Nonhuman animals have many of the same feelings we do. They get hurt, they suffer, they are happy, and they take care of each other. Marc Bekoff, a renowned biologist specializing in animal minds and emotions, guides readers from high school age up—including older adults who want a basic introduction...

Here is the ultimate explanation of the brain for everyone who thinks: a guide to how the brain works, how our brains came to operate the way they do, and, most important, how to use your precious gray matter to its full capacity.

The brain, according to current research, is not some kind of...

Introduction

How do we know things? How do we decide that something is true? Since its appearance four hundred years ago, science has tried to answer this question by focusing on the physical elements of the universe. Many scientists now believe that physical phenomena alone...

What is Mind? For this ancient question we are still seeking answers. B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel propose a science of the mind based on the contemplative wisdom of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity,...

From the Introduction

The history of Buddhist thought is a unique example of the interplay between creativity and reductionism, between novelty and confirmation, and it is the purpose of this book to trace the interaction between these complementary movements. Therefore...

What is the essence of the mind? Could computers ever have consciousness? Can compassion be learned? When does consciousness enter the human embryo? These are just some of the many questions that were discussed during a historic meeting that took place between several prominent Western scientists...

The National Wildlife Federation, on its website GreenHour.org, recommends that parents give their kids a “Green Hour” every day—a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. Whether in the backyard, the local park, or a green space farther afield, time spent...

I Love Dirt! presents 52 open-ended activities to help you engage your child in the outdoors. No matter what your location—from a small patch of green in the city to the wide-open meadows of the country—each activity is meant to promote exploration, stimulate imagination, and...

Today there is a bewildering diversity of views on ecology and the natural environment. With more than two hundred distinct and valuable perspectives on the natural world—and with scientists, economists, ethicists, activists, philosophers, and others often taking completely different stances...

The world we inhabit is enchanted—every tree, rock, and star, and even "empty" space itself, is teeming with living energy and awareness. And it's all nearer to us than our own breath. Why, then, can't we see it? Because, according to Jeremy Hayward, we are taught not to. And because...

This book offers penetrating insight into the nature and process of perception through a skillful interweaving of the concepts of the new physics, evolutionary biology, and cognitive psychology with the profound insights of meditative traditions. We are shown how we may go beyond the harsh and narrow...

One of the delights of life is the discovery and rediscovery of patterns of order and beauty in nature—designs revealed by slicing through a head of cabbage or an orange, the forms of shells and butterfly wings. These images are awesome not just for their beauty alone, but because they suggest...

From the author of Perceiving Ordinary Magic, this book proposes that both science and Buddhism offer powerful insights into human nature that can help to bring about profound changes in our lives and our society.

Jeremy Hayward argues that a radical uprooting of our beliefs about reality...

Here is the book that brought the mystical implications of subatomic physics to popular consciousness for the very first time—way back in 1975. This special edition celebrates the thirty-fifth anniversary of this early Shambhala best seller that has gone on to become a classic. It includes...

"Knowing how we know" is the subject of this book. Its authors present a new view of cognition that has important social and ethical implications, for, they assert, the only world we humans can have is the one we create together through the actions of our coexistence. Written for a general...