The combined skills of mindfulness and intention described in this book represent an approach to transforming life’s many challenges into opportunities for growth. This approach constitutes the foundation for a more authentic relationship with yourself and others. As you apply these life skills you will feel more grounded and oriented in your life. My purpose in writing this book is to assist you in this process of learning how to live more skillfully.

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His approach, influenced by Western psychology and Buddhist philosophy, involves using a combination of mindfulness and intention. This can provide the foundation for a more authentic relationship with yourself and others, resulting in the ability to transform life’s many challenges into opportunities for growth. One skillful way to begin to understand who you are is to examine those aspects of yourself that you have mistakenly believed were the true you. As the false identities fall away, you develop clarity about what really matters. This clarity comes about as you cease to identify with the chaos of your life and as your heart opens to living life in accord with what matters most to you. You might choose a “keyword” to focus on for the week, such as “dukkha,” “attachment,” or “intention.” Come up with your own definition of the word, notice examples of that word arising during the week, and share them with your group. In this deeply spiritual book that is sure to become a Buddhist classic, Moffitt explores the twelve insights that underlie the Buddha's core teaching--the Four Noble Truths--and uses these often neglected ideas to guide readers to a more meaningful relationship to suffering. Moffitt write: "These twelve insights teach you to dance with both the joy and pain, finding peace in a balanced mind and calm spirit. As the most specific, practical life instructions I have ever encountered, they serve as an invaluable tool for anyone who seeks a life filled with meaning and well-being." Practicing these twelve insights, as Moffitt suggests, will help readers experience life's difficulties without being filled with stress and anguish, and they will enhance their moments of happiness.After that first meeting, I returned to Rishikesh many times to study with Balyogi. And, for years, I practiced the teachings such that I had a direct experience with what Balyogi was pointing me toward. When I was ready, I shared my experiences of these teachings with experienced meditation students on a limited basis. Many students found them to be of great value and asked for more in-depth exposure. Due to this student response and at Balyogi’s urging, I resolved to write a thorough explanation of my own understandings of consciousness that have arisen from working with these teachings. a-(your life is entwined and defined by dukkha, meaning your MENTAL EXPERIENCES of discomfort, pain, anxiety, stress, instability, inadequacy, failure, and dissappointment, each of which is felt as suffering in your mind) We will use the tools of Movement Medicine and the rhythm of the Celtic Medicine Wheel to take the dance a little deeper; and to allow the wisdom and joy you experience on the dancefloor to have a deeper impact on the rest of your life. I just want say how much we have appreciated your book on the Four Noble Truths. It is a wonderful commentary and explication of Ajahn Sumedho’s teaching and for several weeks we had our tea-time readings from it. Great job! I hope it is found to be useful to many people and that it receives the plaudits it deserves.” —Ajahn Amaro, Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery

Dancing With Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meanin… Dancing With Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meanin…

Why do we suffer? Is there a purpose to our pain? Noting that human beings have wrestled with such questions for thousands of years, Phillip Moffitt has found answers for his own life in Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Reflecting on his own journey from Esquire magazine editor-in-chief to Buddhist meditation teacher, Moffitt provides a fresh perspective on the Buddha's ancient wisdom, showing how to move from suffering to new awareness and unanticipated joy. Thank you for choosing to read Emotional Chaos to Clarity in your book group. The purpose of this study guide is to provide you with a variety of perspectives and suggestions for exploring the teachings offered in this book. The topics in this book can reopen old wounds or trigger feelings of inadequacy or vulnerability, so it is imperative that the group set clear rules of engagement, including honoring confidentiality and refraining from criticism or ridicule. It is also vital that members of the group not give advice to the others or try to fix one another’s problems. The whole journey will consist of four workshops. You may also choose to have one to one sessions throughout the course. There is an invitation to complete a project of your own choosing. The project will enable you to feel specific benefits from this deeper dive into Movement Medicine. Ordinary compulsiveness is a constant source of emotional chaos, yet it lends itself to being readily clarified.

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you have created an illusory self whose happiness and well being depend on getting what it wants. how many thousands of times have you felt worried or anxious over wanting something that in retrospect did not result in a lasting sense of well-being? when you contract into your desires, small or large, isn't it true that your world narrows to just wanting these outcomes? have you not felt compulsively anxious, driven or stressed, none of which helped you actually achieve this goal? none of these desires themselves were harmful, but rather it was the clingy mind state they created that caused you to suffer) Understanding who you really are involves overcoming misperceptions about who you are not. This transformation doesn’t happen simply by thinking about it once. It demands continued reflection and investigation. The following suggestions can help you cease being trapped in a false identity and begin to open up to new possibilities:

Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and

Moffitt quotes Ajahn Chah: “There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering that leads to more suffering and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. If you are not willing to face the second kind of suffering, you will surely continue to experience the first.” During the study group you might break the group into dyads or triads for sharing or discussing a particular point. Most Sunday evenings find Phillip Moffitt teaching the dharma in Corte Madera, California, in a sangha he formed ten years ago. Dharma for Moffitt is alive and practical, not theoretical or abstract, and he anchors the teachings in everyday life examples. I chose to devote the second chapter of the book to the questions of how identity is created and how our ideas about the self trap us in a cycle of suffering. Such a discussion is challenging for many readers because we all have unrecognized attachment to our various identities. Being told they are temporary can generate resistance. Despite my concern that readers might feel resistance, I decided to place this chapter at the beginning of the book because having mindfulness about how you create identity is an essential understanding for gaining clarity. I felt it needed to unfold in the reader’s mind throughout the book, rather than being introduced to the reader at the end. Each chapter includes a related self-assessment exercise, as well as a set of practices or meditations to help the reader cultivate clarity and live more skillfully. Moffitt also shares inspiring stories from some of his clients and students, relating their struggles, insights, and successes.V. Some students can become discouraged because they perceive the Four Noble Truths to only be about suffering. In fact, every insight brings less suffering and, therefore, more happiness joy and meaning. As you begin to have realizations around the First Noble Truth, you will have more happiness based on conditions because your mind is not so reactive to conditions. As you start to realize the insights of the Second Noble Truth, you begin to experience the second kind of happiness because your mind states are healthier and you’re less caught in grasping. Finally, even a foretaste of cessation brings such unconditioned happiness and provides a new basis for meaning and joy.

Dancing With Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding [PDF] [EPUB] Dancing With Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding

Knowing what is essential to you allows you to meet the chaos of life with a clear mind and an open heart. In my experience, being clear about who you are as you respond to life’s twists and turns is the only strategy that leads to a sustainable sense of well-being. Being grounded in your authentic self, or what I like to call your essence, supports you in making choices and decisions, helps you endure anxiety and stress, and enables you to bear disappointment and difficulty with equanimity. VI. Some students have questions about the difference between the second and third kinds of dukkha. One way to understand the difference is that the second kind of dukkha, which is based on anicca, is located in time, while the third kind of dukkha is based on a single moment—in any given moment there is the truth that there is “no there there.”

For thousands of years, questions such as these have confounded human beings trying to make sense of the seemingly random and unfair distribution of gain and loss, joy and unhappiness in every person’s life. All people are united in their common desire for happiness and their common experience of suffering. As you grow from childhood to adulthood, you inevitably experience life’s difficulties, whether it is through a physical limitation or illness, emotional anguish, fear or disappointment, loss or separation from a loved one, or the anxiety and stress surrounding all your wants and needs. No one is spared. You are not controlled by your views and opinions or the story of your past, but rather you have a “don’t know” mind that responds wisely to whatever you encounter in life. Suggestion: Discuss how each of you understands the idea of intentionality and describe a time in your life when you felt a sense of purpose. You might also discuss just how important the feelings of intentionality and purpose are to you. Being mindful of when you reach a point where you believe a certain attainment is possible is extremely valuable in the inner development process. I call this point the “imaginative possible.” It is a point of imagination because you can imagine or conceive that some change is possible even though it has not happened. Although almost everyone has had such moments, many people are unaware when they occur. You learn to speak only what is true, useful, and timely, even during moments of anger and outrage.