Being Zen: Bringing Meditation To Life

Description

A “straightforward, simple, and wise” guide to living an awakened life through mindfulness and meditation (Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart) We can use whatever life presents to strengthen our spiritual practice—including the turmoil of daily life. What we need is the willingness to just be with our experiences—whether they are painful or pleasing—and open ourselves to the reality of our lives without trying to fix or change anything. But doing this requires that we confront our most deeply rooted fears and assumptions in order to gradually become free of the constrictions and suffering they create. Then we can awaken to the loving-kindness that is at the heart of our being. While many books aspire to bring meditation into everyday experience, Ezra Bayda's Being Zen gives us practical ways to actually do it, introducing techniques that enable the reader to foster qualities essential to continued spiritual awakening. Topics include how to cultivate: • Perseverance: staying with anger, fear, and other distressing emotions. • Stillness: abiding with chaotic experiences without becoming overwhelmed. • Clarity: seeing through the conditioned beliefs and fears that "run" us. • Direct experience: encountering the physical reality of the present moment—even when that moment is exactly where we don't want to be. Like Pema Chödrön, the best-selling author of When Things Fall Apart, Ezra Bayda writes with clear, heartfelt simplicity, using his own life stories to illustrate the teachings in an immediate and accessible way that will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers. Contents Foreword by Charlotte Joko Beck Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: The Basics of Practice 1.   Skating on Thin Ice 2.   Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control 3.   Swiss Cheese 4.   Experiencing and the Witness 5.   The Eighty-Fourth Problem 6.   Three Aspects of Sitting Part II: Practicing with Emotional Distress 7.   The Substitute Life 8.   Practicing with Anger 9.   Practicing with Fear 10.   Practicing with Pain and Suffering 11.   Practicing with Distress 12.   Work and Practice Part III: Awakening the Heart of Compassion 13.   Hard and Soft 14.   Letting Be 15.   Loving-Kindness 16.   Loving-Kindness Meditation 17.   Awakening the Heart of Compassion Epilogue: What Is Our Life About? E-mail Sign-Up