Blessed Relief : What Christians Can Learn from Buddhists about Suffering

by Peerman, Gordon

• ISBN13: 9781594732522
• ISBN10: 1594732523
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-30
• Publisher: Skylight Paths Pub

Summary

"This book takes you on a lively, sometimes light-hearted, journey through nine Buddhist practices that can bring "blessed relief" to a wide range of human suffering - and teaches you skills to reduce suffering in the long term for yourself and others." "As you read the chapters and engage in each practice, you will work with your own stories of suffering - stories in which you have felt abandoned, deprived, subjugated, defective, excluded or vulnerable - and you will, learn how to release yourself from suffering by investigating it with curiosity and kindness."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
The Buddha Way and the Christian Way	p. ix
What Helps and What Doesn't	p. xi
Dropping Your Story Line	p. xii
Finding Freedom	p. xiii
Big Mind, Big Medicine	p. 1
Everything Changes	p. 1
The Heart of Mindfulness	p. 5
The Weakest Link	p. 7
Small Mind, Big Mind	p. 10
Renunciation Practice	p. 13
A Refuge from Words	p. 16
Dropping into Freedom	p. 19
Blessed Relief: The Three-Minute Breathing Space	p. 24
The Cry for Help	p. 27
The Why and the What of Suffering	p. 27
An Exit from Hell	p. 29
Bearing Suffering	p. 32
The Work	p. 36
Clearing the Lens	p. 38
The Judging Mind Goes on Retreat	p. 41
Blessed Relief: The Work	p. 45
Beyond Belief	p. 49
A Happy Accident	p. 49
Spacious Awareness	p. 52
Incline Your Mind	p. 55
Who's Talking?	p. 57
The Cloud of Unknowing	p. 60
Blessed Relief: The Practice of Inquiry	p. 63
Quiet Ambition	p. 65
Not Enough	p. 65
Kind Attention	p. 69
Spontaneous Joy	p. 72
The Hungry Ghost	p. 74
Blessed Relief: The Sacred Breath	p. 77
An Instrument of Peace	p. 79
Angr-r-r-y	p. 79
Self-Soothing: Bringing Attentiveness to Anger	p. 81
Self-Defining: Being Willing to Speak Your Truth	p. 85
Self-Transcending: Bringing RAIN to Blame	p. 91
Blessed Relief: Working with RAIN	p. 98
Meeting Our Edges	p. 101
"You All Belong"	p. 101
The Failed Buddhist Bypass	p. 104
Nonviolent Communication	p. 110
May the Circle Be Unbroken	p. 114
Blessed Relief: Nonviolent Communication (NVC)	p. 117
Beginning Anew	p. 121
Unwrapping the Experience	p. 121
A Place to Begin	p. 123
True Intimacy	p. 125
Zazen in the Devil's Cauldron	p. 129
Blessed Relief: The Practice of Beginning Anew	p. 134
The Dharma of Dying	p. 137
Remembrances	p. 137
The Great Way	p. 140
Bowing to the Moment	p. 143
Old Wounds	p. 147
Blessed Relief: The Five Remembrances	p. 150
Mobile Loaves and Fishes	p. 153
Compassion Rising	p. 153
Beyond Us and Them	p. 157
A Retreat on the Streets	p. 159
Softening the Heart	p. 161
Blessed Relief: Compassion Practice	p. 166
Afterword	p. 168
Glossary	p. 173
Suggested Resources	p. 175
Acknowledgments	p. 179
Credits	p. 182
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