Archives par étiquette : Wisdom Publications

ZEN ECOLOGY de Christopher Ives

Discover a way of living that can help you slow down and stay grounded—and at the same time reduce your ecological impact and engage more fully with the climate crisis.

ZEN ECOLOGY
by Christopher Ives
Wisdom Publications, March 2025

It may seem as though living ecologically and engaging in activism sacrifices our own enjoyment and happiness on the altar of doing the right thing. In this book, professor, naturalist, and Buddhist author Christopher Ives offers an alternative: a way of living that can actually be more fulfilling than the modern consumerist lifestyle. Rather than deprivation, it can bring us richness.

In Zen Ecology, Chris outlines his environmental ethic as a series of concentric circles, beginning with ourselves and then moving outward into our communities, all the while focusing on spaciousness, mindfulness, generosity, and contentment. At the individual level, we deal with distraction, clutter, and ecological harm. Here, Chris offers ways to help us pay attention, simplify our lives, and lower our impact. Then, we explore how to envision our home as a “place of the Way,” with Zen monastic life as a model for this—without having to be a monk! Next, we realize our embeddedness in nature and emplace ourselves in community with others, including other forms of life. Finally, we build on this basis to engage in activism to create a world that is more supportive of ecological health and spiritual fulfillment.

In this way, we avoid the two extremes of apathy and burnout, and uncover a way of living that is simple, joyful, embedded in nature, connected to others in community, and supportive of collective action.

Christopher Ives is a professor of religious studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. In his teaching and writing, he focuses on ethics in Zen Buddhism and Buddhist approaches to nature and environmental issues. His publications include Zen on the Trail: Hiking as Pilgrimage; Meditations on the Trail: A Guidebook for Self-Discovery; Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’s Critique and Lingering Questions for Buddhist Ethics; Zen Awakening and Society; a translation (with Masao Abe) of Nishida Kitaro’s An Inquiry into the Good; a translation (with Gishin Tokiwa) of Shin’ichi Hisamatsu’s Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics.

MEDITATION FOR MODERN MADNESS de Dzogchen Rinpoche

You are already enlightened. You don’t need to get enlightened again or to make your enlightenment better. You just need to recognize who you already are.

MEDITATION FOR MODERN MADNESS
by Dzogchen Rinpoche
Wisdom Publications, September 2025

Dzogchen is an ancient Tibetan tradition that is perfect for countering the stress of our modern lives. A simple and quick method, Dzogchen is practical and direct, and open to us all—you simply need to recognize the great potential that is naturally born within everyone.

In his highly anticipated first book, the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jigme Losel Wangpo, shows us how our everyday lives can be turned into spiritual practice—not only to ease our stress, but to allow the true nature of our minds to reveal itself, right now, on the spot. The Dzogchen view is the highest view, the view from the top of the mountain. We need to build a platform that will hold the view, and Dzogchen Rinpoche provides the meditations and advice for living that will help you do just that. In turn, you’ll find true peace in a mind at rest.

His Eminence the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jigme Losel Wangpo, is the holder of the Dzogchen lineage. He was born in Sikkim in 1964 into the Lakar Tsang family, a noble family whose connection to the Dzogchen tradition and the great masters of Tibet dates back over many centuries. His Eminence’s father was the late Tsewang Paljor, whose family lineage is of terton descent traced back to Dudul Nuden Dorje. Tsewang Paljor was greatly respected and renowned as the private secretary to the second Jamyang Khyentse of Dzongsar, Dorje Chang, Chökyi Lodrö. His Eminence’s mother is Pema Tsering Wangmo of the Lakar Tsang family, known as great patrons of Dharma in the Kham region of eastern Tibet.

Around the time of Dzogchen Rinpoche’s birth, both parents had many auspicious dreams. There were also many auspicious signs to indicate the incarnation of a great master. Even before his official recognition, many respected lamas came to visit this incredible young boy. His Holiness the Fourth Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Thupten Trinley Palzang, recognized Rinpoche as the Dzogchen lineage holder in a clear pure-light vision at the time of his conception and later performed his enthronement ceremony in Sikkim’s Royal Palace in Gangtok on the eighth of October, 1972.

Rinpoche began his spiritual training at the Nyingma Institute, where he received private teachings from Dodrupchen Rinpoche and Khenpo Rahor Thupten. At the age of twelve, Dzogchen Rinpoche was invited to study at the Buddhist School of Dialectics in Dharamsala by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, who personally supervised his education. Rinpoche was also instructed by many other great lamas in ritual practice and academic study. Other senior masters trained Dzogchen Rinpoche in ritual and grammar. Rinpoche also simultaneously undertook Gelug philosophical. Later on, he received Dzogchen lineage transmission, including the teachings of Longchenpa, from Khenchen Pema Tsewang.

Historically, the Dzogchen Rinpoches have a close connection with the Medicine Buddha, and he is known to have transformed the health of many people. The Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche’s work also has charitable dimensions. Recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile for his outstanding commitment to the welfare of the Tibetan community, Rinpoche has transformed the Dhondenling Tibetan settlement through two decades of community development.

BEARING THE UNBEARABLE de Joanne Cacciatore

Grief expert Joanne Cacciatore (author of the bestselling Bearing the Unbearable) provides support and guidance, as writing prompts, for anyone experiencing traumatic loss and grief.

