The road home
Subtitle: a contemporary exploration of the Buddhist path
By: Ethan Nichtern ; foreword by Sharon Salzberg
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780374251932; 9780374711962
Subjects: Meditation; Buddhism
Description: "A lively exploration of contemporary Buddhism from one of its most admired teachers. Do you feel at home right now? Or do you sense a hovering anxiety or uncertainty, an underlying unease that makes you feel just a bit uncomfortable, a bit distracted and disconnected from those around you? In The Road Home, Ethan Nichtern, a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, investigates the journey each of us takes to find where we belong. Drawing from contemporary research on meditation and mindfulness and his experience as a Buddhist teacher and practitioner, Nichtern describes in fresh and deeply resonant terms the basic existential experience that gives rise to spiritual seeking--and also to its potentially dangerous counterpart, spiritual materialism. He reveals how our individual quests for self-awareness ripple forward into relationships, communities, and society at large. And he explains exactly how, by turning our awareness to what's happening around us and inside us, we become able to enhance our sense of connection with others and, at the same time, change for the better our individual and collective patterns of greed, apathy, and inattention. In this wise and witty invitation to Buddhist meditation, Nichtern shows how, in order to create a truly compassionate and enlightened society, we must start with ourselves. And this means beginning by working with our own minds--in whatever state we find them in"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Where do you live?; title: The journey of self-awareness. Meditation : accepting your own friend request ; Karma : taking responsibility for home ; Coming home 24/7/365 : ethics in everyday life ; Being human : Buddha nature and the cocoon; title: The journey of relationships. Where I end and you begin ; Ears, mouth, and fingertips : communicating with mindfulness ; Spiritual bypassing : what emptiness means and what it doesn't ; A Bodhisattva's boundaries : compassion, idiot compassion, and knowing the difference ; Eye to eye : the student-teacher relationship; title: The sacred journey. Religion, secularism, and a sacred path ; Imagining a basically good home : the practice of visualization ; Sacred emotions, sacred environment; title: Society's journey. The wisdom of no escape from the world ; Scared world vs. sacred world : 3 S's and 3 C's ; The culture of awakening : art and transformation ; Coming home.