Buddha's Nature: A Practical Guide to Discovering Your Place in the Cosmos (Paperback)

by Wes Nisker (Author) "According to the world's great spiritual traditions and perennial philosophy, both East and West, the critical question that each of us must ask ourselves is..." (more)
Key Phrases: Mahasatipatthana Sutra, Tibetan Buddhist, Big Sky Mind (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"What The Tao of Physics did to connect east and west in the realm of physics, Buddha's Nature does brilliantly in the realm of biology and the mind. This is the new Tao of evolution."
--Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

"This book will be welcomed as one of the best efforts yet to bring together meditators and scientists. It is an instrument for our greater joy and achievements."
--Thich Nhat Hanh, author of Peace Is Every Step

"A milestone in contemporary Buddhism...[Nisker] grounds the Buddha's teachings in discoveries made by the neural and evolutionary sciences. I dare you to find a book on science that is so personal, or a book on meditation that is so funny and forgiving."
--Joanna Macy, author of World As Lover, World As Self -- Review

Review
"What The Tao of Physics did to connect east and west in the realm of physics, Buddha's Nature does brilliantly in the realm of biology and the mind. This is the new Tao of evolution."
--Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

"This book will be welcomed as one of the best efforts yet to bring together meditators and scientists. It is an instrument for our greater joy and achievements."
--Thich Nhat Hanh, author of Peace Is Every Step

"A milestone in contemporary Buddhism...[Nisker] grounds the Buddha's teachings in discoveries made by the neural and evolutionary sciences. I dare you to find a book on science that is so personal, or a book on meditation that is so funny and forgiving."
--Joanna Macy, author of World As Lover, World As Self

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553379992
• ISBN-13: 978-0553379990
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #138,632 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical, worthwhile reading., April 8, 2000

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I recommend this book, especially after first reading Thomas Berry's book, "Dream of the Earth" (1990). Berry's deep-ecology classic, which should be included in Nisker's list of "Recommended Reading," but is not, examines the reasons for rethinking our connection with the earth, and encourages us to take responsibility. Nisker provides advice from a buddhist perspective on how to put Berry's "dream" into daily practice. Nisker, like Berry, first shows "how deeply embedded and interwoven humans are with all of life and nature" (p. 3), and then offers a number of "deep-ecology practices" which "can establish us in our connection with each other, and with all other forms of life on earth" (p. 30).

G. Merritt

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A provocative approach, January 15, 2008

By	Gustavo Estrada "Author of HACIA EL BUDA DESD... (Smyrna, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This was the first book that showed me the reasonableness of the Buddha's Teachings when looked through the crystal of contemporary thought. Wes Nisker did a good job in this respect. As many Buddhist thinkers, particularly in the Mahayana school and specifically in zen Buddhism, the author considers that the key to the end of suffering (or to awakening, enlightenment or direct knowledge) resides in mindfulness, this is, the permanent application of right attention, the seven factor of the eightfold path, in everyday living. The Buddha provides exhaustive details on how to practice meditation or mindfulness in his discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness (which I prefer to call the Manners to Establish Attention). This discourse (of which there are two very similar texts in the Pali Canon, one the Collection of Long Discourses and other in the Collection of Middle Length Discourses) is the main ground of Nisker's book. The foundations of mindfulness are four phenomena--physical body, sensations, mental states and the Teachings concepts--and Chapter 3, the bulk of the book, consists of four parts, each one dedicated to the corresponding foundation. The book provides a number of meditation techniques for each foundation and gives scientific background on why they should benefit meditation practitioners. I find of much interest the way Wes Nisker presents the first three mindfulness foundations but take exception to the fourth one. I recognize (and so does the author) that this one is the "trickiest" but I am positive that it is not about "thinking about thinking" (as Nisker names this fourth part of his Chapter 3). The Canon Pali refers to the fourth foundation as dhammas, the most important word in Buddhism (and one the most difficult). Dhamma means, among several translations, both the natural order and the Teachings of the Buddha (which are about the natural order). Therefore, the fourth foundation of mindfulness is precisely about the essential Teachings of the Buddha. This exception and the lack of a properly organized structure in its contents reduce the quality of an otherwise interesting book. Gustavo Estrada: Author of Hacia el Buda desde el occidente: Sus Ensenanzas sin mitos ni misterios

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Links Spirituality and Science, June 6, 2000

By A Customer

Wes Niskers' book "Buddha's Nature" succeeds in bridging science and Buddhism in a special book that will be enlightening to people in all fields. Further recommended reading- "Meditation" by Sri Chinmoy ; "KYBALION" by Three Initiates ; "Stalking the Wild Pendulum" by Itzhak Bentov ; "Meeting the Monkey Half Way" by Bhikkhu ; and the books by Thich Nat Hanh and Vera Stanley Alder.