BEARING THE UNBEARABLE
A Guided Journal For Grieving
by Joanne Cacciatore
Wisdom Publications, April 2024

From the bestselling author of Bearing the Unbearable and Grieving Is Loving, here are 52 writing prompts for exploring grief and journaling about those whom we’ve lost. Writing about those we’ve lost can be part of a contemplative practice, alone or with therapists, family, friends, or with a grief support group. However you use this journal and its writing prompts, please take the time to write from the heart, really be with each prompt, dive deeply—and do so with a spirit of love and compassion for all beings, including yourself.

Dr. Joanne Cacciatore has a fourfold relationship with bereavement. She is herself a bereaved mother: her newborn daughter died on July 27, 1994, and that single tragic moment catapulted her unwillingly onto the reluctant path of traumatic grief. For more than two decades, she’s devoted herself to direct practice with grief, helping traumatically bereaved people on six continents. She’s also been researching and writing about grief for more than a decade in her role as associate professor at Arizona State University and director of the Graduate Certificate in Trauma and Bereavement program there. And, in addition, she’s the founder of an international nongovernmental organization, the MISS Foundation, dedicated to providing multiple forms of support to families experiencing the death of a child at any age and from any cause, and since 1996 has directed the foundation’s family services and clinical education programs.

Cacciatore is an ordained Zen priest, affiliated with Zen Garland and its child bereavement center outside of New York City. She is an acclaimed public speaker and provides expert consulting and witness services in the area of traumatic loss. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as The Lancet, Social Work and Healthcare, and Death Studies, among others. She received her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in psychology from Arizona State University. Her work has been featured in major media sources such as People and Newsweek magazines, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, CNN, National Public Radio, and the Los Angeles Times. She has been the recipient of many regional and national awards for her empathic work and service to people suffering traumatic grief. She travels quite often but spends most of her time in Sedona, Arizona, with her family and three rescue dogs.

BEYOND DISTRACTION de Shaila Catherine

Learn how to overcome distraction in meditation practice and develop clarity in your relationships, work, and activities with this new guide from a beloved meditation teacher.

BEYOND DISTRACTION:
Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind
by Shaila Catherine
Wisdom Publications, May 2022

The mind can be a potent tool, used to guide extraordinary achievements, inspire good works, and incline your spiritual path toward peace and awakening. But the mind can also produce thoughts that lead to suffering. For many people, thoughts run rampant and seem to oppress or control their lives. Even the Buddha tells us that before his enlightenment, he sometimes found his mind preoccupied by thoughts connected with sensual desire, ill will, and harm. But he figured out how to respond to thoughts skillfully and developed a step-by-step approach to calm the restless mind.
Now, Insight Meditation teacher Shaila Catherine offers an accessible approach to training the mind that is guided by the Buddha’s pragmatic instructions on removing distracting thoughts. Drawing on two scriptures in the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Shaila shows you how to overcome habitual modes of thinking, develop deeper concentration, and discover the insights into emptiness that are vital for a liberating spiritual path.
Following the Buddha’s pragmatic approach, Shaila guides you through five steps for overcoming distraction and focusing the mind. Each chapter includes exercises and reflections to help you cultivate the five steps to deeper concentration. You’ll learn about your mind and develop your ability to direct your attention more skillfully in meditation and daily activities. And ultimately, you’ll discover for yourself how these five steps boil down to one key realization: In the moment you recognize that a thought is just a thought, you will find yourself on the path to a life of remarkable freedom.

Shaila Catherine has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1996, emphasizing deep concentration, jhana, and the path of liberating insight. Shaila is the founder of Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley in California. She has practiced meditation since 1980, studied with founders of Western insight meditation centers, and accumulated more than nine years of silent retreat experience. Shaila spent most of the 1990s practicing with eminent masters in India, Thailand, and Nepal. From 2006 to 2014, she practiced under the guidance of Pa-Auk Sayadaw and twice completed his rigorous training in jhana and vipassana. Shaila loves deep meditation, and appreciates a variety of approaches to exploring, developing, and liberating the mind. Shaila is the author of Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity and Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana.

THE POWER OF MANTRA de Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the respected and beloved cofounder of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, offers us a significant book that is both a beautiful tool for experienced practitioners and a how-to for beginners.

THE POWER OF MANTRA:
Vital Practices for Transformation
by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
‎ Wisdom Publications, February 2022

Revitalize your practice with the potent energy of mantra. In this book, beloved teacher Lama Zopa Rinpoche guides us through the most popular mantras in Tibetan Buddhism: Shakyamuni Buddha, Chenrezig, Manjushri, Tara, Medicine Buddha, Vajrasattva, and more. A mantra—literally “that which protects the mind”—is a series of Sanskrit syllables that evoke the energy of a particular buddha or bodhisattva. It works as a sacred sound that brings blessings to ourself and others, and as a tool to transform our mind into one that is more compassionate and wise. In clear and succinct teachings, Lama Zopa shows us why we need different mantras and how each mantra works. He also explains their importance and power, giving specific instructions for practicing them. The exquisite, full-color illustrations of the deities that accompany the text make this book a beautiful guide, one suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is one of the most internationally renowned masters of Tibetan Buddhism, working and teaching ceaselessly on almost every continent. He is the spiritual director and cofounder of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international network of Buddhist projects, including monasteries in six countries and meditation centers in over thirty; health and nutrition clinics, and clinics specializing in the treatment of leprosy and polio; as well as hospices, schools, publishing activities, and prison outreach projects worldwide.