Being Nature

by Wes Nisker

• ISBN13: 9781644115374
• ISBN10: 1644115379
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2022-11-29
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

How to tune in to our own biology in pursuit of spiritual awakening

• Provides a practical program, complete with enjoyable, even playful meditations, for realizing greater self-awareness, increased wisdom, and happiness

• Shows how recent discoveries in physics, evolutionary biology, and psychology express in scientific terms the same insights the Buddha discovered more than 2,500 years ago

• Reveals the origins of attachments, desires, emotions, and thoughts in our own bodies

Taking us on an evolutionary journey to find the origins of emotions, desires, and thoughts in our own bodies, Wes “Scoop” Nisker shows not only how cutting-edge science is proving the tenets of the Buddha but also how we can interpret the traditional practices of Buddhism through this scientific lens for more personal freedom and peace of mind.

Using the traditional Buddhist meditation series of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as a framework, Nisker offers a witty narrative along with practical meditations and exercises to train the mind to overcome painful conditioning and gain greater self-awareness, increased wisdom, and happiness. He shows how recent discoveries in physics, evolutionary biology, and psychology express in scientific terms the same insights the Buddha discovered more than 2,500 years ago, such as the impermanence of the body, where thoughts come from, and how the body communicates within itself.

Presenting a variety of new ways to harness the power of mindfulness to transform our understanding of both ourselves and the world, Nisker teaches us how to put our understanding of evolution in the service of spiritual awakening.

Author Biography

Wes “Scoop” Nisker is an award-winning broadcast journalist and commentator. He has been a meditation practitioner for more than fifty years, a teacher since 1990 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, as well as a standup “dharma comic.” Author of many books, including The Essential Crazy Wisdom, and founding coeditor of The Inquiring Mind, an international Buddhist journal, he lives in Oakland, California.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Jack Kornfield, PhD

PROLOGUE
Who Goes There?

PART ONE
To Study the Self

CHAPTER ONE
A Case of Mistaken Identity

CHAPTER TWO
The Buddha Was a Biologist

PART TWO
The Gift of Mindfulness

CHAPTER THREE
Mindfulness: The Opposable Thumb of Consciousness

CHAPTER FOUR
The First Foundation of Mindfulness: The Body and Breath

CHAPTER FIVE
The Second Foundation of Mindfulness: The First Impression

CHAPTER SIX
The Third Foundation of Mindfulness: States of Mind

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness: Thinking about Thinking

EPILOGUE
Evolving toward Enlightenment Acknowledgments

References

Index

About the Author