TEP Methane From Landfill

Here’s a link to a story published in the Arizona Daily Star on 11/27/2005. The story really surprised me because the idea seems so simple, so novel, so forward-thinking, thinking outside the box. Who thought this idea up? Will TEP be a good citizen and use more of its resources to help make Tucson a better place to live?

Methane-gas use lets TEP cut back on coal
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/104382

By Eric Swedlund
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.27.2005

In the six years since TEP began producing electricity from methane produced at the city’s Los Reales Landfill, the program has saved 100,000 tons of coal, the utility says.

The program launched in August 1999 when Tucson Electric Power reached an agreement to purchase the methane gas from the city. The methane, a natural emission created by decomposition in the landfill, is captured and piped about three miles to TEP’s H. Wilson Sundt Generating Station on East Irvington Road, said Joe Salkowski, a utility spokesman.

The program is mutually beneficial, with TEP cutting its coal use by burning methane and the landfill operators not having to deal with the hazardous byproduct.

TEP generates 5.5 megawatts of energy from burning the methane gas, enough power to serve 5,500 homes.

The boiler that TEP uses to burn both gas and coal generates 120 megawatts of power, so the methane program cuts coal consumption by 4.6 percent.

By burning less coal, TEP can reduce its emissions. The methane program has reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 870 tons and avoided the production of more than 145,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

And unlike other renewable energy sources, methane isn’t any more expensive than coal, Salkowski said. The city by law has to control landfill gas and assisting in providing clean energy is a benefit, said Nancy Petersen, deputy director for environmental services.

An Inconvenient Truth

[Here’s another older post from the time “An Inconvenient Truth” came out in the theaters. There does seem to be more and more acceptance for the theories Gore presented in the movie, fewer nut-jobs still refuting the solid evidence.]

nuke_cattenom-france_cc I originally viewed Vice-President Al Gore’s feature movie version of his PowerPoint-like presentation and book on global warming. I was stunned and was in awe at the information presented in “An Inconvenient Truth” and applaud our elected non-President Gore for his courage and fortitude in making all of the information covered in “Truth” available to us all and in an entertaining, yet thought-provoking manner.

The data presented in “Truth” was terrifying – melting glaciers all over the world, rising ocean levels, the intensity of storms. I was simply browsing through the RSS feeds of the Librarian Internet Index tonight and came across this article in the Global Warming section on the New Scientist web site about the Siberian tundra bogs turning into big slushy areas and open water lakes in an area the combined size of France and Germany.

The one point Gore made that spoke volumes was how of all the scientific reports about global warming not one refuted the data and scientific facts about the seriousness of global warming. Not one!

I was at a friends house the other night and a guest out-n-out stated that global warming is a myth, there’s no real proof — just a bunch of paranoids and whiners. No, the guest wasn’t George W.

The movie is available via different streaming services – highly recommend viewing it if you haven’t already seen it.

Mass Transit Options

I’ve had this vision in my head about buses, light-rail vehicles (LRVs), electric trolley buses running up and down the streets of Tucson. I expound upon my vision to anyone who will listen. Could that be why I don’t have many friends? Be a witness to my vision…

I lived in San Francisco for almost nine years from 1977 to 1986. I didn’t own a car for almost six years during that time and I loved it! I lived and worked and went to school in San Francisco, taking street cars, light rail, electric buses and diesel buses all over The City. I could stay out late, get home in the middle of the night and still be able to catch a bus. I visited S.F. for a few days this fall and rediscovered how creative San Francisco is, how much of a “can do!” kind of spirit is still alive. This is cool and totally awesome!

I was staying at my brother-in-law’s house in the Bernal Heights area and had taken the bus to that area many times in past years. The bus to that part of town was previously a diesel bus that strained to get up the steep hill to that neighborhood after winding its way through other areas such as the Fillmore, Western Addition, the Castro and Noe Valley, and down to Bayshore Blvd. These latter neighborhoods have fairly narrow streets, some steep hills–very tough on fueled buses. Turns out that S.F. decided to convert the diesel bus line to an electric trolley line–no easy task as I will describe.

