Shambhala Publications

07/08/2024

NEW EPISODE: How can we face the nitty-gritty of life while keeping a clear mind and making wise choices? Enlightenment in this lifetime seems like a lofty and unattainable goal. Our guest, author and spiritual teacher, Susan Kaiser Greenland says you can find it any time in life’s highs, its lows, and everything in between. Join us as she shares insightful tools and strategies for awakening to our enlightenment in this real everyday world.
LISTEN: https://www.theyogahour.com/episodes/enlightenment-in-every-day-life
WEBSITE: SusanKaiserGreenland.com SOCIAL MEDIA and YouTube:

The YogaHour.com

07/08/2024

Join David Hinton on July 11 for a hybrid in-person and online event hosted by Mountain Cloud Zen Center. Hinton will discuss his new book, The Blue-Cliff Record.

Click below to learn more.

Dharma Talk: The Blue Cliff Record: A New Translation Thursday, July 11; 5:30 –7 PM. Meditation begins at 5:30 pm MT, followed by the Dharma Talk (teisho) at 6:00 pm MT You are invited to join us f…

07/08/2024

A Floating World

Floating through life may sound appealing, but the danger of having no ground is that we can get lost in our mind’s imagination. The midpoint of a bardo is when we start believing our mind’s projections to be real. Thoughts of the past rise as enemies. Our memories taunt us with self-accusations about the mistakes we’ve made or simmering resentments about the harm others have caused us. We long to reconnect with lost loves and unresolved relationships. We toss and turn in emotional storms triggered by these untethered story lines. What we need is the shelter of a loving presence that can comfort and reassure us with self-compassion and forgiveness. Instead, our habit is to seek solid ground by clinging to unexamined belief systems, the masks of frozen fear. The bardo teachings offer guidance about how to avoid these pitfalls when our path gets treacherous.

—Which Way is Up?, page 76
By Susan Gillis Chapman
shambhala.com/which-way-is-up.html

07/05/2024

Read a review of Gardens of Awakening from Nachaya Campbell-Allen of Buddhistdoor Global - BDG.

This new book by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Mitsue Nagase is a guide to the history and aesthetics of Japanese Zen gardens.

"Gardens of Awakening takes the reader on a wonderful journey through the serene Zen gardens of Kyoto. Yet this book isn’t just a collection of photographs; it’s an invitation to understand the deep roots of Zen Buddhism and its timeless principles."

Click below to read more.

Nachaya Campbell-Allen takes a journey into the world of Zen thought and Zen expression in garden landscapes

07/05/2024

Big Mind

When we ask the question of the eternal recurrence, and can listen to the Big Mind as it guides us past our small-minded patterns and fears, it allows us to say yes to our life—even our difficulties and pain—because we understand that the joy would not have been possible without the pain. All of the pains, as well as our mistakes, our weaknesses, our attachments, are a necessary part of our development. All of those things we have so disliked have nonetheless pushed us in our growth, and are a necessary part of the whole interweaving tapestry of where we stand in the present moment. In answering the call of the eternal recurrence we are, in effect, saying yes to all of it, willingly affirming our commitment and direction. This is the direct path to becoming who we truly are.

— The Authentic Life: Zen Wisdom for Living Free from Complacency and Fear
by Ezra Bayda, pages 24-25

07/03/2024

To celebrate the forthcoming release of Real-World Enlightenment by Susan Kaiser Greenland, we'll be sharing a weekly practice from her best-selling card deck, Mindful Games!

Mindful Games offers 60 mindful play practices for kids, teens, and families. We invite you to share this week's practice with your loved ones and check out Real-World Enlightenment to access more mindfulness tools for adults!

✨ Mindful Games: Special Star✨

In this exercise, we imagine a special star in the night sky that helps us relax our bodies and quiet our minds.

✨ For Adults✨

In Real-World Enlightenment, Susan shares: For many of us, our knee-jerk reaction to stress is trying to think through our problems, even when doing so is not helpful. The noise in our head escalates, and our body tightens in response. While it might sound counterintuitive, when we’re upset it’s a more effective grounding strategy to move our attention away from what’s happening in our minds to the sensations in our bodies. This simple shift in our awareness helps us to relax.

To apply this insight to your daily life, slowly scan your body from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes. Start by imagining what it would feel like to pull a soft, knit beanie over the crown of your head. Feel the cap’s soft, snug fit against the top of your head and your forehead, then against the back and the sides of your head. Imagine how it feels to pull the beanie down over your ears. Now, shift your gentle, curious attention to your face and feel the muscles around your eyes, then feel your cheeks, jaw, then neck. Slowly move your attention from your neck to feel your shoulders, upper arms, lower arms, hands, then fingers. Feel your chest, belly, then rear. Continue moving your attention down your body slowly to feel your upper legs, knees, lower legs, feet, then toes.

Notice how your body feels when you pay attention to it. Do the sensations change when you become aware of them? Does space open in your heart and mind? Do you feel more relaxed?

Looking for more practical tools to help you ease anxiety and stress? Check out Real-World Enlightenment with the link below.

https://www.shambhala.com/real-world-enlightenment.html

07/03/2024

Artist, scholar, peace activist, and Zen master Kazuaki Tanahashi discusses Gardens of Awakening: A Guide to the Aesthetics, History, and Spirituality of Kyoto's Zen Landscapes which is a collaboration between him and photographer Mitsue Nagase.

Artist, scholar, peace activist, and Zen master Kazuaki Tanahashi discusses Gardens of Awakening: A Guide to the Aesthetics, History, and Spirituality of Kyoto's…

07/03/2024

📘 → Read the latest excerpt from A Post-Truth World by Ken Wilber

THE BIRTH OF A POST-TRUTH CULTURE

In this excerpt Ken Wilber examines the birth place of post-truth within the American political sphere. Specifically, he identifies the internet as a feeding ground for ethnocentrism and intolerance. He states:

"With no truth to slow it, this regression to ethnocentric—by liberals and conservatives alike—simply exploded all over the Web. The original intent of the Internet was for a global, free, unified humanity, unleashed from oppression, information ownership, power structures, and isolating trends in general. The Net was proclaimed a single grand “global brain,” open to and actively embracing all.

The problem is, if the brain was global (or a single infrastructure network), the minds using it were not. As Douglas Rushkoff has pointed out, the very nature of the digital environment itself tends toward either/or types of decisions (either 1 or 0, click here or click there, choose this or choose that). And the anonymity and personality-hiding nature of online exchange allowed and even fostered regressive tendencies of aggression, narcissism, hatred, and innumerable passionate ethnocentric beliefs (sexist, racist, xenophobic, zealous religious, bigoted political, those of trolls and identity politics), and with no “truth” available to challenge any of these moves, they exploded. The entire online experience collapsed from one of unity, open-natured expanse, and worldwide integration, into one of siloed, boxed, separatist, mean-spirited ethnocentric drives. And these poured out of our laptops and smartphones 24/7 and into the culture at large."

Click the link below to READ MORE:
shmb.la/birth-of-post-truth-culture

07/02/2024

Sad to share that pioneering scholar and translator of Tibetan Buddhism, Jeffrey Hopkins has passed away. Read a little about him here.

Jeffrey Hopkins, one of the early and best known scholars and translators of Tibetan Buddhism, passed away at the age of 83.

07/02/2024

Happy publication day to the The Art of War!

The most prestigious and influential book on strategy and dealing with conflict, beautifully translated for clear, accessible reading—including commentaries by other ancient Chinese philosophers and strategists.

“The Art of War can be looked at as a manual for conquering perhaps one's greatest enemy: the self. This very clear and direct translation makes this ancient wisdom easily accessible to modern minds.”
– Michael Imperioli, The Sopranos and White Lotus

From esteemed translator Thomas Cleary and including commentary from philosophers such as Cao Cao, Du Mu, and Du You, this timeless Chinese classic captures the essence of military strategy used in ancient East Asia, with lessons on how to handle conflict confidently, efficiently, and successfully. As Sun Tzu teaches, aggression and response in kind can lead only to destruction—we must learn to work with conflict in a more profound and effective way.

07/02/2024

Happy Publication Day to the new edition of A Post-Truth World: Politics, Polarization, and a Vision for Transcending the Chaos by Wilber

🌀A piercing examination of our current social and political situation through the lens of Integral Theory—by the framework’s founder, cutting-edge philosopher Ken Wilber. 🌀

Our overwhelmingly divisive socio-political climate is among the greatest challenges of our time. Not only in America but also internationally, it seems that almost every issue raises incredibly vocal oppositional views. Not least of all, the arising of vast networks of disinformation is a testament to our deepening rifts. With so much hostility, antagonism, cynicism, and discord, how can we mend the ruptures in our society? Acclaimed philosopher Ken Wilber examines our polarization through the lens of Integral Theory to show what led to these fractures, both in America and around the world—as well as what is needed for humanity to move forward.

→ To learn more visit shambhala.com/a-post-truth-world.html

07/01/2024

No Act is Too Small

If we understand every action to be a cause that produces a result, there is no action that is too small. Every act should be considered a decision, and we should be conscientious as we decide whether to engage in an action or refrain from it. Never underestimate an action or disregard it because it seems insignificant. No action goes unaccounted for.

—The Power of Mind, page 36
By Khentrul Lodrö T'hayé Rinpoche
shambhala.com/the-power-of-mind.html

06/30/2024

We are excited to share Pema Chödrön will offer a special talk during the Nyingma Summer Seminar program hosted by Mangala Shri Bhuti, the non-profit organization founded by one of Pema’s main teachers, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.

Click the link for more information: https://mangalashribhuti.org/event/pema-chodron-special-live-talk/

For further questions, please contact the Event Coordinators at [email protected] or [email protected].

06/28/2024

Great Space of Awareness

When we are fully present, we may find and enter the great space of awareness. However, it takes practice to come to know this space and to enter it willfully. Within this space we can find a different relationship to loss, pain, and trauma, allowing such emotions to dissipate and release themselves in that expanded space of awareness.

– Naked in the Zendo: Stories of Uptight Zen, Wild-Ass Zen, and Enlightenment Wherever You Are
by Grace Schireson, foreword by Joan Halifax, page 13

06/27/2024

Pema Chodron will be hosting a live, online 75-minute Q&A discussing Compassion in the Challenge Zone on Sunday, July 28th at 1:00 p.m. (EDT). We all know how to be compassionate when we’re feeling safe and secure—but what about when we’re feeling pushed to a new edge?
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Pema teaches that if we stay in our comfort zone, it shrinks—we become afraid of anything new or different. If we go too far from our comfort zone, we enter the excessive risk zone, which is traumatizing, and also prevents us from growing. But if we push ourselves into our challenge zone, we expand our horizons, we learn new things, and we deepen our wisdom and compassion. ⁠
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This live call will open with a 30-minute community meditation and introduction by Pema’s longtime co-teacher, Tim Olmsted, followed by a 75-minute Q&A session with Pema herself. We hope you join us for this precious opportunity to attend a rare public Q&A series with a treasured teacher and wisdom holder. ⁠
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Click here to sign up!⁠ ⁠https://learn.shambhala.com/p/compassion-in-the-challenge-zone-pema-chodron

06/26/2024

Join David Hinton on July 1 for an online discussion of his new book The Blue-Cliff Record with Jon Joseph of Pacific Zen Institute.

Click below to learn more.

W E L C O M E to the PZI Events Calendar! Here you will find all upcoming events and registration links for PZI Zen Online retreats, sesshins, and weekly meditations & talks. Search by individual event, day, or month. Save to your Google Calendar or iCal Calendar. No experience required to participa...

06/26/2024

All of us here are saddened by the news that Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso, one of the greats and last of his generation, has passed away on June 22, 2024).

His innumerable students, including some among us here, have immense gratitude towards all he did.

Here is a profile of his life and Reader's Guide to the books he wrote as well as some his students have done.

https://www.shambhala.com/khenpo-tsultrim-gyamtso-a-guide-for-readers/

"Khenpo Rinpoche was born to a nomad family in East Tibet in 1934. Drawn to spiritual practice, he left home at an early age to train with his root guru, the yogin Lama Zopa Tarchin. After completing this early training, Tsultrim Gyamtso embraced the life of a yogi-ascetic, wandering throughout East and Central Tibet, undertaking solitary retreats in caves to realize directly the teachings he had received. He often lived in charnel grounds in order to practice and master chöd, a skillful means to cut ego clinging, develop compassion, and realize deeper levels of emptiness. Subsequently he took up retreat in the caves above Tsurphu, the seat of the Karmapas, where he received instructions on the six yogas of Naropa, the Hevajra Ta**ra, and other profound teachings from Dilyak Tenzin Drupon Rinpoche and other masters. ...."
Read more: https://www.shambhala.com/khenpo-tsultrim-gyamtso-a-guide-for-readers/

This guide to Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso includes a short biography and a selection of his books as well as translations from his students.

