A Fearless Heart

The Buddhist practice of mindfulness caught on in the west when we began to understand the everyday, personal benefits it brought us. Now, in this extraordinary book, the highly acclaimed thought leader and longtime English translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama shows us that compassion can bring us even more. Based on the landmark course in compassion training Jinpa helped create at Stanford Medical School, A Fearless Heart shows us that we actually fear compassion. We worry that if we are too compassionate with others we will be taken advantage of, and if we are too compassionate with ourselves we will turn into slackers. Using science, insights from both classical Buddhist and western psychology, and stories both from others and from his own extraordinary life, Jinpa shows us how to train our compassion muscle to relieve stress, fight depression, improve our health, achieve our goals, and change our world. Practical, spiritual, and immediately relevant, A Fearless Heart will speak to readers of The Art of Happiness and Wherever You Go, There You Are.

The highly acclaimed thought leader and English translator of the Dalai Lama shows us how compassion works as a powerful inner resource that can yield surprising and compelling benefits—not just for others, but for ourselves. The Buddhist practice of mindfulness first caught on in the West when we began to understand its many practical benefits. Now Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D., introduces a practice with even greater life-changing power: compassion. Based on the revolutionary course in Compassion Cultivation Training at Stanford that Jinpa helped to create, A Fearless Heart shows us that compassion can be a path through suffering, a key to robust health, and even an effective way to reach our goals. Yet we fear compassion. We worry that if we are too compassionate with others, they will take advantage of us, and too much self-compassion will make us slackers. Pulling from the latest Western research as well as traditional Buddhist psychology, Jinpa offers simple daily practices that will help readers train their compassion muscle for a greater meaning, connection, and fulfillment.

"Based on the landmark course in compassion training Jinpa helped create at Stanford Medical School, A Fearless Heart shows us that we actually fear compassion. We worry that if we are too compassionate with others we will be taken advantage of, and if we are too compassionate with ourselves we will turn into slackers. Using science, insights from both classical Buddhist and western psychology, and stories both from others and from his own extraordinary life, Jinpa shows us how to train our compassion muscle to relieve stress, fight depression, improve our health, achieve our goals, and change our world." --

"The Buddhist practice of mindfulness caught on in the west when we began to understand the everyday, personal benefits it brought us. Now, in this extraordinary book, the highly acclaimed thought leader and longtime English translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama shows us that compassion can bring us even more. Based on the landmark course in compassion training Jinpa helped create at Stanford Medical School, A Fearless Heart shows us that we actually fear compassion. We worry that if we are too compassionate with others we will be taken advantage of, and if we are too compassionate with ourselves we will turn into slackers. Using science, insights from both classical Buddhist and western psychology, and stories both from others and from his own extraordinary life, Jinpa shows us how to train our compassion muscle to relieve stress, fight depression, improve our health, achieve our goals, and change our world. Practical, spiritual, and immediately relevant, A Fearless Heart will speak to readers of The Art of Happiness and Wherever You Go, There You Are"--Provided by publisher.

A vibrant picture book biography of Surya Bonaly, the figure skating champion who backflipped her way into history As a young girl in France, Surya Bonaly was constantly in motion, gifted in any sport she tried. But it was figure skating that had her heart. Surya knew she belonged on the ice. Her colorful costumes, exuberant routines, powerful jumps, and daring combinations were all expressions of her love for skating and her ambition to push the boundaries of what a figure skating champion could look like. Some people weren't sure Surya belonged on top of the podium. "Is she graceful enough?" they asked. "Does she look like a skater?" But Surya's fearless heart propelled her to always stay true to herself while pursuing her boldest dreams. Culminating in her iconic backflip performed at the 1998 Olympics, Fearless Heart is a lushly illustrated, lyrical story of self-expression and courage.

