Gautama Buddha

Buddhism is one of the oldest religions in the world but until recently it has been unknown and inaccessible outside of Asia. This book will provide you with an introduction to the history of Buddhism and its teachings and practices. Along with Buddhist philosophies, there are many practices to incorporate into your daily life, such as meditation and mindfulness to help calm your mind, reduce stress, and anxiety. This is a guide to Buddhism for beginners but includes quotes and resources to guide you towards more advanced Buddhist teachings and writing.

One of the earliest of all Buddhist texts, the Atthakavagga, or Book of Eights, is a remarkable document, not only because it comes from the earliest strain of the literature - before the Buddha, as the title suggests, came to be thought of as a "Buddhist" - but also because its approach to awakening is so simple and free of adherence to any kind of ideology. Instead the Atthakavagga points to a direct and simple approach for attaining peace without requiring the adherence to doctrine.

For decades, one of the most engaging teachers of our time has illuminated the many dimensions of awakening - but solely at his live retreats and on audio recordings. Now, with The Science of Enlightenment, Shinzen Young brings to listeners an uncommonly lucid guide to mindfulness meditation for the first time: how it works and how to use it to enhance your cognitive capacities, your kindness and connection with the world, and the richness of all your experiences. As thousands of his students and listeners will confirm, Shinzen is like no other teacher you’ve ever encountered.

About 1,000 years ago, the great Indian pandit and yogi, Dipamkara Shrijnana (Atisha), was invited to Tibet to reestablish the Buddhadharma which had been suppressed and corrupted for almost two centuries. One of Atisha's main accomplishments in Tibet was his writing of the seminal text A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, in which he extracted the essence of all 84,000 teachings of the Buddha and organized them into a clear, steplike arrangement that makes it easy for any individual practitioner to understand and practice the Dharma. This genre of teachings is known as lam-rim, or steps of the path, and forms an essential part of every school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Dreams of Awakening is a thorough and exciting exploration of lucid dreaming theory and practice within both Western and Tibetan Buddhist contexts. It not only explores lucid dreaming practices, but also the innovative new techniques of mindfulness of dream and sleep, the holistic approach to lucidity training which the author co-created. The book is based on over 12 years of personal practice and the hundreds of lucid dreaming workshops which Charlie has taught around the world.