Mindfulness and Intimacy by Ben Connelly
Wisdom Publications, February 2019
Go beyond mere mindfulness—and deepen your connection to your self, the people in your life, and the world around you.
Mindfulness is an ancient and powerful practice of awareness and nonjudgmental discernment that can help us ground ourselves in the present moment, with the world and our lives just as they are. But there's a risk: by focusing our attention on something (or someone), we might always see it as something other, as separate from ourselves. To close this distance, mindfulness has traditionally been paired with a focus on intimacy, community, and interdependence. In this book, Ben Connelly shows us how to bring these two practices together—bringing warm hearts to our clear seeing.
Helpful meditations and exercises show how mindfulness and intimacy can together enrich our empathetic engagement with ourselves and the world around us—with our values, with the environment, and with the people in our lives, in all their distinct manifestations of race and religion, sexuality and gender, culture and class—and lead to a truly engaged, compassionate, and joy-filled life.
Go beyond mere mindfulness—and deepen your connection to your self, the people in your life, and the world around you.
Mindfulness is an ancient and powerful practice of awareness and nonjudgmental discernment that can help us ground ourselves in the present moment, with the world and our lives just as they are. But there's a risk: by focusing our attention on something (or someone), we might always see it as something other, as separate from ourselves. To close this distance, mindfulness has traditionally been paired with a focus on intimacy, community, and interdependence. In this book, Ben Connelly shows us how to bring these two practices together—bringing warm hearts to our clear seeing.
Helpful meditations and exercises show how mindfulness and intimacy can together enrich our empathetic engagement with ourselves and the world around us—with our values, with the environment, and with the people in our lives, in all their distinct manifestations of race and religion, sexuality and gender, culture and class—and lead to a truly engaged, compassionate, and joy-filled life.
Zen in The Age of Anxiety by Tim Burkett
Zen in the Age of Anxiety: Wisdom for Navigating Our Modern Lives
Shambhala Publications, June 2018, edited by Wanda Isle
Wrestling with fear doesn't have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid.
Written in the style of an owner's manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychologist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life.
Comments about the book:
"I gained so much from reading Tim's book, especially about how to hold and handle my own anxieties. Here is an encouraging handbook on how Buddhist values and practices can increase our sense of connectedness and foster inner—and outer—peace. I especially liked Tim's "Nine Keys" that can open any of us to healing powers in life events and in ourselves, too." — David Richo, author of The Five Things We Cannot Change and How to Be an Adult in Relationships
"This is a book imbued with love and wisdom, full of passages of fluid prose, woven in with carefully chosen Zen stories, poetry, and relevant research findings. It includes clear explanations of the power of diligent meditation practice to transform our various human difficulties into clear seeing, equanimity, and ease, followed by practical exercises about how to go about this work. This is a book about the substance and beauty of Zen practice, a book I will happily read and recommend to my own students." —Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating and How to Train a Wild Elephant
Shambhala Publications, June 2018, edited by Wanda Isle
Wrestling with fear doesn't have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid.
Written in the style of an owner's manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychologist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life.
Comments about the book:
"I gained so much from reading Tim's book, especially about how to hold and handle my own anxieties. Here is an encouraging handbook on how Buddhist values and practices can increase our sense of connectedness and foster inner—and outer—peace. I especially liked Tim's "Nine Keys" that can open any of us to healing powers in life events and in ourselves, too." — David Richo, author of The Five Things We Cannot Change and How to Be an Adult in Relationships
"This is a book imbued with love and wisdom, full of passages of fluid prose, woven in with carefully chosen Zen stories, poetry, and relevant research findings. It includes clear explanations of the power of diligent meditation practice to transform our various human difficulties into clear seeing, equanimity, and ease, followed by practical exercises about how to go about this work. This is a book about the substance and beauty of Zen practice, a book I will happily read and recommend to my own students." —Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating and How to Train a Wild Elephant
The Light that Shines Through Infinity by Katagiri Roshi
The Light that Shines Through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life
Shambhala Publications, November 2017, edited by Andrea Martin
The universe is alive with a dynamic energy that creates and sustains our lives. It surrounds us, flows through us, and is available to us in every moment. Spiritual practice, according to Dainin Katagiri Roshi, is about aligning ourselves with this ever-present life force — sometimes referred to as chi, qi, or ki. This collection, edited from his talks, focuses on cosmic energy as it relates to all aspects of Zen practice. With references to classic texts and personal stories that bring the teachings to life, The Light That Shines through Infinity is also a powerful antidote to the notion that practice is in some way about transcending the world around us. It is in fact about nothing other than relating to it compassionately and wholeheartedly.
