Buddhism Biography

This book attempts to explore the military lives of Moses, the Buddha, and Muhammad, and the role their war experiences played in their religious lives.

The Mama Sutra spans an 18-year journey through motherhood as a spiritual practice, chronicling Cushman’s first pregnancy, her daughter's tragic stillbirth, the joyful birth of her son, the “home retreat” of early motherhood, the challenges of parenthood, the diagnosis and gifts of her son’s developmental differences, the meltdown of her nuclear family and its reconfiguration into a new and joyful form, and more. This is a powerful story of the rawness and beauty of life.

In 1979, 24-year-old Maura O'Halloran moved to Japan and became the first woman ever admitted to Toshoji Temple. Soshin-san (O'Halloran's monastic name) labored through three intense years of work and study in preparation for becoming a dharma teacher. Her life ended abruptly during a trip to Thailand, and today Soshin-san is revered as a Buddhist saint. The material in this program is from her private and heartfelt journals and letters.

Surviving the Dragon is the remarkable life story of Arjia Rinpoche, who was ordained as a reincarnate lama at the age of two and fled Tibet 46 years later. In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of having been abandoned in his monastery as a young boy after witnessing the torture and arrest of his monastery family. In the years to come, Rinpoche survived under harsh Chinese rule, as he was forced into hard labor and endured continual public humiliation as part of Mao’s Communist "reeducation".

In 1971, at age 20, Visakha had just published her first book and was beginning her ascent to fame and fortune through a career in photojournalism. Then, at the invitation of her college boyfriend, Visakha traveled east, where she first learned about bhakti yoga - the yoga of devotion - from a simple Indian sage. The bhakti tradition seemed irrelevant to Visakha. Five Years, Eleven Months and a Lifetime of Unexpected Love is Visakha’s deeply personal account of the emotional upheaval caused by her doubting her own cherished convictions....

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s experience begins the night he has chosen to embark on a four-year wandering retreat, slipping past the monastery gates. Alone for the first time in his life, he sets out into the unknown. His initial motivation is to step away from his life of privilege and to explore the deepest, most hidden aspects of his being, but what he discovers throughout his retreat - about himself and about the world around us - comes to define his meditation practice and teaching.

The Tribute is translated here for the first time. Peter Haskel's introduction places Tosui in the context of the Japanese Zen of his period - a time when the identities of early modern Zen schools were still being formed and a period of spiritual crisis for many distinguished monks who believed that the authentic Zen transmission had long ceased to exist. Abiographical addendum offers a detailed overview of Tosui's life in light of surviving premodern sources.

Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, was a spiritual teacher who lived in ancient India between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is the founder of Buddhism, one of the major religions of the world. Buddha was born into a royal family, but he renounced his luxurious lifestyle at the age of 29 to seek the truth about life and the nature of suffering. He spent six years as a wandering ascetic before attaining enlightenment at the age of 35.

The Way of the Zen Cowboy is a collection of 35 short stories from Grammy-winning musician, writer, and ethnomusicologist Barrett Martin. These stories are based on personal experiences around the world, as well as wisdom tales heard from indigenous people, grandparents, and some of the cowboys and veterans he was mentored by.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's imprisoned State Councilor Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, mother of two, and devout Buddhist, is one of the most inspiring examples of spiritually infused politics and fearless leadership that the world has ever seen. The Voice of Hope is a rare and intimate journey to the heart of her struggle. Over a period of six months, Alan Clements, the first American ordained as a Buddhist monk in Burma in modern times, met with Aung San Suu Kyi shortly after her release from her first house arrest in July 1995.

The murder of a young Tibetan nun at the hands of Chinese border guards at the rooftop of the world offers a unique parable for the tale of modern Tibet. Chinese police are instructed to take any measures necessary to protect the border of Tibet. When a group of climbers witness the murder of a young Tibetan nun who is fleeing to India, two men have a choice: turn a blind eye and preserve their climbing careers or alert the world to the grand scale of human injustice played out daily in Tibet.

