Unlearning the Basics challenges many of our commonsense understandings and offers a new way of seeing. Grounded in the Buddhist tradition yet completely free from the formulas of traditional presentations, this book examines concepts of love and grasping, as well as what happens when the need for love meets "the great unfixables". Also covered are how impermanence, vulnerability, and pain feed the "evolution of character", personal agency, and the necessity of experiential training in new ways of using the mind - and of returning to our true home and finding new ways to flourish.

Dr. Rishi Sativihari was born Richard Wright and grew up in the innercity of Detroit during the 1960s and 70s. Prior to monastic life, Rishi worked as the clinical director of La Casa, a drug abuse treatment center in southwest Detroit, and as a staff psychologist for the University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry. Rishi received his monastic training and ordination from the Venerable Wattegama Dhammawasa at the Subodharama Monastery in Sri Lanka. He also trained in the Tibetan (Gelug) tradition under the Venerable Geshe Tashi Tsering at the Chenrezig Monastery in Australia, and under S.N. Goenkaat the Dhammagiri Centre in India. In 2003, Rishi left monastic life and began training in the contemplative foundations of Judaism and Christianity at the Toronto School of Theology. He currently offers teaching on contemplative living and guidance in spiritual formation to individuals and groups in the Toronto area.

Mu Soeng, a former Zen monk and teacher, is the scholar-in-residence at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is the author of many books on Buddhism, including Trust in Mind and The Diamond Sutra. He lives in Barre, Massachusetts.
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