Bøger af Ethan Nichtern

An engagingly contemporary approach to Buddhism-through the lens of an iconic film and its memorable charactersHumorous yet spiritually rigorous in the tradition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Tao of Pooh, drawing from pop culture and from personal experience, The Dharma of "The Princess Bride" teaches us how to understand and navigate our most important personal relationships from a twenty-first-century Buddhist perspective.Friendship. Romance. Family. These are the three areas Ethan Nichtern delves into, taking as departure points the indelible characters from Rob Reiner's perennially popular film-Westley, Fezzik, Vizzini, Count Rugen, Princess Buttercup, and others-as he also draws lessons from his own life and his work as a meditation teacher. Nichtern devotes the first section of the book to exploring the dynamics of friendship. Why do people become friends? What can we learn from the sufferings of Inigo Montoya and Fezzik? Next, he leads us through all the phases of illusion and disillusion we encounter in our romantic pursuits, providing a healthy dose of lightheartedness along the way by sharing his own Princess Buttercup List and the vicissitudes of his dating life as he ponders how we idealize and objectify romantic love. Finally, Nichtern draws upon the demands of his own family history and the film's character the Grandson to explore the dynamics of "the last frontier of awakening," a reference to his teacher Chogyam Trungpa's claim that it's possible to be enlightened everywhere except around your family. With The Dharma of "The Princess Bride" in hand, we can set out on the path to contemporary Buddhist enlightenment with the most important relationships in our lives.

"The author examines the Buddhist concept of the Eight Worldly Winds, the four paired opposites of praise and blame, pleasure and pain, fame and insignificance, and success and failure. By delving into these dichotomies, readers gain invaluable insights into their relationships with others and themselves"--

In this wise and witty invitation to Buddhist meditation, Ethan Nichtern, a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, investigates the journey each of us takes to find where we belong. Drawing from contemporary research on meditation and mindfulness and from his experience as a teacher and practitioner of Buddhism, Nichtern describes in fresh language the basic existential experience that gives rise to spiritual seeking-and its potentially dangerous counterpart, spiritual materialism. He explains exactly how, by turning our awareness to what's happening around us and inside us, we become able to enhance our sense of connection with others and, at the same time, change for the better our individual and collective patterns of greed, apathy, and inattention. The Road Home shows us that, in order to create a truly compassionate and enlightened society, we must start with ourselves. And this means working with our own mind-in whatever state we find it.

'An invitation to a sane life' Jack KornfieldDo you feel at home? Are you comfortable in your own skin? Do you have a sense of belonging?In this book, senior Buddhist teacher Ethan Nichtern addresses these questions and guides us on the path we all take to find out who we really are and where we really belong. Feeling truly at home, he believes, comes not from our physical location but the ability to belong in the present moment, without worrying about yesterday's regrets or tomorrow's to-do list. Nichtern provides the tools needed to reach this awakening.Once we feel relaxed and comfortable in our own skin, our lives improve. We become less anxious, uncertain and stressed about the future; we become more able to listen, to be compassionate and engage in meaningful relationships and activities. We can all achieve this, if only we can feel at home with ourselves and others. This book is not about navel-gazing or escapism, instead it is a map to use in everyday life - one that ultimately leads you home.