"Reading Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart is like eavesdropping on a conversation between Lao Tzu and Joseph Campbell--a pure pleasure to read!" --Deepak Chopra, M.D., coauthor of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga and author of The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire "Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart is an enchanting piece of wisdom that combines ancient insights with practical solutions to the stress epidemic that permeates our culture. Brian Luke Seaward is a master teacher, skillful guide, and true healer." --Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Words and Reinventing Medicine "The perfect antidote for these acceleratingly stressful post-9/11 times with fearmongers accosting us everywhere, Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart artfully and wisely blends stress relief with spirituality. Keeping us constantly uplifted and engaged, this book is filled with witty sayings, practical, powerful exercises, and personal stories that ring with heartfelt authenticity." --Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., author of Molecules of Emotion With graceful wisdom and gentle humor, Dr. Brian Luke Seaward helps you see past the limitations of the ego to the highest potential of the human spirit at the core of your very being. Through a unique alchemy of the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism and the timeless insights of the visionary Joseph Campbell, Seaward shows you how to harness this potential so that you may find the courage to be a victor, not a victim of life's problems. Through the realization of this alchemy you will become the hero at the center of your own mythical life journey. Using simple but powerful exercises, meditations, and self-exploration techniques, you will learn to reconnect and harmonize with the universal spirit energy, or Tao, that flows through you to achieve inner balance, the joy of life, and optimal health. This book gives you the tools and skills to overcome adversity, resolve the emotional and psychological obstacles keeping you from realizing your potential, and vanquish stress, bringing peace to your heart and soul. Featuring the insights of renowned spiritual luminaries and philosophers from around the world and throughout the ages as well as many inspirational stories from women and men just like you, this powerful motivational guide shows you how to cope with everyday stress, embrace your divinity, and find true harmony in your life.

What if people -- even longtime enemies -- could transform conflicts into dilemmas they feel motivated to solve together and build more connection and trust? What if employees could leave a meeting empowered and with a joint sense of purpose? What if the positive changes community activists are working so hard to see in the world had a lasting impact?In THE HIGHEST COMMON DENOMINATOR: Using Convergent Facilitation to Reach Breakthrough Collaborative Decisions, Miki Kashtan introduces a novel decision-making process called Convergent Facilitation that builds trust from the beginning, surfaces concerns and addresses them, and turns conflicts into dilemmas that groups feel energized to solve together. This highly-effective decision-making process has been used successfully around the world to resolve problems and teach people how to collaborate without sacrificing productivity. Since 2002, Convergent Facilitation has helped organizations, businesses, and governments upend traditional and unproductive decision-making methods, such as majority rule, top-down decision-making and coercion, or consensus, which can drain a group's energy. In 2012, Miki worked with the Minnesota State Legislature to resolve gridlock on child custody legislation and helped stakeholders draft bills that passed nearly unanimously. In a 2014 op-ed in the New York Times, Miki explained how power differences lead employees to stay silent and not feel part of a common goal, which ultimately makes a business run less effectively. THE HIGHEST COMMON DENOMINATOR allows readers to learn and implement Convergent Facilitation. The book moves readers through three phases of a process that brings groups to outcomes that are profoundly collaborative and genuinely supported by all. Through vivid case studies and practical examples, the book explains:?how to guide people towards solutions that integrate everyone's needs and concerns without requiring compromise;?how to keep people on track with the task at hand;?how to invite dissent and engage with it productively; and?how to attend to the power differences that so often interfere with collaboration.

Selections from the popular author's journals share her observations on nature, family life, humor, human values, courage, and optimism

"Along the way we see the growth of Earle's political consciousness and his courage in tackling thorny topics such as "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh (in the song "John Walker's Blues"), his opposition to the death penalty, and his recent appearance in support of Iraq war protester Cindy Sheehan. Author David McGee also examines the early '70s east Texas singer-songwriter scene - where Earle met his future mentors Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt - and the rise of the New Traditionalist and Americana movements.".

