In the Lap of the Buddha » (1st ed)

Gavin Harrison teaches at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass.

In this book a teacher of insight meditation offers personal testament, healing words, and wise instruction to help meet the suffering that comes with catastrophic life events. Speaking openly about his own struggles with memories of childhood sexual abuse and with the HIV diagnosis he received in 1989, Gavin Harrison reveals how compassion offers refuge and help for all who suffer from similar crises of body, heart, and spirit. Among the topics covered are:

   •  Dealing with fear, anger, and self-hatred
   •  Working with difficult relationships
   •  Confronting physical pain and the fear of death
   •  Transforming the legacy of sexual abuse
   •  The question of karma and "Why me?"
   •  Grappling with issues of faith, freedom, hope, and miracles
   •  Basic insight meditation instructions, plus guided meditations for forgiveness, compassion, and equanimity

Publishers Weekly

With its emphasis on emptiness and detachment, Buddhism's path sometimes seems an esoteric, disengaged, distant trek removed from the realities of life in the emotionally, physically, culturally crowded world. White South African Gavin Harrison's loving manual, however, casts light on the application of meditation to real-life conditions like HIV and AIDS, memories of childhood sexual abuse and the less dire fear and pain of daily life. The heartfelt prose rings true, as do the parallels between the lives of contemporary Americans and the life of Siddartha Gautauma; and Harrision's life itself, here documented, convincingly makes the case that Buddhist meditation practices are not a path away from life but rather a road into and through it. (Aug.)