Beloved Buddhist nun Ayya Khema expertly guides the reader through ten meditations on generating loving-kindness and cultivating the fifteen wholesome qualities necessary for igniting compassion and boundless love.

Having escaped Nazi Germany in 1938, Ayya Khema has singularly profound perspective on creating peace, unconditional love, and compassion. She gently teaches that inner peace is not necessarily natural or innate. Instead, peace should be considered a skill that needs intentional practice -- every day. Peace is the sum of many parts, namely the fifteen wholesome qualities the Buddha himself noted in the Metta Sutta, including usefulness, mildness, humility, contentment, receptivity, and others. Ayya Khema expertly guides us through each individual condition, using her trademark humor and personal narrative, to help each reader shape their own path to self-transformation.

The second part of the book includes an eye-opening discussion of metta (loving-kindness) as both a morality and concentration practice, as well as ten meditation practices that use visualizations rather than more traditional mantra repetition. These visualizations include your heart as a "Fountain of Love," reaching those close to you and those far away, and a "Flower Garden," where we tend to the blooms in our hearts through love and compassion and share them with others. Edited by her student and retreat leader, Leigh Brasington, this book is a complete course in practical ways to calm and brighten our minds.

Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving-Kindness, Ayya Khema, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 176 pages, $18.95

Ayya Khema was born to a Jewish family in Berlin in 1923. Escaping Germany in 1938, she went on to study Buddhism and meditation all over world, including the San Francisco Zen Center. In 1979, she was ordained a Theravadin Buddhist nun, receiving the name Khema, meaning �safety and security� (Ayya means �sister�). Ayya Khema established a forest monastery near Sidney, Australia; a training center for nuns in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Buddha-Haus, a meditation center in the Allg�u, Germany. Among her books are When the Iron Eagle Flies; Being Nobody, Going Nowhere; Who Is My Self?; and an autobiography, I Give You My Life.

Leigh Brasington, author of Right Concentration, studied the jhanas with the late Ven. Ayya Khema, who authorized him to teach retreats on the jhanas. He was also empowered to teach by Jack Kornfield. He teaches numerous jhana retreats throughout the year, at venues that include Cloud Mountain, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Gaia House, Vallecitos, and Southern Dharma.

CONTENTS: Path to Peace
Preface		xi
Editor's Note		xiii
Part One PEACE
The Metta Sutra		3
The Fifteen Wholesome Conditions for Creating Peacefulness		5
1.	One Should Be Able	13
2.	Upright	15
3.	Straight	19
4.	Not Proud	22
5.	Easy to Speak To	26
6.	Mild	31
7.	Well Content	41
8.	Easily Satisfied	47
9.	Not Caught Up in Too Much Bustle	53
10.	Frugal in One's Ways	58
11.	With Senses Calmed	63
12.	Intelligent	69
13.	Not Bold	72
14.	Not Being Covetous When with Other Folk	78
15.	And Abstain from the Ways That Wise Ones Blame	83
Part Two METTA MEDITATIONS
Unconditional Love: Metta		89
Guided Metta Meditations: Metta Phrases		112
The Beloved		115
The Flower Garden		117
The Golden Light		121
The Party		124
The Sun in Your Heart		127
The Fountain of Love		131
Breathe In Peace, Out Love		134
Forgiveness		137
The Goodness of Yourself and Others		140
The Seed of Enlightenment		143
Afterword		147
Acknowledgments		149
Bibliography		151
Resources		153
About the Author		157