The second volume in the Dalai Lama’s definitive and comprehensive series on the stages of the Buddhist path, The Library of Wisdom and Compassion. Volume 1, Approaching the Buddhist Path, contained introductory material that set the context for Buddhist practice. This second volume, The Foundation of Buddhist Practice, contains the important teachings that will help us establish a flourishing Dharma practice. The Foundation of Buddhist Practice begins with the four seals shared by all Buddhist philosophies, and moves on to (...) an explanation of the reliable cognition that allows us to evaluate the veracity of the Buddha’s teachings. The book provides many other essential Buddhist teachings, including: the relationship of a spiritual mentor and student, clarifying misunderstandings about this topic and showing how to properly rely on a spiritual mentor in a healthy, appropriate, and beneficial manner; how to structure a meditation session; dying and rebirth, unpacking the often difficult-to-understand topic of multiple lives and explaining how to prepare for death and aid someone who is dying; a fruitful explanation of karma and its results; and much more. His Holiness’s illumination of key Buddhist ideas will support Western and contemporary Asian students in engaging with this rich tradition. (shrink)

This eloquent, impassioned manifesto is possibly the most important message the Dalai Lama can give us about the future of our world. It's his rallying cry, full of solutions for our chaotic, aggressive, divided times: no less than a call for revolution. Are we ready to hear it? Are we ready to act?"--Publisher annotation.

In the real world, exploitation exists. In the real world, there is a huge and unjust gap between rich and poor. The question, from a Buddhist perspective, is how should we deal with inequality and social injustice? His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaches that it is wrong for a spiritual person to remain indifferent; we must struggle to solve these problems. These problems are brought to our consciousness because they anger us, and this little book teaches us how to (...) deal with that anger. (shrink)

For the Dalai Lama it is kindness that makes the world go round. Kindness at the heart of human nature, and it is kindness that is the essential component to developing healthy bodies, minds, and spirits. It is the glue that holds society together. Its absence results in isolation, dislocation, and suffering."--back cover.

Simple and accessible wisdom from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on how we stay in the moment in the midst of the demands and stresses of everyday life. Be Here includes discussions of the Buddhist concepts of attachment, emptiness, compassion, love, and resentment and how our sense of the past and the future affect our ability to be in the present. Many Buddhist practices and meditations focus on "being in the present moment." But what does that really mean? What (...) does it mean to be here now? Attachment. Emptiness. Compassion. You will hear the Dalai Lama present these three words again and again in this book of wisdom designed to move us toward the goal of "being here." He speaks of attachment - to things, to people, to memory, to feelings of anger and resentment, to future goals. Being attached means we are not here now; we are living through wherever our attachment takes us. Does emptiness mean we let go of everything? Even the present thoughts in our minds? How does understanding emptiness help us to be here now? The Dalai Lama is clear: if we are not educated about past history and if we have no sense of the future, then how can be possibly have a "present"? When we are here, we can practice compassion in the present moment and focus on social justice now. When we are here, we are no longer attached to our past, no longer stressed about the future, no longer tethered to suffering. Being here means we find happiness, peace, and the fullness of life. (shrink)

This article tries to explore the shifts in contemporary urban Bengali cinema and map and historicize the main trends in relation to changes in the political fortunes of the city. In this context, the article tentatively wishes to accomplish two things: one, to show the main trends in urban Bengali film-making, post-1990s; and two, to read closely two recent Bengali films, in a search for ways of mapping this newness. The article first identifies three new possibilities in Bengali cinema: first, (...) the inward-looking, often apolitical sketches that celebrate liberal development and psychosomatic indulgences, second, the sentimental, community-based films that sometimes take political changes on board as well, and attempt to bridge the rural-urban divide; third, cult-ish films of a newer pedigree that show impatience with old Left and progressive values, and are also technically experimental and avant-garde. The second objective of the article is to discuss specifically two contemporary filmmakers – Moinak Biswas and Suman Mukhopadhay – and place their films within this ferment. (shrink)