An electric trolley bus in San Francisco typically has a set of poles attached to the roof of the bus. Each pole is connected to the rear of the bus via a cable on a reel. (I don’t know the terminology, please bear with me.) Both poles connect to a pair of wires running overhead that provide a connection to the electricity necessary to generate the power for the electric bus. The overhead wires are supported by guides and tracks around corners and intersections with other electric vehicles. The electric trolleys are quiet and clean running. They are quiet inside for passengers and quiet outside for residents of the neighborhoods the trolleys pass through. You hear the wires singing as the bus approaches and occasionally the wires rattling and shaking as the bus passes by. No diesel fumes in the air. No loud diesel engine grinding by while straining up a hill. The electric trolley bus is powerful: a bus full of people and it just plows its way up a hill–piece of cake! Can of corn! Easy as pie!

So, the city of San Francisco decided to retrofit this bus line with electricity and run the trolley through the narrow streets of the neighborhoods. This is sheer gumption! Someone had a huge set of cajones, let me tell you. It is quite a feat of engineering to design the system for this trolley, string up all the wires and support guides, connect all the tracks through the intersections so the bus can pass through and not loose its source of electrical power from the overhead wires. Brilliant! If San Francisco can overcome all of the obstacles in its path and put a clean running, quiet, environmentally sound bus line in place, why the hell can’t a city like Tucson do the same?

Tucson has these ridiculously wide streets for almost all of its arterial surface streets to carry all the cars commuting to work with single passengers. (Look at the lines of cars flying by and count how many of the them have more than one person in the car: 85%? 90%? 95%?) Most of these streets (Broadway, Speedway, 22nd St., Oracle, to name a few) have an existing right lane that is usually marked as a bus lane. How simple it would be to engineer the supports for the wires, string up the electrical system, put a bunch of new, clean buses on those lines. Tucson would have to have the vision of a city with fewer cars on the city streets, a city with a conscience: using less fossil fuels for private citizens to go between home and work. Tucson would have to promote the hell out of a project like this to get an increase in ridership, get people out of their cars for their commute.

So, where is the electrical power coming from? Yeah, Tucson does recover methane gases from the landfills and then uses the methane to be burned and power the turbines that produce electricity. That’s one way. How about passive solar array panels in “fields” around the city or drawing power from the Springerville solar project in the White Mountains that Tucson Electric Power (TEP) owns?

Of course, there will be the whiners and nay-sayers who state that they will loose their views of the surrounding mountains if all these overhead wires are in place. (Like they ever get out of their cars long enough to look for the mountains!) My response to this is: will you be able to see your mountains in a couple of years when all the smog produced by the increasing hordes of cars obscures the view?

What about the stress of driving in traffic? The wear-and-tear on your car taking you to/from work? The expense of your gassing up the car each week (well, hopefully only once a week–you are driving a car that gets over 30 MPG in the city, aren’t you?)

If enough buses are on the street, you won’t wait long for your connection. I lived off a street car line (the J Church line–ran past the Catholic church and school shown in the Whoopie Goldberg movie, “Sister Act”) and I had to wait 4-6 minutes during commute hours in the morning for the next streetcar to come along. The trip home at night was the same. Since I was downtown, other street cars for the other lines distributed throughout the city would come by every 2-3 minutes. Traveling was easy: I could read, look out the window, listen to my headphones. I was never accosted on any ride at any time in the years in which I took mass transit in San Francisco.

Stephen Farley has had a vision to have light rail vehicles in a few lines around Tucson. I say, that’s not bold enough! Tucson needs more and Tucson can do more! I have faith. The people have to hear about this and they have to want this: they have to understand the benefits, they have to understand how their quality of life will improve with fewer cars on the road, how they will meet more of their neighbors while riding the buses, appreciate their city and all it has to offer.

That’s my vision. I haven’t been locked up for it, yet…

Potent Quotes

Here are a number of quotes I’ve collected over the years that I considered “potent” — very significant or simply clarified some finer point of the Dharma.

Putting the Buddha’s discovery into practice is no quick fix. It can take years. The most important qualification at the beginning is a strong desire to change your life by adopting new habits and learning to see the world anew.
—Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
Tricycle Fall 2001

Right now we have the ability to receive teachings and practice the Dharma. Isn’t this the right time? Wouldn’t that be better than continuing to act like an animal, concentrating only on eating and sleeping and letting time run out? Why not take your future into your own hands?
—Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Tricycle, Fall 2001

“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” conveys the message that no teacher can do our work for us and that extreme reverence for a teacher or a set of beliefs may keep us from reaching our own truth.
—Sandy Boucher
Opening The Lotus, pg 9

Offering your body and mind to emptiness, or in other words, to the pure sense of human action.
—Dainin Katagiri, Roshi
Returning To Silence (pg 9)

