Below are excerpts from books mentioned in the Winter, 1999 issue's lead story, "What To Get a Buddhist for Christmas." Click on the book title to go to that excerpt.

• "Awakening the Buddha Within" by Lama Surya Das
• "Wherever You Go, There You Are" by Jon Kabat-Zinn
• "The Path to Tranquility: byThe Dalai Lama."
• "The Dhammapada" by The Buddha

As you journey, obstacles will attempt to get in your way---for you are in your own way. Recognize the way that difficulties and challenges are born from your own hang-ups, obscurations, fears, and karma. Whether the path on which you find yourself is momentarily steep or level; turbulent or calm, you will prove to be your own greatest asset, as well as your greatest stumbling block. How will you help yourself, and how will you hinder yourself? Which habits and patterns will you let go of easily, and which will have the tenacity of Superglue? Are we desperate enough to really undergo total change and transformation?

The Dharma's view of the self is as evolved and radical as Copernicus' view of the universe. The self, as we know it, doesn't really exist. The key phrase is "as we know it." The self is simply not what we think it is. Once someone asked me what I had learned in all my years of Buddhist practice, and I spontaneously answered, "I'm not who I think I am."

By clinging to the ego and a self-centered notion of I, me, and mine, each of us sets the stage for our own difficulties. We are all interconnected and interdependent. Thinking about others represents enlightened self-interest; wrong-headed self-cherishing is the root of all our problems. Nothing else can be blamed: When you are selfish and self-involved, you too easily bring grief on yourself. You are in charge of your own karma, your own life, your own spiritual path, and your own liberation, just as I am in charge of mine.

I like to think of mindfulness simply as the art of conscious living. You don't have to be a Buddhist or a yogi to practice it. In fact, if you know anything about Buddhism, you will know that the most important point is to be yourself and not try to become anything that you are not already. Buddhism is fundamentally about being in touch with your own deepest nature and letting it flow unimpeded. It has to do with waking up and seeing things as they are. In fact, the word "Buddha" simply means one who has awakened to his or her own true nature.

People who don't understand meditation think that it is some kind of special inner manipulation which will magically shut off these waves so that the mind's surface will be flat, peaceful, and tranquil. But just as you can't put a glass plate on the water to calm the waves, so you can't artificially suppress the waves of your mind, and it is not too smart to try. It will only create more tension and inner struggle, not calmness. That doesn't mean that calmness is unattainable. It's just that it cannot be attained by misguided attempts to suppress the mind's natural activity.

It is possible through meditation to find shelter from much of the wind that agitates the mind. Over time, a good deal of the turbulence may die down from lack of continuous feeding. But ultimately the winds of life and of the mind will blow, do what we may. Meditation is about knowing something about this and how to work with it.

If we decide to think positively, that may be useful, but it is not meditation. It is just more thinking. We can as easily become a prisoner of so-called positive thinking as of negative thinking. It too can be confining, fragmented, inaccurate, illusory, self-serving, and wrong. Another element altogether is required to induce transformation in our lives and take us beyond the limits of thought.

JANUARY 1: I love friends. I want more friends. I love smiles. This is a fact. How to develop smiles? There are a variety of smiles. Some smiles are sarcastic. Some smiles are artificial---diplomatic smiles. These smiles do not produce satisfaction, but rather fear or suspicion. But a genuine smile gives us hope, freshness.

If we want a genuine smile, then first we must produce the basis for a smile to come.

MARCH 20: The image we have of ourselves readily tends to be complacent. We look at ourselves with indulgence. When something unpleasant happens to us, we always have the tendency to cast the blame on others or on fate, a demon, or a god. We shrink from descending into ourselves, as the Buddha recommended.

JULY 18: Should we persist in our normal self-centered tendencies and behavior in spite of our human birth, we would be wasting a great opportunity. Our tenure in this world should not be that of a troublemaker in the human community.

"Everything arises and passes away."
When you see this, you are above sorrow.
This is the shining way.

"Existence is sorrow."
Understand, and go beyond sorrow.
This is the way of brightness.

"Existence is illusion."
Understand, go beyond.
This is the way of clarity.

You are strong, you are young.
It is time to arise.
So arise!
Lest through irresolution and idleness
You lose the way.

Master your words.
Master your thoughts.
Never allow your body to do harm.
Follow these three roads with purity
And you will find yourself upon the one way,
The way of wisdom...

(from No. 20, The Way)

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