Read an Excerpt
From the introduction:
Introduction: Transforming in the Here and Now
In the 50 years I’ve been involved in practicing and teaching meditation, I have met thousands of people looking for encouragement to help navigate the daily challenges of life and remind them that they are resilient and capable. So many of us long for insight that can be easily translated into the situations of our day-to-day lives. This book offers guidance in bite-sized amounts, ready to access when we need inspiration most. Each of the items is a stand-alone piece—a reflection to help you shift perspective, an immediate practice, an encouragement to help broaden your view and open your heart, a way to find rest for a bit, or a prompt to expand mindfulness and deepen compassion. Each emphasizes transformation in the here and now, harnessing the power of wisdom, and living the very best life we can through strengthening, caring, and connection.
The selections come in seven different shapes and sizes arrayed throughout the book, so opening to any page can offer a fresh thought, story, or suggestion.
I’ve included statements from my personal learning over the many years of my meditation practice that I felt are worth remembering, including during recent and particularly difficult times. The short essays offer a thought for the day, a reflection that can help change your perspective or guide you to dare to be different. You’ll find snippets from compelling interviews I’ve had with inspiring people. I’ll show a bit of what they say and why it matters. I keep a collection of arresting or inspiring quotes or passages from people I admire and I’ve shared many of them here. We all need help and reminders sometimes, so a you’ll find one-page meditation practices on a particular theme, such as offering lovingkindness, and receiving lovingkindness offered to you. I think of short practices surrounding a particular activity, such as washing the dishes, as meditation in action, to be applied in the midst of daily life. And I’ve included brief stories that illustrate a theme or the depiction of a place or a special object that has opened my heart or lifted my spirits. I think of these as soul stories.
May these pockets of inspiration, drawn from years of practice and friendship, help you as much in your life as they have in mine.
Enjoy!
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