This is the first book I can remember that I've finished, then immediately flipped back to Chapter One and began reading again. Fleischman's beautiful and lyrical metaphors create powerful flow within the simple biographical essays, and the unexpected list of characters whose lives are portrayed provides a smorgasbord of reflections within his theme of lives of peace. We can use profound, yet approachable role models in this time of dismay, and here's a sensitively written way to meet them.

Discover the lifelong, hard won insights about living a peaceful life as learned by some of the Great Masters: Gandhi, Thoreau, Buddha, etc...

Thank you Dr. Fleischman for this amazing work!

A remarkably helpful work that distills the hard-won, lifelong insights of some of the World's true masters, such as Gandhi and Thoreau. Thanks for the gift Dr. Fleischman.

Paul Fleischman's writing stirs more ideas than could be followed tghrough in the space of an essay. His language has a technical tone yet tends toward the poetic. Some sentences need to be read more than once. But for those who find themselves drawn into his writings, these challenges fall away to reveal a rare gem. His unique style is integral to the power it evokes, and he writes things I have always wanted to be able to read. My favorite was the title essay, Karma and Chaos, where he explains, and better yet, demonstrates, how a life in line with karma can yield a balanced personality without sacrificing intellectual integrity. To me this book exudes compassion, wisdom, and joy.

This collection of essays is the most lyrically beautiful and forcefully personal account of the effect of the Buddha's teachings in real life I have ever read. Dr. Fleischman writes with the soul of a poet and the critical thought of a scientist. His and his family's life and growth together in Dhamma shine through again and again as the real theme of the essays. Anyone who wonders about the amorphous interface between modern psychotherapy and the Buddha's path should not miss the essay, "Vipassana Meditation: A Unique Contribution to Mental Health."

And the title essay, "Karma and Chaos" is an amazingly fertile presentation of the ancient and timeless teachings of the Buddha in light of the cutting edge discoveries of western science.

Mu Soeng, director of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, has said of it: "I just finished reading the essay on Karma and Chaos from your book and I want to congratulate you on an extraordinary piece on Dhamma and scientific perspectives. I would like to say that it is one of the shining moments of how ancient wisdom tradition from the East is being received in the West. The language is beautiful and there is a cogent and passionate communication of some very complex ideas in ways that do not oversimplify them and yet make them accessible."