Unlearning the Basics

In fresh and inviting language and making frequent use of strikingly clear diagrams and illustrations, Unlearning the Basics challenges many of our common-sense understandings about ourselves and the world. The author lays out a new way of seeing that enables us to live more serenely, more compassionately, and more free from the slings and arrows of our busy lives.

Along the way, Rishi Sativihari looks at love and grasping, at "the great unfixables," and at how vulnerability and pain feed the "evolution of character"-all in the service of helping us return to our true home and find new ways to flourish. Grounded in the Buddhist tradition yet completely free from the formulas of traditional, tired presentations, Unlearning the Basics has an informal, straightforward style that will immediately captivate the reader.

Dr. Rishi Sativihari was born Richard Wright and grew up in the innercity of Detroit during the 1960s and 70s. Prior to monastic life, Rishi worked as the clinical director of La Casa, a drug abuse treatment center in southwest Detroit, and as a staff psychologist for the University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry. Rishi received his monastic training and ordination from the Venerable Wattegama Dhammawasa at the Subodharama Monastery in Sri Lanka. He also trained in the Tibetan (Gelug) tradition under the Venerable Geshe Tashi Tsering at the Chenrezig Monastery in Australia, and under S.N. Goenkaat the Dhammagiri Centre in India. In 2003, Rishi left monastic life and began training in the contemplative foundations of Judaism and Christianity at the Toronto School of Theology. He currently offers teaching on contemplative living and guidance in spiritual formation to individuals and groups in the Toronto area.

Mu Soeng, a former Zen monk and teacher, is the scholar-in-residence at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is the author of many books on Buddhism, including Trust in Mind and The Diamond Sutra. He lives in Barre, Massachusetts.