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

Nisker, Wes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553106015 ISBN 13: 9780553106015

Publisher: Bantam, 1998

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

It sounds rather dry to call Buddha's Nature a commentary on the Mahasatipatthana Sutra. With headings like "A Case of Mistaken Identity," "You Slimebag!", "Sea Cells, Me Cells," and "Mindfulness: The Opposable Thumb of Consciousness," Wes Nisker's characteristic playfulness is anything by dry. Drawing on the latest developments in evolutionary biology and deep ecology, from writers such as Lynn Margulis and Theodore Roszak, Nisker illustrates Buddhist teachings about the interconnectedness of all things. This is his way of easing us into a series of meditation exercises called the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which give that interconnectedness a vivid presence. It begins with focusing on breathing, then sense impressions, states of mind, and finally the mind itself. By tying personal anecdotes and scientific wisdom to meditation instruction, Nisker proves himself an entertaining educator. Read and do, and read and do--all the way to enlightenment. --Brian Bruya

From the Publisher

A groundbreaking book that combines the great traditional teachings of the Buddha with the findings of cutting-edge science to illuminate the path to self-liberation...

Advance Praise for Wes Nisker and Buddha's Nature:

"I thank Wes Nisker for having written Buddha's Nature. This book will be welcomed as one of the best efforts yet to bring together meditators and scientists. It is an instrument for our greater joy and achievements."
--Thich Nhat Hanh, author of Peace Is Every Step

"What The Tao of Physics did to connect East and West in the realm of physics, Buddha's Nature does brilliantly in the realm of biology and the mind."
--Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

"This book brings to life an ancient meditative wisdom that has the deepest of relevance to our lives as individuals and as a species."
--Jon Kabat-Zinn, Executive Director, Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society

"With the clean-limbed clarity and immediacy that comes from decades of Buddhist and writing practice, the author shows us how we can embrace the ongoing process of evolution and find a source of compassion and liberation in the understanding that all beings are part of the living whole."
--New Age

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0553106015
• ISBN 13: 9780553106015
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256