Though less known today than contemporaries like Amundsen and Peary, Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933) was one of the most intriguing of the great early 20th century arctic explorers. Born and raised in Greenland, and part Inuit on his mother’s side, Rasmussen could shoot a gun and harness a team of sled dogs by the time he was eight. Nevertheless he was well versed in the civilized arts and came to exploration after failing to make a career as an opera singer in Europe. He was obviously more at home on the ice floes than the stage, and undertook some of the most astounding feats of endurance in the annals of polar exploration including his record-setting 18,000-mile “Great Sled Journey”—the first to traverse the Northwest Passage by dogsled. More impressively, he travelled without the elaborate preparations and large support staffs employed by other explorers, surviving with only a few Inuit assistants and living off the land. He once explained his approach by saying, “[As a child] my playmates were native Greenlanders; from the earliest boyhood I played and worked with the hunters, so even the hardships of the most strenuous sledge-trips became pleasant routine for me.” Despite his extraordinary physical prowess, Rasmussen was one of the most intellectual of the great explorers, more interested in scientific study than glamorous feats, producing (among many other works) a ten-volume account documenting Inuit spirituality and culture, an accomplishment that earned him the title “the father of Eskimology.” In this first full-length biography, Stephen R. Bown brings Rasmussen’s inspiring story to English readers in all its richness, giving White Eskimo the readability of a good novel.

With grace, acuity, and humor, Miki Kashtan has shared with thousands of people on five continents how to live from love, courage and truth - in every moment, in thought, word, and deed. By integrating these three hallmarks of nonviolence into daily life, radical shifts happen: you begin to choose how to respond to life, rather than merely reacting; you no longer settle for solutions that work only for you or only for others; and, more and more, you step into leadership by taking responsibility for the whole in every situation. This little book contains 201 concise, evocative distillations of her wisdom, illustrated with powerful and original images. It is an invitation to you to begin to build your own courageous life.

Lojong is the Tibetan Buddhist practice that involves working with short phrases (called "slogans") as a way of generating bodhichitta, the heart and mind of enlightened compassion. Though the practice is more than a millennium old, it has become popular in the West only in the last twenty years or so—and it has become very popular indeed, because it's a practice that one can fit very well into an ordinary life, and because it works.Through the influence of Pema Chödrön, who was one of the first American Buddhist teachers to teach it extensively, the practice has moved out of its Buddhist context to affect the lives of non-Buddhists too. It's in this spirit that Norman Fischer offers his commentary on the lojong slogans. He applies Zen wisdom to them, showing how well they fit in that related tradition, but he also sets the slogans in the context of resonant practices throughout the spiritual traditions. He shows lojong to be a wonderful method for everyone, including those who aren't otherwise interested in Buddhism, who don't have the time or inclination to meditate, or who'd just like to morph into the kind of person who's focused rather than scattered, generous rather than stingy, and kind rather than thoughtless.

Through exercises and real-world examples, the author, drawing from Buddhist psychology, shows readers how to step onto the path of self-understanding to transform suffering into happiness.

Work is such a crucial part of our life, and yet we often struggle with—and feel overwhelmed by—the numerous challenges it presents us. Whether it’s job insecurity, making peace with or leaving an unfulfilling job, or dealing with office conflicts, we often experience fear and a sense of groundlessness just at a time when we want to be our most creative and resilient. Drawing on Buddhist philosophy, Michael Carroll, a longtime human-resources executive, meditation teacher, and executive coach, explains how the practice of mindfulness—full awareness of our moment-to-moment experience—can help us become more confident and open to possibility in our work life. He offers a system of potent, inspiring principles that we can use as a practice for helping us work with our insecurities and awakening our natural bravery, resourcefulness, and resilience.

Many of us, without even realizing it, are dominated by fear. We might be aware of some of our fears—perhaps we are afraid of public speaking, of financial hardship, or of losing a loved one. Chögyam Trungpa shows us that most of us suffer from a far more pervasive fearfulness: fear of ourselves. We feel ashamed and embarrassed to look at our feelings or acknowledge our styles of thinking and acting; we don’t want to face the reality of our moment-to-moment experience. It is this fear that keeps us trapped in cycles of suffering, despair, and distress. Chögyam Trungpa offers us a vision of moving beyond fear to discover the innate bravery, trust, and delight in life that lies at the core of our being. Drawing on the Shambhala Buddhist teachings, he explains how we can each become a spiritual warrior: a person who faces each moment of life with openness and fearlessness. "The ultimate definition of bravery is not being afraid of who you are," writes Chögyam Trungpa. In this book he offers the insights and strategies to claim victory over fear.

