Rev. Danny Fisher

This is me one year ago. I’m sitting at Gautam’s Restaurant, across the street from the Burmese Vihar at Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India. The photo was taken by my friend Ian Bennett, who was one of the students I worked with in my role as a faculty member for Antioch Education Abroad’s Buddhist Studies in Bodh Gaya 2006 program.

Ian sent me this picture (along with many others) recently. I think it pretty perfectly sums up how I was feeling this time last year: exhausted, but happy–really, crazy happy.

Happy New Year! I hope it’s full of happiness for us all.

I’m off to Taiwan for a couple of weeks. I’ll be back in 2008 with pictures, stories, and more. Y’all come back now, ya hear? Please and thank you.

My blog is burning…

I’ve been “tagged” by both Tom Armstrong and Ven. Loden Jinpa to list five favorite Dharma books. (Also, I once told Edamommy that I would do something like this.)

I’ve picked five favorites of mine that might be a bit more “under the radar” than, say, some of my other favorites (like Shambhala or The Experience of Insight or When Things Fall Apart). They’re not necessarily my “top five,” although that list and this one would most certainly overlap.

Anyway, here they are in no particular order:

1. Visions of Buddhist Life by Don Farber. Perhaps no single collection of artwork moves me quite so much as Don Farber‘s astonishing, beautiful book of photographs of modern Buddhist masters. An incredible inspiration, this one is a must for any practitioner.

2. Meeting the Monkey Halfway by Ajahn Bhikkhu Sumano with Emily Popp. A personal and downright fun guide to meditation that includes slogans, exercises, stories, and more. Enormously insightful and helpful, this is one I frequently pull down from the shelf.

3. The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti: A Mahāyāna Scripture translated by Robert A.F. Thurman. Compared with other translations of the Vimalakīrti Nirdesa Sūtra, Thurman’s (from the Tibetan) is most certainly what the publisher advertises it to be: “clearer, richer, and more precise in its philosophical and psychological expression.” “Buddha Bob” manages to capture all of the humor, wisdom, and brilliance of this great piece of literature–which is no small task indeed.

4. How to Be a Help Instead of a Nuisance: Practical Approaches to Giving Support, Service & Encouragement to Others by Karen Kissel-Wigela. A monumentally important guide to basic attendance that pulls no punches in its look at the slippery slope between effective care and the aggravation of suffering. Equally informed by modern psychology and Kagyu Tibetan and Shambhala Buddhism, this is an important book for not just those in the caring professions but any person seeking to be more helpful to others.

5. Talks on Buddhist Meditation by Godwin Samararatne. This one has a lot of sentimental value to me: it’s authored by Godwin Samararatne, who was my first meditation teacher. Culled from a series of talks given in Hong Kong, this is as informed by Godwin’s work as a meditation teacher as it is by his work as scholar of Buddhism and a social worker. An essential volume from a remarkable man–my heart teacher.

If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged. Please share with us your favorite Dharma books in the comments section.