Selfless Love
Beyond the Boundaries of Self and Other
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Selfless Love shows how meditation can help us realize that we don’t love—we are love.
Gentle, elegant, and radically inspiring, Selfless Love presents a holistic, experiential meditative path that enables us to see beyond our preconceived notions of identity, spirituality, and humanity. Drawing equally from Zen parables, her experience as a mental health therapist, and the Gospels, Ellen Birx shows us that through meditation we can recognize that our true selves are not selves at all - that all beings are united in unbounded, infinite awareness and love, beyond words.
Recognizing the limitations of language in describing the indescribable, Birx concludes each chapter in the Zen tradition of "turning words" with a verse meant to invite insights.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her newest, Zen teacher Birx (Healing Zen) offers a multi-faceted approach to transcending the illusion of a singular self and realizing the unbounded, connected self that is immersed in love. Meditation is the backbone of the practice Birx teaches, and it is consonant with three different viewpoints: Zen Buddhism, the Christian Gospels, and cognitive science. She urges her audience to consider how holding onto the unexamined idea of an isolated self has resulted in an unfortunate separation between self and other. By rethinking this divide, the world is opened. Opening to God (likened to mystery, infinite, absolute, presence) allows an individual to open to the love that is the basis of all existence. Learning to love allows an individual to act ethically and on the basis of compassion. Birx's inclusive use of Zen, Christianity, and contemporary science allows her to weave seemingly disparate threads of spiritual and secular thought together into an organic whole anchored by meditation. Those seeking an alternative and encompassing process for expanding the concept of self, experiencing godly love, and living compassionately should look to Birx for guidance.