I suggest that the representation of cities in Indian cinema — the effects and affects of modernities as well as of ambiguous, multiplicitous sexualities — mark significant change in engagement with modernity ever since independence in 1947. The city in the Indian imaginary has occupied an ambivalent, confrontational as well as contemplative space that signifies ‘modernity’ and its concurrent promise as well as ills. Non-normative sexualities have always occupied a liminal space in socio-political configurations, a site both of empowerment through (...) transgression and containment through regulation. The urban space — newly freed up and as yet un-proscribed — assumes the metonymic equivalence of available sexual freedom (particularly for women), its powers and its dangers. The cinema as a text is especially well-suited to play with the dynamics of this fraught space: often, a film’s contexts and narratives identify the film text itself as a signifier of the liminal spaces that it proposes to explore, enacting both their limitations and their possibilities. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Building Literacy Bridges for Adolescents Using Holocaust Literature and TheatreWayne Brinda (bio)IntroductionDo you have a sibling or best friend whom you dared to do something? Did you ever slip surreptitiously into a place where you should not be? What if your best friend or sibling later became your enemy because of a situation beyond your control? Could that happen? What would you do? Think about those questions as (...) you read this excerpt from In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith after the Holocaust and visualize the action:The boys look more alike than brothers. In fact, they are identical twins, indistinguishable in the smooth innocence of their faces, their wide brown eyes, and their hair, nearly shaven to their scalps to thwart the summer heat... At the entrance to the grand church of St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, the boys slip surreptitiously through the six-inch-wide opening of the formidable oak middle door, with its inlaid bronze portraits of the Hungarian kings. They giggle gleefully and a bit nervously as they peer into the dimly lit chamber, which feels refreshingly cool in contrast to the scorching afternoon sun they have just escaped. The twins mimic and build on each other's playful daring. Even their spirited laughter is identical, punctuated by squeals of delight... Let's go find his hand. What? St. Stephen's hand. I heard that his hand is kept in a golden box behind the altar somewhere. Let's go find it. No. We're not supposed to be back there. That's the craziest thing I ever heard—a king's hand inside a box in a church. He must have been pretty mad when they cut his hand off.1 [End Page 31]This small theatrical imaginative experience begins the adventure of two twin Hungarian Jewish boys who became caught up in World War II, the Holocaust, communism, and the aftermath.Those two boys became the father and uncle of the author, Eugene Pogany, who wrote In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith after the Holocaust. Pogany recalls and tries to reconcile their experiences, differences, and conflicts with each other that lasted a lifetime and beyond. As educators and those who work with adolescents, we seek to reconcile the past experiences and conflicts our students have with reading by finding strategies that bridge adolescents and literature. Two powerful tools for building such bridges are nonfiction literature written about the experiences of young people and adults during and after the Holocaust and using theatre to bring these stories to life.McEwan noted that as literature becomes complex, adolescents tend to struggle with comprehension and may forgo the idea of discovering enjoyment.2 Incorporating nonfiction stories from the Holocaust with innovative theatre experiences of the literature into the curriculum can engage students in literature with complex themes, characters, and plots. This is especially true when the learning is assessed by using projects developed by, with, and for young adolescents. As a result, the literature becomes comprehensible, accessible, relevant, enjoyable, and aesthetically stimulating.As an educator, researcher, and artistic director of a theatre for young adults, I reflect on the charge by Snow and Biancarosa that educators need to "figure out how to ensure that every student gets beyond the basic literacy skills of the early-elementary grades, to the more challenging and more rewarding literacy of the middle and secondary school years."3 For some students, literacy bridges are gateways to new worlds, skills, and possibilities for enjoyment. For students who struggle with reading, those bridges are obstacles they are afraid or even refuse to cross because of past fears or failures. Even with guidance and support, many students will stop reading when the text becomes complex or never even attempt to read the book when they decide it has no relevancy or purpose after looking at its title, skimming the back, looking for pictures, or counting the pages.This leads to a question and thoughts that inspired my research on using Holocaust literature and theatre to engage young students in discovering, comprehending, visualizing, and aesthetically enjoying the literary experience:• What can be done in the... (shrink)

One of humanity's most respected figures presents a plan for a new human and social paradigm, arguing that humankind is not inherently sinful, and discussing how redirection in the perception of our fundamental natures can bring powerful and positive change. 50,000 first printing.

Anthology of Sanskrit maxims with Sanskrit explanation, chiefly presenting the Nyaya school in Indic philosophy.

This new and moving translation of the Brahma's Net Sutra also includes translations of ancillary materials not previously available. Translated and introduced by the well-known teacher and author Martine Batchelor, this should become a classic for all those who aspire to the compassion of the Buddha. "The Buddha gave clear instructions about how a boddhisattva should preserve and nurture the altruistic aspiration to enlightenment that are contained in the scriptures of the various Mahayana traditions. The Boddhisattva Precepts found in the (...) Brahma's Net Sutra of the Chinese and Korean traditions have laid the foundation of an ethical way of life and the essential ground to a life of compassion for many Buddhists in East Asia since ancient times. We live in an era in which I believe it is extremely important to foster harmony and respect among all religious traditions. Therefore, I believe it is significant that such a seminal text be made more widely in an English translation and I congratulate the translator, the International Sacred Literature Trust and AltaMira Press for making this book, _The Path of Compassion_, available. Readers, whether or not they are Buddhist, will find that these precepts encourage us, in a very practical way, to protect life in all its forms and work towards a more peaceful and understanding world; goals that we all can admire." —from the foreword by H. H. The Dalai Lama. (shrink)