If you study Buddhism thinking that it will help you, that means that you use Buddhism for your ego, for selfishness. No matter how long you do this, it is egocentric practice. If you continue to practice like this you will never be satisfied, because desire is endless.
—Dainin Katagiri, Roshi
Returning To Silence (pg 9)

…Do not use Buddhism for yourself. Offer your body and mind to the Buddha-dharma. Buddha is not divine. Buddha is your daily life.
—Dainin Katagiri, Roshi
Returning To Silence (pg 9)

Certainty is our lens to interpret what’s going on, and, as long as our explanations work, we feel a sense of stability and security. But in a changing world, certainty doesn’t give us stability; it actually creates more chaos. As we stay locked in our position and refuse to adapt, the things we’d hoped would stay together fall apart. …By holding on, we destroy what we hope to preserve; by letting go, we feel secure in accepting what is.
—Margaret Wheatley
Shambhala Sun, Nov. 2001, pg 17

The nature of ignorance is to lack deep communication with nature or with the universe. It is to separate, to isolate, to create discrimination and differences, so that finally we cannot communicate as a harmonious whole. These differences we create appear as fighting, anger, hatred, and war.
—Dainin Katagiri, Roshi
Returning To Silence (pg 17)

An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t. It’s knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it’s knowing how to use the information once you get it.
—William Feather

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Good Earth tea

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967

The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

Renunciation does not have to be regarded as negative. I was taught that it has to do with letting go of holding back. What one is renouncing is closing down and shutting off from life. You could say that renunciation is the same thing as opening to the teachings of the present moment.
—Pema Chodron
Tricycle Fall ’91 (pg 50)

Renunciation is realizing that our nostalgia for wanting to stay in a protected, limited, petty world is insane.
—Pema Chodron
Tricycle Fall ’91 (pg 50)

“When I am accused of something that I didn’t do, I bow in acknowledgement of all the things that I did do.”
–quote attributed to R. H. Blythe
Tricycle, Fall ’91, (pg. 69)

….Evil is just deep unconsciousness–a terrible inability of people to comprehend the oneness of humanity. The willingness to war against other people is a consequence of this.
—Bruce Joel Rubin
Tricycle Fall ’91 (pg. 79)

Three axioms arising from practice:

The situation is not other than your mind;
You don’t choose the situation, but can choose how to practice it;
Any situation can take the form of wisdom and compassion.

—Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery

…If we don’t see the end we don’t know what to do, or if the end is far away we become upset. When we think of how to master zazen or attain enlightenment or try to understand zazen as taught by the Buddha, we become exhausted. We can’t practice. Sometimes, when we feel lazy, we should think of those questions.
—Dainin Katagiri, Roshi
Returning To Silence (pg 116)

They do not lament over the past, they yearn not for what is to come, they maintain themselves in the present, thus their complexion is serene
—Samyutta Nikaya I, 5

To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to purify one’s mind-this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
—Dhammapada 183

Look not to the faults of others, nor to their omissions and commissions. But rather look to your own acts, to what you have done and left undone.
—Dhammapada 50

Buddhism teaches absolute equality which stemmed from Buddha’s recognition that all sentient beings possess this innate wisdom and nature. Therefore, there is no inherent difference among beings.
—Rev. Chun Kin
“Buddhism Education”

A person’s true character is revealed by what he does when no one is watching.
—Anonymous
Good Earth tea

When people say they are bored, often they mean that they don’t want to experience the sense of emptiness, which is also an expression of openness and vulnerability. … Fearlessness is a question of learning how to be. Be there all along…
—Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche<
Shambhala Sun, (pg 30)

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
—Jack London

Contentment, unlike happlness, is not dependent upon our circumstancs. It is an inner perspective from which we are aware of the difficulties or problems of our lives without being emotionally controlled by them. Contentment is an experience of inner peace.
—Matthew Flickstein
“Journey to the Center”, (pg 15)

I’ve learned that it’s better not to wait for a crisis to discover what’s important in your life.
—unknown
“Live & Learn Pass It On”

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
—Colette
Good Earth tea bag

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person-to-person.
—Mother Teresa

Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge.
—Digha Nikaya, 16

The devil often cites Scripture for his purpose.
—William Shakespeare
Rules For Writers, pg 475

May all creatures, all living things,
all beings one and all,
experience good fortune only.
May they not fall into harm.
—Anguttara Nikaya II, 72

With good will for the entire cosmos,
cultivate a limitless heart:
Above, below, & all around,
unobstructed, without hostility or hate.
—Sutta Nipata I, 8