The remarkable true story of the miraculous journey that made the Dalai Lama into the man he is today and sparked the fight for Tibetan freedom. In the early weeks of 1959, a bloody uprising gripped the streets of the Tibetan capital of Lhasa as ragtag Tibetan rebels faced off against their Communist Chinese occupiers. Realizing that the impending battle would result in a bloodbath and his own capture, the young Dalai Lama began planning an audacious escape to India, a two-week journey.

Rain in the Mountains brings together some of Ruskin Bond’s most beautiful works from his years spent in the foothills of the Himalayas in the town of Mussoorie. Through vivid images and lucid writing, Bond evokes the everyday sights and sounds, and captures the essence of mountain life. The musings on his natural habitat, in both prose and poetry, offer a view of that simple and affable world. Some of his writings featured in the book include: "Once Upon a Mountain Time", "Sounds I Like to Hear", "How Far Is the River" and "After the Monsoon".

Von einem, der auszog, sich selbst zu finden. Was hilft uns, ein freieres Leben zu führen? Auf der Suche nach einer Antwort gibt Björn Lindeblad seine Karriere in der Wirtschaft auf und entscheidet sich für ein Leben als Waldmönch im Dschungel Thailands. Dort wird er zu "Natthiko", zu dem, "der an Weisheit zunimmt". 17 Jahre später geht er zurück nach Schweden und fällt in eine tiefe Depression. Bis er sich auf die Lehren aus seiner Zeit als Mönch besinnt und beschließt, das, was er gelernt hat, weiterzugeben.

Tina Turner, one of the world’s most beloved artists and entertainers, reveals the deep wisdom that underpins her longstanding faith in Buddhism and provides a guide to these timeless principles so you can find happiness in your own life. In Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good, Tina shows how all of us can overcome life’s obstacles - even transform the ‘impossible’ to possible - and fulfill our dreams. She shows how we, too, can improve our lives, empowering us with spiritual tools and sage advice to enrich our unique paths.

A revered Buddhist monk tells the bracing and beautiful story of a singular life compelled to contemplation, sharing lessons about the power of mentorship and an open mind.

With these words began an extraordinary correspondence between Roy Tester, a double-murderer serving a life sentence in the notorious Arkansas prison, Tucker Maximum Security Prison, and Doug Carnine, a meditation teacher and lay Buddhist minister on the other side of the country. In the letters that followed - more than 700 over seven years - these two men, along with three other prisoners at Tucker Max, developed a profound spiritual partnership that changed all of their lives.

Peaks and Lamas is one of the classic early 20th-century accounts of travelling in the Himalayas on the borders of Tibet. It describes two journeys in the 1930s, one physically active and one more of spiritual investigation. It starts as the title suggests, as a mountaineering adventure, when a group of English climbers set out to climb unconquered peaks in the Himalayas. The audiobook ends with a warning of the deleterious effect of Western culture on traditional art and values and an idealistic polemic on education.

Chögyam Trungpa, né au Tibet en 1939 et mort au Canada en 1987, est l'un des tout premiers maîtres spirituels à avoir enseigné la sagesse du bouddhisme aux Occidentaux. Trungpa estimait que le bouddhisme transmis en Occident devait donner naissance à un bouddhisme occidental, ce qui impliquait une profonde réflexion sur la langue et la culture dans laquelle le dharma allait s'ancrer, ainsi qu'une immersion sans retenue dans le quotidien du monde moderne pour mieux en discerner à la fois la grandeur et la crispation.

Som 36-årig er Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche allerede en verdenskendt tibetansk meditationsmester og den respekterede abbed for tre klostre. Han har rejst jorden rundt for at undervise i meditation og give buddhistiske belæringer og har siden sin barndom levet en beskyttet tilværelse og nydt stor anseelse. En nat lister han ud af sit kloster uden at sige det til nogen. Han ønsker at følge den ældgamle buddhistiske tradition som tiggermunk og vil tilbringe de næste fire år på gaden som omvandrende munk.