These reviews are offered to inform readers of the various reactions of Sangha members to books on spiritual practice. We hope they can illuminate a path toward awakening for us all.

Putting It into Practice
By Doug Dillon

I don't know about you but when I read a really good book on spirituality, Buddhism or even self-help books, I often get very inspired and fired up to apply those wonderful concepts to my daily life. But somehow over time, the intensity of that intent wanes and gets a little lost in the chaos of minute to minute living. Sound familiar? For me, it's a lot like hearing wonderful Dharma talks while on retreat only to find myself unable to adequately sustain full implementation of the understandings gained once the retreat is over.

Well, guess what? Seven months ago, I broke that cycle with a book called The Lost Art of Compassion. This was a case of the right book at the right time if there ever was one. A crisis in my life led me to a private session with our Dharma friend, Peter Carlson, who in turn suggested The Lost Art as a pathway to help me make needed changes. Compassion, he said, was what I needed to focus on instead of my illusory self. His words made sense intellectually, just like they've made sense all the other times I've heard them, but that "illusory self" was feeling an awful lot of very real suffering. I wasn't at all sure that more reading was going to help a great deal.

Maybe it was the depth of the crisis I was going through but much to my surprise, as soon as I got that book, I started underlining important passages like a madman. Almost everything I read seemed to speak to me in ways that brought a brilliant new clarity to what I already knew and added layers of new understanding. Written by a mental health therapist who also runs a Buddhist Center, the book wove Buddhist thought and practical self-help ideas into an extremely helpful conceptual framework. Suddenly, all the Dharma lessons, all the readings and all the insights gained in meditation began to come together as a comprehensive whole. What I had previously understood about "interbeing" and "the impermanence of the self" really started to click. To top it off, the author, Lorne Ladner, even included specific exercises and meditations that I was able to put into immediate use.

The only negative was that I underlined so much of the book that making good use of all that information proved to be a daunting challenge. So, in an effort to maintain my spiritual/psychological momentum, I boiled those words of wisdom down into succinct bullet points and directed them at myself as continuing guidance. Since then, I have very conscientiously used that list on a weekly basis to remind myself of what I've learned and what my life direction must be. That, combined with a strong meditative practice, has truly made my daily existence happier and more productive.

Rather than tell you any more about the book, I am simply going to share with you my list of bullet points (See below). Maybe that will be useful to you in and of itself, and then again, it may stimulate you into reading the book for yourself. Especially if you have any lingering relationship issues in your life, like most of us do, you will definitely find Ladner's work well worth your time.

Book title: The Lost Art of Compassion: Discovering the Practice of Happiness in the Meeting of Buddhism and Psychology
Author: Lorne Ladner, practicing psychologist in the Washing DC area and Director of the Guhyasamaja Buddhist Center in northern Virginia
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2004
Cost: HB - $23.95, PB - $16.95

From the book
The Lost Art of Compassion
A Final Distillation

· Compassion is the way to go for the happiness of all - make it a baseline for thought
· Harming compassion harms ourselves and others
· Self-cherishing is the main, inner cause of our suffering. It is the doorway to all torment.
· Cherish others, not the illusory self.
· The narcissistic ego gets in the way of compassion
· The narcissistic ego is an illusion built up over time
· Narcissism always involves self-deception.
· If the narcissistic ego is an illusion, then so are my perceptions of others.
· Narcissism means playing a role - not being my natural self.
· Look deeply at the harmful self illusions created by the ego and let them go.
· Conceptually exaggerate your negative traits in order for clear viewing.
· "Don't feed the ego!" Be ruthless with it.
· Be a fierce warrior against the enemy within (the ego)
· Use tonglen (Tibetan art of taking negativity and giving positiveness) to battle the enemy within and promote compassion
· My ego projects my past, my desires and aversions onto others unconsciously.
· Arguments are rooted in my narcissism.
· Anger forces me to see only the other person's flaws and destroys compassion
· When I project onto others it comes out in psychic and physical manifestations I am not consciously aware of (sighs, looks, muscle tensing, movements, stances, etc.)
· If I am defensive, moody, agitated or angry, I am choosing illusions over love.
· Distancing causes more suffering. Distancing from compassion as well.
· When I identify with a superficial self-image, my heart closes in upon itself.
· See the divine in everyone and everything
· See the negativity in yourself and others as suffering in need of compassion
· Use another's negative energy to actually promote compassion
· If I am unhappy, I am not practicing compassion very well
· If I don't effectively take care of myself, this is not compassion and works against having compassion for others
· Clinging to ease, comfort, stature, desire, self pampering, distractions, etc., rots my compassion
· To let go of my clinging, contemplate impermanence
· Staying in the moment promotes even-mindedness/equanimity
· It takes even-mindedness/equanimity to promote compassion
· Going outside of the moment depletes my compassion
· Clinging and craving always take me out of the moment
· Facing death in self and others develops solid compassion
· Being indifferent or averse to someone means no compassion is present
· The thoughts and emotions that I am cultivating now will determine what I experience and how I will feel/react in the future (karma)
· Starting the same argument over and over shows projection and lack of compassion
· Being of 2 minds about someone shows self projection
· Getting caught up in my own thoughts, feeling and sensations means I can't really focus on somebody else. I am then buying what the ego is selling.
· Empathy and compassion don't equal agreement with a negative person's outlook
· Turn the tide of another's negative expression back to them with heartfelt empathy and compassion.
· Positively reflect the energy level of the other person.
· Help the other person resonate with calm, love and compassion.
· Repeated over time, my honest, loving and compassionate efforts can bring about deep, positive changes in another person.
· Habituate yourself to compassion. It will become more and more spontaneous and powerful
· Using compassion, you can stand up to people without being negative
· The most difficult people need my compassion the most.
· Cultivate gratitude - past kindnesses done for me -cherish the memories and pass them on.
· Avoiding inner and outer conflicts increases opportunities for compassion.
· In embracing compassion, I will joyfully succeed in losing an argument.
· Mourn the living.
· Giving heartfelt kindness toward someone who has just treated me badly has the pure feeling of a cool creek in the high mountains.

