Pursuing Personal Peace
Margaret Rush and Dennis Stratton
Sunday 2 PM - 2:30 PM
Pursuing Personal Peace PODCAST is available by scrolling down and choosing book and specific podcast.
Pursuing Personal Peace is an on-air book club. The Dalai Lama said, “World peace must develop from inner peace.” Each week Margaret and Dennis tap into the rich Buddhist literature that points toward personal peace. In the process of exploring the books, opportunities arise for a deeper understanding of ourselves, as well as incorporating the new insights into our daily lives.
AWAKENING FROM THE DAYDREAM, Reimagining the Buddha’s Wheel of Life
INTRODUCTION
It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that is exactly what the Buddha’s Wheel of Life does. A mandala that is a symbolic representation of the human condition. It is an allegorical esoteric image that generates a visualization of the cycly of birth, rebirth samsara, and the law of karma.
In our new book, AWAKENING FROM THE DAYDREAM, David Nichtern unpacks the Wheel of Life’s famous images, while, quote, teaching us how to make sense of life, and how to find peace in an uncertain world.
David Nichtern’s Biography
Our author was raised in Mahatten, New York in a musical family, Mr. Nichtern began his musical career during his college years at Columbia University.
Beginning in 1970, David Nichtern became a student of the Shambhala Buddhist tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and was taught by its founder, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Mr. Nichtern has since become a senior teacher. He has been the Director of Expansion for Sambhala Training and co-director of the Karme Choling Meditation Center in Vermont.
Number 14
ENLIGHTENMENT TO GO, Shantideva and the Compassion to Transform Your Life by David Michie
INTRODUCTION
In ENLIGHTENMENT TO GO, David Michie provides a lively, accessible introduction to the “best of Shantideva.” With warmth, humor, and stories of his own experience, Mr. Michie shows how modern psychological science confirms Shantideva’s insight, and he explores it through powerful antidoes to contemporary problems, including stress, anxiety, and depression.
BIOGRAPHY
David Michie was born and raised in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Britain’s last colony in Africa. His family immigrated to Great Britain while David was a youth. During his twenties and early thirties, Mr. Michie’s career in corporate public relations and his social life became pre-eminent. There they may have remained were it not for an allegic condition which led to start of his meditation practice and a journey of inner growth. Within two years of beginning to meditate, Mr. Michie achieved a long-held ambition of becoming a published writer/author. And having met and married his Austrialian wife, they moved to Perth, Austrialia where he continued to work in public relations and writing. Away from the frenetic buzz of the big city, he was able to develop his interest in Tibetan Buddhism further. Among his previous publications was BUDDHISM FOR BUSY PEOPLE which describes Mr. Michie’s encounters with the Dharma. BUDDHISM FOR BUSY PEOPLE have been reviewed by Pursuring Personal Peace.
Number 13
FEAR, Essential Wisdom For Getting Through the Storm by Thich Nhat Hanh.
INTRODUCTION
Fear came to us with birth as does the desire to survivie, begins this wonderful book. How could it be otherwise, we were born helpless and powerless infants. Suddenly we were exposed to heat and cold, loud noises, hunger, bright lights, gravity and separation. We had to breathe for ourselves or die. We had to survive, and that meant getting someone else to protect us, and take care of us. Thich Nhat Hanh says that as adults, we are often afraid to remember or to be in touch with the helpless child that is still alive within us. If we look deeply, however, we have the capacity to calm our fear with its many expressions—all spinoffs of the original fear experienced at birth. He gives us practical ways to transform the roots of fear so that we can live fearlessly. Without fear, he tells us, we will see clearly our connections to others. And, without fear, we will have more room for understanding and compassion. Without fear, we are truly free.
BIOGRAPHY
Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Buddhist Zen master, poet, scholar, and peace activitist. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hanh was the author of many books, including the classics PEACE IN EVERY STEP and THE ART OF POWER. Hanh lived in Plum Village, his meditation center in France for many years before return to Vietnam. It is with sadness we announce the death of Thich Nhat Hanh. He remains with us in his beautiful teachings, the flowers in the field, the forest, his connection in many hearts and water in the ocean.
Number 12
BUDDHISM FOR BUSY PEOPLE, Finding Happiness in a Hurried World by David Mickie
BUDDHISM FOR BUSY PEOPLE has the author, David Mickie, using examples from his life to facilitate sharing his understanding of Buddhism. He answers the age old question of what it is that makes us happy, and he answers why he feels the answer is found by incorporating Buddhist practices into daily life. Lion’s Roar magazine states this book is for those who have been searching for a sincere, accessible introduction to Buddhism. Margaret and I feel it is also for those of us who might need a little reminder.
David Micke was born and raised in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Britain’s last colony in Africa. It was as a teenager in the late 1970’s that Mr. Mickie first heard about Tibetan Buddhism. He gained more glimpses of Buddhism while studying Jung as part of his psychology degree while also developing a keen interest in cognitive behavior therapy and other concepts he later discovered were a central part of Buddhist psycholoty. During his twenties and early thirties, his career in corporate public relations and social life became pre-eminent and more esoteric interests were put on hold. There they might have remain were it not for an allergic condition in his early thirties which led to the start of his meditation practice and a journey of inner growth. Within two years of beginning meditation, David Mickie became a published writer, a life-long dream. After meeting and marrying his Australian wife, they moved to Perth, Australia. He began developing his interest in Tibetan Buddhism and attending regular classes and retreats. BUDDHISM FOR BUSY PEOPLE describes Mr. Mickie’s encounter with the Dharma, both in London and Perth, weaving an autobiographic narrative through a presentation of core Tibetan Buddhist concepts.
