The Doors of Joy: 19 Meditations for Authentic Living - Rilegato

Odier, Daniel

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1780286716 ISBN 13: 9781780286716

Casa editrice: Watkins Publishing, 2014

Riassunto

We know from countless spirituality and self-help books that authentic joy has no object—it is truly free and boundless. And yet, try as we might, how many of us can say that joy is more than a fleeting fleeting?
 
Daniel Odier’s approach, which is based in part on his study of Chinese Zen, is refreshingly straightforward. All it requires is a willingness to disengage from our habitual ways of thinking and practice being present throughout the day. He calls his method, “The Practice of Consciousness.” Its purpose is to unlock our spontaneity and recover our innocence and creativity. He writes,
 
“Consciousness manifests itself as presence. To work with presence is similar to learning a musical instrument, the body being our instrument. To enter this state, take a sensation such as water flowing into your hand or the feel of your bare feet on the ground. Enter deeply into the contact; breathe by relaxing your abdomen; and after fifteen or twenty seconds, leave the sensation and return to your habitual mode. Doing this thirty, forty or fifty times a day allows us to enter into a deep acquaintance with sensation.”
 
With a nod to Aldous Huxley, whose book Doors of Perception laid the groundwork for the psychedelic and sexual revolutions, Odier’s aim is nothing short of total human liberation. Still, he is realistic about the power that habit and our ingrained ways of operating in the world has over us. To counter them, he offers up some mischievous advice--like this,
 
“There is something suspect about our adoration of harmony. One of the things I fantasize about is replacing the Buddha on my altar with one of Caesar. The harmony of the Buddha puts us to sleep and makes us soft, but the chaos of Caesar can wake us up. Every morning before this altar we would abandon harmony in favor of the infinite possibilities that chaos represents.”
 
With Doors of Joy, Daniel Odier has discovered the trip-wire that keeps us from experiencing lasting joy and he gives us the tool kit that will bring it back into our lives for good.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"In Odier’s (Tantric Quest) newest, the Zen and Tantric Buddhist master offers brief yet expansive meditations for breaking out of routines of habit and working towards living authentically with others and with one’s self. For Odier, people live seemingly happy lives of pleasant self-deception that are created out of fear of the unknown and love for the predictable. He shows readers the possibility of embracing a life of spontaneity and deep, organic joy. Each meditation focuses on a different aspect, touching on how readers can begin, for example, embracing insecurities, practicing compassion, dropping opinions, and being present in the moment. Questions for reflection on preconceptions and everyday lives follow the themes of the meditation. Included with these meditations are short instructions for deepening awareness of the breath. Odier dares readers to be uncomfortable and insecure in the chaos of human existence, where they can learn to be pliant and present rather than rigid and distracted. This sort of authentic living, for Odier, would allow readers to swim with the tides of life instead of against its crashing waves."
- Publisher's Weekly (December 6, 2013)

"...[an] open-ended inquiry that shuns systematising to an extent. Broken down into nineteen meditations ‘for authentic living,’ Daniel Odier gives short meditative essays followed up by practical questions that could last a lifetime of soul-searching work. Odier’s inspiration comes from a variety of Indian teachings, as well as Zen teachings from China and elsewhere."
- www.yogapossible.com (April 4, 2014)

L'autore:

Daniel Odier was born in Geneva in 1945. He is best-known as the author of a Lolita-esque series of novels published in France under the pseudonym Delacorta. His book of sexual mysticism, Tantric Quest, was an international bestseller. For several years he taught screenwriting at the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa. The author lives in France.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Watkins Publishing
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1780286716
• ISBN 13: 9781780286716
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 128