Organized by the Mind and Life Institute, this discussion addresses some of the most troublesome questions that have driven a wedge between Western science and religion. Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience resulted from meetings of the Dalai Lama and a group of eminent neuroscientists and psychiatrists. Is the mind an ephemeral side effect of the brain's physical processes? Are there forms of consciousness so subtle that science has not yet identified them? How does consciousness happen? The Dalai Lama's incisive, (...) open-minded approach both challenges and offers inspiration to Western scientists. The book consists primarily of dialogue and intense, frank conversations between the Dalai Lama and participants. Questions of perception, dualism, categories of consciousness, memory, dreams, the nature of mental illness, and the mind during and after death are all explored. (shrink)

Proceedings of the seminar organized by Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit, University of Pune in 2007.

Study of Nyāyasiddhāntadīpa of Śaśadhara, treatise on Nyaya philosophy; includes Sanskrit text with English translation.

Study of Nyāyasiddhāntadīpa of Śaśadhara, treatise on Nyaya philosophy; includes Sanskrit text with English translation.

Study with reference to Tattvacintāmaṇi of Gaṅgeśa, 13th cent.

Contributed articles presented at the International Seminar on Ultimate Reality and Meaning during July 2006 at Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit, University of Pune.

This article tries to explore the shifts in contemporary urban Bengali cinema and map and historicize the main trends in relation to changes in the political fortunes of the city. In this context, the article tentatively wishes to accomplish two things: one, to show the main trends in urban Bengali film-making, post-1990s; and two, to read closely two recent Bengali films, in a search for ways of mapping this newness. The article first identifies three new possibilities in Bengali cinema: first, (...) the inward-looking, often apolitical sketches that celebrate liberal development and psychosomatic indulgences, second, the sentimental, community-based films that sometimes take political changes on board as well, and attempt to bridge the rural-urban divide; third, cult-ish films of a newer pedigree that show impatience with old Left and progressive values, and are also technically experimental and avant-garde. The second objective of the article is to discuss specifically two contemporary filmmakers – Moinak Biswas and Suman Mukhopadhay – and place their films within this ferment. (shrink)

The abilities to read, to write, and to compute are of crucial importance. Students who cannot read, write, or compute are in deep trouble. But important though these skills are, they do not encompass all of what people know or the ways in which what they know. An innovative literacy/theater project implemented in two sixth-grade classrooms of a high-poverty, urban, western Pennsylvania middle school was designed to help urban teachers address aliteracy by engaging their students in the discovery of three (...) young adult novels.1 The project was built on a partnership with a semiprofessional theater company that produced adaptations of the literature and designed instructional support materials to meet .. (shrink)

A follow-up to the best-selling Ethics for a New Millennium outlines a system of secular ethics that both transcends religion and incorporates religious tolerance for the overall improvement of human life on individual, community and global levels, offering an accompanying guided meditation practice for cultivating key human values.

Commentary on Grub paʼi mthaʼi rnam par bzhag pa rin po cheʼi ʼphreng ba text authored by ʼJam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa II Dkon-mchog ʼJigs-med-dbang-po,1728-1791.

Study on the commentary of seven treatises of Buddhist logic (sapta pramanaśastra) of Dharmakīrti, 7th cent.

Study on the commentary of seven pramāṇaśastra (Buddhist logic) by Acharya Dharmakīrti, 7th century.

Healing Emotions is the record of an extraordinary series of encounters between the Dalai Lama and prominent Western psychologists, physicians, and meditation teachers that sheds new light on the mind-body connection. Edited by Pulitzer Prize nominee and best-selling author Daniel Goleman.

The Dalai Lama’s Secret Temple: Tantric Wall Paintings from Tibet. Ian A. Baker. Photographs by Thomas Laird. Thames and Hudson, London 2000. 216 pp, inc. 150 colour illus. £36.00. ISBN 0 500 510032.

In April of 2006, the prominent cultural anthropologist Noriyuki Ueda sat down with the Dalai Lama for a two day conversation. This book is based on that long and lively conversation in Dharamsala.

A collection of meditations and personal advice on living a better life. These teachings give you an opportunity to feel the focus and presence of the Dalai Lama in your every day. The meditations are grouped by focus, such as "meditations on criticizing others"; "meditations on the family"; and "meditations on faith".

Columbia University Press, 2015. 352pp. Hb. £50.00. ISBN-13: 978-0231168526. E-book. £50.00. ISBN: 978-0231538602.