The tide of modern life is sweeping us even further into isolation-away from each other, from the world, from ourselves. Deepening Wisdom, Deepening Connection gives us insights and practices to turn the tide, so we can enrich our relationships, be more mindfully and joyfully present in the world, and deepen our understanding of ourselves.

Building on the ideas and practices in the first two books in the series (Why Bother: An Introduction and Wisdom Compassion (Starting with Yourself), Lama Tsomo actively engages readers, expanding our understanding and guiding our practice in key areas.

The Four Boundless qualities-Loving Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, Equanimity-are not lofty, abstract, sentiments. They are practical capacities that we can all cultivate for the benefit, as Buddhists say, of ourselves and others. Lama Tsomo teaches us how.

Forgiveness is essential to our inner well-being-if we want to move on in our lives, and to move closer to others, we have to be able to forgive. Resentment is the most destructive form of stress. As someone once said, hanging on to resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Deepening Wisdom, Deepening Connection shows us that we don’t need to forget in order to forgive.

Lama Tsomo’s explanation of the Buddhist concept of near enemies is a real eye-opener: she explains how we can stop fooling ourselves into thinking some of our shortcomings are actually virtues.

Her patient guidance into the principles and practice of Vipassana (Sublime Insight) offers us ways to experience reality in its complexity and simplicity (Buddhism was thousands of years ahead of quantum physics on this one). You’ll never see the world, or yourself, the same way again.

As in the previous books in the Ancient Wisdom for Our Times series, Lama Tsomo writes with conversational clarity and generous dashes of humor, providing examples, beautiful illustrations, practice cards, and links to online support.

As in the previous books in the Ancient Wisdom for Our Times series, Lama Tsomo writes with conversational clarity and generous dashes of humor, providing examples, beautiful illustrations, practice cards, and links to online support.