Books published by Shambhala Publications Inc

Over the last thirty-five years, Ken Wilber has developed an Integral "theory of everything" that makes sense of how all the world''s knowledge systems—East and West; ancient, modern, and postmodern—fit together and can elevate our awareness. Drawing on science, psychology, human development, spirituality, religion, and dozens of other fields, Integral Theory is a revolutionary framework for understanding ourselves and the world we live in. Now there is a way to not just think Integrally, but to embody an Integral worldview in your everyday life. Integral Life Practice is not just a new approach to self-development and higher awareness, but a way of making sense of—and making best use of—the existing treasure trove of insights, methods, and practices for cultivating a more enlightened life. It offers a uniquely adaptive approach to awakened living that''s suitable for everyone: people with busy careers and families, college students, retirees, even hardcore athletes and yogis. It''s geared for devout—and irreverent—people of any religion, or no religion! This highly flexible system will help you develop your physical health, spiritual awareness, emotional balance, mental clarity, relational joy, and energy level, within a framework that integrates all aspects of your life. Combining original exercises, vivid examples, cutting-edge theory, and illustrative graphics, Integral Life Practice is the ultimate handbook for realizing freedom and fullness in the 21st century. For more information, visit www.Integral-Life-Practice.com.

This delightful collection allows everyone to enjoy firsthand the provocative methods used by the artists and poets of the Surrealist school to break through conventional thought and behavior to a deeper truth. Invented and played by such artists as André Breton, Rene Magritte, and Max Ernst, these gems still produce results ranging from the hilarious to the mysterious and profound.

Most people think of yoga as a solitary activity that is inherently therapeutic. While that is generally true, yoga poses and breathing practices can also be prescribed for specific health problems--often in combination with dietary advice taken from Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine. "Yoga Therapy" is an essential guide for yoga teachers, advanced practitioners, and anyone who wants to make therapeutic use of yoga. A. G. and Indra Mohan prescribe postures, breathing techniques, and basic Ayurvedic principles for a variety of common health problems, including asthma, back pain, constipation, hip pain, knee pain, menstrual problems, and scoliosis. "Yoga Therapy" is one of the few books that shows yoga teachers how to put together appropriate yoga sequences and breathing techniques for their students. Mohan details how to correctly move into, hold, and move out of poses, how to breathe during practice to achieve specific results, and how to customize a yoga practice by creating sequences of yoga poses for a particular person.

This book is about the individual's journey to psychological wholeness, known in analytical psychology as the process of individuation. Edward Edinger traces the stages in this process and relates them to the search for meaning through encounters with symbolism in religion, myth, dreams, and art. For contemporary men and women, Edinger believes, the encounter with the self is equivalent to the discovery of God. The result of the dialogue between the ego and the archetypal image of God is an experience that dramatically changes the individual's worldview and makes possible a new and more meaningful way of life.

Experience the powerful, revitalizing, feminine “lunar” energy at the heart of Kundalini yoga practice, through this beautifully-illustrated guide with over 170 asana, pranayama, mantra, and meditations for practitioners of all levels.One of the oldest forms of yoga, Kundalini Yoga is a timeless tradition that includes powerful, specific teachings for anyone identifying as female. These “lunar” practices not only support well-being, health, and vitality through every stage of life, but also awaken and enhance Shakti—the divine feminine, creative life force.  Sierra Hollister helps women discover their unique moon cycle and offers specific sequences (kriya)  for daily life, for mothering, for sexuality and relationships—as well as practices, breathing exercises, mudra, mantra, and recipes to provide support and balance. Moon Path Yoga offers a comprehensive lunar rhythm practice that allows women of any age to awaken their innate divine feminine energy.llustrated with over 125 color photos, this guide includes:Practice for Radiance, Vitality, and Grace Gestating: A Prenatal SequenceMeditation for a Calm Heart Meditation for CouplesSequence to Relieve PMS—or to Slow Down and Experience Gratitude

A wildly engaging and imaginative story that introduces the world of meditation to kids ages 6–10 through a relatable character named Leo, who learns to cultivate relaxation, mindfulness, and lovingkindness.Everyone in Leo’s family meditates but him—his mom, his dad, his older sister, and even his stuffed bear, Teddy! But what does it mean to “meditate,” and is it something that Leo can do too? When Mom becomes his meditation teacher, Leo discovers that it’s about more than just sitting still. After starting to get the hang of it, he’s got to apply what he’s learned off the cushion and out in the world when a bully targets him at school and steals his piece of apple pie.Through his experiences, Leo learns to meditate in the up times, the down times, and the in-between times. A graphic-novel illustration style gives Leo''s story a fun and easy-to-follow narrative arc. It gives parents, guardians, and teachers an opportunity to playfully introduce children to meditation and even includes a step-by-step guided practice at the end to get their kids started.

Thomas Cleary, one of America’s most beloved translators of Buddhist texts, brings twelfth century Chan master Dahui’s monumental compilation of teachings to life for the first time in English.Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching (Chinese Zhengfayanzang) stands as among the greatest classics of Chan (Chinese Zen) Buddhism, combining speeches, stories, dialogues, poems, and commentaries that the influential master Dahui (1089–1163) extracted from Chan lore. Compiled by Dahui’s students during Song Dynasty China, this work is replete with the enigmatic, paradoxical wisdom for which Zen Buddhism is so well known.Central to this collection is the notion of “great doubt” in matters of language, conceptual thinking, and how we conceive of our existence. By working with great doubt through koan introspection and other meditative practices, a practitioner is able to push themself to the limits of ideas and concepts until a breakthrough to enlightenment is achieved. In the words of Dahui, “Within great doubt there necessarily exists great enlightenment.”A fascinating compendium of literary and spiritual puzzles, Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching will challenge and inspire readers to work with great doubt themselves and to discover their inborn potential for enlightenment. Masterfully translated by one of America’s foremost translators of Chinese classics into English, it is a captivating window into the literary world of Chinese Zen and essential reading for students of all Zen schools today.

Simple mindfulness practices to help health care professionals of all kinds reconnect with themselves and their patients, find joy, and build resilience.Healers need healing too. Mindful Medicine shares simple mindfulness practices and brief meditations that fit easily into the demanding schedule of a healthcare worker’s day, creating an experience of less stress and more presence, connection, ease, and flow. Addressing topics such as connecting with yourself and your patients, the role of the Inner Critic in medicine, and rescue remedies for times of stress, this book offers evidence-based support for the many challenges of healthcare work. These short practices are an invitation to replenish the passion of healthcare work and douse the flickering flames of burnout.

"Based on a series of lectures that were themselves crafted with this book in mind, this books explores meditation in the Southern Buddhist tradition from its beginnings at the time of the Buddha and after, with a survey of some of the many schools of meditation practice found in recent Theravåada Buddhism and an interlude in Central Asia"--

Beloved Buddhist nun Ayya Khema expertly guides the reader through ten meditations on generating loving-kindness and cultivating the fifteen wholesome qualities necessary for igniting compassion and boundless love.Having escaped Nazi Germany in 1938, Ayya Khema has singularly profound perspective on creating peace, unconditional love, and compassion. She gently teaches that inner peace is not necessarily natural or innate. Instead, peace should be considered a skill that needs intentional practice—every day. Peace is the sum of many parts, namely the fifteen wholesome qualities the Buddha himself noted in the Metta Sutta, including usefulness, mildness, humility, contentment, receptivity, and others. Ayya Khema expertly guides us through each individual condition, using her trademark humor and personal narrative, to help each reader shape their own path to self-transformation.  The second part of the book includes an eye-opening discussion of metta (loving-kindness) as both a morality and concentration practice, as well as ten meditation practices that use visualizations rather than more traditional mantra repetition. These visualizations include your heart as a "Fountain of Love," reaching those close to you and those far away, and a "Flower Garden," where we tend to the blooms in our hearts through love and compassion and share them with others. Edited by her student and retreat leader, Leigh Brasington, this book is a complete course in practical ways to calm and brighten our minds.

The ever-increasing popularity of Yoga and related practices makes a desktop reference like this indispensible. With over twenty-five hundred entries and extensive illustrations, it combines comprehensiveness with accessibility. The book is arranged and written in a manner that will inform rather than overwhelm the lay reader, while at the same time offering valuable references for the professional researcher and the historian of religion. This new edition includes information about contemporary Yoga teachers. It also provides fuller descriptions and illustrations of Yoga poses, and features additional cross references.

Insightful and entertaining essays spanning 40 years of lectures by Alan Watts on Zen, Taoism, psychedelics, and comparative philosophy.Alan Watts''s essays and talks range widely through psychology, art, religion, and politics, but always come home to the Zen core. For those familiar with Alan Watts’s style of presentation, the wonderful, memorable, and prophetic style of his voice is captured in this volume. Talking Zen puts on display Watts’s ability to explore the very subtle philosophies, those common across traditions and those unique to Zen, in ordinary and accessible language. These lectures paved the way for the rise of Zen in the West. 

An intimate spiritual and literary journey exploring how Zen koans make us permeable to the joys and the anguish of this life—and to the primordial mystery we glimpse behind the veil of the everyday. In Through Forests of Every Color, renowned Zen teacher Joan Sutherland reimagines the koan tradition with allegiance to the root spirit of the koans and to their profound potential for vivifying, subverting, and sanctifying our lives. Her decades of practicing with koans and of translating them from classical Chinese imbues this text with a warm familiarity, an ease still suffused with awe.     Interlinked essays on “koans as art,” “keeping company with koans,” and “walking the koan way” intersperse with beautifully translated renditions of dozens of traditional Zen koans. Sutherland also shares innovative koans culled from Western literature, as well as teachings on how to create idiosyncratic koans or "turning words" from the circumstances of one''s own life.   “First honored is your yearning, the preparation made on faith that there is something that will receive you if you make yourself ready,” writes Sutherland of the koan seeker. “Bathed—attended to, washed free of complications—and then aspiring to the deepest kind of beauty—receptive, brave, dedicated, openhearted. Already you’ve begun to look like the thing you’re looking for.”

Inspired by a flower shop in Tokyo, this embroidery collection will take new and seasoned stitchers through a year of beautiful botanicals and whimsical floral scenes. Stitch your way through the seasons with a bit of thread, a needle, and a small swatch of fabric. Follow along with textile artist Kazuko Aoki as she welcomes you to Gente Flower Shop in Tokyo, a stunning backdrop from a gardening stitcher’s dreams. The more than 25 motifs featured here are delicate, down to earth, and whimsical—mixing materials and stitching techniques to create life and depth to each design, which include meadow flowers, garden baskets, fresh berries, a violet-covered armchair, and more. Featuring simple and elegant sewing instructions for patches, totes, pins, purses, and more, Aoki skillfully shows stitchers that your every floral embroidery can always find the right home. With beautiful photographs, clear step-by-step instructions, and detailed diagrams, this book is an inspiring and playful guide for gardeners and embroidery enthusiasts of all levels. 

A compilation of teachings and practices of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism by one of Tibet's greatest Buddhist masters.The Treasury of Precious Instructions by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye, one of Tibet's greatest Buddhist masters, is a shining jewel of Tibetan literature, presenting essential teachings from the entire spectrum of practice lineages that existed in Tibet. Volumes in this series may be engaged as practice manuals while also preserving ancient teachings significant to the literature and history of world religions.  Volume 11 of the series, Shangpa Kagyu, is the first of two volumes that present teachings and practices from the Shangpa Kagyu practice lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. This tradition derives from the female celestial beings, or ḍākinīs, Niguma and Sukhasiddhi and their disciple, the eleventh-century Tibetan yogi Khyungpo Naljor Tsultrim Gönpo of the Shang region of Tibet. The scriptural source material for this practice tradition is twofold: the yogic teachings of the Six Dharmas of Niguma and the nature of mind instructions from the cycle of teachings Amulet Box Mahamudra.  The tantric basis of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition is the five principal deities of the new translation (sarma) traditions and in particular the Five-Deity Cakrasamvara practice. The six parts of this sizable volume include source scriptures, liturgies, supplications, empowerment texts, instructions, and practice manuals composed by Niguma, Virūpa, Tāranātha, the compiler Jamgön Kongtrul, and others.

The first-of-its-kind money workbook that uses a 3-step plan to bring more compassion, honesty, and awareness to your relationship with your finances. “A gentle, beautifully written, and practical guide for everyone who wants to become more intentional, values-aligned, and awake in their relationship with money.”—Tara Mohr, author of Playing Big  For over 20 years, financial therapist Bari Tessler’s Art of Money program has helped thousands of people understand and navigate their financial life. Her 3-phase process will help you make choices that reflect your values, become aware of spending patterns, and create new financial habits: Money Healing: Your emotions, the body check-in, and delving into your personal money story Money Practices: Self-care practices, money dates, and values-based bookkeeping Money Maps: Visioning, transforming your budget, making good money decisions, and handling curveballs  Each step offers self-reflective exercises and tools that will encourage you to write your own money memoir, set regular money dates with yourself and/or your partner, and plan for the future. Bari’s gentle encouragement and practical tools will transform your relationship with money and offer you new avenues for creativity and joy.