Shambhala Publications

09/02/2025

Happy Publication Day to The Carefree-Ease Record by David Hinton!⁠
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This twelfth-century collection of one hundred kung-ans, or koans, is an essential text for students of Ch’an and Zen Buddhism. These miniature masterpieces of Chinese literature—brief records of enigmatic encounters between teacher and student—offer a unique way of penetrating directly into the essence of Ch’an teaching, and Hinton affords readers an opportunity to experience these koans in English like never before by returning us to the original understanding of its zany storytelling and profound wisdom. Paring away the later commentaries that are usually presented with these koans, Hinton lets the original stories shine on their own, revealing themselves as nothing less than poetic expressions of the awakened mind. A far cry from the transcendence of life-and-death that typifies the traditional Buddhist goal of nirvana, this awakening is distinctly earthy and grounded in the rhythms of nature, shaped by the centuries of Taoist tradition that preceded Ch’an. “Carefree ease,” writes Hinton, “is to move through life with the ‘profound tranquility’ of the Cosmos itself as it unfurls through its perennial transformations.”⁠
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This is the final volume in David Hinton’s momentous project to translate the three classic koan collections of Ch’an Buddhism. The other two volumes are The Blue-Cliff Record and No-Gate Gateway.⁠
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Click the link to order your copy today.⁠
https://www.shambhala.com/the-carefree-ease-record.html
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08/30/2025

Things are looking good at the Boulder Book Store and their dedicated Shambhala Publications shelf.

To find more of our dedicated displays visit one of our premier independent bookstore partners including:

Banyen Books & Sound in Vancouver, BC
Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga, NY and Vermont
Village Books in Bellingham, WA
BookPeople in Dallas, TX
Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, NC
Bookshop Santa Cruz in, you guessed it, Santa Cruz, CA
Square Books in Oxford, MS
Street Bookstore in Exeter, NH
Singing Pebble Books in Ottowa, Canada
RJ Julia Booksellers Bookstore in Connecticut

And here is a map of all these: https://www.shambhala.com/where-to-buy-shambhala-books/

Or visit shambhala.com where all our books have links to each and every book on all our Independent Bookstores partners and Bookshop

08/29/2025

Have you ever dreamed of publishing a book?

Explore the path to publication with the team that brings Shambhala books to life. Join Publisher Sara Bercholz, Executive Editor Beth Frankl, and Acquisitions Editor Jenn Brown as they offer you a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry in this immersive retreat hosted by Omega Institute.

Through lecture, question-and-answer sessions, and a panel discussion with Shambhala authors, you'll gain a clear understanding of proposals, contracts, the author-editor relationship, book design, and more!

✨ When: September 26–28, 2025
✨ Where: Rhinebeck, NY
✨ Who: Enrollment is limited. Register early to save your seat!

Visit the link to learn more:

Explore all of the stages of publishing a book and get started on your journey with the publisher and editors at Shambhala Publications.

08/28/2025

In a heartfelt conversation with Dr. Nathaniel Chin, Sharon Lukert, author of Until My Memory Fails Me, shared her personal story of cognitive decline, offering both spiritual and practical support for those facing a similar diagnosis.

Listen to their conversation below:

How can meditative practices support those living with MCI? Sharon Lukert joins to discuss the benefits of mindfulness and other spiritual practices as someone living with MCI and more from her book, 'Until My Memory Fails Me.' Listen 🎧 go.wisc.edu/xqe54c

08/28/2025

In this episode of Dementia Caregiver's Corner, author Sharon Lukert discusses the role of spirituality, mindfulness, and community in coping with cognitive decline—not only for those directly affected but also for their families and caregivers.

Listen to her episode below:

Podcast Episode · Dementia Caregiver’s Corner · 27/08/2025 · 33m

08/26/2025

"Dogen clearly states that the study of this dharma called the self, if investigated through the lens of the Buddha Way, will lead to awakening. This self, when illuminated, reveals the true relationship between self and other. . . . You can’t label this experience when you are in the middle of it, but we might call it mutual interconnected process continuing without end."

Read an excerpt of Meeting the Myriad Things by Shinshu Roberts in Lion's Roar:

In her new book, Meeting the Myriad Things (Shambhala Publications), American Zen teacher Shinshu Roberts unpacks Dogen’s famed text Genjokoan (“Actualization of Reality”). Here she dives into Dogen’s most quoted teaching.

08/26/2025

Happy Publication Day to The World Exists to Set Us Free by Larry Rosenberg with Madeline Drexler!

How does dharma wisdom show up in our lives every day? This collection of teachings by the beloved Insight Meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg offers clear, down-to-earth guidance on learning how to live a life informed by Buddhism—through questioning, reflective observation, and self-understanding. Rosenberg is known for presenting the essence of the Buddhism in a way that is unvarnished, utterly accessible, and that resonates with a wide audience. Here he unpacks—with his signature engaging and iconoclastic style—such topics as meditation, silence, use of the breath, self-knowing, working with strong emotions, intimacy, illness and grief, among others.

