"Just as the mighty ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, so too has my teaching but one taste: the taste of freedom."

This is how the Buddha himself described Buddhism. But what is freedom? Is it something we get from politicians, a fast car, a fat bank account? Or is it something we have to seek within ourselves?

In this book a leading Western Buddhist explains how freedom is won when we make the effort to untie the knots of habit, superficiality, and vagueness that sap our energy, block our creativity, and waste our true potential. That effort, and the way we apply it, is what the Buddhist life is all about.

This radical account of the goal and practice of Buddhism offers an essential introduction to a teaching that is now attracting thousands of followers throughout the Western world.