Living Deeply

Description

We live in an exciting time in which monks are sitting down with Harvard scientists to talk about the neuroscience of mindfulness, indigenous healers are working side-by-side with physicians to treat patients in major hospital clinics, and quantum physics and living systems biology are confirming traditionally spiritual views of human consciousness. We also live in a challenging time in which understanding more about how we can cultivate a more compassionate and peaceful way of life has become an urgent priority for the health and well being of individuals as well as our global community.This engaging distillation of the most recent scientific advances and perennial wisdom brings what we know about how people change their lives off the mountaintop, down from the ivory tower, out of the laboratory and into the hands of readers. Springing from the Institute of Noetic Sciences' (IONS) studies of how people transform their lives, this book describes and discusses the implications of some of the most recent and compelling scientific findings on human consciousness and transformation. "Living Deeply" transcends any one approach by focusing on common elements of transformation across a variety of traditions, while affirming and supporting the diversity of approaches across religious, spiritual, scientific, academic, and cultural backgrounds. Each chapter in the book ends with "Experiences of Transformation", exercises drawn from wisdom traditions or scientific investigations meant to enhance your direct experience of the material.

Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Ph.D., is a clinical research scientist, medical anthropologist, writer, speaker, thought leader, and change consultant. Her work over the past three decades explores the interface of consciousness, science, and healing. Her recent book, Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind Body Medicine has been described as a tour de force. Her research has been featured in such forums as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and ABC World News. Schlitz serves as vice president for research and education at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and as senior scientist at the Research Institute, California Pacific Medical Center. Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, director of research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, codirector of the Mind Body Medicine Research Group at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco, CA, and copresident of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology. Her research has focused on mindfulness-based approaches to cultivating emotional balance, the involvement of biology, psychology, and emotion in addiction and recovery, the role of compassionate intent and belief in healing, and the factors, experiences, and practices involved in psychospiritual transformation. She has published several academic articles and chapters, has conducted numerous presentations at international scientific conferences, and is coauthor of Living Deeply. Tina Amorok, Psy.D., is a clinical and research psychologist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences where she coedited the anthology, Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine and is an investigator on the IONS Transformations of Consciousness Study. with a background in integral health and healing, clinical psychology, and change management, Amorok has designed and implemented programs for professional, university, corporate, and lay sectors on wellness and transformation. Her current research, entitled the Eco-Trauma and Eco-Recovery of Being, examines how to heal and transform the primal wound of human alienation from nature from which destructive ecological behaviors, violence, and unhealthy life styles arise. Dr. Robert A.F. Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, President of the Tibet House U.S., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization, and President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, a non-profit affiliated with the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and dedicated to the publication of translations of important texts from the Tibetan Tanjur. Thurman's work and insights are grounded in more than 35 years of serious academic scholarship. He has a B.A., A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard and has studied in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in India and the United States. A long-time advocate of Buddhist monasticism, in 1962, Thurman became the first American ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He gave up his robes after several years, however, when he discovered he could be most effective in the American equivalent of the monastery, the university. He has written both scholarly and popular books, and has lectured widely all over the world. His special interest is the exploration of the Indo-Tibetan philosophical and psychological traditions, with a view to their relevance to parallel currents of contemporary thought and science.

Living Deeply is the accumulated wisdom of many of our greatest living teachers, all adepts in the goal of personal transformation. This is one of the finest collections of gentle, penetrating insights available. Highly recommended. --Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things Living Deeply provides us with some of the most significant insights into spiritual transformation that I have ever read. Based on interviews with spiritual teachers, leading scientific researchers, religion scholars, important public intellectuals, and major writers, this volume is a remarkable example of an integrative approach to a topic of immense importance. It is marvelous to look through the different windows of transformation that are so richly described and interpreted both spiritually and scientifically. Living Deeply is a major accomplishment that will hopefully become a classic in an emerging field. It is truly a brilliant synthesis. I think Living Deeply will change lives and change the world for the better. --Stephen G. Post, Ph.D., professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine