The Seeds of Love: Growing Mindful Relationships - Softcover

Jerry Braza

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804841691 ISBN 13: 9780804841696

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Using the garden as metaphor, The Seeds of Love offers a process for creating mindfulness. From a Buddhist perspective, everything affects our consciousness and enters metaphorically as a seed. Through the development of the practice of mindfulness, and using its tools to maintain a state of awareness and openness to self and others. Readers interested in Zen Buddhism will learn how to nurture such seeds as compassion, joy and generosity and to use personal challenges such as jealousy, anger and self doubt as a means of growth. Using precepts from many faiths and traditions, The Seeds of Love fosters the practice of using simple, basic actions to reach the best within ourselves and share it with those around us. It will be an invaluable guide to anyone seeking deeper and more conscious relationships.

About this title

Review:

"Both down-to-earth and profound, this book explains how to be mindful of the garden of your life--and then out of kindness to yourself and others, pull weeds and plant flowers. Deceptively simple, it is actually a comprehensive guide to the seeds of true happiness and loving relationships. A lovely, wise, encouraging, first-rate book." --Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

"Inspired by the rich and deep teachings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, this book is filled with beautiful quotes, reflections and meditations." --Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance

"Jerry Braza has written a wise and gentle book on mindful relationships that shows how this natural development occurs. He avoids simplistic answers and offers deeply felt observations based on his own journey into the wonder of the present moment." --William Martin, author of The Tao of Forgiveness and The Caregiver's Tao Te Ching

"This is good reading for both new and seasoned students because it explains so well how to nourish the good in us." --William Menza, Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village Tradition

"The sun is out, there is a warm breeze on your face, and you are in the company of an elegant teacher. Savor each step as well as each page. This is a wonderful book." --Peggy Rowe Ward, Ed.D. and Larry Ward, Dharma teachers and authors of Love's Garden

"Jerry Braza uses the analogy of a garden, as well as wisdom from many different beliefs and cultures, to teach us how to cultivate goodness in our own minds. By doing so we create optimal conditions for developing 'mindful relationships' with those we love." --Power of Moms blog

-Both down-to-earth and profound, this book explains how to be mindful of the garden of your life--and then out of kindness to yourself and others, pull weeds and plant flowers. Deceptively simple, it is actually a comprehensive guide to the seeds of true happiness and loving relationships. A lovely, wise, encouraging, first-rate book.- --Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

-Inspired by the rich and deep teachings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, this book is filled with beautiful quotes, reflections and meditations.- --Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance

-Jerry Braza has written a wise and gentle book on mindful relationships that shows how this natural development occurs. He avoids simplistic answers and offers deeply felt observations based on his own journey into the wonder of the present moment.- --William Martin, author of The Tao of Forgiveness and The Caregiver's Tao Te Ching

-This is good reading for both new and seasoned students because it explains so well how to nourish the good in us.- --William Menza, Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village Tradition

Book Description:

The Floating World—a catchphrase that defined the pleasure quarters of Edo-period Japan's (1615 – 1868) and conveyed a fantasy realm where men were led to believe they could drift aimlessly in the pursue of pleasure. Brothels were a prominent feature, but other entertainment, such as theater, music, and wrestling were also offered. Pursuit of such pleasures prompted a revolution in fashion, literature, and the visual arts, as the pleasure district was marketed not just through the offer of sex but rather through the elaboration of the seductive image of a sophisticated demimonde that beckoned visitors.

Seduction show how images of courtesans were constructed as objects of desire, and it considers how the artistic version aligned with or departed from the reality of women's lives. It traces the ways that art was used to transport viewers to a constructed realm of sensory delights to stimulate desires and gratify fantasies of carefree pleasure. Editor Laura W. Allen offers an overview of the seductive spell cast by the floating world and provides helpful entries on each of the featured objects. Essays by Melinda Takeuchi, Eric C. Rath, and Julia Meech introduce the floating world, consider the role of food in the pleasure quarter, and explore the feminine gaze in the Japanese print. A translation of the texts on the Hishikawa Moronobu scroll is included. The result is a fascinating study of the way that visual objects were used to convey insider knowledge about the latest fashions in clothing, hairstyles, accessories, and even games. Armed with such knowledge, a visitor to the pleasure quarters would be prepared for the pursuit of love and other objects of desire.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0804841691
• ISBN 13: 9780804841696
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192