Buddha Heart Parenting- Enrich Your Family with Buddhist Wisdom and Compassion

About the Book This book represents one of the finest guides for bringing Buddhism into our life at a practical level.

'Buddha Heart Parenting' offers the reader deep insights into how to integrate Buddhist philosophy with contemporary psychology to arrive at a method of parenting that is both effective and enables family members to realize their true Buddha nature.

The emphasis is on skills and strategies that combine compassion and wisdom to make all our interactions with our children supportive and joyous.

About the Author While author, CL Claridge, has a degree in child psychology and a PhD in empowerment processes, her special qualities are her sensitivity, compassion, commitment and sense of humour. As a mother she has found parenting to be one of the most rewarding roles she has undertaken. CL is a practicing Buddhist and has, for more than 25 years, educated and counselled parents in effective parenting skills and strategies based on Buddhist principles and philosophy.

"Buddha Heart Parenting gives readers the skills and awareness to build connected, joyous relationships with their children."

Foreword Being a parent is hard work. My own father once said to me, whatever you do it is wrong. I was a teenager at the time, so his comment was not surprising, but whatever mistakes he thought he had made, he must have done something right. These days we siblings get on well. He and my mother had laid the basis for this early in our childhood. Not that they were perfect either. They both frustrated and fulfilled me. Any book which helps parents negotiate the minefield of bringing up children is welcome.

There are many books about child-rearing, but few which base it firmly on Buddhist principles. Buddhism, in the end, is about cause and effect. If we do something positive it will have a positive effect. It is an optimistic philosophy in which it is possible to achieve complete elimination of all ignorance and therefore of all suffering. We may not be able to do this in one short lifetime, but we can make a start. For this reason, the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha begin with where we are now. His methods for dealing with life were not just for monastics, but also for the householder, the parent. These teachings and methods are the wisdom wing of Buddhism.

The other wing of the Buddhist bird is that of compassion. What does it mean to be compassionate to a child in a temper tantrum, or wheedling for the latest toy? What does it mean to be compassionate to an 18 month toddler compared with a 6 -ear old in Grade 1? Parents these days are challenged in a way that they have never been challenged before.

**Contents and Sample Pages**