Combining time-honored Buddhist teachings and stories with examples from modern life, Rev. Nikkyo Niwano shows us how we may attain a uniquely Buddhist way of reflecting on our everyday ways of thinking and being. We learn why attitude affects happiness, and how flexibility of mind helps us grow spiritually, making us more productive at work and better able to relate to others. We learn how even desires and self-love can be used to make the world more harmonious. Finally, this prominent Buddhist explains how taking a deep look at what is closest lets us see the way our individual lives fit into the universe.

Invisible Eyelashes: Seeing What Is Closest to Us, Nikkyo Niwano, Kosei Publishing Co., Paperback, 175 pp., $8.95.

Nikyo Niwano (1906-1999), recipient of the 1979 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, was the founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, a lay Buddhist organization that now has some 1.5 million member households worldwide.