Essential Wisdom Teachings

by Fenner, Peter G.

• ISBN13: 9780892540532
• ISBN10: 0892540532
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Nicolas Hays

Summary

Do you want to change your life? Have you tried it before and the plan didn't work? What about trying the Fenners' approach? They say we must change how we believe. For example: If you are neither a hero nor a coward, who will you be? If you are neither stupid nor smart, who will you be? If you are not poor, but neither are you rich, who are you? You!

No matter what your spiritual philosophy -- whether you come from no tradition, or from a Christian, Buddhist, or other tradition -- you can change your life with this great new book! The Fenners bring fifty years of study and practice with them when they teach. They provide easy exercises to help you connect with your deep beliefs so you can see which beliefs result in stress and unnecessary tension.

This brings a new sense of openness and peace where you can fully embrace new experiences, emotions, and thoughts without the need to escape them. You can come home to yourself and be who you really are without pretense, exaggeration, embarrassment, or guilt. Learning how to do this allows you to discover your ab

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	viii
Preface	ix
Introduction	xiii
Part One How Suffering Is Created and Dissolved	1	(54)
What Is Stress?	3	(6)
Defining Stress	5	(1)
The Signs of Stress	6	(1)
Signs of Stress-Free Living	7	(2)
The Source of Stress	9	(8)
Stress Lives in Our Belief System	11	(2)
Our Experience Is Filtered by Beliefs	13	(1)
Stress Is Caused by Conflicting Beliefs	14	(3)
Beliefs	17	(10)
Levels of Beliefs	20	(2)
Conflicting Beliefs As the Cause of Stress	22	(2)
Experiencing Deep Beliefs	24	(3)
Why Do Our Beliefs Conflict?	27	(8)
Beliefs Co-Emerge	29	(1)
How We Come into Existence	29	(1)
The Stress of Disconnection	30	(1)
How Beliefs Imply Their Opposite	31	(1)
Emotional Paradoxes	32	(3)
Common Conflicting Beliefs	35	(10)
Beliefs That Make Stress	36	(5)
The Battleground of the Mind	41	(4)
Harmonizing Conflicting Beliefs	45	(10)
Fear of Losing Our Beliefs	47	(1)
Going Beyond All Beliefs	48	(1)
Natural Release	49	(6)
Part Two Relationship to Knowing	55	(22)
The Seduction of Knowing	57	(14)
Attachment to Beliefs	61	(2)
Taking the Suffering Out of Factual Events	63	(1)
Nothing Is Permanent	64	(1)
Things Are What They Are	65	(1)
Going Beyond the Story	66	(2)
Beginning to Release Attachment	68	(3)
Creating Openness Through Not-Knowing	71	(6)
Ambiguity on the Spiritual Path	73	(1)
Developing Openness	74	(3)
Part Three Phases of Growth	77	(50)
Disconnection	79	(8)
Preoccupation with Ourselves	80	(2)
Disconnecting from Ourselves	82	(1)
Internal Disconnection	83	(1)
Counterbalancing Disconnection	84	(1)
Interrupting the Stimulus-Response Pattern	84	(1)
Connecting with the Environment	85	(1)
Connecting the People	86	(1)
Conflict	87	(8)
Reacting to Conflict	88	(2)
Thinking or Feeling	90	(1)
Being and Doing	90	(1)
Time and Space As Obstacles	91	(1)
Counterbalancing Conflict	92	(3)
Codependence	95	(8)
External Codependence	96	(2)
Internal Codependence	98	(1)
Counterbalancing Codependence	99	(4)
Coexistence	103	(8)
Keeping an Eye on the Ball	104	(1)
Desiring Personal Power	105	(2)
Counterbalancing Coexistence	107	(4)
Dilemma	111	(10)
Hope and Hopelessness	113	(1)
Crazy Wisdom	113	(1)
Nowhere to Go	114	(1)
Counterbalancing Dilemma	114	(2)
Surrendering All Effort	116	(1)
Typical Conversations in Each Phase of Growth	117	(4)
Presence	121	(6)
We Cannot Gain It	123	(1)
No Manipulation of Our Experience	124	(1)
Nor Can We Lose It	125	(2)
Part Four Practice and Beyond	127	(12)
Practicing the Impossible	129	(10)
Relationship to Practice	131	(1)
Observing Reactions	132	(3)
Naturally Releasing	135	(1)
Dissolution---Going Beyond Practice	136	(3)
Appendix: Origins	139	(4)
Bibliography	143	(3)
Index	146	(3)
Timeless Wisdom Courses	149	(1)
About the Authors	150