06/26/2024

"I think more than anything, I wrote Three Years on the Great Mountain because I wanted people to know not necessarily that Chozen-ji exists and that this specific way of training exists but that this kind of approach to life and Zen and Buddhism and one’s self-development is possible. There is just such a diversity of traditions that are out there, and what I happened to find at the back of a valley in Hawaii was the one that was unmistakably for me and my spiritual home. I just wanted people to have the sense that they could go search for it and find something that was also theirs."

- Reverend Cristina Moon on the Tricycle Talks podcast.

Learn more about Three Years on the Great Mountain: http://shmb.la/3YGM

Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

Zen priest Cristina Moon discusses the role of swordsmanship and the fine arts in Zen training.

06/25/2024

Tracy Cochran discussed her new book Presence on the Angels and Awakening podcast with Julie Jancius.

Click below to listen.

‎Show Angels and Awakening, Ep Presence: The Art Of Being At Home In Yourself With Tracy Cochran - Jun 24, 2024

06/24/2024

Non-discriminating Universal Compassion

When we look at the world these days, although there are many positive developments, there is also a lot of conflict, trauma, disaster, and suffering. For instance, with conflict, it’s not like in olden times when a soldier had one weapon that could strike only one other soldier at a time. We live in an age with weapons that can harm millions of people at the push of a button, and not just soldiers but so many innocent civilians too. In conflict, the thinking is very much “us” and “them,” with strong attachment to “us” and then some kind of justification that gets set in the brain that it’s OK to harm or have less feeling about “them.” That is why we need, more than ever before, the universal compassion of Avalokiteshvara, which has no discrimination, no boundaries, no judgments or conditions.

—Wake Up to What Matters, page 87
By Avikrita Vajra Sakya
shambhala.com/wake-up-to-what-matters-9781611806601.html

06/21/2024

Virya

Buddhist teachings list various virtues you can cultivate to help you free beings from suffering. My current favorite, the one I’m working on at the moment, is joyful effort, or virya in Sanskrit. It’s a good quality to cultivate at any age, and especially good for someone who has reached the age when you meet a lot of jars you can’t open. You can still have virya even if you can’t get at the apricot jam. Virya is not about muscle power. Virya doesn’t care about age. I’m not too old to make an effort, nor too old to feel joy. I put the effort and the joy together and I’ve got my joyful effort.

– Alive Until You're Dead: Notes on the Home Stretch
by Susan Moon, page 1

06/20/2024

Enjoy a FREE video teaching on burnout from Susan Kaiser Greenland!

Susan Kaiser Greenland is a mindfulness educator and bestselling author, specializing in distilling global wisdom traditions and scientific research into straightforward, everyday practices.

To celebrate the forthcoming release of her latest book, Real-World Enlightenment, Susan has put together a free video series + digital practice book to help you navigate burnout and overwhelm.

Anyone who preorders a copy of the book before July 17 will receive instant access to this mini-course on burnout!

Interested in a sneak peek? Susan just unlocked the first video in the guide, now live on her YouTube channel.

Visit the link to watch!

https://susankaisergreenland.com/real-world-enlightenment

06/19/2024

To honor Juneteenth, we are highlighting Lifting as They Climb by Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanon. Toni is an associate professor in the Department of Africology & African American Studies at Eastern Michigan University, having previously held positions at the University of Buffalo and Pennsylvania State University. Her work dwells on the intersections of memory, history, and culture in both Africa and the African diaspora.⁠
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In Lifting as They Climb, she explores the lives and writings of six leading Black Buddhist women:⁠
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💛 Jan Willis⁠
💛 bell hooks⁠
💛 Zenju Earthlyn Manuel⁠
💛 angel Kyodo williams⁠
💛 Spring Washam⁠
💛 Faith Adiele⁠
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to reveal new expressions of Buddhism rooted in ancestry, love, and collective liberation.⁠ Using their voices through the practice of memoir and other forms of writing, these women have not only realized their own liberation but carried forward the Black tradition of leading others on the path toward collective awakening.⁠
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Publishers Weekly calls it "a worthwhile glimpse at the rich and complicated intersections of Blackness, womanhood, and spirituality."⁠
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Click the link to learn more: shmb.la/lifting-climb

06/18/2024

Buddhist teacher Andy Karr chatted with Diane Cyrr and Susan Kaiser Greenland in this lovely interview about Andy's recent book, Into the Mirror, and his personal history and inspirations.