“As I am, so are others;
as others are, so am I.”
Having thus identified self and others,
harm no one nor have them harmed.
—Sutta Nipata 705

Buddhism Books

Here are some books on Buddhism I have read and recommend for visitors who are interested in furthering their knowledge and understanding of Buddhism. I’ve formatted this list as a table with a clickable link to the book offering on Amazon.com.
smaller_buddha-sarnath

Title	Author	ISBN #	Description	Amazon URL
Journey to the Center	Matthew Flickstein	0861711416	This is your guide to deeper insight and contentment. Using hands-on exercises, journal entries, guided meditations, and stories, Matthew Flickstein combines Eastern meditation techniques and methods of Western psychotherapy to offer you this practical workbook for realizing your greatest potential.	Amazon Link to “Journey to the Center”
A Path with Heart	Jack Kornfield	0553372114	One of my favorite books. Based on Jack Kornfield’s dharma talks: full of great stories, insights, observations, and recommendations about living in the modern world and living an authentic life, following the path with connections to our heart.	Amazon link to “A Path With Heart”
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry	Jack Kornfield	0553378295	This book offers a uniquely intimate and honest understanding of how the modern spiritual journey unfolds – and how we can prepare our hearts for awakening.	Amazon link to “After the Ecstasy, the Laundry”
A Heart as Wide as the World	Sharon Salzberg	1570624283	Sharon Salzberg reveals how our own happiness is found in the capacity to open our hearts to others – and shows that this capacity is far more vast than we may ever have thought possible. Through meditation and the practice of lovingkindness, Salzberg shows how we can discover our intimate connection to those around us and to the world as a whole.	Amazon link to “A Heart as Wide as the World”
Lovingkindness : The Revolutionary Art of Happiness	Sharon Salzberg	1570621764	Sharon Salzberg shows us how we might systematically cultivate lovingkindness in our lives. Given the pain and turmoil that we often experience, the endemic misperceptions of the human mind regarding who and what we are, and how we relate to the stress and pain of our lives, practicing lovingkindness is an arduous discipline – no less so than attending to one’s breathing or observing the stream of one’s thought.	Amazon link to “Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness”
Swallowing the River Ganges	Matthew Flickstein	0861711785	A practical guide to the Path of Purification	Amazon link to “Swallowing the River Ganges”
The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching	Thich Nhat Hanh	0965856267	One of my favorite dharma teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh. Transforming suffering into peace, joy, and liberation.	Amazon link to “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching”
Awakening the Buddha Within : Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World	Lama Surya Das	0767901576	Lama Surya Das shows how we can awaken to who we really are in order to lead a more compassionate, enlightened, and balanced life.	Amazon link to “Awakening the Buddha Within”
Selling Water by the River	Jiyu Kennet	0394718046	Here is a fascinating inside view of the religious side of Zen through a comprehensive manual of instruction for trainees.	Amazon link to “Selling Water by the River”
How to Meditate : A Practical Guide	Kathleen McDonald	0861710096	What is meditation? Why practice it? Which technique is best for me? How do I do it? The answers to these often-asked questions are contained in this down-to-earth book.	Amazon link to “How to Meditate”
Phra Farang	Phra Peter Pannapadipo	0099484471	Tells the story of Peter Robinson, a successful businessman, who at forty five, gave up his comfortable life in London to ordain as a Buddhist monk in Bangkok. But the new path he had chosen was not always as easy or as straightforward as he hoped it would be.	Amazon link to “Phra Farang”
Buddhism: A Way of Life and Thought	Nancy Wilson Ross	0394747542	A great book that provides a clear, concise overview of Buddhism, the different traditions and locations. Highly recommended.	Amazon link to “Buddhism – A Way of Life and Thought”
Bearing Witness: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Making Peace	Bernie Glassman	0609803913	A wonderful book rich with practical and spiritual wisdom for making peace in our hearts and in the world. How Glassman Roshi was moved to start the Zen Peacemaker Order.	Amazon link to “Bearing Witness”
The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment	Philip Kapleau Roshi	0385260938	This rich source book on Zen Buddhism includes Yasutani Roshi’s Introductory Lectures on Zen practice and his private instructions to ten Westerners studying Zen.	Amazon link to “The Three Pillars of Zen”
