The Little Book of Being

Practices and Guidance for Uncovering Your Natural Awareness

by Diana Winston

Description

A practical guide to experiencing natural awareness—an effortless and spacious state of resting in the depth of our being.Do you recall, as a child, being enthralled by a drifting cloud, a rain-soaked leaf, a wandering ladybug? Or suddenly having a sense of timelessness, contentment, and ease? If so, then you've already had a taste of natural awareness.
Known and revered in many traditions as a complement to focused mindfulness training, natural awareness transcends even these wondrous childhood moments. Some describe it as a profound "awareness of awareness"—an effortless, boundless state of resting in the depth of our being.
For those new to meditation and experienced meditators alike, these 72 "mini-chapters" guide you on an in-depth odyssey into natural awareness, illuminated by many simple and enjoyable insights and exercises. The Little Book of Being invites you to explore: The spectrum of awareness practices, from focused mindfulness to flexible mindfulness to natural awareness
• How classical mindfulness and effortless natural awareness enrich and shape each other, and how to practice both
• Three ways to move into natural awareness—relaxing effort, broadening awareness, and dropping objects• A treasury of "glimpse practices" to spark natural awareness anytime, in just a few moments
• How to bring this way of "simply being" into your daily life, into your connection with others, and into the world
"At first natural awareness may seem far away, just a whisper, but then it will begin to grow and expand and permeate aspects of living. Over time we may feel more peace, more connection to ourselves. We may find ourselves taking life a bit more lightly. We may feel a sense of relaxed ‘beingness’ throughout the day, and when we do get caught in our dramas, we may find ourselves moving out of them quicker than we imagined we could." —Diana Winston

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In The Little Book Of Being, the author Diana Winston will take you to a very personal journey of awareness and meditation. It will explain the difference between what she calls classical meditation and awareness meditation. 

The main topic is on natural awareness, or just "being". 

In the introduction, the author tells a very personal story, and it also describes this feeling of natural awareness. 

Then the book is divided in "Parts", which also have sections in said parts. It is presented as follows:

Part 1: Foundations, Understanding natural awareness.

Part 2: Techniques, Meditating with natural awareness.

Part 3: Embodiment, Living natural awareness. 

So, as you can see, the path created inside the contents of this book will take anyone, beginner or advanced, thru the understanding first and then the development of the practice of natural awareness.

In between all this information, a small section called "Glimpse Practises" will surprise you throughout the entire book. These sections are small suggestions or even instructions in some cases for quick practices and exercises. All of them, of course, related to the topic of attaining or enhancing your natural awareness. 

Even with numerous instructions and exercises, the author still invites you to be creative and adapt these ideas and concepts to create your own journey. 

Even though this book is called "little", it contains over 200 pages, which, yeah is not exactly big, but is not that little. The amount of information, practices, recommendations, habits and personal stories found in this book are plenty!

With so much info, so many "glimpse practices", with a guide to creating your own daily meditation practice, I can't imagine anyone giving away this book or donating it after reading it. This is one of those books that most people would like to keep in their collection for future reference. 

To make this book even more impressive, Diana Winston is the director of mindfulness education at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center. I mean, if there is someone that knows about mindfulness I can trust she is one of them!

I highly recommend The Little Book of Being to anyone interested in meditation and awareness practices. 

GET A COPY OF THE BOOK HERE

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