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List Price: $19.95 | | Publisher: Thorsons
Salesrank: 609401
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
365 NIRVANA HERE AND NOW has already been praised as an "exquisite handbook for enlightenment" and as "an invaluable resource for anyone interested in finding peace in the present moment." In this treasury of timeless wisdom, Baran has gathered voices spanning cultures, continents and traditions-from ancient Buddhist, Tibetan and Zen sages to Christian and Jewish mystics to contemporary teachers, artists, scientists and poets-all celebrating the beautiful perfection of the present moment, through stories, dialogues, songs, meditations and poetry.
365 Nirvana Here and Now: Living Every Moment in Enlightenment Reviews:
my experience 
2009-12-23 - I was completely satisfied with that product totally, both the order and the service. I have found a wonderful way to get the books that I want at the price and delivery that make it excellant.
here and now
2009-12-23 - A daily and important reminder of what is and what is not important when seeking inner peace.
If you like Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, and others, you will like this book
2009-03-13 - When I heard Adyashanti was visiting San Diego, I was stoked! I've spent countless hours listening/reading his stuff. I was excited and looked forward to the weekend because it'd be killing two birds with one stone: It's been some time since visiting Diego so I planned to both party hard and hit up the Adyashanti event.
Prior to the event, I was at the Barnes & Noble browsing New Age. I saw this book called "The Tao of Now." What caught my attention was the picture of a cell phone on the front cover: an opened flip-phone cell flashing a picture of clouds on the screen. What tripped me out was that I also have a picture of clouds on my cell screen.
Just the past year since "seeing" the world anew, I've noticed something about clouds that really fascinates me. I later noticed that for some reason, the non-duality books on my shelf have clouds on the cover, only clouds: As It Is by Tony Parsons, Awakening to the Dream by Leo Hartong, The Song of the Bird by Anthony de Mello, A New Earth, The Power of Now, and Stillness Speaks all by Eckhart Tolle. Could it be that these authors also find clouds fascinating?
The author begins by telling his personal experience of how his thoughts got in the way of an event he was looking forward to attending. When he was actually at the event itself, he couldn't enjoy because his thoughts were mucking things up. That sure hits home with me. I've had that experience many times. As I read further, I found that the book resembled one of the books mentioned earlier, "Stillness Speaks."
Aphorisms, or short quotes and snippets, are great. Because they are short and to the point, they don't add layers of thought to cloud things even further. I've read "Stillness Speaks" many times and enjoyed it, but I enjoyed "The Tao of Now" much more. You see, the author collected a vast collection of quotes and short snippets, mainly about the Here and Now, that resonated with him. I could only imagine how many years it took him to collect it all. It's sweet of the author to share this with the world. As the quotes/snippets resonated with him, they also resonated with me big time.
Have you ever picked up a Gary Larson "Far Side" book? You just can't stop flipping through the cartoons, one after another, because they're so fun and enjoyable. "The Tao of Now" was just like that, but in addition to being fun and enjoyable, they were both eye-opening and profound.
After Adyashanti's event ended, I was so amped-up for the night. I decided to read a page or two of "The Tao of Now." Like the "Far Side" books, I got caught up... It was already late and I was supposed to be partying! But the book was just so good. The author points out that some passages brought tears to his eyes. I wasn't even past page 40 and already I was on the verge of tears with a couple of passages. At the end of some snippets, the author has some great inquiry questions to question what is real and false in you. The author also quoted a conversation about the Here and Now from a tv show which I thought was a slick find.
Now about my weekend... that'd be too long and this is about "The Tao of Now." All I'll say is that it turned out to be a magical weekend I'll never forget. And "The Tao of Now" surely made it that much more special.
Some inspiration, but the author's pretension diminishes the effect 
2009-03-08 - First, this is a slightly revised edition of the 2003 "365 Nirvana Here and Now".
Second, in reading the author's introduction, Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer" flashed into my mind. If you're not familiar with that gem, Hoffer examines the mind of the fanatic, the zealot, the true believer.
Josh Baran is convinced of his wisdom.His self-assurance that he has achieved Nirvana is creepy.His conceit at his own imagined superiority : "When I returned to America, I found that I could no longer stomach many of the spiritual books in my apartment". Ah, yes, he had the Truth!
The bottom line is that Baran, whatever his state of enlightenment, has gathered "nuggets" that are supposed to unlock your mind, "strung them together" and "joyfully" offers them to the unenlightened.
In other words, this is a book of quotations from here and there.
A majority of the quotes are taken from Buddhist sources. Others come from figures as diverse as Paul Cezanne, the artist, to Thoreau and unknowns.
Accompanying far too many of these "nuggets" are Baran's unctuous, often nebulous comments such as "To look, really look at another, is to see ourselves for the first time".
Baran is, however, a good compiler, an excellent editor. Taken alone, the collected quotations on the whole are inspiring and uplifting.
It is Baran's self-aggrandizement and his projecting himself into the collection that detracts from the appeal of "The Tao Of Now". It is quite likely that the true devotee will find Baran's comments worthy of interest: the casual reader, in my opinion, will not.
Overall, I would suggest that unless you already have an interest in Tao, Buddhism and such, that you will find more motivating inspiration elsewhere.
Jerry
Daily Wisdom for a year
2008-12-19 - "The Tao of Now: Daily Wisdom from Mystics, Sages, Poets, and Saints" is essentially a huge collection of wisdom quotes from all kinds of people, not necessarily just Buddhists. Quotes from Rumi, Buddha, Jack Kornfield, Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh, Dogen, Jesus, as well as many literary notables. Edited and compiled by Josh Baran, a former zen monk and Soto Zen teacher. These are "wisdom quotes" not necessarily religious quotes, so you get ideas from every faith and outlook.
This isn't the sort of book you read through from cover to cover. It's fun to just flip through and read a page at random. There are 365 quotes, making it possible to go through one quote a day for a year with this book. Although these are not koans in the traditional sense, most are reasonably short and deep enough to allow for some real contemplation.
The introductory section is short, and explains much of the author's background and reasons for writing the book. I especially like his reasons for being a "former" monk. He got up and walked out of the monastery one day. I suspect this happens quite a lot, and his reasons are interesting. He also points out in the introduction that some of the quotes in the book are contradictory, but that doesn't necessarily make them wrong. You just need to think about where the original speaker was coming from contextually.
I'm not going to say this is a "must have" book, but it's fun, informative, and does contain a lot to think about.