There are few teachers who so epitomize the idea of “spiritual friend” in the way that Larry Rosenberg does. His teachings give a clear sense that dharma is very much a part of everyday life. This book is also informed by what Rosenberg considers his deeper and more immediate understanding of dharma that has come in recent years—a period marked in his own life by illness and disability—and in the life of the planet by a deadly pandemic, war, an existential climate crisis, and pervasive technological distraction.

An introductory essay, written by journalist and author Madeline Drexler, serves as a spiritual biography of Rosenberg, presenting his reflections on more than half a century of dedicated dharma practice and instruction. This essay illuminates what, for Rosenberg, were profound turning points and moments of realization—his long apprenticeships with foundational figures in twentieth-century Buddhism, including Ajahn Chah, Thich Nhat Hanh, Seung Sahn, and Ajahn Buddhadasa, as well as Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Click the link to order your copy today.
https://www.shambhala.com/the-world-exists-to-set-us-free.html

08/22/2025

For those interested in Tibetan Buddhism this will be a very worthwhile half hour of your time. Anam Thubten Rinpoche's wonderful talk about Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's heart project, the Do Gyud Dzod, or The Complete Nyingma Tradition which has 5 volumes released so far with more on the way. Full of recollections of many wonderful teachers.

Marking the anniversary of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, Anam Thubten Rinpoche gave the oral transmission of the root verses of the multi-volume Complete Nyingma T...

08/21/2025

"Indeed, many of us come to practice thinking that our daily life is inferior to Buddhist practice. . . . If we study Dogen with this model, we will have a hard time grasping his understanding. Studying the Buddha’s Way and applying those teachings to our mundane life are not different. We are not trying to transcend our life."

Please enjoy this Tricycle: The Buddhist Review gift link to an excerpt of Meeting the Myriad Things by Shinshu Roberts:

The story behind Eihei Dogen’s legendary “Genjokoan”

08/19/2025

Happy Publication Day to Meeting the Myriad Things by Shinshu Roberts!

In the words of Eihei Dōgen, the thirteenth-century Buddhist monk who introduced the Sōtō school of Zen to Japan, “To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.” Centuries later, these enigmatic words from his seminal “Genjōkōan” (“Actualizing the Fundamental Point”) are still studied in Zen communities the world over.

But what did Dōgen really mean when he encouraged studying the self to forget the self? In this clarifying new commentary, esteemed Zen teacher Shinshu Roberts takes readers on a journey to understand Japan’s great Buddhist philosopher. Roberts applies her deep familiarity with Dōgen’s work to illuminate the text as a unified story in which Dōgen reveals the nondual nature of reality.

In addition to a full translation of Dōgen’s “Genjōkōan,” this book includes the commentary Okikigakishō (“Notes of What Was Heard and Extracted”), written by two of Dōgen’s direct students—the first time an English translation of this highly influential work has appeared in print.

Visit the link to get your copy: https://www.shambhala.com/meeting-the-myriad-things.html

08/19/2025

Happy Publication Day to The Vital Essence of Dzogchen!

Seamlessly interweaving the language of science with the sublime teachings of Buddhism, B. Alan Wallace presents a modern commentary on a pivotal Tibetan retreat manual, Extracting the Vital Essence of Accomplishment: Concise and Clear Advice for Practice in a Mountain Retreat by twentieth-century Nyingma master, Düdjom Rinpoché. The root text offers practical step-by-step instructions for dedicated practice in meditation retreat—wherever one may be—and Wallace’s commentary elucidates the enduring relevance of these teachings for our contemporary context.

The commentary includes four concise and powerful meditation practices, guided by Wallace, to bring the teachings into one’s immediate experience. This volume serves as a practice manual for those familiar with the teachings of Dzogchen and as a clear guide to this pinnacle of Buddhist paths for those interested in broader questions about direct and unmediated insight into the fundamental nature of awareness. “By extracting the essence of all meditative accomplishment through the practice of Dzogchen,” Wallace states, “you draw forth the vital essence of consciousness itself.”

Click the link to order your copy today.
https://www.shambhala.com/the-vital-essence-of-dzogchen.html

08/13/2025

"Here comes David Hinton with a lively and original rendering of the Carefree-Ease Record, one of the essential ancient koan texts. Hinton looks at the koans as Taoist in origin and sees meditation as an open-hearted wandering through hills, grasses, and moonlight—and through the minds of the old masters. The one hundred stories here are part of a great curriculum for opening the heart and mind. Hinton has given us a noble gift."
—Roshi John Tarrant, author of The Story of the Buddha and Bring Me the Rhinoceros

This is the final volume in David Hinton’s momentous project to translate the three classic koan collections of Ch’an Buddhism. The other two volumes are The Blue-Cliff Record and No-Gate Gateway.

Click the link to learn more about David Hinton’s upcoming book, The Carefree-Ease Record.
https://www.shambhala.com/the-carefree-ease-record.html