Beyond Mindfulness: The Direct Approach to Lasting Peace, Happiness, and Love

Description

Written by best-selling author, meditation expert, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher Stephan Bodian, this book takes you beyond familiar mindfulness practices by offering guided meditations and direct pointers that invite you to realize your natural state of inherent wakefulness and peace. No regular practice is required, just the willingness to open yourself to a transformative new way of experiencing life. Mindfulness has permeated our modern lives, and with good reason-it's been proven to boost mood, reduce stress, improve health, and maximize performance. But in our achievement-oriented culture, the practice of mindfulness can feel laborious and mechanical, like one more task on your endless to-do list. What if you could let go of effort and struggle and relax back into the happiness and ease that is your birthright-and is always readily available to you? Beyond Mindfulness offers teachings and practices based on the direct approach to spiritual awakening that take you beyond the mechanics of being mindful and open you to the non-dual dimension of being, where the separation between self and other reveals itself to be a painful but seductive illusion. Once you realize this new way of seeing, you'll learn how to move beyond mindfulness into awakened awareness and discover that the love, compassion, wholeness, health, and happiness you've been seeking were there all along.

Stephan Bodian is a pioneer in the integration of Eastern wisdom and Western psychology, and an internationally recognized expert on meditation and mindfulness. His books include Wake Up Now and the best-selling guidebook Meditation for Dummies. A licensed psychotherapist as well as a spiritual teacher, he leads classes, workshops, and retreats using the direct approach to spiritual realization and offers counseling and mentoring to people worldwide.

"Stephan Bodian draws the reader into a direct experience of his subject: the peaceful and liberating ground of awareness in which experiences come and go. His own great depth of insight and heart comes through on every page as he offers clear descriptions of subtle matters, practical suggestions, and experiential practices. Truly, a jewel of a book." --Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Buddha's Brain and Hardwiring Happiness "Stephan Bodian takes us beyond mere words, ideas, and mental fabrications into the very heart of the matter. I heartily recommend this excellent book." --Lama Surya Das, best-selling author of Awakening the Buddha Within and Awakening to the Sacred "This provocative and profound book shines a light on how practicing meditation can reify the doer--the self who is being mindful. With great lucidity and care, author Stephan Bodian introduces approaches drawn from non-dual wisdom traditions that allow us to relax back and realize the indivisible radiant awareness that is already and always here." --Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge