When You're Falling, Dive: The Power of Acceptance

by Cheri Huber, June Shiver (Illustrator)

Overview

This book combines the psychological concept of acceptance with ancient Buddhist teachings about the chain of interdependent origination, which provides immediately usable tools for looking at how suffering happens and how to let that go. Stressing the theme of accepting what life brings, it reveals what acceptance is and what stands in the way of being able to accept life's ups and downs. Four steps for combating resistance are also provided.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780971030916
Publisher:	Keep It Simple Books
Publication date:	03/30/2003
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	241,337
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Cheri Huber is the author of 19 books, including There Is Nothing Wrong with You and Time-Out for Parents. She founded the Mountain View Zen Center in Mountain View, California, and the Zen Monastery Practice Center in Murphys, California, and teaches in both communities. She travels widely and often, leading workshops and retreats around the United States and abroad, most recently in Costa Rica and Italy. She founded Living Compassion in 2003, a nonprofit group comprised of There Is Nothing Wrong With You Retreats (based on the book); Global Community for Peace: The Assisi Peace Project; The Africa Vulnerable Children Project; and Open Air Talk Radio, her weekly call-in radio show originating from Stanford University. She lives in Murphys, California.

Table of Contents

	Preface
	From the Author to the Reader
Part 1	What Acceptance Is and Why We Resist
	What Is Acceptance?	2
	Turning the Fall into a Dive	5
	Why We Resist	7
	Letting Go of Resistance	9
	What Is Required	12
	What's Wrong?	17
	Our Problems	21
	Unacceptables	30
	Switching Off Resistance	34
	From Unwilling to Willing	40
	Who Is Afraid and of What?	43
	Essential Questions	46
	Loops	48
	The Function of Dissatisfaction	52
	Snug Little Ego Comfort Zone	57
	Waking Up Into Awareness	58
	How Conditioning Works: Threatening the Dictator	60
	Why Wake Up?	67
	Self-Talk	70
	The King and the Servant	74
Part 2	How to Accept
	Terrifying Tumble, Graceful Dive	80
	Letting Go Into Acceptance	82
	Acceptance Is a Doorway	85
	Seeing Through Illusion	89
	A Clearer Perspective	92
	The Sequence to Watch	97
	A Pair of Pitfalls	100
	Embrace the Unacceptable	102
	Finding the Switch	105
	Movement	107
	Sensation	111
	Thought	132
	Emotion	138
	Behavior	153
	An Example	155
Part 3	Acceptance, Freedom, and Possibility
	We Can Wake Up	161
	Being Here	164
	The Zen Fool	165
	Spiritual Liberation Olympics	167
	The Breath	171
	Accepting "What Is"	172
	Energy	174
	Practice	183
	The World of Opposites	186
	Stay Awake	197
	The Compassionate Mentor	198
	Steps to Success	203
	Blanket of Acceptance: A Guided Imagery	207

Editorial Reviews

“With direct, down-to-earth style, Cheri Huber challenges us to look honestly at our ways of resisting life and to discover the freedom that comes from a radical acceptance of what is. Like every authentic spiritual text, When You’re Falling, Dive is not just a book to read, but a teaching to live and realize for ourselves.”  —Thomas J. McFarlane, editor, Einstein and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings

“We fall, we dive, we are illuminated by the work of Cheri Huber.”  —Sark, author/artist, Succulent Wild Woman

“This marvelously wise little book does a splendid job of teaching us how to achieve the critical mental quality of mindful acceptance and apply it as a tool for attaining tranquility and insight.”  —Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., author, The Mind and The Brain and A Return to Innocence

“For anyone struggling with self-sabotaging habits When Your Falling, Dive offers an exhilarating and effective approach to lasting transformation. Huber knows the path of compassionate self-knowledge, and she shows readers the way.”  —Pilar Gerasimo, editor, Experience Life Magazine

From the Publisher