The Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving-Kindness
Beloved Buddhist nun Ayya Khema expertly guides the reader through ten meditations on generating loving-kindness and cultivating the fifteen wholesome qualities necessary for igniting compassion and boundless love.

Having escaped Nazi Germany in 1938, Ayya Khema has singularly profound perspective on creating peace, unconditional love, and compassion. She gently teaches that inner peace is not necessarily natural or innate. Instead, peace should be considered a skill that needs intentional practice—every day. Peace is the sum of many parts, namely the fifteen wholesome qualities the Buddha himself noted in the Metta Sutta, including usefulness, mildness, humility, contentment, receptivity, and others. Ayya Khema expertly guides us through each individual condition, using her trademark humor and personal narrative, to help each reader shape their own path to self-transformation.

The second part of the book includes an eye-opening discussion of metta (loving-kindness) as both a morality and concentration practice, as well as ten meditation practices that use visualizations rather than more traditional mantra repetition. These visualizations include your heart as a "Fountain of Love," reaching those close to you and those far away, and a "Flower Garden," where we tend to the blooms in our hearts through love and compassion and share them with others. Edited by her student and retreat leader, Leigh Brasington, this book is a complete course in practical ways to calm and brighten our minds.
1139765715
The Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving-Kindness
Beloved Buddhist nun Ayya Khema expertly guides the reader through ten meditations on generating loving-kindness and cultivating the fifteen wholesome qualities necessary for igniting compassion and boundless love.

Having escaped Nazi Germany in 1938, Ayya Khema has singularly profound perspective on creating peace, unconditional love, and compassion. She gently teaches that inner peace is not necessarily natural or innate. Instead, peace should be considered a skill that needs intentional practice—every day. Peace is the sum of many parts, namely the fifteen wholesome qualities the Buddha himself noted in the Metta Sutta, including usefulness, mildness, humility, contentment, receptivity, and others. Ayya Khema expertly guides us through each individual condition, using her trademark humor and personal narrative, to help each reader shape their own path to self-transformation.

The second part of the book includes an eye-opening discussion of metta (loving-kindness) as both a morality and concentration practice, as well as ten meditation practices that use visualizations rather than more traditional mantra repetition. These visualizations include your heart as a "Fountain of Love," reaching those close to you and those far away, and a "Flower Garden," where we tend to the blooms in our hearts through love and compassion and share them with others. Edited by her student and retreat leader, Leigh Brasington, this book is a complete course in practical ways to calm and brighten our minds.
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The Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving-Kindness

The Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving-Kindness

The Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving-Kindness

The Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving-Kindness

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Overview

Beloved Buddhist nun Ayya Khema expertly guides the reader through ten meditations on generating loving-kindness and cultivating the fifteen wholesome qualities necessary for igniting compassion and boundless love.

Having escaped Nazi Germany in 1938, Ayya Khema has singularly profound perspective on creating peace, unconditional love, and compassion. She gently teaches that inner peace is not necessarily natural or innate. Instead, peace should be considered a skill that needs intentional practice—every day. Peace is the sum of many parts, namely the fifteen wholesome qualities the Buddha himself noted in the Metta Sutta, including usefulness, mildness, humility, contentment, receptivity, and others. Ayya Khema expertly guides us through each individual condition, using her trademark humor and personal narrative, to help each reader shape their own path to self-transformation.

The second part of the book includes an eye-opening discussion of metta (loving-kindness) as both a morality and concentration practice, as well as ten meditation practices that use visualizations rather than more traditional mantra repetition. These visualizations include your heart as a "Fountain of Love," reaching those close to you and those far away, and a "Flower Garden," where we tend to the blooms in our hearts through love and compassion and share them with others. Edited by her student and retreat leader, Leigh Brasington, this book is a complete course in practical ways to calm and brighten our minds.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781611809503
Publisher: Shambhala
Publication date: 07/19/2022
Pages: 176
Product dimensions: 4.90(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

AYYA KHEMA was born to a Jewish family in Berlin in 1923. Escaping Germany in 1938, she went on to study Buddhism and meditation all over world, including the San Francisco Zen Center. In 1979, she was ordained a Theravadin Buddhist nun, receiving the name Khema, meaning “safety and security” (Ayya means “sister”). Ayya Khema established a forest monastery near Sidney, Australia; a training center for nuns in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Buddha-Haus, a meditation center in the Allgäu, Germany. Among her books are When the Iron Eagle Flies; Being Nobody, Going Nowhere; Who Is My Self?; and an autobiography, I Give You My Life.

LEIGH BRASINGTON, author of Right Concentration, studied the jhanas with the late Ven. Ayya Khema, who authorized him to teach retreats on the jhanas. He was also empowered to teach by Jack Kornfield. He teaches numerous jhana retreats throughout the year, at venues that include Cloud Mountain, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Gaia House, Vallecitos, and Southern Dharma.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Editor's Note xiii

Part 1 Peace

The Metta Sutta 3

The Fifteen Wholesome Conditions for Creating Peacefulness 5

1 One Should Be Able 13

2 Upright 15

3 Straight 19

4 Not Proud 22

5 Easy to Speak To 26

6 Mild 31

7 Well Content 41

8 Easily Satisfied 47

9 Not Caught Up in Too Much Bustle 53

10 Frugal in One's Ways 58

11 With Senses Calmed 63

12 Intelligent 69

13 Not Bold 72

14 Not Being Covetous When with Other Folk 78

15 And Abstain from the Ways That Wise Ones Blame 83

Part 2 Metta Meditations

Unconditional Love: Metta 89

Guided Metta Meditations: Metta Phrases 112

The Beloved 115

The Flower Garden 117

The Golden Light 121

The Party 124

The Sun in Your Heart 127

The Fountain of Love 131

Breathe In Peace, Breathe Out Love 134

Forgiveness 137

The Goodness of Yourself and Others 140

The Seed of Enlightenment 143

Afterword 147

Acknowledgments 149

Bibliography 151

Resources 153

About the Author 157

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