Rodney Smith

A handbook for spiritual freedom in an age of global polycrisis, offering a wise and warm path to liberation from stress, pain, and trauma through the doorway of true compassion. The world is in turmoil because of its trauma. Our unhealed psychological wounds block our innate expressions of wisdom and compassion, setting the stage for ongoing conflict, division, and stress. Our fate, both individual and collective, lies in our capacity to heal--and healing starts with knowing the power, resilience, and essential goodness of our compassionate hearts. In The Dharma of Healing, Justin Michelson walks readers through an ingeniously simple approach to self-healing using the power of compassion. Step-by-step, he shows how compassion, when carefully cultivated, carries the greatest power to heal and transform. Rooted in the ancient and proven wisdom tradition of Buddhism but written for the modern seeker, The Dharma of Healing is an essential guide for anyone who longs for inner peace in a world that is anything but peaceful. Michelson synergizes psychological and spiritual principles to present a clear path to freedom and provides dozens of guided audio meditations that empower readers to walk the path themselves. Whether you're just starting a healing journey or spiritual practice, or you've been walking the path for decades, this book will meet you right where you are and take you as far as you're ready to go.

A prominent Insight Meditation teacher explores the profound implications of the traditional Buddhist teaching on the four areas to which mindfulness is applied as a means to liberation. Awakening manifests through the application of mindfulness to four areas: body, feelings, mind, and dharmas. Buddhists of all the traditions share this principle found in the Satipatthana Sutta, which has been expounded upon since the time of the Buddha himself. Rodney Smith challenges us to hold this teaching up against our own experience, and in doing so to discover the inherent interconnection of all Four Foundations. They are revealed to be a sequential path leading the practitioner from the world of form to the joyous perception of the formless. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness thus serve as a road map for any genuine spiritual path.

Rediscover the mystery and wonder of life through gentle reflections on death and dying. What can death teach the living? Former monk and hospice worker Rodney Smith teaches us that through intimately considering our own inevitable end we can reawaken to the sublime miracle of life we so often take for granted. A well of stories, personal anecdotes, and direct advice gleaned from years of working with the dying in their final moments, Lessons from the Dying helps us redefine our conception of what it means to truly live. Each chapter contains guided reflections and exercises that allow the reader to integrate the wisdom in its pages more fully into their lives. With a sense of compassion, Lessons from the Dying provides all the tools of mind one needs to rediscover, in this very moment, the mystery and wonder of a lifetime. From the foreword by Joseph Goldstein: "Lessons from the Dying could also be called "lessons for the living" because of the courageous honesty revealed in so many of the stories told here. These accounts reflect back to us our own attitudes toward death and love, and they prompt us to examine the way we are living our lives right now. In the busyness of our lives we rarely take time to consider our mortality and the implications that it might have for the choices we make. Yet when we do cultivate this awareness it becomes a powerful force for wise discrimination."

An amazingly succinct and accessible answer to the question "What is enlightenment?"--from one of America's most prominent teachers of Insight Meditation. One of today's most highly regarded Insight Meditation teachers describes the process of enlightenment in a way anyone can understand--demonstrating in clear language why we operate with the illusion of separation, how we can move out of it to the realization of emptiness and no-self, and how we can live from that state of awakening. He provides brief, powerful exercises that enable us to challenge the reality of our thoughts in order free ourselves from the illusion they keep us bound to, all the while steering us away from the temptation to regard spiritual practice as a process of self-improvement or a goal to be obtained.

Anatta is the Buddhist teaching on the nonexistence of a permanent, independent self. It's a notoriously puzzling and elusive concept, usually leading to such questions as, "If I don't have a self, who's reading this sentence?" It's not that there's no self there, says Rodney Smith. It's just that the self that is reading this sentence is a configuration of elements that at one time did not exist and which at some point in the future will disperse. Even in its present existence, it's more a temporary arrangement of components rather than something solid. Anatta is a truth the Buddha considered to be absolutely essential to his teaching. Smith shows that understanding this truth can change the way you relate to the world, and that the perspective of selflessness is critically important for anyone involved in spiritual practice. Seeing it can be the key to getting past the idea that spirituality has something to do with self-improvement, and to accessing the joy of deep insight into reality.

Keywords in Australian Politics is much more than a dictionary. It outlines the main meanings of over one hundred words essential to understanding contemporary Australian politics. Political language is often used without explanation in the media, public debate, textbooks and lectures. Here at last is a book that provides Australians with the necessary information to use these terms with confidence in public discussion and debate, from the dinner party to the end-of-semester essay. This book defines each keyword, highlights links between different keywords, outlines the main debates concerning each keyword and indicates how they came to be part of Australian political language. Although the book is arranged alphabetically, systematic cross-referencing allows readers to follow their own trails of enquiry. This book is essential reading for everyone who wants to understand Australian political culture and ideas.