The Light of Discovery

by Packer, Toni; Tollifson, Joan

• ISBN13: 9781590304525
• ISBN10: 1590304527
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-03-13
• Publisher: Shambhala

Summary

To read this book is to encounter the essence of our lives and our everyday concerns. Toni Packer shines her gentle light on fear, compassion, impermanence, attraction, prejudice, enlightenment, and much more as she invites us into our own light of discovery. As she says, "In truth we are not separate from each other, or from the world, from the whole earth, the sun or moon or billions of stars, not separate from the entire universe. Listening silently in silent wonderment, without knowing anything, there is just one mysteriously palpitating aliveness."

Author Biography

Toni Packer began studying Zen at the Rochester Zen Center in 1967 with Roshi Philip Kapleau (author of The Three Pillars of Zen). She teaches and leads retreats at Springwater Center in Springwater, New York. She is the author of The Work of this Moment and The Wonder of Presence. 

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
To the Reader	p. xiii
Expectation	p. 1
Why Attach a Name to What Is?	p. 4
Action Without Effort	p. 8
What Is This Work?	p. 11
Nothing Spectacular	p. 24
How Is One to Look?	p. 25
Yearning for Completion	p. 29
Grieving	p. 31
Fear of Silence	p. 37
Images in Relationship	p. 39
Attraction	p. 44
Fact and Story Line	p. 50
Prejudice	p. 55
Awareness and Fear	p. 58
Being Here Now: An Interview	p. 63
Observing What Is	p. 71
Thought	p. 74
The Quest for Enlightenment	p. 75
Psychotherapy and Spiritual Practice	p. 76
Bringing the Unseen to Light: Therapy and Awareness	p. 80
Continuing the Dialogue: Defenses and Awareness	p. 89
Religious Emotions	p. 99
Religious Institutions	p. 103
Schooling	p. 105
Relationships in the Workplace	p. 110
Motives for Performing	p. 113
Right Livelihood	p. 117
Compassion and Impermanence	p. 121
Helping Others	p. 124
End of Retreat	p. 126
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