The Seeds of Love: Growing Mindful Relationships

Description

Using the garden as metaphor, The Seeds of Love offers a process for creating mindfulness. From a Buddhist perspective, everything affects our consciousness and enters metaphorically as a seed. Through the development of the practice of mindfulness, and using its tools to maintain a state of awareness and openness to self and others. Readers interested in Zen Buddhism will learn how to nurture such seeds as compassion, joy and generosity and to use personal challenges such as jealousy, anger and self doubt as a means of growth. Using precepts from many faiths and traditions, The Seeds of Love fosters the practice of using simple, basic actions to reach the best within ourselves and share it with those around us. It will be an invaluable guide to anyone seeking deeper and more conscious relationships.

Jerry Braza, Ph.D. is a mentor and Dharma teacher in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh and Professor Emeritus of Health Education at Western Oregon University. He conducts meditation retreats and mindfulness-based training programs for a variety of spiritual and secular groups. He is the co-founder of the humanitarian organization Forgotten People Foundation, supporting service learning projects for disadvantaged groups living in Vietnam. His book Moment by Moment: The Art and Practice of Mindfulness was published by Tuttle Publishing in 1997. His three-word philosophy frames his life: mindfulness, love and service.

"Both down-to-earth and profound, this book explains how to be mindful of the garden of your life--and then out of kindness to yourself and others, pull weeds and plant flowers. Deceptively simple, it is actually a comprehensive guide to the seeds of true happiness and loving relationships. A lovely, wise, encouraging, first-rate book." --Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom "Inspired by the rich and deep teachings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, this book is filled with beautiful quotes, reflections and meditations." --Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance "Jerry Braza has written a wise and gentle book on mindful relationships that shows how this natural development occurs. He avoids simplistic answers and offers deeply felt observations based on his own journey into the wonder of the present moment." --William Martin, author of The Tao of Forgiveness and The Caregiver's Tao Te Ching