A lively exploration of contemporary Buddhism from one of its most
admired teachers.
Do you feel at home right now? Or do you sense a hovering anxiety or
uncertainty, an underlying unease that makes you feel just a bit
uncomfortable, a bit distracted and disconnected from those around you?
In The Road Home, 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 his experience as a Buddhist teacher and practitioner,
Nichtern describes in fresh and deeply resonant terms the basic
existential experience that gives rise to spiritual seeking--and to its
potentially dangerous counterpart, spiritual materialism.
He reveals how our individual quests for self-awareness ripple forward
into relationships, communities, and society at large. And 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.
In this wise and witty invitation to Buddhist meditation, Nichtern shows
how, in order to create a truly compassionate and enlightened society,
we must start with ourselves. And this means beginning by working with
our own minds--in whatever state we find them.
