Liberating the Self: Buddhist Practices for an Authentic Life

"This exceptional book combines penetrating psychological analysis with profound spiritual wisdom" —Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Buddha's Brain and Neurodharma Guided by one of contemporary Buddhism's most experienced teachers, rigorously explore and deconstruct your concept of self to reach the path of freedom—living your true nature as one with the Absolute. In Liberating the Self, Zen and Theravada Buddhist teacher Stephen Mugen Snyder carefully takes us through our patterns of behavior and helps us disassemble the beliefs we create about a separate self. With compassion and insight born of deep personal experience, he offers examples and practices that help us identify the building blocks of our personality and self-beliefs; instruction for transforming dysfunctional emotions, such as hatred, anger, or guilt, into authentic peace, strength, or loving-kindness; meditations and exercises, including kasina work, for exploring our relationship to our bodies and sense of self; protective meditations that help prepare the newly liberated self for Awakening; and testimonials from students who share their remarkable and transformative experiences of Awakening under Snyder's guidance. Liberating the Self shows that by examining the self we have constructed from birth, including its deep wounds, we free ourselves of that self, becoming more authentic and more readily able to experience Oneness with the Absolute. "If you are looking for a profound guide to using reflection, meditation, and wisdom to awaken, I highly recommend this book." —Mark Coleman, founder of The Mindfulness Institute and author of From Suffering to Peace "Stephen offers concrete tools to ward off spiritual by-passing and more fully liberate the self." —Katherine Senshin Griffith, head teacher, Zen Center of Los Angeles