In the Face of Fear: Buddhist Wisdom for Challenging Times »

Barry Boyce is a member of the Denma Translation Group and has taught seminars on The Art of War. He is a senior editor and staff writer for the Shambhala Sun magazine.

Most of us have never experienced such deep anxiety and uncertainty in the world as we are in these current times; this anthology of Buddhist teachings offers an antidote. While we can’t control the home foreclosures, job losses, dwindling savings, and the other myriad challenges facing our society, Buddhism teaches us that there is one thing we can always control: our own state of mind. How we react to the ups and downs of life makes all the difference, and Buddhism offers a wealth of wisdom and practices to help us maintain a stable, wise, and helpful state of mind no matter what happens.

In the Face of Fear shows us how to

   • remain open, joyful, and caring, even when life is stressful

   •  avoid old behavior patterns that only make things worse

   •  access our innate confidence and fearlessness

   •  turn difficult times into opportunities for spiritual development

   • learn why caring for others is the best way to relieve our own suffering

   • discover that our true nature is always awake, wise, and good, no matter what is happening

This anthology features the greatest contemporary Buddhist teachers and writers—people renowned for addressing precisely the problems we’re facing today—including the Dalai Lama, Pema Chödrön, Thich Nhat Hanh, Chögyam Trungpa, Sylvia Boorstein, Jack Kornfield, Norman Fischer, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg, and many others.

Publishers Weekly

Editors of the Shambhala Sun magazine have culled writing from Buddhist luminaries to address the fear and suffering affecting many lives. This collection includes excerpts from older works as well as more recent essays. Contributors reflect the dominant forms of Buddhism in the United States: Tibetan (including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche), the vipassana movement (Sylvia Boorstein, Joseph Goldstein), and Zen (Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Zoketsu Norman Fischer). “Buddhist practice does not offer an end to change, loss, or even pain,” magazine editor-in-chief Melvin McLeod writes. “What we can change is the way we react.” Emphasizing the basic Buddhist tenet of accepting impermanence, contributors examine many facets of fear and offer such tools as mindfulness, faith, patience, humor, and loving-kindness to promote healing. Particularly acute are Matthieu Ricard’s meditations on optimism and Jack Kornfield’s parsing of the misunderstood concept of desire in Buddhism. Containing 33 essays, this book should be dipped into rather than read cover to cover because of the repetitiveness of its themes. No raging against fate in this compendium of gentle wisdom. (Nov. 10)