• 1. BOOKS: Awakening the Buddha; Plain Mindfulness; Wherever You Go; Daily Dalai Lama; a Pocket Buddha.
• 2. TAPES: The Art of Thich Nhat Hahn; Beginner's Mind via Peter Coyote; Rumi's Timeless Tape Recordings.
• 3. OBJETS D'BUDDHIST: Inquiring T-shirts; Zen Blocks for Kids and Adults; Bargain Zafus & a few other things.
• 4. GIFTS of SERVICE & AID: Don't give them an object, but give the bee's knees to someone in their name.
• 5. NO COMMENT: Third Eye Enhancers and other items that show that in the name of the spirit, people try anything.

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It used to be some years ago that if you wanted to give a book to someone with an interest in Buddhism or Buddhist meditation, you could conjure up many of the most popular, available titles out of your head: Hesse's "Siddartha," Alan Watts "The Way of Zen," Shunryu Suzuki's "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind," maybe the "Myth of Freedom" by Chogyam Trungpa or perhaps the Ven. Narada's classic "The Buddha and His Teachings."

But with the explosion of popular (and pop) interest in Buddhism in recent years, and the growth of such energetic Buddhist-oriented presses as Shambala, Wisdom and Snow Lion, a surging stream of books began to flow into the marketplace. The big guys like Harpers and Penguin books caught on and so now it's a floodtide.

Each holiday or birthday some well-meaning friend or family member buys me another of these books. It goes up onto the "I'll get to it later" shelf, now groaning under the weight of numerous well-meaning works that stare down and reproach me with their no doubt innate goodness and wonderfulness. (I'm sorry Sylvia Boorstein---I STILL haven't gotten to your entertainingly titled 1997 book published by HarperSan Fransisco, "That's Funny, You Don't LOOK Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist," one of last year's Christmas presents.)

Right beside the Boorstein book sits IDG Book's also unread "Meditation for Dummies," not a present actually but one of the many review titles now pouring into the Hundred Mountain mailbox from publishers. (Note to Buddhist-savvy writers out there: Hundred Mountain needs more book reviewers. Now. Write soon.)

So, the suggestions that follow make no pretense to being up-to-date, au courant and cutting edge, in the way of new books or tapes. The following titles are, however, time-tested and personally experienced: books and tapes that have proven consistently useful, reliable and inspiring in my own spiritual investigative work and meditation practice, heartening me during rough patches and difficult days. For the right person on your gift list--- or maybe for you yourself---they may prove equally helpful. Click on the links to order the books from Amazon.com and other companies, if you wish.

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Here was another Christmas present from last year, one I initially had reservations about. It's that "Eight Steps to Enlightenment" banner on the front cover. Right. Sure. Just like all those New Age self-help, access-your-inner-billionaire books: "Twelve Steps to a New You! Five Steps to Better Sex! Seven Steps to Financial Freedom! Six Steps to a Better Dog!"

But---ahem!---turns out he's talking about that original self-improvement program, the one taught by the Buddha himself: The Noble Eightfold Path, which lays out the path for taking complete responsibility for one's own spiritual development and liberation. And Surya Das--originally a Jewish American lad named Jeffrey Miller from Long Island---talks about it well, in an accessible, plainspoken, friendly style suitable for the non-Buddhist and general reader.

The other reservation I first had about this book was its popularity, the old feeling that it must be suspect since it was such a smash hit after it came out in 1997. Upon first blush, there is a quality about Lama Surya Das's style that reminds me of something someone said about Thich Nhat Hahn--that he was the "Norman Vincent Peale of Buddhism." Meaning, I suppose, that his cheery, Everyman, 'You Can Do It!' approach to what are in truth sometimes complex teachings by the Buddha might be a bit too superficial and slap-happy for the real matter at hand.

But that's not ultimately accurate or fair, because both monks are aiming to fry bigger fish than just the middling New Age aim of making people feel happier and holier in their own skins. You will feel happier, Surya Das explains, as you take better charge of your body and mind. But you will also---and more importantly---awaken to the larger task of spiritual work, stirring one's innate Buddha nature to wakefulness for the benefit of not just one's own liberation, but for all those beings in whom you come into contact.

Lama Surya Das certainly has got the spiritual resume to stand in the marketplace and offer discourses on the Buddhist path: for 30 years he has studied with such great Tibetan masters as Kalu Rinpoche,Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama and others, as well having twice completed the grueling three-year-long Tibetan Vajrayana meditation retreat.

This would be a bood book to give to someone who may not be a regular Buddhist meditator, but who wants to know more about what meditation and Buddhism is supposed to be all about. It would also be inspiring and heartening to Buddhist meditators in deepening their understanding of the Noble Eightfold Path and of the rigor and aim required of serious mental and spiritual training.

I sit down in my rocker and read a page or two of this book every day before heading out the door to work. This daily dose of Dharma is a reminder of what my real focus could be that day if I am careful not to let my mind become swamped and sodden with workaday worries---and those habitual unwholesome energies that put the Budda Within back into a dead sleep.

Here are some sample excerpts from Lama Surya Das's book.

A most excellent book. "Mindfulness in Plain English" is well on its way---since it was first published six years ago---to becoming a Buddhist classic. It would be a good gift for anyone who is thinking about starting a meditation practice, or who has just begun one. Or who is wrestling on their own with the practice of breath-centered, insight meditation in the Buddhist tradition.

I should point out that the book was written by my main teacher of meditation, the Sri Lankan-born Therevadan Buddhist monk Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, an internationally known meditation master and instructor of Buddhist Dharma (or "Dhamma" in the Therevadan's preferred Pali pronunciation for the word referring to the Buddha's teachings).

The book is a great guide to what meditation is and what it isn't. It lays out the basic practice and how to begin it, plus the usual pitfalls and how to work with them. It is an excellent beginner's guide, especially for those who do not yet have access to a meditation teacher or a local meditation group. And it is written in plain-spoken, easy to understand prose, vivid with colorful similes and descriptions drawn from daily Western life. (The book received some excellent editing by an American friend of Bhante Gunaratana's to go along with his deep, fundamental knowledge of meditation).

A few details may be confusing to beginners, such as the book's description of seeking the meditation "sign"---a visual representation of the focus of the breath at the tips of the nostrils as you meditate. This is something Bhante Gunaratana no longer emphasizes for beginning meditators. Move on past anything you don't quite get, saving your questions for the day when you finally are able to seek out a teacher or regular meditation group. This book can help launch and support someone on the life-enhancing precious gift of a Buddhist meditation practice.

Here is a sample of "Mindfulness in Plain English."

Page 3: More Books...

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