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Writing to Awaken is an inspirational investigation of the self through expressive writing, guiding you along the path of awakening through radical truth-telling and self-inquiry. With targeted and revelatory questions, you’ll be prompted to explore your own personal narrative—to write honestly about your deepest wounds, greatest challenges, hidden gifts, yearnings, and opportunities for growth—in order to discover a deeply authentic understanding of yourself and move toward a more liberated, truthful life. We each have our own story, a personal myth constructed from the content life presents us: we connect dots to shape the narrative, devise plotlines from circumstance, change charact...
In this classic memoir, a gay man living a fast-track life in NYC (working for artist Andy Warhol), escapes to India, confronts his demons, and takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride to realize his dreams and discover the true meaning of life and holiness.
“With a seeker’s profound curiosity, a journalist’s keen eye, and a potent combination of honesty, courage, intelligence, and tender-heartedness, Mark Matousek as written a beautiful book that is at once a spiritual autobiography and an exploration of one of the most mystical beings of our time.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Hourglass Mark Matousek was a nonbeliever when he met Mother Meera in 1985. Yet, in her presence, he experienced inexplicable occurrences that forced him to challenge his worldview. Mother Meera, born Kamala Reddy is believed by her thousands of devotees to be an embodiment of the Divine Mother. But who is Mother Meera, really? Now, in this deeply moving and wise book, Matousek takes us as close as possible to this extraordinary woman. Is divine incarnation truly possible, he asks, as most of the world’s religions insist? Speaking to members of her inner circle, working at her school for the poor in India, and interviewing the elusive master herself, Matousek takes the reader on a mysterious quest into the “unseen world” where the divine and human intersect.
Matousek draws from personal experience, interviews, and letters from readers to provide wisdom about friendship, commitment, honesty, greed, jealousy, loyalty, competition, imitation, abandonment, and reconciliation. Each of the twenty-four essays examining a plethora of moral dilemmas is followed by thought-provoking questions.
Do survivors-of trauma, loss, abuse-gain a "secret knowledge" about life from their experience? Mark Matousek, a survivor fascinated with the enigma of survival, draws on interviews with an enslaved Sudanese boy, a Tibetan nun tortured for her belief, an Auschwitz prisoner, a Vietnam P.O.W., as well as noted thinkers and spiritual teachers Ram Daas, Stanley Kunitz, Eckhart Tolle, and Mother Meera. In distilling the many experiences, Matousek shows how enduring hardship can transform a person, refine his character, and alchemize catastrophe into living wisdom.
"It's hard to know when you're having a breakdown in New York City. The symptoms of living here, succeeding here, and losing your mind here are almost identical." So begins Matousek's 1996 breakout memoir about leaving a fast-track publishing life (working for pop artist Andy Warhol at Interview Magazine) and hitting the dharma trail in search of a meaningful life and spiritual wisdom. Hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "brave, beautiful, and brilliantly observed," Sex Death Enlightenment became an international best seller (published in 10 countries). Like Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love and Paul Monette in Borrowed Time, Matousek takes the reader on an insightful, rollicking search for ans...
Why do some people blossom through adversity while others fall apart? Author Mark Matousek examines this phenomenon by seeking advice from well-known survivors like Joan Didion and Isabel Allende and experts like Jon Kabat-Zinn to show how disasters can be used to awaken and transform us. From a Sudanese boy slave kidnapped at age seven to a Tibetan nun imprisoned by Chinese militia, Matousek sifts through extraordinary testimonies and recent breakthroughs in neuroscience to demonstrate how we are hardwired to evolve and adapt when faced with the impossible.
From the best-selling author of Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story What lies behind the decisions that shape our moral universe? Mark Matousek takes a fascinating journey inside what makes us good (or not) Since the days of the first primitive tribes, we have tried to determine why one man is good and another evil. Mark Matousek arrives at the answer in Ethical Wisdom. Contrary to what we've been taught in our reason-obsessed culture, emotions are the bedrock of ethical life; without them, human beings cannot be empathic, moral or good. But how do we make the judgement call between self-interest and caring for others? What does being good really mean? Which parts of morality are biologica...
'The Ultimate Journey' provides an inspiring look across all religious and geographic boundaries into life's final adventure, revealing how much dying has to teach us about living.
The beloved Buddhist meditation teacher and New York Times–bestselling author of Real Happiness offers encouragement and inspiration for anyone on the spiritual path Buddhist teachings have the power to transform our lives for the better, says Sharon Salzberg, and all we need to bring about this transformation can be found in the ordinary events of our everyday experiences. In A Heart as Wide as the World, Salzberg distills more than twenty-five years of teaching and practicing meditation into a series of short essays, rich with anecdotes and personal revelations, that offer genuine aid and comfort for anyone on the spiritual path. Many chance moments, both small and profound, serve as the basis for Salzberg's teachings: hearing a market stall hawker calling, “I have what you need!”; noting hotel guests’ reactions to a midnight fire alarm; watching her teacher, Dipa Ma, bless a belligerent dog; seeing the Dalai Lama laughing uproariously at his own mistake. Each passing moment, Salzberg shows, can help us down the path toward “a seamlessness of connection and an unbounded heart.”