The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World

Description

Neither overly theoretical nor overly anecdotal, The Engaged Spiritual Life provides a clear, thorough, and compelling account of principles and practices to guide those interested in connecting personal and social transformation. It offers a vision of a seamless web of spirituality in all the parts of our lives, oriented by these principles and practices.

Donald Rothbergis one of the major teachers and writers on socially engaged Buddhism in the United States. He is a meditation teacher on the Spirit Rock Teachers' Council in northern California and has been an organizer, teacher, and board member for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Rothberg also directs the Socially Engaged Spirituality program at the Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco. He has published essays inTricycle, Turning Wheel,andThe Journal of Humanistic Psychologyamong others. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Few have poured their lives into the contemporary movement that is dedicated to recovering Buddhism's social outreach with as much dedication and effectiveness as Donald Rothberg.-Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions "Donald Rothberg is a remarkably talented teacher whose writing, like his teaching style, is interesting, engaging, upbeat, and-most importantly-hopeful. This is the authoritative map describing the connection between wisdom and social action, and it does so clearly, simply, nonacademically, and entertainingly. The specific practices it offers inspire confidence that transforming ourselves and the world is a possibility-which is the best message in the world in times like these." -Sylvia Boorstein, author of It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness "At a moment when our world desperately needs an integration of spiritual wisdom and social action, Donald Rothberg points the way to a new synthesis-of great interest to people in all faith communities and to many who have previously distanced themselves from spiritual life in order to pursue social change."-Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right "I know of no one who better combines scholarship in this field with teaching experience and ontheground activism. Rothberg's words ring with an unmistakable authenticity." -Joanna Macy, author of Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World