Synopses & Reviews
Do you feel at home right now? At home in your own skin? At home in your own mind? Those of us in commute, watching the world stream by through the window of a train, plane, or bus, know the feelings of dread and doubt that can accompany leaving behind the familiar. Those undergoing a major change may feel particularly uprooted, in the midst of a deeper transition. But what about the rest of us? What explains the hovering aura of anxiety, fitfulness, or uncertainty, an underlying unease that makes us feel just a little bit uncomfortable, as well as distracted and disconnected from those around us?
In The Road Home, Ethan Nichtern, a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, investigates the journey we take to find where we belong and what happens when we get lost in transit. Drawing from contemporary work on meditation and mindfulness and integrating his experience as a Buddhist teacher and practitioner, Nichtern describes in a fresh and deeply resonant way the basic existential experience that gives rise to spiritual seeking—and to its dangerous counterpart, spiritual materialism. Nichtern explains that it is this quest for self-awareness that ripples forward into our relationships, communities, and societies. By sharpening our attention to whats happening around us, and inside us, we also enhance our sense of connection with others and disrupt our hard-wired individual and societal patterns of greed and grasping, apathy and inattention.
To create a truly compassionate and enlightened society, Nichtern argues in this wise, witty, and richly insightful book, we must inevitably start with ourselves. And this means, first of all, working with our own minds—in whatever state we find them in.
Synopsis
A lively exploration of contemporary Buddhism from one of its most admired teachersDo you feel at home right now? Or do you sense a hovering anxiety or uncertainty, an underlying unease that makes you feel just a bit uncomfortable, a bit distracted and disconnected from those around you?
In The Road Home, Ethan Nichtern, a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, investigates the journey each of us takes to find where we belong. Drawing from contemporary research on meditation and mindfulness and his experience as a Buddhist teacher and practitioner, Nichtern describes in fresh and deeply resonant terms the basic existential experience that gives rise to spiritual seeking—and also to its potentially dangerous counterpart, spiritual materialism. He reveals how our individual quests for self-awareness ripple forward into relationships, communities, and society at large. And he explains exactly how, by turning our awareness to whats happening around us and inside us, we become able to enhance our sense of connection with others and, at the same time, change for the better our individual and collective patterns of greed, apathy, and inattention.
In this wise and witty invitation to Buddhist meditation, Nichtern shows how, in order to create a truly compassionate and enlightened society, we must start with ourselves. And this means beginning by working with our own minds—in whatever state we find them in.
About the Author
Ethan Nichtern is a Shastri, a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, and the author of One City: A Declaration of Interdependence. He is also the founder of the Interdependence Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to Buddhist-inspired meditation and psychology, integral activism, mindful arts, and meaningful media. Nichtern has taught meditation and Buddhist psychology classes in New York and around the country for the last ten years.