Ehipassiko Press
Ehipassiko Press, LLC was started in June 2023 to publish Open Educational Resources (OERs) primarily in the fields of education, spirituality, and addiction recovery. We have since expanded the understanding of our mission to include any books that promote self-reflection. We want our readers to engage with our authors on the printed page. Therefore, our books tend to have much space for readers to write marginalia in them.
As part of our expanded mission, during 2024, we will launch a "Student Voices" series which will publish reflective journals written by college students. By June 1 of this year, we plan to announce the first four books in this series. In 2025 (if not earlier), we will begin publishing children's books written and illustrated by college students, some in collaboration with elementary students. Since agreeing to work with a college to publish the children's books created by their students, we plan to publish children's books even if they were not written as part of a service learning project.
With the expanded understanding of our mission, we will begin publishing books of fiction and poetry. However, we are still developing our ideas of exactly what types of poetry and fiction interests us. A query from a prospective author will push our thinking.
Finally because of our commitment to quality education, Ehipassiko Press will publish textbooks and workbooks in any discipline.
Although not all of our publications are Buddhist, we extend the Buddhist tradition of not selling Dhamma to all our publications. Therefore, our books are published with a Creative Commons license and are released online for free. In the spirit of OERs and not selling Dhamma, paperback editions of our books are offered through Amazon for cost of production. Neither our authors nor Ehipassiko Press receive royalties or other forms of compensation. Our attorney told us that we have an unusual business model. It is not that we do not make a profit. We literally have no income stream.
Ehipassiko: Encouraging Investigation
Two monks reported to the Gautama Buddha that they had overheard some people talking badly about him. The Buddha's response was that the monks should listen to what was being said because those people might be right. This is the spirit of ehipassiko, the spirit of encouraging investigation.