Fotografía de autor

Patricia Hart Clifford

Autor de Sitting Still

3 Obras 58 Miembros 1 Reseña

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Obras de Patricia Hart Clifford

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'For sheer adventure,' writes Patricia Hart Clifford in her introduciton to Sitting Still, 'exploring the inner space of the human spirit has to equal the exploration of outer space. Inner space holds a realm of existence not readily apparant when we are in the grip of a strident external world. A powerful launching vehicle for the discovery of the realm within is silence. It is in the vessel of silence that inner transformation can appear.'

With the aim of exploring this inner realm, Patricia Clifford came to the Mercy Center in Burlingame, California to spend one week simply sitting still on a cushion in a room. She was an Episcopalian woman visiting a Catholic retreat center to practice Zen meditation uder the direction of a Jesuit priest. For seven days she and twenty-five other people would sit together in silence for hours on end in an attempt to give mindful attention to each present moment. Such an elemental activity may not seem difficult at first, but the sitters soon were cast into a realm without landmaks and where not all the faces were friendly. They had to struggle with mental distactions, physical discomfort, boredom and anxiety. They sought not healing or special knowledge but merely wakefulness, and the space that exists on the other side of silence.

Sitting Still is a personal account of those seven days. It is a frank recounting of one person's ups and downs, questions, struggles and small victories during the couse of s single week. But it also attempts to view one person's story against thelargerbackground of a spiritual tradition that is both eastern and western. One great accomplishment of the narrative is that it succeeds in making Zen meditation, which evolved wthin Buddhism, intelligible to western Christians. It also offers suggestions for carrying the techniques of silent, wordless meditation into the daily lives of busy westerners.

Patricia Hart Clifford is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Los Altos Hills, California with her husband and 16-year-old daughter. She is the author of Terrible Angel: Surviving the First Five Years of Motherhood.

'In that place where I had become so accustomed to stillness that someone's cough would make me jump, the drumbeats exploded into the morning hush like artillery fire. The insistent rhythms struck me with the force of a physical blow, magnifying the pains in my body. I regretted not taking the optionof meditating in the room across the hall.

'I was riveted to my cushion by the pulsating din that surged into my consciouness like a tidal wave, inundating all thoughts. I lost awareness of the past and the future and of judgments about how I was doing. In my mind's eye I saw a tiny flame that grew larger and larger until I was enveloped by it. While the drums throbbed, I sat immobilized in the center of that blaze that burned away bodily pain, fear, and what was left of my resistance to the unknown. Weakened by days of struggling, I gave in and let the raging current of violent sound push me over the edge of the abyss. When the last beat faded away, I was somewhere I had never been before.'-From Sitting Still

For me the book is a God sent. Being a Yoga and Meditation Instructor for the past 30 years in the Vedic tradition I have decided to investigate my Catholic roots. This simple little book bridges the gap for me. Ultilizing eastern meditative techniques to align with the Christ Consciousness!!!-Luis

If you want to lnow 'what happens when you sit,' this book will tell you. It sure helped to give me a frame of reference for what was happening to me in my own sitting meditation, and beyond. Excellent contribution to my life.

The cover is very eye-catching yet the book appears boring. However, I found the book very humorous, well-written, and precise. Anyone who has been down the same road (or wishes to venture down that road) will enjoy Patricia's style.

Contents

Day One: What do you seek?
Day Two Breathe in, breathe out
Day Three Past and future
Day Four Falling apart
Day Five My eyes are opened
Day Six In the flow
Day Seven departure
Practice
References and recommended reading (bibliography)
… (más)
 
Denunciada
AikiBib | May 29, 2022 |

Estadísticas

Obras
3
Miembros
58
Popularidad
#284,346
Valoración
½ 3.5
Reseñas
1
ISBNs
4

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