The work explores the historical and intellectual context of Tsongkhapa's philosophy and addresses the critical issues related to questions of development and originality in Tsongkhapa's thought. It also deals extensively with one of Tsongkhapa's primary concerns, namely his attempts to demonstrate that the Middle Way philosophy's deconstructive analysis does not negate the reality of the everyday world. The study's central focus, however, is the question of the existence and the nature of self. This is explored both in terms of Tsongkhapa's deconstruction of the self and his reconstruction of person. Finally, the work explores the concept of reality that emerges in Tsongkhapa's philosophy, and deals with his understanding of the relationship between critical reasoning, no-self, and religious experience.

A renowned Zen master and Nobel Peace Prize nominee introduces a Buddhist approach to practicing authentic love in our everyday lives In this eye-opening guide, Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh offers timeless insight into the nature of real love. With simplicity, warmth, and directness, he explores the four key aspects of love as described in the Buddhist tradition: lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and freedom—explaining how to experience them in our day-to-day lives. He also emphasizes that in order to love in a real way, we must first learn how to be fully present in our lives, and he offers simple techniques from the Buddhist tradition that anyone can use to establish the conditions of love. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, is an internationally known author, poet, scholar, and peace activist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr.

A business memoir from fifteen year-old lemonade entrepreneur and one of TIME Magazine's Top 30 Most Influential Teens, Mikaila Ulmer, and her advice for life and business. When Mikaila Ulmer was four, she was stung by a bee--twice in one week. She was terrified of going outside, so her parents encouraged her to learn more about bees so she wouldn't be afraid. It worked. Mikaila didn't just learn what an important role bees play in our ecosystem, but she also learned bees are endangered, and set out to save them. She started by selling cups of lemonade in front of her house and donating the small proceeds to organizations dedicated to bee conservation. When she realized the more lemonade she sold, the more bees she could help, Me & the Bees Lemonade was born. Now she sells her lemonade across the country. From meetings with Fortune 500 CEOs, to securing a deal on Shark Tank, to even visiting the Obama White House, Mikaila's lemonade and passion for bee conservation have taken her far. In Bee Fearless, part memoir, part business guide, Mikaila--now fifteen--shares her personal journey and special brand of mindful entrepreneurship and offers helpful tips and guidance for young readers interested in pursuing their own ventures, instilling in them the bee-lief that they can bee fearless and achieve their dreams too.

Chronicles the life of Navy SEAL Team Six operator Adam Brown, a man whose heroism and devotion still stand as a beacon to his friends and family, even after his death in the Afghan Hindu Kush mountains in 2010.

“A gift from a master teacher . . . that will help calm your anxieties, allay your fears, and help you live a more present, precious life.”—Daniel G. Amen, MD #1 New York Times The End of Mental Illness We were not born with the persistent negative, self-doubting, self-limiting thoughts and feelings most of us carry around. Those limitations are not part of our “original equipment.” In the words of bestselling author and beloved teacher Guy Finley, “When you realize no else on this earth can be like you . . . that no other soul may know the beauty, sorrow, light and darkness you alone are given to see, then you will no longer want to be like anyone else on this earth. You will, at last, be the fearless individual your heart of hearts has called you to be.” There is a world of wisdom in this small gem of a book. Guy Finley is a master at opening our eyes, ears, and hearts to the plain and simple truths of this life. We are not our sense of inadequacy, our compulsions, our defeated thoughts and feelings. We can choose the fearless path because we were, in fact, born fearless. “Another brilliant book by Guy Finley which calls us to awaken and stop hiding from ourselves . . . for those who truly want freedom from fear, worry and doubt and the keys to a life that currently appears illusive.”—DeDe Murcer Moffett, CEO, Snap Out of It! Women’s Network “A source of inspiration and hope, Guy Finley’s Courage to Be Free is recommended for anyone—everyone—navigating life’s tricky roads.”—Jordan Rich, former host of The Jordan Rich Show