Nautilus Book Award for the Best of Small Press as well as a Nautilus Book Award Gold Award in 2017]]> 224 Carl Greer 1844097161 Justin 0 to-read 3.80 Change the Story of Your Health: Using Shamanic and Jungian Techniques for Healing
author: Carl Greer
name: Justin
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them]]> 38255329
“No single book is as relevant to the present moment.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS� CHOICE � With a new preface � A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.

As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States long before Donald Trump.

Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics—the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us� and a “them.� He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics, which include

� exploiting a mythic version of a nation’s past
� propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves
� anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts
� law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals
� fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare

These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership.

By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics—charged by rhetoric and myth—can quickly become policy and reality. Only by recognizing fascists politics, he argues, may we resist its most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals.]]> 240 Jason F. Stanley 0525511830 Justin 5 4.21 2018 How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them
author: Jason F. Stanley
name: Justin
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Life and Times of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö: The Great Biography by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Other Stories]]> 31812184
The foremost torchbearer of the ecumenical Rime movement, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1893�1959) dedicated his life to the study, practice, and propagation of all the schools and lineages that are collectively known as Tibetan Buddhism. The staggeringly long list of teachings he received and transmitted in turn testifies to the depth of his appreciation of all aspects of the Dharma, and the roster of his eminent students reveals how his extraordinary influence transcended sectarian boundaries.

The first half of this volume presents informal stories by many of Chökyi Lodrö’s teachers, students, friends, and relatives, collected by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche and translated here into English for the first time. Intimate, funny, and utterly down-to-earth, these stories—supplemented by sixty-one photographs—paint a tender picture of the man behind the great master, introducing readers to the characters and events in his life, and especially the challenges he faced living under the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

The second half comprises an English translation of the spiritual biography, or namtar , by Dilgo Khyentse, one of Chökyi Lodrö’s closest and most brilliant students. In the process of recounting the life and liberation of his belovèd guru, Dilgo Khyentse reveals how he saw Chökyi Lodrö as the Buddha in the flesh and provides, essentially, a blueprint of the entire path to enlightenment.]]> 632 Dilgo Khyentse 1611803772 Justin 0 to-read 4.78 The Life and Times of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö: The Great Biography by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Other Stories
author: Dilgo Khyentse
name: Justin
average rating: 4.78
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Songs of Dzogchen Trekchö: A detailed commentary on Shabkar's Flight of the Garuda]]> 54019722 373 Justin 0 to-read 4.50 Songs of Dzogchen Trekchö: A detailed commentary on Shabkar's Flight of the Garuda
author: Dzogchen Pema Kalsang Rinpoche
name: Justin
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Buddhist Ethics (Elements in Ethics)]]> 48989750 74 Maria Heim 1108706622 Justin 4 4.20 Buddhist Ethics (Elements in Ethics)
author: Maria Heim
name: Justin
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves:
review:
A short yet insightful comparison of the spiritual practices of Buddhagosa (representing the Theravada tradition) and Shantideva (representing the Mahayana tradition) and the ethical implications of their approach to Buddhist transformative practices. I have studied both of these classical Buddhist thinkers separately and appreciated the comparative approach of this text. A great survey of the topic - book could easily have been 2-3x longer given the vastness of the topic so it would be a good introduction to these historic thinkers for those not familiar with them.
]]> <![CDATA[The Forerunner of All Things: Buddhaghosa on Mind, Intention, and Agency]]> 17754442
In contrast to many studies that assimilate Buddhist moral thinking to Western theories of ethics, the book attends to distinctively Buddhist ways of systematizing and theorizing their own categories. Arguing that meaning is a product of the explanatory systems used to explore it, the book pays particular attention to genre and to the 5th-century commentator Buddhaghosa's guidance on how to read Buddhist texts. The book treats all branches of the Pali canon (the Tipitaka, that is, the Suttas, the Abhidhamma, and the Vinaya), as well as narrative sources (the Dhammapada and the Jataka commentaries). In this sense it offers a comprehensive treatment of intention in the canonical Theravada sources. But the book goes further than this by focusing explicitly on the body of commentarial thought represented by Buddhaghosa. His work is at the center of the book's investigations, both insofar as he offers interpretative strategies for reading canonical texts, but also as he advances
particular understandings of agency and moral psychology. The book offers the first book-length study devoted to Buddhaghosa's thought on ethics]]> 272 Maria Heim 0199331049 Justin 0 to-read 4.00 2013 The Forerunner of All Things: Buddhaghosa on Mind, Intention, and Agency
author: Maria Heim
name: Justin
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>