Before Mark Epstein became a medical student at Harvard and began training as a psychiatrist, he immersed himself in Buddhism through experiences with such influential Buddhist teachers as Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, and Jack Kornfield. The positive outlook of Buddhism and the meditative principle of living in the moment came to influence his study and practice of psychotherapy profoundly. Going on Being is Epstein's memoir of his early years as a student of Buddhism and of how Bu...

It is common in both Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis to treat desire as if it is the root of all suffering and problems, but psychiatrist Mark Epstein believes this to be a grave misunderstanding.In his controversial defense of desire, he makes clear that it is the key to deepening intimacy with ourselves, each other, and our world.Proposing that spiritual attainment does not have to be detached from intimacy or eroticism, Open to the Passions begins with an exploration of the...

"An excellent introduction and amplification of connections between Buddhism and psychotherapy . . .interesting [and] meaningful" —Michael Eigen, author of Feeling Matters and The Sensitive SelfImmersed in Buddhist psychology prior to studying Western psychiatry, Dr. Mark Epstein first viewed Western therapeutic approaches through the lens of the East. Although both systems promise liberation t...

Sigmund Freud once said that the best outcome that psychotherapy can offer is a return to “common unhappiness.” But what about those of us with higher aspirations? Where do we find the tools we need to heal—and then go further— to create a life of uncommon and authentic happiness? The answer, teaches Mark Epstein, may lie in the insights of one of the world’s greatest psychologists—the Buddha. What the Buddha Felt uncovers a quiet revolution occurring in the West today: the merging of mode...

Blending Buddhism and psychotherapy, acclaimed psychiatrist Mark Epstein shows how to radically transform your emotional life.**“One of the most sophisticated integrations of the therapeutic and spiritual disciplines.” —**New York TimesToday, the benefits of meditation practices like mindfulness and deep breathing are widely recognized by mainstream therapists. But what does Buddhist insight actually look like, how does it intersec...

Dylan's songs sound as if they have been part of the folk music tradition for centuries The Ballad of Bob Dylan examines the influences behind his songs. Through a combination of first hand accounts, reportage and a wealth of interviews with those who have known Dylan for decades The Ballad of Bob Dylan is the fullest picture yet of Dylan's work in the studio. The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a vivid portrait, nuanced and insightful, of the greatest songwriter of the twentieth-century.

Drawing from a career of almost fifty years, Daniel Mark Epstein’s collection of new and selected poems forms a lyrical autobiography of its author as a poet and a man. Dawn to Twilight examines universal themes such as love and aging, happiness and despair, each of which Epstein approaches differently throughout the decades of his writing career. These poems encapsulate the evolution of Epstein’s work, with the passage of time itself forming a crucial theme as the author grows from studen...

The true story of America's first superstar evangelist that "fills a significant gap in the history of revivalism" (The New York Times Book Review).Once she answered the divine calling, Aimee Semple McPherson rose fast from unfulfilled housewife in Rhode Island to "miracle woman"—the most enigmatic, pioneering, media-savvy Christian evangelist in the country. She preached up and down the United States, traveling in a 1912 Packard with her mother and her ch...

Daniel Mark Epstein’s poetry has been in the public eye for nearly sixty years, since the magazine publication of the poems in his groundbreaking first book, No Vacancies in Hell (1973). Critics praise the erotic and spiritual lyricism of his poetry, as well as its power in capturing crucial moments of American history in dramatic monologues, including prize-winning portraits of a yellow fever epidemic and Henry Adams’s tragic marriage.Of The Traveler’s Calendar (...

As more and more Westerners become acquainted with Eastern thought, they mistakenly feel that it is only through a negation of the self that one can achieve enlightenment. Mark Epstein, a Buddhist psychiatrist says, "It’s wrong to think that Buddhist insight wipes out the ego-self; it wipes out the identification of whatever is happening in the mind/body process; but that ability being present is actually an ego function."

Through the lens of four seminal concerts,acclaimed poet and biographer DanielMark Epstein offers an intimate, nuancedlook at Bob Dylan: a vivid, full-bodiedportrait of one of the most influential artistsof the twentieth century, from his birth tothe Never Ending Tour.Beginning with 1963's Lisner Auditoriumconcert in Washington, D.C., Epstein revisitsDylan's astonishing rise as the darling ofthe folk revival, focusing on the people andbooks that shaped him, and his struggle tofind ...

A noted biographer and poet illuminates the unique woman who wrote the greatest American love poetry of the twentieth centuryWhat Lips My Lips Have Kissed is the story of a rare sort of American genius, who grew up in grinding poverty in Camden, Maine. Nothing could save the sensitive child but her talent for words, music and drama, and an inexorable desire to be loved. When she was twenty, her poetry would make her famous; at thirty she would be loved by readers the world ...