Buddha Shakyamuni once was asked by experienced practitioners of another spiritual tradition: Exactly how do physical, verbal and mental actions performed in this life lead to consequences experienced in future lives? How is it possible to see things as they really are?

In the Mahayana sutra Resting in Awareness, the Buddha answered those questions with a set of meditations. The practice of awareness which he taught in this discourse is the direct path to awakening and the realization of absolute bodhicitta. This method consists of alternating between analyzing and resting and is the vajra meditation of Mahamudra.

This book is intended for advanced practitioners who wish to engage on their own in this practice of calm abiding combined with insight meditation.

It includes:

• An introduction to the Awareness Sutra, its Tibetan translation, and the commentaries written by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje and Sherab Rinchen;
• 23 step-by-step lessons with advice from those two Kagyu masters;
• 70 exercises paraphrased from the sutra, supplemented by meditation instructions from contemporary teachers of the Karma Kagyu lineage;
• An overview of the understanding of the practice of awareness according to different Buddhist schools.
• A Tibetan-English translation of the sutra passages;
• Key terms in English, Tibetan, and Pali.

Resting in Awareness: Mahamudra and Satipatthana, Svenja Schmitt, Books on Demand, Paperback, 483 pp, $45.90

Svenja Schmitt came in contact with living Buddhism during an archaeological excavation in Nepal 1995. After that, she studied Buddhist philosophy, epistemology and Tibetan language for five years at Karmapa International Buddhist Institute (KIBI) in New Delhi, India under Khenpo Chodrag Tenphel Rinpoche. Further studies led her to Darjeeling, Dharamsala, Kathmandu, and especially to Kalimpong. There she studied for another three years under the guidance of Professor Sempa Dorje. In the year 2009, Svenja began a phase of intensive Goenka-Vipassana meditation in India. During this three-year period, she was supported by the 17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje and guided by her main teacher, the 14th Shamar Rinpoche. Both encouraged her budding experiential understanding that Vipassana is actually Mahamudra, the main practice of the Kagyu tradition. Following this period, Svenja participated in Mahamudra courses in Europe as well as longer Vipassana retreats in Asia. It was here that she studied different aspects of awareness practice, as taught for instance in the Burmese Mahasi school and in the Thai Forest tradition. Svenja still dedicates the summer months to work as archaeologist in Germany and the winter, to meditating and translating in Kalimpong/ India.