The Doors of Joy: 19 Meditations for Authentic Living - Tapa dura

"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)

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 feeling? 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 practise 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. To enter this state, take a sensation such as 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 The 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. The 19 meditations in The Doors of Joy are designed to loosen their grip and give joy an opening into our lives. With The Doors of Joy, Daniel Odier has discovered the trip-wire that keeps us from experiencing lasting joy, and gives us the tool kit that will bring it back into our lives for good.