We have hand-picked some of our favorite books and CDs to help you on your journey of ever deepening discovery and awareness. This index provides an overview. Just click on a title for details, or browse the entire listing by scrolling down.

SEATS
Zafu Cushion
Peace Bench™
Sky Bench™
Smile Cushion™
Inflatable Zafu
Tilt Seat™

MATS
Zabuton
Yoga Mat
Mini Futon
Sticky Mat
Yoga Lounge™

YOGA PROPS
Straps
Blocks
Bolsters
Sticky Mats

FURNITURE
Desks
Chairs
Bookshelf
Zen Office™
Floor Bedding

PILLOWS
Head Pillows
Eye Pillows
Body Pillows

ACCESSORIES
Books/CDs
Beeswax Candles
Zen Alarm Clocks
Meditation Bells
Kapok and Buckwheat

The Accidental Buddhist by Dinte Moore

This book is one of the few written about the culture and geographical landscape of Buddhism in America.

Cutting through religious jargon and abstract concepts, Moore explains in clear terms why Buddhism is becoming part of popular culture. He has the rare ability to be at once sincere about religion and good-humored about the human condition. The Accidental Buddhist never takes itself too seriously--which, as Moore discovers, Buddhists aren't supposed to do, even when they are mindful, enlightened, and sitting perfectly still.

A chapter of this book is a candid view of Carolina Morning Designs founders and owners in 1998, titled "Life without a Cushion".

Lessons from the Dying by Rodney Smith

Are a person's perceptions and values altered when facing the end of life? Do the dying see the world in a way that could help the rest of us learn how to live? This book takes us into the lessons of the dying. Through the words and circumstances of the terminally ill, we become immersed in their wisdom and in our own mortality. The dying speak to us in direct and personal ways, pointing toward a wise and sane way to live.

In everyday language we can all understand, Rodney Smith extends the conversation about death to people of all ages and states of health. Through exercises and guided meditative reflections at the end of each chapter, the lessons of the dying become a blueprint for our own growth.

We always have a choice. We can let the circumstances of our lives hardenn us and make us increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder. Here Pema provides the tools to deal with the problems and difficulties that life throws our way. This wisdom is always available to us, she teaches, but we usually block it with habitual patterns rooted in fear. Beyond that fear lies a state of openheartedness and tenderness. This book teaches us how to awaken our basic goodness and connect with others, to accept ourselves and others complete with faults and imperfections, and to stay in the present moment by seeing through the strategies of ego that cause us to resist life as it is.

Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, PhD.

Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering," says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork--all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled. Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach's twenty years of work with therapy clients and buddhist students.

When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

There is a fundamental opportunity for happiness right within our reach, yet we usually miss it--ironically, while we are caught up in attempts to escape pain and suffering. Drawn from traditional Buddhist wisdom, Pema Chodron's radical and compassionate advice for what to do when things fall apart in our lives goes against the grain of our usual habits and expectations. There is only one approach to suffering that is of lasting benefit, Pema teaches, and that approach involves moving toward painful situatinos with friendliness and curiosity, relaxing into the essential groundlessness of our entire situation. It is there, in the midst of chaos, that we can discover the truth and love that are indesructible.

$19.95 Buy Now

When the authors of this book set out on a three-year voyage to study extremely happy people, their travels took them to a corporate manager..., a retired doctor..., a hardware store owner...and more than three hundred others around the world.

From this unique and in-depth research, they developed their acclaimed model of nine choices...a new key to the mind-body connection. The focus of major studies and training at institutions such as Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the American Heart Association, this easy-to-follow program has helped thousands achieve greater happiness. Now it's your turn.

$13.95 Buy Now

Creating the Work You Love by Rick Jarow

Meditation is more than what you do on the zafu...far more. This book is a deep and down-to-earth method for discovering what kind of work and life provides the deepest meaning and fulfills the most pressing need for self expression. Jarrow takes a wholistic look at livilyhood and sees that many of us have not integrated our outer life with our inner. To discover a career that fits takes deep reflection and asking ourselves questions such as: What can I do that the world needs? Where is there a hole that I could fill? What can I do that feels good? What kind of things do I do outside work that work can support? This book merges Eastern thought/meditation with Native American ritual and symbology to provide a refreshing and unique program for personal self-actualization and self-fulfulment.

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D.

This books shows us how to reach beneath the surface and discover what is alive and vital within us, and how all of our actions are based on human needs that we are seeking to meet. When we understand and acknowledge our needs we create a shared basis for a more satisfying relationship--a deeper connection with others and ourselves. Join the thousands of people world-wide who have improved their relationships--and their lives--with this simple, yet revolutionary process.

A properly aligned body is essential for mental and physical comfort. The deep comfort that comes from an aligned body helps the meditator get into a deep state. The opposite, pain results from mis-alignment. This pain has to be struggled against. This struggle can become ingrained in the consciousness and compensated for, resulting in 'holding' patterns. These 'holding' patterns are both physical and mental/emotional.

"At first glance, the subject matter of this book seems daunting; but as one travels on, there emerges a beautiful simplicity which carries the reader along, not only without pain, but with enjoyment. This book signals a new and sorely needed vitality in a field which, even though it is about life, so often seems to bring out the gray and pedantic in its champions." --Peter Melchior, Senior Faculty member, the guild for Structural Integration

This is the authoritative work on why and how the chair is a flawed part of civilization. Dr. Cranz takes a fresh and provocative look at where the chair came from, how it effects the body, the pschycological and cultural perspectives on furniture and body, and which positions are more conducive to physical comfort and well being. Dr. Cranz' background in architecture and park design coupled with her training in the Alexander Technique and other mind/body healing modalities provides a long overdue statement about exactly WHY the chair is "bad".

Seven Metals Benjamin Jobst

This beautiful and faithful recording of Tibetan singing bowls is superb for relaxation, massage and bodywork, deep sound meditation, Yoga relaxation and more.

Letting go of Stress Dr. Emmett Miller and Stephen Halpern

Provides you with four easy yet powerful methods to effortlessly and effectively manage the sresses in your life, anytime you need to.

As you listen, you'll notice positive changes almost immediately. You'll enjoy using these programs over and over, and appreciate how this CD helps you calm your mind, relax your body, and let go of unwanted stress.

Dr. Emmett Miller's warm and deeply resonant voice guides you through physical and mental relaxation, autogenic exercises and guided imagery that decrease tnesion and leave you feeling renewed and refreshed.

Further enhancing the verbal effect is the exquisitely relaxing music composed and performed by Steven Halpern on grand piano and other keyboards.