Click below to read more.

With his new book, "Into the Mirror," Andy Karr brings ancient insights to the 21st century, showing how Buddhist principles can help liberate our minds from the stickiness of materialism and delusion.

06/18/2024

Read a wonderful profile of acclaimed calligrapher, translator, and Zen teacher Kazuaki Tanahashi from Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

Click below to read this piece about Tanahashi's life and work, which includes beautiful art from his book Painting Peace and also references Tanahashi's latest book, Gardens of Awakening, an exploration of Zen gardening.

Acclaimed calligrapher and translator Kazuaki Tanahashi recently turned 90. He’s not slowing down.

06/18/2024

Happy publication day to The Pocket Emily Dickinson! 🪻🐝🪶

A selection of over 100 authentic versions of poems from America’s most popular poet—in a beautiful miniature edition.​

Emily Dickinson stands as one of the greatest of American poets. The aphoristic style and wit of much of her verse, its irregular rhymes, directness of expression, and startling imagery, have had a profound effect on twentieth-century literature.

Dickinson's unique and gemlike lyrics are pure distillations of profound feeling and great intellect. They contain a world of imagination, observation, and precisely articulated spiritual and emotional experience. As editor Brenda Hillman says, this small and succinct collection can serve as a guidebook to readers who are exploring the highs and lows of the human experience.

06/18/2024

Happy Publication Day to Three Years on the Great Mountain by Cristina Moon!

Three Years on the Great Mountain is an invigorating memoir about a young woman pushed to her limits at a Zen monastery in Hawai‘i, where she learns that the key to unlocking the ultimate breakthrough is igniting her fighting spirit.

At twenty-five, activist Cristina Moon faced an impossible task: preparing for the possibility of arrest and torture inside military-ruled Myanmar. Her response? Learning Buddhist meditation. So began what would become a decades-long spiritual path—eventually leading her to a Zen temple and martial arts dojo in Hawaiʻi with a timeless method of warrior Zen training.

Offering a bracing account of three years of mind-body-spirit training at Daihonzan Chozen-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple and martial arts dojo, Moon powerfully captures the rigors and realizations that finally shaped her into a Zen priest whose highest directive is to give fearlessness.

Told with immersive detail and an unique Asian American female perspective, Three Years on the Great Mountain chronicles Moon's straight-up-the-mountain training regimen at Chozen-ji, conducted every day and often through the nights. Through the spiritual forging of daily Zen meditation, manual labor, swordsmanship, and Japanese tea ceremony, she discovers a newfound conviction that self mastery and spiritual growth can take fierce form. Embraced by local Hawaiʻi and Japanese culture, and a community of discipline, respect, and discovery, she discovers a profound sense of home.

Click the link to order your copy today!
http://shmb.la/TYGM

06/17/2024

The Warsaw Rising Museum in Poland is dedicated to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising during World War II.

This powerful statement from the museum curator references The Heroine's Journey by Maureen Murdock and highlights the importance of the female narrative, as well as the brave women of the Warsaw resistance.

Learn more about The Heroine's Journey: shmb.la/mmhj

06/17/2024

Read an excerpt from Hakuin's Song of Zazen on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

This excerpt is about the origins of the Zen teaching phrase "this mind itself is Buddha."

Click below to read more.

The Pure Land origins of one of Soto Zen’s most penetrating teaching phrases

06/17/2024

Russ Harris discussed Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and his new Happiness Trap card deck on The OCD Stories podcast.

Click below to listen.

In episode 438 I chat with Dr Russ Harris. Russ is a medical practitioner, author of the international best-selling self-help book ‘The Happiness Trap’ (as well as nine others), and is a world-renowned trainer of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT). We discuss his new Happiness Trap card deck,...