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind	Shunryu Suzuki	0834800799	The mind of the beginner is needed throughout Zen practice. It is the open mind, the attitude that includes both doubt and possibility, the ability to see things always as fresh and new. It is needed in all aspects of life. Beginner’s mind is the practice of Zen mind.	Amazon link to “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”
Returning to Silence	Dainin Katagiri	0877734313	Offers a basic understanding of Zen Buddhism. Special emphasis on discovering the experience of enlightenment in the midst of everyday life.	Amazon link to “Returning to Silence”
Opening the Lotus: A Woman’s Guide to Buddhism	Sandy Boucher	0807073083	Do women take a unique approach to spirituality? What are the elements of the Buddhist path, and what particular challenges might a Western woman face in beginning a Buddhist practice? What profound benefits does Buddhist practice offer to contemporary women?	Amazon link to “Opening the Lotus”
Everyday Zen	Charlotte Joko Beck	0060607343	Offers a warm, engaging, uniquely American approach to using Zen to deal with the problems of daily living – love, relationships, work, fear, ambition, suffering. Beck shows how to live each moment to the fullest.	Amazon link to “Everyday Zen”
The Miracle of Mindfulness	Thich Nhat Hanh	0807012394	This lucid and beautiful guide to Eastern meditation provides Westerners with a method of learning the skills of mindfulness – of being awake and fully aware.	Amazon link to “The Miracle of Mindfulness”
Touching Peace	Thich Nhat Hanh	0938077570	Thich Nhat Hanh continues to develop the teachings on practicing the art of mindful living begun in Being Peace.	Amazon link to “Touching Peace”
Nine-Headed Dragon River	Peter Matthiessen	1570623678	This moving, highly personal story attempts to convey the essence of the Zen experience as the journal shuttles between an account of modern Zen masters in America, details of the Buddha’s life, lyrical introspection and poetic recollections of Nepal, Tibet, India and Japan.	Amazon link to “Nine-Headed Dragon River”
Zen Flesh Zen Bones	Paul Reps, Nyogen Senzaki	0804831866	The essence of Zen–as a way of life, a religion, an aesthetic–can be found in the works of the Zen canon. Reps draws short stories and vignettes from such classic works as The Gateless Gate and 101 Zen Stories to help listeners come closer to answering the question: What is Zen?	Amazon link to “Zen Flesh Zen Bones”
Buddha’s Little Instruction Book	Jack Kornfield	0553373854	Buddha’s simple instructions have helped people to find wholeness and peace amid life’s crises and distractions for more than 2,500 years.	Amazon link to “Buddha’s Little Instruction Book”
Awakening Loving-Kindness	Pema Chodron	1570622590	Small, pocket (abridged) edition that contains great lessons and methods of practicing. This book, and any of Pema Chodron’s books are highly recommended.	Amazon link to “Awakening Loving-Kindness”
The Jewel in the Lotus	Stephen Batchelor	0861710487	This is the first book in English to bring together a clear and down to earth introduction to Tibetan Buddhism with selections of teachings from each of the traditions that have flourished in Tibet, and now in the West, for more than a thousand years.	Amazon link to “The Jewel in the Lotus”
Introduction to Buddhism	Geshe Kelsang Gyatso	0948006277	An explanation of the Buddhist way of life, a compelling introduction to the life and teachings of Buddha. Those new to Buddhism and meditation will find this book an ideal guide to the Buddhist way of life.	Amazon link to “Introduction to Buddhism”
Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior	Chogyam Trungpa	0877732647	Drawing from the teachings of Tibet’s age-old warrior culture, Chogyam Trungpa shows us how to use the principles of enlightened warriorship in our own lives to conquer the self-doubt, negativity, and aggression that keep us from genuine happiness and total fulfillment.	Amazon link to “Shambhala-The Sacred Path of the Warrior”
Taking the Path of Zen	Robert Aitken	0865470804	Robert Aitken presents the practice, lifestyle, rationale, and ideology of Zen Buddhism with remarkable clarity. Taking the Path of Zen will serve as orientation and guide for anyone who is drawn to the ways of Zen.	Amazon link to “Taking the Path of Zen”
Only Don’t Know	Seung Sahn	0942795032	The first Korean Zen Master to teach in the West, Seung Sahn challenges his students with kong-ans, encourages them in their practice, and teaches them by holding before them the clear mirror of his own mind.	Amazon link to “Only Don’t Know”
Imagine All The People	Tenzin Gyatso, The XIV Dalai Lama	0861711505	If you could sit down with The Dalai Lama and talk with him about anything, what would you discuss? Fabien Ouaki, a prominent French businessman, was granted such an opportunity and asked The Dalai Lama what he thinks about the everyday issues that fill our newspapers and lives.	Amazon link to “Imagine All The People”
