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With deeply thoughtful, lyrical prose, this book invites readers to engage with the world from a unique perspective that encourages feeling, intuitive understanding, embodiment, interdependence, and sacredness. Weaving together classical Theravada Buddhist teachings and mindfulness practices, the book teaches us when and how to channel our receptive and active orientations—sometimes called the feminine and masculine paradigms—to feel more at home in ourselves and the world and drop more deeply into the Buddhist teachings on suffering and happiness.
Rebecca Bradshaw, a respected Buddhist teacher in the Insight Meditation community, offers teachings that are simple yet require us to explore aspects of ourselves that go against much of our social conditioning that values goal-oriented busyness, productivity, independence, outgoing energy, and other “active” qualities. When overemphasized, this orientation can cause destructive emotions and behaviors, but we can counter them by embracing more receptive qualities. The receptive or feminine paradigm takes us deeper into the heart of the classical Buddhist teachings, leading to openness and freedom of the heart-mind.
Bradshaw illustrates her own resistance to letting go of her strong active orientation with relatable stories, like her efforts to be a perfect meditator. Drawing on our connectedness to nature, she offers guidance for grounded practices, including:
- useless gazing,
- getting lost,
- sense-based reality,
- practicing in the wildness,
- accepting uncertainty, and more.
These Buddhist teachings are as comforting as they are thought-provoking. Bradshaw’s debut book helps us let go and nurture our ability to receive, listen, embrace vulnerability, and just be. Through this process, we heal the imbalances within ourselves and in our relationships to all beings and the natural world.