Andrea Martin gave a series of Sunday dharma talks based on the book. She looked at its various themes, and offered her view on Katagiri Roshi's teaching and the way it can help us now. Each talk was focused on one of the five parts of the book.
The talks were given on these dates and can be found in the Sunday Talk archives.
Shambhala Publications, November 2017, edited by Andrea Martin
The universe is alive with a dynamic energy that creates and sustains our lives. It surrounds us, flows through us, and is available to us in every moment. Spiritual practice, according to Dainin Katagiri Roshi, is about aligning ourselves with this ever-present life force — sometimes referred to as chi, qi, or ki. This collection, edited from his talks, focuses on cosmic energy as it relates to all aspects of Zen practice. With references to classic texts and personal stories that bring the teachings to life, The Light That Shines through Infinity is also a powerful antidote to the notion that practice is in some way about transcending the world around us. It is in fact about nothing other than relating to it compassionately and wholeheartedly.
Andrea Martin gave a series of Sunday dharma talks based on the book. She looked at its various themes, and offered her view on Katagiri Roshi's teaching and the way it can help us now. Each talk was focused on one of the five parts of the book.
The talks were given on these dates and can be found in the Sunday Talk archives.
Earlier Books
Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara: A Practitioner's Guide by Ben Connelly
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Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara by Ben ConnellyInside Vasubandhu's Yogacara: A Practitioner's Guide
Wisdom Publications, December 2016, Foreward by Norman Fischer A practical guide to Vasubandhu's classic work "Thirty Verses of Consciousness Only" that can transform modern life and change how you see the world. |
In this down-to-earth book, Ben Connelly sure-handedly guides us through the intricacies of Yogacara and the richness of the "Thirty Verses." Dedicating a chapter of the book to each line of the poem, he lets us thoroughly lose ourselves in its depths. His warm and wise voice unpacks and contextualizes its wisdom, showing us how we can apply its ancient insights to our own modern lives, to create a life of engaged peace, harmony, compassion, and joy.
In fourth-century India one of the great geniuses of Buddhism, Vasubandhu, sought to reconcile the diverse ideas and forms of Buddhism practiced at the time and demonstrate how they could be effectively integrated into a single system. This was the Yogacara movement, and it continues to have great influence in modern Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. "Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only," or "Trimshika," is the most concise, comprehensive, and accessible work by this revered figure.
Vasubandhu's "Thirty Verses" lay out a path of practice that integrates the most powerful of Buddhism's psychological and mystical possibilities: Early Buddhism's practices for shedding afflictive emotional habit and the Mahayana emphasis on shedding divisive concepts, the path of individual liberation and the path of freeing all beings, the path to nirvana and the path of enlightenment as the very ground of being right now. Although Yogacara has a reputation for being extremely complex, the "Thirty Verses" distills the principles of these traditions to their most practical forms, and this book follows that sense of focus; it goes to the heart of the matter—how do we alleviate suffering through shedding our emotional knots and our sense of alienation?
This is a great introduction to a philosophy, a master, and a work whose influence reverberates throughout modern Buddhism.
Read a review in Publishers Weekly.
In fourth-century India one of the great geniuses of Buddhism, Vasubandhu, sought to reconcile the diverse ideas and forms of Buddhism practiced at the time and demonstrate how they could be effectively integrated into a single system. This was the Yogacara movement, and it continues to have great influence in modern Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. "Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only," or "Trimshika," is the most concise, comprehensive, and accessible work by this revered figure.
