Nurture Your Spirit this Autumn

August and September are months of spiritual revival! Ramadan starts August 11th and lasts until September 9th, Yom Kippur is September 18th, and Buddhists will celebrate Ullambana, or Ancestor Day, on August 25th. What are you doing to nourish your spirit? If you're feeling unprepared for the coming months, North Atlantic Books is ready with new titles to help you discover inner peace. Learn how to live beyond the materialism of our modern age, how Zen discipline can be applied to your life, and how misuse of spirituality can hinder spiritual growth.

		Spiritual Bypassing When Spirituality Disconnects us from What Really Matters By Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. Spiritual bypassing—the use of spiritual beliefs and practices to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental needs—is so pervasive that it goes largely unnoticed. In Spiritual Bypassing, Masters reveals how to identify and move beyond the obstacles that hold us back from living life fully and clarifies a healthier direction for contemporary spirituality. A groundbreaking work, this book will appeal to anyone seeking increased self-awareness and a more robust, integrated relationship with themselves and others, showing that it is only by opening up to all that we are, including our pain and vulnerability, that we can truly grow, both spiritually and emotionally. READ MORE
		New Self, New World Recovering Our Senses in the 21st Century By Philip Shepherd Readers who are frustrated with the prevalence of materialism and selfishness of today's world are sure to enjoy Philip Shepherd's New Self, New World. Shepherd encourages readers to view the body not as something we possess, but instead as something to inhabit, so that we can enjoy the purity of simply being alive. He asks us to surrender to the reality of "what is" that enables us to reunite with our own being. New Self, New World will inspire readers to search inside themselves for what really matters in life. READ MORE
		Mind, Body, Zen Waking Up to Your Life By Jeffrey Maitland Zen Buddhism has become increasingly popular in the United States, thanks to its growing group of famous followers, such as A-List actor Richard Gere and champion-winning NBA coach Phil Jackson. Unfortunately, misconceptions concerning Zen continue to be perpetuated—misconceptions Jeffrey Maitland (an ordained Zen monk) seeks to dispel in Mind, Body, Zen. Maitland explains that Zen is not a philosophy, but a practical, grounded discipline, accessible by anyone who desires a simple and direct spiritual experience. Readers curious about the nature and practice of Zen are sure to be satisfied by Maitland's first-hand accounts of his Zen studies, as well as in-depth discussions about the difficulties and intricacies of the study. READ MORE

Self-Awareness, Step by Step

Presence Meditation
The Practice of Life Awareness
By Jens-Erik Risom, with foreword by Peter A. Levine, Ph.D.

What better way to nourish your spirit than to practice meditation? Presence Meditation, by Jens-Erik Risom, is a step-by-step guide to achieving self-awareness through the art of meditation. While there is no shortage of books on how to meditate, few offer a message as direct and simple as Presence Meditation. Risom begins by discussing the purpose of meditation and the "four introductions" (rootedness, attention to breathing, fullness of feeling, and witness awareness), and then presents the gradual steps for achieving presence, deepening neutrality, opening to trust, sensing spaciousness, and more. In the following excerpt, Risom explains two of the "four introductions" of meditation, and offers exercises by which they can be achieved.

Rootedness
Presence meditation happens in the body. So the first adjustment is about body awareness and relaxation. The task is to weave awareness into your physical being. This gives a rootedness in the physical, in the experience of being anchored in the body. It also provides a sense of variation in the body's experience, and a greater sensitivity to physicality while you sit. On this planet there is a constant pull on your body, which is continually subject to the basic condition of gravity. You can use gravity to become more aware of the state of your body.

EXERCISE: Make tiny movements with the back to find a reasonably erect position of the spine. Then try to allow the pull of gravity; don't fight it. Something else is holding you upright, a reflex that works best if you are sitting on your sit bones with an erect (but not stiff) spine. This sitting position will counter the pull of gravity. The effect is a calm settling or sinking feeling as you relax into gravity and release some of the more superficial, perhaps lifestyle-related, tensions.

A regular physical discipline, particularly in relaxing yet energetic modalities like qigong, bioenergetics, and the like, is also important for meditation practice. Sexuality can also be an excellent way to get more physical circulation and awareness.

Attention to Breathing
In Peace Is Every Step, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, "All human beings should have access to a 'breathing space'—a room for breathing, a place where you have the space and the quiet to feel your breathing."

In many traditions, breathing has been used as a pathway to the spiritual. The word "respiration" comes from the Latin root spiritus, which means spirit. As we breathe, we literally re-spirit ourselves. Western traditions have used the breath in prayer practices, too. It is a natural focus point, a basic rhythm in the body that is with us from when we are born until we die.

The ability to stay focused is an indication of the meditative presence. Distractions can easily draw our attention away from the breath, so the practice of maintaining focus on it is a simple yet powerful way to develop our underdeveloped muscle of concentration. The benefits of doing so extend beyond the realm of meditation; one effect of paying attention to breathing is an increased focus and persistence in other activities.

EXERCISE: Follow your natural breathing rhythm, letting the awareness rest in the in- and out-breath. If you lose attention and find your practice is distracted, simply notice the distraction and immediately return to the breath. The moment you discover that you are lost in a stream of thought is a golden moment; a greater awareness emerges, like the sun suddenly breaking through clouds.

Read more about the four introductions to meditation at the North Atlantic Books blog!

Click here for more information about Presence Meditation!

Events

Robert Augustus Masters, author of Spiritual Bypassing
Breakthrough Groupwork - Deep Healing and Awakening, Boulder, CO
September 11-12, 10 am-6 pm
Boulder, CO TBA
Click here for more information.

Philip Shepherd, author of New Self, New World
Click here to listen to his podcast interview on "Patricia Raskin Positive Living," Voice America.

Robert Schwartz, author of Your Soul's Plan
Book Talk at The Mandala Center, Chardon, OH
September 11, 7-9 pm
Mandala Center for the Healing Arts
114 East Park Street, on Chardon Square
Chardon, OH
Click here for more information.

Dale Pendell, author of The Great Bay
Ethnobotony with Dale Pendell
September 28, 2010 7:30-9:30 PM
East West Bookstore
324 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
(Free, but call to reserve a place in advance)
Click here for more information.

Patricia Cori, author of Beyond the Matrix
Beyond 2012: The Transition
International Conference (with French translation)
October 16, 2010
Toulouse, France
Click here for more information.