The Power and the Pain Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy

by Holecek, Andrew; Ponlop, Dzogchen

• ISBN13: 9781559393317
• ISBN10: 1559393319
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-16
• Publisher: Snow Lion

Summary

We are presented here with a different and empowering view of our problems, learning how to see them as fertile ground. The obstacles of our daily lives are addressed head on in a progressive path, from the common, easily understood hardships to the more subtle and challenging ones commonly arising on our spiritual journeys. While the material is mostly drawn from Buddhist principles, many wisdom traditions are brought into the discussion.

Author Biography

Andrew Holecek has been traveling the spiritual path for his entire adult life and for the past twenty years has been a serious practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. Founder of the Forum of Living and Dying, he teaches seminars throughout the country on spiritual hardship and the Tibetan views of life, death, and beyond. Holecek is also the cofounder of the Himalayan Dental Relief Project, which serves impoverished children in five Asian countries. He is currently adjunct faculty at Naropa University and the Ngedon School of Buddhist Studies

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The First Turning	p. 17
The Power	p. 19
The Pain	p. 29
Necessary and Unnecessary Hardship?	p. 37
Progress or Regress?	p. 50
Suffering or Pain?	p. 66
Always Practicing	p. 75
Repetition	p. 82
Put It in Perspective	p. 92
The Second Turning	p. 103
The Pain of Letting Go	p. 105
Fear Is the Fare	p. 116
Spiritual Detox	p. 126
Ground Addiction II	p. 137
Emptiness	p. 144
The Mistake of the Ego	p. 155
Frustration by Design	p. 168
Working with the Skandhas	p. 178
The Third Turning	p. 187
The Art of Working with Emotions	p. 191
Applying the Four ARTS	p. 208
The Blessing and Curse of Deep Meditation	p. 220
The Origin of Confusion	p. 232
Hardship as Loss of the Feminine	p. 244
Bibliography	p. 257
Notes	p. 263
Index	p. 271
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