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The Wonder of Presence: And the Way of Meditative Inquiry By Toni Packer ( Shambhala )
Release Date: 2002-04-16
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List Price: $14.95
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Product Description
In this compelling collection of talks, interviews, and letters, Toni Packer provides a comprehensive overview of the path of meditative inquiry—a nondenominational approach to spiritual growth that emphasizes the direct experience of the present moment. "The immense challenge for each one of us," Packer writes, "is can we live our lives, at least for moments at a time, in the wonder of presence that is the creative source of everything?" She shows how we can transform fear, anger, guilt, and attachment to our self-image through simple, direct awareness. Having recently lost her husband of fifty years, Packer also speaks with candor and tenderness about the convulsions of a grieving heart and the peace that undivided awareness can bring. Toni Packer began studying Zen in 1967 with Roshi Philip Kapleau (author of The Three Pillars of Zen ) at the Rochester Zen Center and was eventually named his successor. Seeing the potentially destructive effects of relying too much on tradition, however, she did not accept the position. Packer is strongly influenced by the teachings of Krishnamurti and has turned away from the traditional forms and hierarchies that are prevalent in many Buddhist schools. Her approach is appealing to many Westerners who find institutionalized practices such as chanting, bowing, and burning incense to be alien and unnecessary.
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Amazon.com Review
The Wonder of Presence--every page peppered with question marks--makes it immediately clear that Toni Packer is not going to spoon-feed us answers. A sort of Zen Krishnamurti, Packer entertains the burning questions of "spiritual practice" (a term she avoids) and of life itself, all the while turning us back to ourselves. She calls it the way of meditative inquiry, a method in which meditation has no other purpose than to derail habitual modes of thinking and feeling, thereby opening oneself up to everything that is happening--just as it is. In chapters on anger, fear, and peace, Packer, formerly a Zen teacher in the lineage of Philip Kapleau, shows that "when a powerfully driven emotion gives way to simple awareness, it is like a miracle." The book is based on Packer's retreat talks and entertains the questions of retreatants on wide-ranging topics from relationships to suffering and from freedom to judgment. For all of these, she dives into the problem, asking about origins and peeling back the layers of the self. The Wonder of Presence answers questions by showing us how to look. --Brian Bruya
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 The Wonder of Presence
Toni Packer gave me a new perspective on Mindfulness Meditation. In her I have found a teacher who eliminates forms, status, levels of achievement and urges presence alone. She writes in a simple way as good teachers do, and she moves me to the wonder of the present moment. That's it. That is the path to peace.
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Every word is savored, so simple and so close to the heart. The most honest and straight forward writing I have ever read ( willoughbyacupuncture )
I highly reccomend this book, I have become a fan of Toni Packer and this book is her finest yet. It is a no frills book that you can pick up and open to any chapter for honest direct inquiry into the heart of silence. She amazes me with her candor and her fresh look at the human condition. I have reread chapters again and again, and each time I hear something new. This is what she is pointing to, pure listening and being in this moment completely.
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Zen & Krishnamurti made clear ( stemple963 )
Toni Packer's writings are emblematic of a new era of Buddhist teachings in the West: women Dharma teachers. Along with Charlotte Joko Beck, Toni Packer provides a no-nonsense, yet compassionate approach to inner transformation. A friend of mine once described these approaches as "not for the faint-hearted", and maybe that's true. Toni Packer invites relentless inquiry into the workings of the human mind and emotions, to lay bare the conditioning that forms the basis of much of human suffering. There is no sugar coating in Packer's teachings. Her description of the bereaved mind, her own, is searing. Yet one senses that in her approach lies freedom. Her understanding of human conditioning, and release from this conditioning, is simply profound. For example, she writes, in a talk on meditative questioning: "Watch how the incident translates itself into a story spun out by the brain, and how this story keeps triggering the chemicals that maintain the angry emotions long after the original stimulus has passed." To watch without being trapped in these processes is to know freedom.
If you have read Krishnamurti and wondered what he was saying, Packer lays it bare. Combining Zen with Krishnamurti's teachings, this brave and compassionate teacher has written a manual of human liberation. Written with great courage and stunning intellectual honesty, Toni Packer embodies the words of the 8th Century Chinese Zen poet, Hanshan: Writing about the road to Cold Mountain, the enlightened terrain on which he lived, he says "My heart's not the same as yours. If your heart was like mine, you'd get and be right here." Toni Packer spells out what it means to have the heart, to 'get it', and to be right here in the present moment, free.
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A compilation of serious thoughts about the nature of Zen ( mwbookrevw )
The Wonder Of Presence And The Way Of Meditative Inquiry by Zen practitioner Toni Packer is a compilation of serious thoughts about the nature of Zen, meditation, death, life, and truth. Written in simple, direct terms and drawing upon both Eastern philosophy and personal experience, The Wonder Of Presence is a careful, inquisitive and highly recommended introduction to opening one's mind to new thoughts, ideas, and all the Universe contains.
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