Vasubandhu's "Thirty Verses" lay out a path of practice that integrates the most powerful of Buddhism's psychological and mystical possibilities: Early Buddhism's practices for shedding afflictive emotional habit and the Mahayana emphasis on shedding divisive concepts, the path of individual liberation and the path of freeing all beings, the path to nirvana and the path of enlightenment as the very ground of being right now. Although Yogacara has a reputation for being extremely complex, the "Thirty Verses" distills the principles of these traditions to their most practical forms, and this book follows that sense of focus; it goes to the heart of the matter—how do we alleviate suffering through shedding our emotional knots and our sense of alienation?
This is a great introduction to a philosophy, a master, and a work whose influence reverberates throughout modern Buddhism.
Read a review in Publishers Weekly.
Table 13: A Story of Teen Survival and Transformation by Miles Harrison and Ted O'Toole
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Table 13 by Miles Harrison and Ted O'TooleTable 13: A Story of Teen Survival and Transformation
CreateSpace Publishing, May 2015 This book, which grew out of a mentorship that began when Miles was 14, tells in a raw and vivid way the story of Miles' struggles with drugs, violence, and thoughts of suicide. It also relates the healing effects of a |
remarkable youth center, and of Ted's supportive presence, informed by his practice of Zen Buddhism. This reading will be of interest to zen practitioners, teens, and anyone who has spent time with a teen in difficulty.
Nothing Holy About It: The Zen of Being Just Who You Are by Tim Burkett
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Nothing Holy About It by Tim Burkett
Nothing Holy About It: The Zen of Being Just Who You Are
Shambhala Publications, April 2015, edited by Wanda Isle Tim reveals how and why the wisdom of non-holiness is the key to a joyful heart. You don't need to go looking for something sacred — the |
happiness you seek is right where you are. In this book, a concise summary of Zen teachings unfold within the ordinary comedies and tragedies of everyday life — beginning with the delightful non-holiness he experienced in the presence of his original teacher, Shunyru Suzuki.
Listen to a talk on the book at San Francisco Zen Center.
Listen to a talk on the book at San Francisco Zen Center.
Inside the Grass Hut: Living Shitou's Classic Poem by ben connelly
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Inside the Grass Hut by Ben Connelly
Inside the Grass Hut: Living Shitou's Classic Poem
Wisdom Publications, July 2014, Foreward by Taigen Dan Leighton Enter the mind and practice of Zen: apply the insights of one of Zen's classic poems to your life — here and now. Shitou Xiqian's Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage is a remarkably accessible work of profound depth; in thirty-two lines Shitou expresses the breadth of the entire Buddhist tradition with simple, vivid imagery. |
Ben Connelly's Inside the Grass Hut unpacks the timeless poem and applies it to contemporary life. His book delivers a wealth of information on the context and content of this eighth-century work, as well as directly evokes the poem's themes of simple living, calm, and a deep sense of connection to all things. This is destined to become a trusted, dog-eared companion.
Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time by Dainin Katagiri
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Each Moment Is the Universe by Katagiri Roshi
Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time
Shambhala Publications, December 2008, edited by Andrea Martin Katagiri bases his teaching on Being Time, a text by the most famous of all Zen masters, Eihei Dogen (1200–1253), to show that time is a creative, dynamic process that continuously produces the universe and everything in it—and that to understand this is to discover a gateway to freedom from the dissatisfactions of everyday life. He guides us in contemplating impermanence, the present moment, and the |
ungraspable nature of past and future. He discusses time as part of our inner being, made manifest through constant change in ourselves and our surroundings. And these ideas are by no means metaphysical abstractions: they can be directly perceived by any of us through meditation.
It's easy to regard time as a commodity—we even speak of “saving” or “spending” it. We often regard it as an enemy, when we feel it slipping away before we’re ready for time to be up. The Zen view of time is radically different than that: time is not something separate from our life; rather, our life is time. Understand this, says Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and you can live fully and freely right where you are in each moment.
It's easy to regard time as a commodity—we even speak of “saving” or “spending” it. We often regard it as an enemy, when we feel it slipping away before we’re ready for time to be up. The Zen view of time is radically different than that: time is not something separate from our life; rather, our life is time. Understand this, says Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and you can live fully and freely right where you are in each moment.
