Greetings BDC Library community!

We are excited to restore the Buddha’s Bookshelf monthly newsletter to bring you all the news of the BDC library, new books, pop-up book sales, and more. 

Our current BDC library crew includes Michãel Palmer, Trish Kunz, Matthew Yaeger, and Melissa Guillory. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions regarding the library please email library@bozemandharmacenter.org. We’re happy to help!

BDC Library Improvements

You’ve probably heard that we had a major reorganization last summer to update our loan management system, relocate books, and tidy up shelf organization. The changes are on-going as we continue to make improvements that contribute to the accessibility of the dharma for everyone to read. 

We can use your help too! If you have a book that needs returning, please drop it off in the library’s book basket or leave it at the BDC’s door if the center happens to be closed when you come by. We also encourage you to reach out to library@bozemandharmacenter.org if a book you’ve borrowed becomes missing or damaged. No worries! It happens, we’d just like to update our book loan records and replace it if needed. 

Refining our book loan process

Part of the reorganization project was to refine our processes for book borrowing and returning. It is an effort to maintain our inventory and keep books available for all to read.

Borrowing books

Be sure to fill out the sheet as legibly as possible including your email address and phone number. If you are a longtime borrower, we likely have your contact information. You are welcome to note “current borrower” on the sheet to reduce what you have to provide when checking out. If your contact information or name has changed though please let us know so we can update it in our system.

Returning books

Simply place your returned book in the basket on the bottom shelf of the table by the library door clearly marked for returning books. We ask that books are not reshelved when being brought back to the library. If that happens, they miss getting taken out of the library loan management system and appear as overdue or missing. Questions? Please reach out to Trish at libary@bozemandharmacenter.org. 

Book recommendations

New in September! Soon you will see tags hanging on shelves with book recommendations from leaders at BDC, sangha members, or visiting teachers. We’d love to have your recommendations too! If you’ve read a book from our shelves that helped deepen your practice, please share! You can fill out one of the book recommendation slips and we’ll place it on the shelves as well as share in this newsletter every month. 

New books on the shelf

If you have a recommendation for a book that we do not have, please let us know! Coming this month, we’ll have a suggestion box where you can fill out your book request and we’ll work toward getting it into the BDC collection. We will let you know if and when we procure it!

Our Dharma Book Club would love to hear from you! What books would you like to read? Is there a better time to meet? Are there other ways to improve the experience? Please fill out this form to provide your input (click on the Dharma Book Club Poll title to get the link).

Emotions can inform us, but sometimes it feels more like they imprison us. As the great Sufi poet Rumi said they are messengers from beyond. Sometimes, however, the message is garbled or mixed. Here are books that can help us have emotions rather than emotions having us.

Working with the Emotions. Authored by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Jigme Rinpoche and edited by Sylvia Wong, this book shows us Buddhist methods for taking back control from our emotions.

Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames. Buddha recognized that three mind states caused unhappiness: wrong knowing, obsessive desire, and anger. Zen Buddhist monk and Vietnam refugee Thich Nhat Hanh gives tools and advice for transforming relationships, focusing energy, and recovering from the corrosive impact of anger.

Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion

The Dalai Lama, one of the world’s revered spiritual leaders, and the psychologist Paul Ekman, whose work has advanced the science of emotions, examine the nature of emotions in a series of conversations. Their exploration is accompanied by commentaries on emotion research and Buddhist teachings that further contribute to our understanding of emotions.