Previously published as part of How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life. In this inspirational and practical guide to conquering fear and embracing joy, Susan Piver gives you a seven day meditation program to break down the barriers that are holding you back from the courage to live the life you were meant to--no holds barred. Discover the courage to live with authenticity and ease. "I have long recommended meditation as central to a healthy lifestyle. Susan Piver teaches this important practice in a trustworthy and practical way – and shows us how to use its lessons to create a fearless life." --Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Healthy Aging "Susan Piver has written a beautiful book about how to overcome fear and be empowered in your life based on her years of Buddhist practice." --Judith Orloff, MD, author of Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear into Vibrance, Strength, and Love

How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life is an inspirational and practical guide to conquering fear and embracing joy. Although you may not realize it fear is getting in your way and stopping you from connecting with others, realizing the significance of your life, and finding fulfillment and joy. It doesn't have to be this way. Susan Piver has the key to breaking down the barriers of fear that are holding you back. Using simple meditation techniques, based in Buddhist principles, she will teach you how to: -Open your heart to relationships -Gain the confidence to pursue a meaningful career -Achieve perspective to live your authentic life With a contemporary approach to ancient practices Susan teaches you how to incorporate principles of meditation and mindfulness into your everyday life. This isn't about enlightenment on a mountaintop it is a way of bringing intelligence and courage to the way you relate to yourself, your family, your friends, and your life. How Not to be Afraid of Your Own Life features the "7-Day Freedom from Fear Meditation Program" a guided journey into discovering what may be holding you back from experiencing life to the fullest. Using meditation, journaling, and other reflective practices you will find a respite from everyday pressures and learn techniques to help you re-enter your busy life refreshed, renewed, and ready to live the life you were born to.

A small group of perhaps 10 or 30 people come together to spend some days in silent meditation. It is not important which gender, ethnicity or religion they might identify with; all are welcome. Old age or physical disability is not a hindrance. This meditation is open for everyone. Sitting silently in a hall, breathing, sensing the body, seeing the light reflected from the floor, being in touch with the people around. Who or what are we to be? Nobody special? Can it be enough to flow with the stream of aliveness, which is here in utter simplicity, no separation, no wanting, no missing? When no separating thoughts or feelings appear, everything is complete as it is. How do we live our everyday lives? Is there space to open up, to become aware? Are we truly in touch with what surrounds us or what is inside of us? Honestly, our lives are crowded with constant thoughts, actions and reactions. We are often overwhelmed and we switch to 'autopilot' to get through the daily challenges. Are we victims of our automated programs? Is it inevitable to live most of the time in chaos, feeling helplessly exposed to a world that offers not even a moment to contemplate? The central expression of this book is awareness. Awareness is a state of being present in the actual moment, being here in the actual truth that unfolds directly in front of our eyes. Everything is already complete here. Can we simply sense it, feel it - without judgment, without knowledge or explanation? No need to identify with anything. What drives us? The impulses to act, are we aware of them? A new understanding of all life and nature, including us, may dawn from such simple silent awareness. Not a new concept of the world or of who we are. Concepts are part of the observed. Awareness is an understanding emerging from the truth of this moment.

'A huge subject tackled beautifully' FEARNE COTTON Times are hard. Meditation doesn't have to be. Meditation leads to transformation. It affects every aspect of your wellbeing and can bring about positive change in your body, affect your mental outlook, increase your decision-making ability and eliminate worry and anxiety. The master of modern meditation Deepak Chopra draws on his 30 years of practice and reveals how to achieve blissful awareness by waking up to who you really are. Perfect for beginners, sceptics or those looking for a new approach to stillness, his simple 7-day programme offers a life-changing path to a quiet mind.

Counsels readers on how to improve energy levels and overcome such common challenges as chronic fatigue, headaches, and depression through a customizable week-long cleansing regime and lifestyle program based on energy-positive habits.

“Desire is here to stay. The challenge we all face, and which I intend to guide you through, is to learn how to take into account the full measure of who you are and use the positive force of all four of your soul’s desires to lead you to your best life.” —Rod Stryker According to ancient Yogic tradition, your soul has four distinct desires: • The desire for purpose, the drive to become who you are meant to be • The desire for the means (money, security, health) to prosper in this world • The desire for pleasures like intimacy, beauty, and love • The desire for spiritual fulfillment and lasting freedom Learning to honor these four desires is the key to happiness, and to a complete and balanced life. But how can you discern what will truly satisfy your desires? How can you increase your capacity to achieve them? What if your desires seem to conflict with one another? Is it really possible to live a spiritual life while also wanting material pleasures and success? For more than three decades, master teacher Rod Stryker has taught yoga in the context of its deepest philosophy. His course, called The Yoga of Fulfillment™, has helped thousands recognize their soul’s call to greatness and to achieve their dreams. Now, in this wise and richly practical book, he has distilled those broad teachings into a roadmap for becoming the person you were meant to be. It is filled with revealing true stories, provocative exercises, and practices for unlocking your inner guidance. And even if you’ve never done a yoga pose, you can follow this step-by-step process to: • discover your soul’s unique purpose—the one you came into this world to fulfill. • recognize the goal(s) you need to focus on at any given time and enliven your capacity to reach them. • overcome self-defeating ideas and behavior. • recruit your deepest energies and strengthen your resolve to meet any challenge. • learn to live with joy at every stage of your growth. The Four Desires is nothing less than a complete path toward living your best life possible—a life that is rich in meaning and in means, a life that attracts and emanates happiness, a life that is your unique gift to yourself and the world.

Constructive Living brings together two psychotherapies—Morita and Naikan— and their associated lifeways. Both therapies were developed in this century, but their roots extend back hundreds of years in East Asian history. Morita was a professor of psychiatry at Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo. Yoshimoto was a successful businessman who retired to become a lay priest in Nara. Morita's method has it origins in Zen Buddhist psychology, and Yoshimoto's Naikan has its origins in Jodo Shinshu Buddhist psychology. Neither of these systems requires that one believe in Buddhism or have faith in anything other than one's experience. They work as well for Christians and Moslems and Jews as for Buddhists. Both are built on the naturalistic observations of humans and careful introspection of their founders. Constructive Living isn't mystical or oriental, but practical and human.

This study examines the impact of Buddhism on the political process of Asian countries in recent times. The intersection between Buddhism and politics; religious authority and political power is explored through the engagement of Buddhist monks and lay activists in the process of nation-building, development, and implementation of democracy.

Leonard Cohen has aimed high: to be all Jewish heroes at once. Like Jacob, he struggled with angels. Like David, he sang psalms and seduced women. But he never ceased doing what he did best: going from city to city and reviving our hearts. Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall follows the singer’s cosmopolitan life from Montreal and New York to the Greek island of Hydra and examines his perpetual dialogues with himself, God, and avalanches. We see how six decades of radiant pessimism and a few thousand nights in hotel rooms transformed a young Jewish poet who longed to be a saint into an existentialist troubadour in love with women and a gravelly-voiced crooner who taught a thousand ways of dissolving into love. After more than two decades of research and travels, Christophe Lebold, who befriended the poet and spent time with him in Los Angeles, delivers a stimulating analysis of Cohen’s life and art. Gracefully blending biography and essay, he interrogates the mission Cohen set out for himself: to show us that darkness is just the flip side of light.