Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering » (First Edition)

Phillip Moffitt walked away from his highly successful post as chief executive and editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine in 1987 to live the inner life. Founder and president of the Life Balance Institute, a nonprofit organization devoted to the study and practice of spiritual values in daily life, Moffitt teaches vipassana meditation at retreat centers around the country and holds a weekly meditation class in Marin County, California. He is an award-winning essayist and is a regular contributor to Yoga Journal. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Why do we suffer? Is there a purpose to our pain? Noting that human beings have wrestled with such questions for thousands of years, Phillip Moffitt has found answers for his own life in Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Reflecting on his own journey from Esquire magazine editor-in-chief to Buddhist meditation teacher, Moffitt provides a fresh perspective on the Buddha's ancient wisdom, showing how to move from suffering to new awareness and unanticipated joy.

In this deeply spiritual book that is sure to become a Buddhist classic, Moffitt explores the twelve insights that underlie the Buddha's core teaching—the Four Noble Truths—and uses these often neglected ideas to guide readers to a more meaningful relationship to suffering. Moffitt write: "These twelve insights teach you to dance with both the joy and pain, finding peace in a balanced mind and calm spirit. As the most specific, practical life instructions I have ever encountered, they serve as an invaluable tool for anyone who seeks a life filled with meaning and well-being." Practicing these twelve insights, as Moffitt suggests, will help readers experience life's difficulties without being filled with stress and anguish, and they will enhance their moments of happiness.

With engaging writing and a strong message of self-empowerment, Dancing with Life offers a prescriptive path for finding joy and peace that will appeal to meditation students and readers of "Dharma Wisdom," Moffitt's column in Yoga Journal, as well as anyone searching for a more authentic life.

Graham Christian Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information - School Library Journal

Moffitt, founder and president of the Life Balance Institute and regular contributor to Yoga Journal, competently addresses the core of the Buddhist message-suffering and the delivery of human beings from suffering-for a contemporary English-speaking audience. He views Buddha's Four Noble Truths as "specific, practical life instructions."