And at the source, no one feeling can last by itself. … But what I discover, again and again, is that feeling one feeling deeply enough somehow opens me up to the common source of all feeling. For myself, my resistance to unpleasant feelings has been my fear that if I give over to the sadness or anxiety or confusion or pain that is upon me, I will drown in it. It is a hard thing, though, to lean into a sadness we don’t want, to let the tremor of anxiety work its way through. Once the mind like a long guitar string is somehow plucked with the slightest agitation, there is nothing to do but let it ring itself out. Nepo writes: I used to struggle, fighting off sadness or trying not to be anxious, but as most of us learn, once that drop of melancholy or unrest beads on the heart, trying to feel anything else is denial. Scroll down for five of our favorite passages. The journey of unearthing and shaping these entries has helped me bring my inner and outer life more closely together. It’s given me a chance to gather and share the quiet teachers I’ve met throughout my life. “This book is meant to be of use, to be a companion, a soul friend. “It has become a spiritual sonnet of our age, a sturdy container for small doses of what matters,” he says. Stepping back, Nepo believes that in the last 25 years of his life before writing “The Book of Awakening,” the daybook has been answering a collective need. “These are woven from my own story, the stories of others’ struggles with their humanness, and truths from the great wisdom traditions,” Nepo shares, noting that he was drawn to this form because as a poet, “I was longing for a manner of expression that could be as useful as a spoon.” “My goal is to open you up to a new season of freedom and joy-an escape from deadening, asleep-at-the wheel sameness-that is both profound and clarifying,” he insists of the 429-page daybook that provides readers with 365 ideas to ponder. He summons us to take each day one at a time, and to savor the beauty offered by life’s unfolding. In “The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have,” philosopher-poet and cancer survivor Mark Nepo offers a challenge.
0 kommentar(er)