BREATH BY BREATH
The book I'm reviewing is called Breath by Breath, The liberation Practice of Insight Meditation, by Larry Rosenberg, published by Shambala. Larry is a founding teacher of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Massachusetts. I have attended several of his retreats at IMS in Barre, MA., and he is a very personable teacher. This book is suitable for a beginning or more advanced meditator.

It is a commentary on the Anapanasati Sutta, a major teaching of the Buddha. Anapanasati means "mindfulness of breathing in and breathing out". The teaching shows how to use the breath awareness to steady attention while examining the arising and passing away of sensations in the body, feelings, mental states and the cultivating of wisdom. This is a progressive process, with one skillful awareness building toward the next.

Here is a quote from the book: "If we can learn to allow the breath to unfold naturally, without tampering with it, then in time we may be able to do that with other aspects of our experience: we might learn to let the feelings be, let the mind be. We do a great deal more controlling of the mind, because we're afraid of what might turn up. But it is through letting the mind be that we eventually learn how to relax and let go into freedom…". The author guides us through the stages of breath awareness with expertise and wit. It is an easy read and very informative. Submitted by Peter Carlson.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER
This review focuses on "Journey to the Center-a Meditation Workbook" by Matthew Flickstein, published by Wisdom in 1998. I know Matt, and I think he has some unique skills as a teacher. He is trained as a psychotherapist and spent a major part of his career providing skills training for institutions and individuals interested in increasing production. In addition to being a professional trainer, he is also a primary student of Bhante Gunaratana, who is a very well respected teacher from Sri Lanka who has lived and taught in the U.S. for over 25 years. This workbook is helpful for beginners and more experienced meditators because it includes exercises for practical applications of the principles of Buddhism. For instance, he suggests a journal format for answering some questions that are important to discover: "How much of your life do you spend dwelling on the past or the future?…How much of your life do you spend looking forward to being somewhere else?" This book provides a structured, gradual approach to practicing Buddhist meditation that may be very useful for those of us who are helped by such devices. Submitted by Peter Carlson.

BUDDHISM WITHOUT BELIEFS
In this concise book Stephen Batchelor, a former monk in the Zen and Tibetan traditions, presents an existential and agnostic interpretation of Buddhism that is provocative, well thought out and lucid. Those seeking to learn or be reminded of the precepts of Buddhism will welcome Batchelor's unambiguous and compelling writing. Written in simple terms, Batchelor reminds us that the Buddha's most important legacy was to teach a way of being as opposed to something to believe in. Batchelor observes that "there is nothing particularly religious or spiritual about this path". It is a way of life that encompasses everything in its constant state of flux. "The four ennobling truths are not propositions to believe; they are challenges to act" that lay the ethical groundwork for living authentically.

Batchelor demystifies the Buddha, noting that he was not a mystic but a healer who presented "his truth in the form of a medical diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment". He also demystifies enlightenment or awakening, noting that it has come to be viewed as a mystical experience and progressively more inaccessible. We are reminded that our dharma practice must be integrated in our everyday life and that "a culture of awakening can never be a private affair. Such a culture is always an expression of community". Dharma practice is embodied in friendships. Our practice is nourished, sustained and challenged through relationships with others. Yes, we are born and die alone, but Batchelor wisely states that "we are participatory beings who inhabit a participatory reality, seeking relationships that enhance our sense of what it means to be alive". Dharma practice has survived through friendships that date all the way to the Buddha himself.

One of the significant aspects of this seemingly simple book is that Batchelor courageously questions how Buddhism has evolved in contemporary societies. Batchelor purports that Buddhism has lost its agnostic edge as it has become institutionalized. As the dharma spread, ideas that were the cornerstones of ancient India became hardened into dogmas. Batchelor observes that "dharma practice has become a creed much in the same way scientific method has degraded into the creed of Scientism". As Buddhism has become mired in religiosity and conformity, its agnostic and inquisitive nature has become replaced with rigidity and intolerance of dissent. Buddhism is experiential and does not require that we look at the dharma for hard and fast answers on the nature of life and other esoteric issues. It does not begin with "belief in a transcendent reality but through embracing the anguish experienced in an uncertain world". Dharma practice requires us to be present and have "the courage to confront what it means to be human".

Batchelor also bravely examines whether to be a Buddhist one must accept precepts such as the doctrine of rebirth. He concludes that we must not be compelled to either accept or reject it and may simply determine that we do not know or haven't determined our views on this. Ultimately, ascertaining whether death is followed by a rebirth will not change our existential angst.

Institutions have fostered the meditative and philosophical underpinnings of Buddhism but Batchelor questions whether they can support a contemporary culture of awakening while safeguarding individual freedom. Can institutions entrenched in conformity create a more awakened and compassionate society that tolerates dissent and welcomes diversity? Only time will tell. Submitted by Lillian Perez.