Zen in the Age of Anxiety : Wisdom for Navigating Our Modern Lives

Part one: Wounding and splintering -- Being human -- The trance of unworthiness -- Sex -- Money -- Failure is just an experience -- Part two: Suturing and healing -- The wisdom of humility -- Suturing what was rent asunder -- Brain plasticity, mirror mind, and enlightenment -- Transforming knowledge into wisdom through everyday life -- Living and dying in a state of readiness -- Epilogue: Healing our world, together. Best Spiritual Books of 2018 - Spirituality & Practice Zen wisdom for identifying the causes of mental and emotional anxiety epidemic in today's world and for finding the path to a peaceful heart in the midst of them--a path that leads directly though the center of the anxiety we're trying to escape. Wrestling with fear doesn’t have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid. Written in the style of an owner’s manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness, and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychotherapist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life. Zen wisdom for identifying the causes of mental and emotional anxiety epidemic in today's world and for finding the path to a peaceful heart in the midst of them-- a path that leads directly through the center of the anxiety we're trying to escape. Wrestling with fear doesn't have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid. Written in the style of an owner's manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness, and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychotherapist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life. Zen wisdom for identifying the causes of mental and emotional anxiety epidemic in today's world and for finding the path to a peaceful heart in the midst of them—a path that leads directly though the center of the anxiety we're trying to escape. An ancient Buddhist proverb says, "Sickness and medicine heal each other." Tim Burkett would agree and offer his own resonant proverb, "Because there is wounding and splintering there is suturing and healing." Wounding and healing are innate aspects of being human, he declares, and understanding the relationship between them is the key to a peaceful heart and purpose-driven life. "Medicine and sickness heal each other" means that the path to a peaceful heart does not lie outside the anxiety we seek to escape—but rather leads through the center of it. Burkett provides wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many other experiences of psychotherapy and life) for first identifying the problems of pain and anxiety... "Wrestling with fear doesn?t have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid. Written in the style of an owner?s manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness, and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychotherapist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life" -- back cover