Blessed Relief
SkyLight Paths Publishing,US (Verlag)
978-1-59473-252-2 (ISBN)
Suffering may well be the most difficult part of life, as Episcopal priest and therapist Gordon Peerman knows first hand. Based on his conviction that Buddhist teachers have a lot to teach about dealing with suffering, what helps and what doesn't, Peerman takes readers on a lively, even light-hearted, journey through nine Buddhist practices that can bring "blessed relief" to a wide range of human suffering: Feeling Inadequate / Mindfulness; Wanting "Other"/ Dropping the Story; Anxiety / Spacious Awareness; Perfectionism / Kind Attention; Destructive Anger / The Way of Nonharming; Conflict / Nonviolent Communication; Hurt / Beginning Anew; Woundedness / Bowing to the Moment; Injustice / Softening the Heart.
Peerman's experience of coming to Buddhist practice, by way of Thomas Merton and the Trappists, has been evolving over a twenty-five-year time span, but rather than abandon his Christian tradition, Peerman brings the riches he has discovered to his birth community. Peerman's writing is warm and down-to-earth, his stories moving and interesting and his suggested exercises for putting theory into practice, wonderfully useful. This book will especially appeal to Christian audiences interested in the writings of Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating and Thich Nhat Hanh.
Gordon Peerman is an Episcopal priest and psychotherapist in private practice, and an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt Divinity School, where he teaches seminars in Buddhist-Christian Dialogue. He also teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health, as well as mindfulness practices to Vanderbilt Law School and Vanderbilt Medical School students. He and his wife, Kathy Woods, lead a weekly meditation with the Nashville Mindfulness Meditation Group.
Introduction ix
The Buddha Way and the Christian Way ix
What Helps and What Doesn't xi
Dropping Your Story Line xii
Finding Freedom xiii
1. Big Mind, Big Medicine 1
Everything Changes 1
The Heart of Mindfulness 5
The Weakest Link 7
Small Mind, Big Mind 10
Renunciation Practice 13
A Refuge from Words 16
Dropping into Freedom 19
Blessed Relief: The Three-Minute Breathing Space 24
2. The Cry for Help 27
The Why and the What of Suffering 27
An Exit from Hell 29
Bearing Suffering 32
The Work 36
Clearing the Lens 38
The Judging Mind Goes on Retreat 41
Blessed Relief: The Work 45
3. Beyond Belief 49
A Happy Accident 49
Spacious Awareness 52
Incline Your Mind 55
Who's Talking? 57
The Cloud of Unknowing 60
Blessed Relief: The Practice of Inquiry 63
4. Quiet Ambition 65
Not Enough 65
Kind Attention 69
Spontaneous Joy 72
The Hungry Ghost 74
Blessed Relief: The Sacred Breath 77
5. An Instrument of Peace 79
Angr-r-r-y 79
Self-Soothing: Bringing Attentiveness to Anger 81
Self-Defining: Being Willing to Speak Your Truth 85
Self-Transcending: Bringing RAIN to Blame 91
Blessed Relief: Working with RAIN 98
6. Meeting Our Edges 101
"You All Belong" 101
The Failed Buddhist Bypass 104
Nonviolent Communication 110
May the Circle Be Unbroken 114
Blessed Relief: Nonviolent Communication (NVC) 117
7. Beginning Anew 121
Unwrapping the Experience 121
A Place to Begin 123
True Intimacy 125
Zazen in the Devil’s Cauldron 129
Blessed Relief: The Practice of Beginning Anew 134
8. The Dharma of Dying 137
Remembrances 137
The Great Way 140
Bowing to the Moment 143
Old Wounds 147
Blessed Relief: The Five Remembrances 150
9. Mobile Loaves and Fishes 153
Compassion Rising 153
Beyond Us and Them 157
A Retreat on the Streets 159
Softening the Heart 161
Blessed Relief: Compassion Practice 166
Afterword 168
Glossary 173
Suggested Resources 175
Acknowledgments 179
Credits 182
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 10.10.2008 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | Woodstock |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 230 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus |
| Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-59473-252-3 / 1594732523 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-59473-252-2 / 9781594732522 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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