This volume is a compilation of six smaller books that were published between 2012 and 2014. They were written as though I were taking dictation. Some higher power unlocked the gates of inspiration and articulation, and I wrote almost continuously for three hours every day without ever fi rst composing an outline for any of these books. Instead of coming out as gibberish, they form a coherent, and I feel, cogent whole, and so I have grouped them together in one volume. Performance excellence in any fi eld requires, among other things, a clear goal that can be methodically approached incrementally in manageable steps and stages. Without a clear goal, there can be no cogent methodology. Accomplishment in the practice of a spiritual discipline that leads to excellent results is no diff erent. Together these books off er a clear goal and method for accomplishing what I feel is the universal target of every valid form of spiritual practice, namely, seeing through the illusion of our separateness. This goal is universal to every form of spiritual aspiration. The methods outlined in this book, therefore, bypass every form of sectarianism. They can be applied and practiced by anyone of any faith who is sincerely motivated to deepen in the spirit that unites us all.

The three self-contained works in this compilation are: No Urgency: or How We Fiddle with Eternity Complete, Not Completed Why This Ignorance? These works build on the earlier books in Volume I, and they are more challenging. They provoke--at least I hope they do--a more energetic pursuit of soul depth for the sake of spiritual depth. Like all my books, they openly rely on the spiritual technology of the Buddha. However, they can be on confrontationally read. Because they are non sectarian in the sense that they don’t require or promote a “conversion” to a religious viewpoint, they can be practically incorporated by anyone practicing a sectarian or non sectarian path. That’s the nature of this “spiritual technology”--Tibetan Buddhism doesn’t even have a word for “religion” in its lexicon! The reader is cautioned to take their time and read these books slowly, not hesitating to “stay where there’s fruit.” In fact, if one reads more than one chapter a day, that pace will miss much. As the pithy Latin expression (“non multa sed multum”) has it: “It’s not knowing many things that satisfies the soul, but knowing a few quality things deeply.”

This collection of essays is intended to be a sequel to my previous book, On the True Nature of the Soul: Essays for the Seriously Curious. The basic themes are the illusory nature of time, its swift passing, and ways to make better use of it while we have it. The addendum at the end of each essay is meant to give the reader a way to practically apply the ideas in the essay. Everything I have written, including this book, is a development of two basic ideas: 1) we are here to see through the illusion of our separateness and 2) the soul is the potential to be one with all things. The subject matter of these essays can be succinctly stated as the timeless nature of the soul incarnate as it struggles to realize that nature in time.

This open access book brings together works by specialists from different disciplines and continents to reflect on the nexus between leadership, spirituality and discernment, particularly with regard to a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). The book spells out, first of all, what our VUCA world entails, and how it affects businesses, organizations, and societies as a whole. Secondly, the book develops new perspectives on the processes of leadership, spirituality, and discernment, particularly in this VUCA context. These perspectives are interdisciplinary in nature, and are informed by e.g. management studies, leadership theory, philosophy, and theology.

Most adult believers would acknowledge that the absolute reality of God is unimaginable, and yet the ordinary mind cannot think about divinity without creating images of that reality. This book explores a variety of ways in which our imagination influences what we believe and think we know about God. Even as some theories and the methods behind them yield better results in practice, so certain forms of the imagination yield a truer connection to the divine. Curiously, cutting-edge scienceoften viewed as inimical to engagement with the divineis itself creating new images for a conception of divinity that intimately penetrates all that is. Frontier cutting-edge science will thus become one of three interpenetrating streams that impact the influence of the imagination on the knowledge of God. The other two are the conceptual dimension of mind and what I distinguish as the awareness dimension of mind. The application of my theory about the influence of the imagination on the knowledge of God is whether the reader can make practical connections to their experience of suffering in the world and find some diminishment of that suffering. If that does not happen, I apologize to my readers for wasting their time.

This book is a compilation of essays written mostly to family members and friends in response to their questions and comments to my other books. These essays were written in over a period of two years and can be read singly, although I have grouped them to try to achieve a cumulative effect. Many people seem satisfied with the childhood information about the soul that they carry into adulthood. Some people just find the subject beyond them, even though the soul is their most intimate companion. Everyone agrees that proper feeding requires accurate information about the animal or person being fed, and yet the spiritual nurture of the soul is not examined with the same critical eye. Much that I have to say, therefore, has to do with the proper feeding of the soul based on a critical examination of the true nature of the soul. As in all my books, I am indebted to the methods of examination from the Buddhas spiritual technology toolkit.

This book explores a dimension of mind that is only a potentiality at birth. This in itself is not so unusual as all adult capabilities are only developed with time and practice as we grow. The translucent imagination is different, however, in that it usually goes not only undeveloped but completely unnoticed throughout the entire course of life. It differs in how it functions once it is noticed and developed. The imagination we are all familiar with I call the reflective imagination. It functions at the confluence of memory and motivation, and allies itself with the self promotional strategies of self nature. It is reflective in that it configures or images the world in accord with the conceptual outlook of the ordinary mind. In this sense, it reflects the beliefs and fictions of our conceptual world view. By contrast, the translucent imagination at first appears subversive. It arises and allies itself with a dimension of mind that is not structured or limited by concepts. This dimension of mind is our pure and natural timeless awareness. Once the translucent imagination has been developed and is fully functioning through expert tutelage and disciplined practice, it functions to see through the conceptual fictions of the ordinary dimension of mind. It is subversive because it subverts the self promotional strategies that ego would have us believe are in our best interest. The translucent imagination unites aspects of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, and is a powerful tool that offers a way out of the chaos that contemporary consciousness creates for itself.

Donna Quesada had been teaching for about a dozen years when the first signs of burnout hit her. Rather than give in to her frustration, she reached for Buddha’s teachings, the Zen wisdom that formed the basis of her own longtime spiritual practice. She survived the semester and gradually rediscovered the joy in her job that had been progressively declining. In this wise and inspirational book, she shares the lessons she learned—lessons that revealed, time and again, that no matter the situation, it’s always about getting your head in the right place first. Resolution begins in our own minds. Some days, some semesters, and even some years will be more challenging and more wearisome than others, she warns. But in The Inspired Teacher, Quesada offers a lasting source of encouragement and Zen. Although the book draws from Eastern teachings, the wisdom is for everyone, regardless of personal background, creed, or faith. With elements of The Last Lecture as well as Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul, this is the perfect gift for teachers—but also for anyone needing inspiration.

Why stupid? • Stupid means our intellect is being overruled by our ego in the way we live our lives. • Stupid means having ego-driven, reality-disconnected thoughts, often leading us into unnecessary and painful beliefs, feelings, behaviors, and physical symptoms. • Stupid means spending more of our life focused on daily and mortal survival and less of it on truly living. • Stupid means blocking ourselves from spiritual awakening and being the love, life, and energy that God is. • Stupid means failing to recognize and live the divine gifts everyone has been given—life, creating our life, eternal life, and God within. It’s Your Ego—Stupid! exposes you to a greater understanding of your ego; symptoms of ego imbalance involving power, flexibility, and vulnerability; and insights for fixing your ego so you can live the great life you are meant to live. You are an intelligent, spiritual being capable of becoming a better human being! Nick Martin

As the Rig Vedas and Buddhist sutras foretell, as well as the Hopi and Mayan calendars, we are in the midst of complete transformation—ecologically, economically, politically, culturally. This graceful introduction offers creative safe passage through the sometimes overwhelming transition, drawing on ancient and contemporary spiritual practices particularly useful for these times. The endings we experience are always the beginning of something else. Hence author Ji Hyang Padma organizes teachings around the four seasons. In living connected to natural rhythms—the stillness of winter, the renewal of spring, the ripening of summer, the harvest of autumn—we touch a wholeness that is the source of healing and happiness. Practical exercises at the end of each chapter promote this state of being and bring the mind home to its innate clarity. Ideally suited to anyone experiencing personal change—through career, relationships, or world events—the book provides a way into Zen for beginners as well as a refresher for the more advanced.