Christina Feldman

How does mindfulness promote psychological well-being? What are its core mechanisms? What value do contemplative practices add to approaches that are already effective? From leading meditation teacher Christina Feldman and distinguished psychologist Willem Kuyken, this book provides a uniquely integrative perspective on mindfulness and its applications. The authors explore mindfulness from its roots in Buddhist psychology to its role in contemporary psychological science. In-depth case examples illustrate how and why mindfulness training can help people move from distress and suffering to resilience and flourishing. Readers are guided to consider mindfulness not only conceptually, but also experientially, through their own journey of mindfulness practice.

How does mindfulness promote psychological well-being? What are its core mechanisms? What value do contemplative practices add to approaches that are already effective? From leading meditation teacher Christina Feldman and distinguished psychologist Willem Kuyken, this book provides a uniquely integrative perspective on mindfulness and its applications. The authors explore mindfulness from its roots in Buddhist psychology to its role in contemporary psychological science. In-depth case examples illustrate how and why mindfulness training can help people move from distress and suffering to resilience and flourishing. Readers are guided to consider mindfulness not only conceptually, but also experientially, through their own journey of mindfulness practice.

A course in the Buddhist practice of the brahma viharas, or "heavenly abodes." Detailed instructions from the Buddhist tradition in cultivating mindfulness presented by a prominent Insight Meditation teacher. Compassion, kindness, equanimity, and joy are not only the fruits of the awakened life but also the path to it: attitudes of mind that can be cultivated by anyone willing to set the intention for doing so. Christina Feldman shows how these ennobling qualities--known in Buddhism as the brahma viharas (sublime abodes) or the Four Immeasurables--are far more than simply the "feel-good" states they are sometimes mistaken for. If we pursue them sincerely as spiritual practice, they work together, complementing and enhancing each other, to lead us to the kind of awakening that we are compelled to share with others. Thus through the practice of the brahma viharas we can become participants in the healing and liberation of our world.

Because women have been conditioned to live according to traditional feminine values--conformity, passivity, and surrender of the self, they often feel powerless to transform their lives and lose their sense of worth. In Woman Awake, Christina Feldman suggests that it is possible for women to break out of their negative patterns and accept themselves as they really are. With a growing awarenss of the dignity of all life and its connection with them, women can overcome the social conditioning and myth-making that overwhelm and oppress them. For those women new to Buddhist meditation, Christina Feldman offers sensitive and valuable guidelines on breathing and relaxation, stressing, above all, that learning to understand, appreciate, and value themselves is the first step towards women's creative and joyful integration with the world.

Moments of peace and stillness give us a glimpse of how extraordinary our lives could be. Yet this sense of meaning and wonder is so easy to lose sight of in the hectic pace of modern living. In The Buddhist Path to Simplicity, Christina Feldman, an internationally renowned Buddhist teacher, shows you how to find harmony and balance by applying ancient Buddhist Wisdom to the here and now. The path of conscious simplicity she suggests allows us to fully recover ourselves, by rediscovering our sense of meaning and wonder. As a mother, a layperson and an internationally renowned teacher, Feldman knows the stresses and strains of modern life. In this book she shows how to harmonize and achieve balance and how to apply Buddhist wisdom to the here and now. She addresses subjects of compassion, speech, effort, intention, mindfulness and awakening. The path to peace, she suggests, is not necessarily complex or arduous. If we simply turn our attention to this moment, it will speak to us of wonder, mystery, harmony and peace. She demonstrates that there is no better moment in which to awaken and discover everything our heart longs for than this very moment.

An introductory handbook and accompanying CD for anyone interested in meditation. Discover the different forms and benefits of this most universal of spiritual practices. The practice of meditation improves both mind and body, allowing you to let go of stress and anxiety. This ancient method of achieving calm and tranquility is now practised both by those on a spiritual path and by those who simply want to reap the many documented health benefits. This in-depth guide is an invaluable source of guidance and inspiration, exploring and explaining a broad range of meditation practices, from breath meditation to the use of mantras. Also includes a free CD, on which Christina Feldman personally leads you through the five main types of meditation, from mindfulness to visualisation. Using examples from a variety of traditions, she will help you develop your own meditation practice and bring a sense of calm to your busy modern life. For the beginner and the more experienced practitioner, Meditation for Beginners will deepen your meditative practice and enhance your life, helping you to develop inner peace, still your mind and focus on what you really want.

Compassion in the face of pain, anguish, or unspeakable evil often produces confusion and bewilderment: How can someone endure such unjust suffering with such calm? Wouldn't it be more natural, and more proper, to not be calm at all? In Compassion, Christina Feldman draws over 30 years of experience as a Buddhist to explain how ordinary people are able to use compassion to overcome negative feelings like tragedy, pain, and terror. Feldman first examines compassion itself, using Buddhist texts and real-life stories to explain precisely what this strange force is, and argues that it is the most precious of all gifts. Feldman then proceeds to show, in six separate chapters, how compassion can be used in the face of adversity, mapping out meditations and strategies that can overcome the dark thoughts that everyone experiences. Compassion is for anyone who has ever felt helpless in our own turbulent, uncertain times.