Being Nobody, Going Nowhere : Meditations on the Buddhist Path

by Khema, Ayya; Fischer, Zoketsu Norman

• ISBN13: 9780861711987
• ISBN10: 086171198X
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1987-06-15
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications

Summary

In this lucid classic, beloved teacher Ayya Khema introduces the reader to the essence of the Buddhist path. She addresses the how and why of meditation, providing a clear framework for understanding the nature of karma and rebirth and the entirety of the eightfold path. With specific, practical advice Ayya Khema illuminates the practices of compassion and sympathetic joy and offers forthright guidance in working with the hindrances that we all encounter in meditation. Few introductory books are both simple and profound. Being Nobody, Going Nowhere is both.

Author Biography

Born in Berlin in 1923 to Jewish parents, Ayya Khema was educated in Scotland and China and later emigrated to the United States. The author of twenty-five books, she was ordained as a nun in Sri Lanka in 1979 and established several Buddhist centers, including Wat Buddha Dhamma in Australia, Parapuddua Nun's Island in Sri Lanka, and Buddha Haus in Germany. In 1987 she coordinated the first-ever International Conference of Buddhist Nuns. She passed away in 1997.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a Zen priest and abbot, a husband, father, poet, and a teacher with wide-ranging interests and passions. Norman retired as abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center in 2000. He continues his involvement with the Center as a senior dharma teacher. In 2000 he founded the Everyday Zen Foundation, a network of Zen (and other) groups and partnerships dedicated to sharing the Zen teaching and practice widely in the world (www.everydayzen.org). He works with conflict resolution professionals, Google engineers, lawyers, caretakers for the dying, and many others to bring meditation practice to bear on the lives we are actually living every day. He continues his active practice of writing dharma books, essays, and, especially, poetry. His most recent collection is Conflict. Norman lives overlooking the sea at Muir Beach, California, with his wife, Kathie, who is a science teacher and scuba diver. They have two grown sons and a grandson.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Preface	xi
Meditation---Why and How	1	(10)
Meditation Affects Our Lives	11	(6)
Calm and Insight	17	(10)
Four Friends	27	(18)
Loving-Kindness	27	(9)
Compassion	36	(4)
Sympathetic Joy	40	(1)
Equanimity	41	(4)
Loving-Kindness Meditation	45	(2)
Five Hindrances	47	(30)
Sensual Desire	48	(7)
Ill Will	55	(9)
Sloth and Torpor	64	(4)
Restlessness and Worry	68	(5)
Skeptical Doubt	73	(4)
Kamma and Rebirth	77	(10)
Kamma	77	(4)
Rebirth	81	(6)
The Discourse on Loving-Kindness	87	(18)
Four Kinds of Happiness	105	(10)
The Happiness of the Sense Contacts	105	(2)
Deva Happiness	107	(1)
The Happiness of Concentration	108	(3)
The Happiness of Insight	111	(4)
The Five Aggregates	115	(10)
The Body	117	(3)
Feeling	120	(1)
Perceptions	121	(1)
Mental Formations	122	(1)
Sense Consciousness	123	(2)
Ten Virtues	125	(16)
Generosity	126	(1)
Moral Conduct	127	(1)
Renunciation	128	(3)
Wisdom	131	(1)
Energy	132	(2)
Patience	134	(2)
Truth	136	(2)
Determination	138	(2)
Loving-Kindness and Equanimity	140	(1)
The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path	141	(26)
The Four Noble Truths	144	(2)
The Noble Eightfold Path	146	(21)
A New Beginning	167	(6)
Glossary	173	(4)
Index	177