Buddha's Nature: A Practical Guide to Enlightenment Through Evolution

ISBN: 0553106015

Author: Nisker, Wes

Condition: New

The Buddha said that "everything we need to know about life can be found inside this fathom-long body." Yet when most people start on the spiritual path, they consciously or unconsciously cut themselves off from their body. Why?This provocative synthesis of Eastern wisdom and Western science seeks to correct that tendency by bringing us back to the Buddha's original revolutionary message. It shows how the path to true liberation comes only through a deep understanding and acceptance of our biology and its important role in our spiritual evolution.It also shows how twentieth-century science is finally catching up with the time-honored beliefs of Buddhism. The latest discoveries in physics, evolutionary biology, and psychology are expressing in scientific terms the same insights the Buddha first discovered more than 2,500 years ago. Insights such as the impermanence of the body, where thoughts come from, and how the body communicates with itself. Based on the traditional Buddhist meditation sequence known as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Buddha's Nature propels us on an extraordinary journey through our entire biological and psychological heritage.Here is a practical program from a renowned meditation teacher for gaining a greater understanding of our true place in the cosmos as well as invaluable insight into the origin of attachment, desire, emotion, thought, and consciousness itself. These practices do not require a belief in Buddhism, nirvana, or any religious concept. Instead they offer a spiritual and scientific path to personal freedom and peace of mind.Wes Nisker is the author of Crazy Wisdom and a renowned lecturer who has taught courses on Buddhist meditation in such places as the Esalen Institute, the University of California, and Spirit Rock Buddhist Meditation Center. He has been a featured speaker at the Buddhism in America conferences as well as the Transpersonal Psychology Association conferences. Mr. Nisker currently serves as secretary of the International Transpersonal Association's board of directors and is the founder and co-editor of the international Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind.