Blessed Relief: What Christians Can Learn from Buddhists About Suffering . This book takes you on a lively, sometimes light-hearted, journey through nine Buddhist practices that can bring “blessed relief” to a wide range of human suffering–and teaches you the skills to reduce suffering in the long term for yourself and others:
The practices include:
* Three-Minute Breathing Space-a breathing practice to loosen the grip of suffering
* The Work–a way to engage and question limiting views, thoughts, and opinions
* The Practice of Inquiry–a practice to deconstruct ten common assumptions
* The Sacred Breath–a way to be present in each moment
* Working with RAIN–an acronym that can help you come through emotional storms
* Nonviolent Communication (NVC)–four steps to more peaceful communication
* The Practice of Beginning Anew–a ritual to deepen communication with your partner
* The Five Remembrances–a meditation on mortality and the preciousness of life
* Compassion Practice–a guided meditation to cultivate compassion
As you read the chapters and engage in each practice, you will work with your own stories of suffering–stories in which you have felt abandoned, deprived, subjugated, defective, excluded, or vulnerable–and you will learn how to release yourself from suffering by investigating it with curiosity and kindness.
About the Author
Gordon Peerman is an Episcopal priest and psychotherapist in private practice, and an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt Divinity School, where he teaches seminars in Buddhist-Christian Dialogue. He also teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health, as well as mindfulness practices to Vanderbilt Law School and Vanderbilt Medical School students. He and his wife Kathy Woods lead a weekly meditation with the Nashville Mindfulness Meditation Group.
