Today’s Recommendation: Turning Suffering Inside Out

Turning Suffering Inside Out:
A Zen Approach for Living
with Physical and Emotional Pain
by Darlene Cohen
★★★★★

Darlene Cohen discovered the secret to finding happiness in the midst of debilitating pain. She shares her knowledge in her popular workshops and now in this book. Cohen, who has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for eighteen years, was hobbling painfully to her local Zen center one day, when she made a discovery that changed her life: if she focused on the foot that was in the air rather than the one that was hitting the pavement, her stamina increased enormously. It was the beginning of a completely different approach to the crippling pain that had beset her for so long. As she demonstrates here, this approach can be expanded to all types of pain: physical, psychological, and spiritual.

Cohen—a certified massage and movement therapist and Zen teacher—proposes a radically liberating alternative to the usual desperate search for pain relief: paradoxically, she says, release from suffering lies in paying closer attention to it. When we keep pain at bay, we keep pleasure at bay, too. The two are interdependent, and our ability to experience each is totally dependent on our understanding of the other.

read more

review ad 201129

Today’s Recommendation: Dialogues with Byron Katie

Who Would You Be Without Your Story?:
Dialogues with Byron Katie
★★★★ 1/2

"The end of suffering and the beginning of clarity.”

“This book is a collection of 15 dialogues that occurred throughout the United States and Europe with Byron Katie. Some of the people who worked with Katie have painful illnesses, others are lovelorn or in messy divorces. Some are simply irritated with a co-worker or worried about money. What they all have in common is a willingness to question, with Katie’s help, the painful thoughts that are the true cause of their suffering. In every case we see how Katie’s acute mind and fierce kindness helps each person dismantle for themselves what is felt to be unshakable reality. Although these dialogues make fascinating reading—some are both hilarious and deeply moving at once—they are intended primarily as teaching tools. Each took place in front of an audience, and Katie never lost connection with that audience, repeatedly reminding each person in the room to follow the dialogues inwardly, asking themselves the questions the participant must ask. The dialogue between Katie and these volunteers is an external enactment of precisely the kind of dialogue each person can have with their own thoughts. The results, even in the seemingly most dire situation, can be unimagined freedom and joy.”

read more

review ad 20708

Daily Insight: Joseph Goldstein: The Paradox of Suffering

“The wonderful paradox about the truth of suffering is that the more we open to it and understand it, the lighter and freer our mind becomes. Our mind becomes more spacious, more open, and happier as we move past our avoidance and denial to see what is true. We become less driven by compulsive desires and addictions, because we see clearly the nature of things as they are.”

― Joseph Goldstein,
Insight Meditation:
A Psychology of Freedom

today’s book ad recommendation 200626Z

Daily Insight: The Mind of Compassion

“We will not just say, "I love him very much," but instead, "I will do something so that he will suffer less." The mind of compassion is truly present when it is effective in removing another person's suffering.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step:
The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

book ad recommendation 200523z

Daily Insight: Love and the Reduction of Suffering

"May I be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit.
May I be safe and free from injury.
May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.

May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of of understanding and love.
May I be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself.
May I learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving, and delusion in myself.

May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day.
May I be able to live fresh, solid, and free.
May I be free from attachment and aversion, but not indifferent.

Love is not just the intention to love, but the capacity to reduce suffering, and offer peace and happiness. The practice of love increases our forbearance, our capacity to be patient and embrace difficulties and pain. Forbearance does mean that we try to suppress pain.”

― Thích Nhat Hanh

book ad recommendation 200509z

Daily Insight: Victor Chan: The Wisdom of Forgiveness

“To the Dalai Lama, suffering and adversity are the necessary conditions for developing patience and tolerance. These qualities are vital if we want to reduce negative emotions like hatred or anger. When things go well, we have less need to be patient and forgiving. It's only when we come across problems, when we suffer, that we truly learn these virtues. Once we internalize them, compassion flows naturally.”

― Victor Chan, The Wisdom of Forgiveness
Intimate Conversations and Journeys

book ad recommendation 200417z

Daily Insight: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross on Beautiful People

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross,
On Grief and Grieving

book ad recommendation 200403z

Words of Wisdom for Dec. 28, 2019: Joseph Goldstein: The Paradox of Suffering

“The wonderful paradox about the truth of suffering is that the more we open to it and understand it, the lighter and freer our mind becomes. Our mind becomes more spacious, more open, and happier as we move past our avoidance and denial to see what is true. We become less driven by compulsive desires and addictions, because we see clearly the nature of things as they are.”

― Joseph Goldstein,
Insight Meditation:
A Psychology of Freedom

post ad 191228z

Words of Wisdom for Oct. 9, 2019: Bodhidharma: Suffering is the Seed

“Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives rise to buddhahood. You can’t say that suffering is buddhahood. Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the sprout, and buddhahood the grain.”

― Bodhidharma,
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

#ad 191009z

Words of Wisdom for Aug. 12, 2019: Ajahn Sumedho on Suffering

“Oftentimes, the First Noble Truth is misquoted as “All life is suffering,” but that is an inaccurate and misleading reflection of the Buddha’s insight. He did not teach that life is constant misery, nor that you should expect to feel pain and unhappiness at all times. Rather, he proclaimed that suffering is an unavoidable reality of ordinary human existence that is to be known and responded to wisely.”

― Venerable Ajahn Sumedho

19030