Number 11
THE LOST ART OF COMPASSION by Dr. Lorne Ladner
Number 10
SATIPATTHANA MEDITATION, A Practice Guide by Bhikkhu Analayo
This practice guide is brief, and profound. It offers a detailed, engaging, and flexible approach to satipatthana meditation that can be easily applied both in meditation and in day-to-day activities. The inspired practice suggestions and joyful enquiry that pervade each chapter will draw students toward liberating insight.
Number 9
DENNIS STRATTON
Margaret Rush Sundays 2 pm - 2:30 pm
Pursuing Personal Peace is an on-air book club. The Dalai Lama said, “World peace must develop from inner peace.” Each week Margaret and Dennis tap into the rich Buddhist literature that points toward personal peace. In the process of exploring the books, opportunities arise for a deeper understanding of ourselves, as well as incorporating the new insights into our daily lives.
LETTING GO OF THE PERSON YOU USE TO BE, Lessons on Change, Loss, and Transformation
By: Lama Surya Das
“Loss is the great equalizer that reminds us that we are not omnipotent; it helps us crack open our defensive shell of invulnerability and denial,” writes Lama Surya Das. We have all been shaken by experiences of suffering and loss. This book contains stories about people who have been hobbled by pain, illness, the death of loved one, and other personal losses. Surya Das mixes these accounts with meditative practices and exceptional teaching stories from the Buddhist tradition to lift the sagging spirit.”
Number 8
THE GOOD HEART, A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Number 7
BUDDHISM PLAIN & SIMPLE: The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day
This book, BUDDHISM PLAIN & SIMPLE, The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day, although originally written in 1997, is still relevant in our time, and a faultless escort for beginners, as well as advanced practitioners into the core of the Buddhist teachings. It is an exposé on the wisdom of “here” and “now”, as taught by the Buddha some 2500 years ago.
Number 6
PREVIOUS SHOW - Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are
MARGARET RUSH
BAXTER PHARR
In this book, Jack Kornfield, one of the wise elders of American Buddhism, says that in order to experience inner peace and wisdom, we don’t need to remove ourselves from society and join a monastery. Our lives just as they are provide the fertile soil in which to sow the seeds for spiritual awakening and lasting happiness. Topics discussed in this book include meditation, politics, parenting, the perils and promises of the spiritual path, lessons from modern spiritual masters, and the future of American Buddhism. Kornfield’s gift as a masterful storyteller shows us how to apply this ancient wisdom to bring about the fruits of an awakened life in these modern times.
Number 5
ARCHIVED SHOWS - The Heart is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out
In this book, His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, shares his insights on topics ranging from healthy relationships to consumerism to social action to environmental protection to food sustainability. His hopeful message is that each of us has a noble heart which is the source of our highest aspirations for ourselves and our world. When we connect with this noble heart and let it guide us, then we can help solve the greatest challenges facing humanity in the twenty first century.
Number 4
ARCHIVED SHOWS - The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
In The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh introduces us to the core teachings of Buddhism and shows us how to apply them to our daily lives. With clear and poetic language, Thich Nhat Hanh imparts comforting wisdom about the nature of human suffering and how we can cultivate wholesome states of mind that lead to more well being in ourselves and our world.
Number 3
ARCHIVED SHOWS - It’s Up to You
This book will transform the way we think about objects, entities, and ourselves. With characteristic freshness, Dzigar Kongtrul offers a practice he calls self-reflection. We explore his suggestion that relaxing focus on the self and opening the attention to a much bigger picture represent feasible solutions to the stress of fixation. The author encourages each one of us to take responsibility for how we confer meaning upon the ideas and activities generated in mind. These seemingly plain words unpack to reveal a world in which there is considerable choice regarding everyday experience.
Number 2
ARCHIVED SHOWS - Reflections on Silver River
The ancient wisdom of Tokme Zongpo, presented through the eyes of Ken McLeod in Reflections on Silver River: The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, is as relevant now as it was in the fourteenth century. While we as human beings continue to find ourselves in difficult patterns that are remarkably similar to those of our predecessors, Ken's commentary is full of practical, simple, and inspiring descriptions of how to apply timeless truths to a modern life. In this book, a path to personal peace is presented in a deep and pithy format, one that will challenge both readers and listeners alike, providing rich substance for lively on-air book-club discussion.
Number 1
ARCHIVED SHOWS - Dancing with Life by Phillip Moffitt is a handbook for dancing with the ups and downs of life. Phillip provides a fresh perspective on moving from suffering to new awareness, peace and joy. He offers a path through mindfulness and the Four Noble Truths, showing us how we can choose to dance with life. Join Margaret Rush and Karen Latvala as they discuss the main points of the book chapter by chapter.