Beyond Dogma	Tenzin Gyatso, The XIV Dalai Lama	1556432186	His Holiness responds to a wide range of contemporary social, political, and religious issues during a series of public lectures and question-and-answer sessions with political activists, religious leaders, students, scientists, Buddhist practitioners, and interfaith organizations.	Amazon link to “Beyond Dogma”
Gesture of Balance	Tarthang Tulku	091354616X	Gesture of Balance urges us to directly experience our own natures and to find their surprising ways of living full and worthwhile lives.	Amazon link to “Gesture of Balance”
Zen: Dawn in the West	Roshi Phillip Kapleau	0385142730	This book draws upon Roshi Kapleau’s experience in conducting intensive retreats, introductory workshops, and lectures, and in guiding hundreds of Zen students of all ages at the Rochester Zen Center.	Amazon link to “Zen: Dawn in the West”
The Mind of Clover	Robert Aitken	0865471584	Robert Aitken addresses the world beyond the zazen cushions, illuminating issues of appropriate personal and social action through an exploration of the philosophical complexities of Zen ethics.	Amazon link to “The Mind of Clover”
Bring Me the Rhinoceros	John Tarrant	1400047641	This book offers an unusual path to happiness. It doesn’t encourage you to strive for things or manipulate people or change yourself into an improved, more polished version of you. Instead, it deftly shows that, rather than laboriously building happiness, you can just unbuild, unmake, toss overboard, and generally subvert unhappiness.	Amazon link to “Bring Me the Rhinoceros”
The Gateless Barrier	Robert Aitken	0856474427	The Gateless Barrier is generally acknowledged to be the fundamental koan collection in the literature of Zen. Gathered together by Wu-men (Mumon), a thirteenth-century master of the Lin-chi (Rinzai) school, it is composed of forty-eight koans, or cases, each accompanied by a brief comment and poem by Wu-men. Aitken has translated Wu-men’s text, supplementing the original with his own commentary – making the profound truths of Zen Buddhism accessible to serious contemporary students and relevant to current social concerns.	Amazon link to “The Gateless Barrier”
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying	Sogyal Rinpoche	0062507931	In this timely book, Sogyal Rinpoche focuses on how to understand the true meaning of life, how to accept death, and how to help the dying, and the dead. … This book offers readers not just a theoretical account of death and dying, but also practical measures for understanding, and for preparing themselves and others in a calm and fulfilling way.	Amazon link to “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying”
Teachings of the Buddha	Jack Kornfield, editor	0877738602	Included here are some of the earliest recorded sayings of the historic Buddha on the practice of freedom, selections from later Indian Buddhist scriptures on the perfection of wisdom, verses from the Tibetan masters on the enlightened mind, and songs of praise by Zen teachers on the great value of meditation.	Amazon link to “Teachings of the Buddha”
The Dhammapada	translated The Venerable Balangoda Ananda Maitreya	0938077872	The Dhammapada holds a special place of distinction in Buddhist literature. It is often characterized as the most representative example of the teachings of the Buddha. It provides, beautifully and simply, a key to the fundamentals of early Buddhist philosophy…	Amazon link to “The Dhammapada”
One Dharma	Joseph Goldstein	0062517015	Goldstein’s intention is twofold. First, it is to leave readers with a path of practice that integrates various teachings and methods of these several traditions – from the first steps of entering the path to the transformative experience of sudden awakening. And second, it is to show that, beneath the differences of method and philosophy, there is a deep common vein of liberating wisdom that runs through all the lineages of Buddhism.	Amazon link to “One Dharma”
Mountain Record of Zen Talks	John Daido Loori	0877734453	Based on dharma talks given by John Daido Loori, the book explores the seven areas of study that are the focus of training at Zen Mountain Monastery in New York State: meditation, study with the teacher, liturgy, art practice, body practice, the study of scriptures, and work practice.	Amazon link to “Mountain Record of Zen Talks”
The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation	Thich Nhat Hanh	9781935209928	One of the few books focused completely on mindful walking and walking meditation. This revised edition of the best-selling title (nearly 80,000 copies sold to date) includes over 30 percent new material—including new walking meditation poems and practices—and provides a practical and inspirational introduction to this important practice.	Amazon link to “The Long Road Turns to Joy”

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: