The Buddha – författare

Inviting new translations of classical Buddhist texts about why the self is an illusion—and why giving it up can free us from sufferingFrom self-realization and self-promotion to self-help and the selfie, the modern world encourages us to be self-obsessed. We are even told that finding ourselves is the key to happiness. Better to lose yourself! More than 2,500 years ago, the Buddha argued that the self is an illusion—and that our belief in it is the cause of most, if not all, of our suffering. How to Lose Yourself presents lively, accessible, and expert new translations of ancient Buddhist writings about the central, unique, and powerful Buddhist teaching of “no-self.”Drawn from three important Buddhist traditions, these essential Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese writings provide a rich sampling of the ways Buddhist philosophers have understood the idea that we are selfless persons—and why this insight is so therapeutic. When we let go of the self, we are awakened to the presence of all things as they truly are, and we let go of the anxiety, fear, greed, and hatred that are the source of all suffering.Complete with an introduction and headnotes to each selection, and the original texts on facing pages, How to Lose Yourself is a concise guide to a transformative idea.

A new translation of the Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness—and how it can help us to be less controlled by our emotionsTo feel is to suffer. But do we have to suffer as much as we do? Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Buddha discovered that practices of mindfully observing our feelings and emotions can help us gain some distance from them. In How to Feel, Maria Heim provides new translations of essential early Buddhist teachings on mindfulness meditation and connects them to recent findings in psychology and neuroscience. A superb meditation manual and insightful exploration of psychology, the book also provides a brief introduction to Buddhism and features the original Pali-language texts on facing pages.Drawing from the Samyutta Nikaya, an early canonical collection, How to Feel introduces Buddhist practices of mindfulness. Using them, we can watch feelings come and go like winds passing through the sky. We can observe what causes our negative emotions and learn to shift our attention to other things. We can see where emotions lead us and learn to redirect them. We will still feel, but, with practice, emotions will have less control over us.Just as they did in ancient India, the teachings in How to Feel offer today’s readers radically new and more enlightened ways to experience emotions.