Wide Awake
A Buddhist Guide for Teens
By Diana Winston

Buddha

This image of the Buddha is available as a poster from Buddhism Depot.

Praise for Wide Awake

Wide Awake

To order this book, head to your nearest independent bookseller or to Booksense or to Amazon.com. Published by Perigee Books (A division of PenguinPutnam Group).

"...a well-written and basic primer for Gen-Ys who are asking Big Questions...Teens will appreciate the way she gives the dharma to them straight, while many adults will also benefit from this lucid manual."
—Publishers Weekly

"Diana Winston writes with astonishing clarity and simplicity about deep spiritual matters. Her common sense sensitive approach to questions of sexuality, ethical conduct, and ordinary matters of daily living has the freshness of truth newly discovered. Experienced in working with youth, and young enough to remember having been there herself, she confronts the challenges of adolescence with an intimate frankness. Though Wide Awake is a terrific Buddhist guide for young people, I confess that I learned quite a bit from it myself!"
—Norman Fischer, Zen priest and poet, former co-abbot, San Francisco Zen Center, founder and spiritual director of the Everyday Zen Foundation

"Wide Awake: A Buddhist Guide for Teens is a wonderful expression of Buddhist teaching, in a clear and accessible form. With relevant examples from the teenage perspective, and guided meditations as pragmatic tools, this book powerfully serves the younger community."
—Sharon Salzberg, meditation teacher and author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

"Bravo to Diana Winston for writing a really good, honest book about Buddhism for teens. She's been there and shows us how we can do it ourselves."
—Jack Kornfield, author of Path with Heart

"The Buddha instructed his disciples to "go forth and teach the holy Dharma in the idiom of the people" and Diana Winston is fluent in "Young Adult." I think the Buddha would have been proud of her translation. I am inspired by her message of hope and courage."
—Sylvia Boorstein, author of Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart, The Buddhist Path of Kindness

"As a teen, I searched high and low (mostly high) for some sense of belonging, purpose, and meaning....Wide Awake is the book I was looking for as a teen....This book shines the light of wisdom into the sometimes dark experience of being young."
—Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx (from the foreword to Wide Awake)

"Diana Winston has given us a great gift. She has offered the heart of the Buddhas teachings for the next generation. Written with grace, wisdom, and honesty, Wide Awake is the real deal. It is a wise companion for any teen trying to navigate the tumultuous terrain of the teen and young adult years. In this hurried, complex world we are living in, the Buddha's teachings are needed now more than ever. Wide Awake could not come at a better time."
—Soren Gordhamer, author of Just Say OM!

"Ah, to be young again...and have this kind of wisdom available. Diana Winston translates the Buddha's teaching into the language of modern teens, and makes the ancient wisdom relevant to their concerns. This book is a significant contribution to the awakening of the West, and hopefully will gain the attention of parents and teachers, as well as teenagers themselves. I'd love to someday see a public service announcement showing a group of energized, smiling young people, along with the slogan, "This is your brain on Buddha."
—Wes Nisker, editor of the Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind, and author of Essential Crazy Wisdom, and Buddha's Nature: evolution as a practical guide to enlightenment