Wes “Scoop” Nisker is an award-winning broadcast journalist and commentator, a renowned Buddhist meditation teacher, a best selling author and a captivating performer. In How to be an Earthling, Wes draws on his diverse experiences delivering a collection that brims with the insight, humor and wisdom he is famous for. Compiling for the first time, Wes’ best known essays as well as a selection of recent and never before published work, Wes takes readers on both a cultural journey (a tour through the sixties, through the modern environmental movement, the surge of Buddhism to the West) and a more personal one, exploring the motivation behind humanity’s search for spiritual enlightenment.
How to tune in to our own biology in pursuit of spiritual awakening • Provides a practical program, complete with enjoyable, even playful meditations, for realizing greater self-awareness, increased wisdom, and happiness • Shows how recent discoveries in physics, evolutionary biology, and psychology express in scientific terms the same insights the Buddha discovered more than 2,500 years ago • Reveals the origins of attachments, desires, emotions, and thoughts in our own bodies Taking us on an evolutionary journey to find the origins of emotions, desires, and thoughts in our own bodies, Wes “Scoop” Nisker shows not only how cutting-edge science is proving the tenets of the Buddha but also how we can interpret the traditional practices of Buddhism through this scientific lens for more personal freedom and peace of mind. Using the traditional Buddhist meditation series of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as a framework, Nisker offers a witty narrative along with practical meditations and exercises to train the mind to overcome painful conditioning and gain greater self-awareness, increased wisdom, and happiness. He shows how recent discoveries in physics, evolutionary biology, and psychology express in scientific terms the same insights the Buddha discovered more than 2,500 years ago, such as the impermanence of the body, where thoughts come from, and how the body communicates within itself. Presenting a variety of new ways to harness the power of mindfulness to transform our understanding of both ourselves and the world, Nisker teaches us how to put our understanding of evolution in the service of spiritual awakening.
Take a wild and rickety ride through the philosophies of the East and West to discover the madmen, dreamers, and unconventional wisdom seekers in the abridged, better-than-ever version of our best-selling cult classic. THE ESSENTIAL CRAZY WISDOM delivers the most significant, most lunatic, and most compelling insights of the ages. Scoop Nisker patches together the unorthodox teachings that have bubbled up through the words of such crazy visionaries as Rumi, Gautama the Buddha, Mark Twain, Lao Tzu, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Allen Ginsberg, and Lily Tomlin. Discover the common thread in these multiple perspectives and travel on this comedic course to enlightenment!• Original edition sold over 40,000 copies.
Iconic newscaster and Buddhist teacher chronicles the 1960s and ‘70s in India, the Bay Area, and beyond Join “Scoop” Nisker on a wild ride from West to East and back in his quest for true self and enlightenment. Combining the best elements of memoir and social commentary, Nisker shares his own story to illuminate the spiritual hunger of modern America. His journey begins in Nebraska as the only young man in his small town to be Bar Mitzvah’ed, through the heyday of the Beats and hippies in the Bay Area from his vantage point as a high-profile newscaster, the birth of the environmental movement, and the social and spiritual blossoming of the West. This is a personal, guided tour of the outer and inner movements that joined together into today’s mindfulness movement, written by one of the leaders of both.
Wes “Scoop” Nisker is an award-winning broadcast journalist and commentator, a renowned Buddhist meditation teacher, a best selling author and a captivating performer. In How to be an Earthling, Wes draws on his diverse experiences delivering a collection that brims with the insight, humor and wisdom he is famous for. Compiling for the first time, Wes’ best known essays as well as a selection of recent and never before published work, Wes takes readers on both a cultural journey (a tour through the sixties, through the modern environmental movement, the surge of Buddhism to the West) and a more personal one, exploring the motivation behind humanity’s search for spiritual enlightenment.
Take a wild and rickety ride through the philosophies of the East and West to discover the madmen, dreamers, and unconventional wisdom seekers in the abridged, better-than-ever version of our best-selling cult classic. THE ESSENTIAL CRAZY WISDOM delivers the most significant, most lunatic, and most compelling insights of the ages. Scoop Nisker patches together the unorthodox teachings that have bubbled up through the words of such crazy visionaries as Rumi, Gautama the Buddha, Mark Twain, Lao Tzu, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Allen Ginsberg, and Lily Tomlin. Discover the common thread in these multiple perspectives and travel on this comedic course to enlightenment!• Original edition sold over 40,000 copies.
Iconic newscaster and Buddhist teacher chronicles the 1960s and ‘70s in India, the Bay Area, and beyond Join “Scoop” Nisker on a wild ride from West to East and back in his quest for true self and enlightenment. Combining the best elements of memoir and social commentary, Nisker shares his own story to illuminate the spiritual hunger of modern America. His journey begins in Nebraska as the only young man in his small town to be Bar Mitzvah’ed, through the heyday of the Beats and hippies in the Bay Area from his vantage point as a high-profile newscaster, the birth of the environmental movement, and the social and spiritual blossoming of the West. This is a personal, guided tour of the outer and inner movements that joined together into today’s mindfulness movement, written by one of the leaders of both.
How to tune in to our own biology in pursuit of spiritual awakening • Provides a practical program, complete with enjoyable, even playful meditations, for realizing greater self-awareness, increased wisdom, and happiness • Shows how recent discoveries in physics, evolutionary biology, and psychology express in scientific terms the same insights the Buddha discovered more than 2,500 years ago • Reveals the origins of attachments, desires, emotions, and thoughts in our own bodies Taking us on an evolutionary journey to find the origins of emotions, desires, and thoughts in our own bodies, Wes “Scoop” Nisker shows not only how cutting-edge science is proving the tenets of the Buddha but also how we can interpret the traditional practices of Buddhism through this scientific lens for more personal freedom and peace of mind. Using the traditional Buddhist meditation series of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as a framework, Nisker offers a witty narrative along with practical meditations and exercises to train the mind to overcome painful conditioning and gain greater self-awareness, increased wisdom, and happiness. He shows how recent discoveries in physics, evolutionary biology, and psychology express in scientific terms the same insights the Buddha discovered more than 2,500 years ago, such as the impermanence of the body, where thoughts come from, and how the body communicates within itself. Presenting a variety of new ways to harness the power of mindfulness to transform our understanding of both ourselves and the world, Nisker teaches us how to put our understanding of evolution in the service of spiritual awakening.
The Buddha said that "everything we need to know about life can be found inside this fathom-long body." Then why is most people's spirituality--whether Buddhist, Christian, or Jewish--completely cut off from their body? In this provocative and groundbreaking book, you'll discover that enlightenment comes not from "out there," but from a deep understanding of our own personal biology. Using the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, a traditional Buddhist meditation, Nisker shows how cutting-edge science is proving the tenets first offered by the Buddha. And he provides a practical program, complete with meditations and exercises, that enables readers to become mindful of the origins of emotions, desires, and thoughts. One of the great synthesizers of East and West, Nisker shows how to incorporate the traditional understanding of the Buddha with the latest scientific discoveries while on our spiritual journey. He shows that we are not separate from nature and the evolving universe. The way to enlightenment lies within our very biology. Most important, Nisker offers a practical program--complete with meditations and exercises--so readers can take their own evolutionary journey into their bodies to find the origins of emotions, desires, and thoughts. Nisker provides a liberating way for each of us to incorporate into our lives the understanding, proven by the latest scientific evidence and foretold in the great traditional teachings of the Buddha, that we are not separate from nature and the evolving universe. Our biology is not our destiny, but our way to enlightenment.
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