The Exquisite Risk
Daring to Live an Authentic Life
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4.1 • 8 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
This stunning meditation from the renowned author of The Book of Awakening offers a fresh perspective on the art of being alive and provides essential insight into how we can overcome the barriers holding us back from living life to its fullest.
“Once again, Mark Nepo draws us to the heart of what matters. He illuminates love with the light of his own understanding.”—Marianne Williamson
How can we stay awake and authentic when our wounds make us numb and hidden? How can we minimize what stands between us and our experience of life? How can we make a practice of wearing down what thickens around our mind and heart?
In these fast-paced times, the exquisite risk facing each of us every day is to slow down so that we may experience life rather than simply manage it. In The Exquisite Risk, poet and teacher Mark Nepo encourages us to become quiet enough and open enough to listen to what truly matters—our own hearts, our loved ones, the wonders of nature—in order to live a life with nothing held back.
In moving, thoughtful prose, Nepo bravely demonstrates the vulnerability he urges us all to practice, sharing the development of his own spiritual path and how his battle with a rare type of cancer transformed his perspective on himself, his connections to others, and the world around him. Along with personal anecdotes, Nepo pulls wisdom from ancient teachings to explore the importance of staying present and mindful in the face of life’s myriad challenges and concludes that only by daring to embrace all that life has to offer—good and bad—can we come to a deeper appreciation of its meaning and beauty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Books concerning spiritual awakening after a near-death experience tend naturally to be self-centered, and Nepo's book is no exception. The 53-year-old writer and motivational speaker (The Book of Awakening) suffered from cancer, which he survived with the help of his wife of 20 years. While undergoing treatment, he refused to allow panic to influence his decisions, thus avoiding some radical and dangerous procedures, which threatened his life almost as much as the disease itself. In this memoir, the poet elaborates upon his difficult journey, offering sage advice gleaned from incidental experiences and the work of other spiritual leaders. Clearly, Nepo is a sensitive observer, but his prose tends toward gauzy, inflated metaphors and long, self-flattering passages. Remembering the time a dentist gave him a root canal, for example, Nepo writes, "Though his eyes were intent on the thin canals inside my tooth, I saw behind his focus to his soft place. It was there that we'd known each other deeply, though we'd never met." Elsewhere, he instructs readers that, "like a stone rippling in a lake, the heart of our being dropped softly into any moment will ripple us into the mystery of everything," and declares, "I was born to say what my father couldn't, to face what he's turned from." The transformational saga of Nepo's cancer treatment does indeed highlight the wonders of life and human relations, but Nepo's convoluted writing doesn't do justice to his painful, joyful reality.
