For centuries Tibetan Buddhist contemplatives have directly explored consciousness through carefully honed rigorous techniques of meditation. B. Alan Wallace explains the methods and experiences of those Tibetan practitioners and compares these with investigations of consciousness by Western scientists and philosophers. Balancing the Mind includes a translation of a classic discussion by the fifteenth-century Tibetan contemplative Tsongkhapa of methods for developing exceptionally high degrees of attentional stability and clarity.

Discover your personal path to bliss

'This book will give anyone interested in the spectrum of core meditative practices stemming from the Buddhist tradition but in essence universal the deepest of perspectives on what is possible for us as human beings as well as excellent guidance in the essential, time-tested attitudes and practices for actualizing our innate capacity for wisdom, compassion, and well-being, right here and right now.'
—Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Coming to Our Senses and Full Catastrophe Living

'In Genuine Happiness, Alan Wallace displays his rare talent in boiling down the complex to the clear and in guiding readers through a practical path to contentment. A gift for all moods and seasons.'
—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

'This lucid and rich book offers brillant, wise, and accessible teachings on the essentials of four core meditation techniques that lead one to genuine joy and happiness. Alan Wallace's years of practice and teaching shine through every page, as with ease and great humanity, he brings to the reader the possibility of liberation.'
—Joan Halifax Roshi, abbot of Upaya Zen Center

'Genuine Happiness is a treasure chest of wisdom: clear, inspiring teaching jewels. It is an excellent support for any student of meditation.'
—Sharon Salzberg, author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

In today's overstimulated world, many are realizing that happiness gained through material wealth and frivolous conquests is short-lived. To achieve long-term happiness, you must access your own bountiful resources—housed in your heart and mind. In Genuine Happiness, longtime Buddhist practitioner Alan Wallace shows you the path to bliss.

Drawing on more than three decades of study under His Holiness the Dalai Lama and sixty other teachers, as well as 2,500 years of Buddhist tradition, Alan Wallace guides you step by step through five simple yet powerful meditations to help you focus your mind and open your heart to true happiness. Featuring a Foreword by the Dalai Lama, this book will help you discover that it is possible to experience genuine happiness every day.

As you incorporate the meditations from Genuine Happiness into your life, you will discover that the joy you've sought has always been only a few meditative minutes away.

B. Alan Wallace points out the many assumptions required to adopt the realist view, and the nihilism implicit in the instrumentalist position. He then proposes a radical philosophical alternative based upon the Buddhist Centrist view. Avoiding the pitfalls of both realism and instrumentalism, as well as materialism and idealism, this perspective focuses on the participatory nature of scientific observation and theorizing. All phenomena are seen as dependently related events lending themselves to multiple interpretations, providing us with the freedom and responsibility to choose our reality within the context of valid experience. The concluding chaptors of this provocative work explore the implications of this view for understanding the nature of the mind and its relation to the body.

In this book the author explains a fundamental type of mental training called lojong, which can literally be translated as attitudinal training.

Buddhism and Science brings together distinguished philosophers, Buddhist scholars, physicists, and cognitive scientists to examine the contrasts and connections between the worlds of Western science and Eastern spirituality. This compilation was inspired by a suggestion made by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, himself one of the contributors, after one of a series of cross-cultural scientific dialogues in Dharamsala, India, sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute. Other contributors such as William L. Ames, Matthieu Ricard, and Stephen LaBerge assess not only the fruits of inquiry from East and West but also shed light on the underlying assumptions of these disparate worldviews. Their essays creatively address a broad range of topics: from quantum theory's surprising affinities with the Buddhist concept of emptiness, to the increasing need in the West for a more contemplative science attuned to the first-person investigation of the mind, to the important ways in which the psychological study of 'lucid dreaming' maps similar terrain to the cultivation of the Tibetan Buddhist discipline of dream yoga.

Reflecting its wide variety of topics, Buddhism and Science is comprised of three sections. The first presents two historical overviews of the engagements between Buddhism and modern science or, rather, how Buddhism and modern science have defined, rivaled, or complemented one another. The second describes the ways Buddhism and the cognitive sciences inform each other; the third addresses points of intersection between Buddhism and the physical sciences. On the broadest level this work illuminates how different ways of exploring the nature of human identity, the mind, and the universe at large can enrich and enlighten one another.

The three traditional Nyingma texts included in this book were selected by Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche for their relevance to the modern-day spiritual aspirant who must combine and balance quality practice time, work time and rest time in the course of a busy day.
Guidelines for formal sitting are presented from the Dzogchen perspective in the teachings on quiescence meditation. Practices for bringing the experiences of daily life into the spiritual path are presented in the section on transformation. Finally, the teachings on dream yoga guide the practitioner in the conscious control of the dream state as well as the bardo state at the end of life.
Complementing each section is a dynamic and practical commentary by Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche specially tailored to the needs of Western students. The result is an indispensable handbook for practitioners at all levels of experience.

Wallace shows us the way to develop attitudes that unveil our full capacity for spiritrual awakening and discover in ourselves an unfleeting truth-given-joy.

Dr. Yeshi Donden, the long-time personal physician of HH the Dali Lama, draws from over fifty years of practicing and teaching this ancient tradition of healing.

This is a 17th-century presentation of the union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen by Karma Chagme, one of the greatest partiarchs of Tibetan Buddism.

This book addresses some of the most fundamental and troublesome questions that have driven a wedge between the realms of Western science and religion for centuries.

Offers insight upon insight as to the way a life should be led.'--Library Journal

Nel buddhismo tibetano, per la grande importanza attribuita alla figura del guru e alla trasmissione diretta da maestro a discepolo, i testi spirituali sono spesso semplici promemoria, ermetici e incomprensibili senza le istruzioni illuminanti di un vero maestro. L'autore di questo libro, che è stato per quattordici anni monaco tibetano, ha avuto modo di ricevere dal maestro laico tibetano Ku-ngo-Barshi la trasmissione orale degli insegnamenti qui presentati e commentati. Il titolo del libro ha due significati: da una parte indica che si tratti di passi, brani di diario, riflessioni sulla pratica e dall'altra allude al carattere stesso degli insegnamenti, una via graduale per uscire dalla solitudine dell'egoismo aprendosi alla solidarietà.