Susan Piver - Start Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation

ABOUT THE BOOK

If you want to meditate but have no idea where to begin, this book by best-selling author and Buddhist teacher Susan Piver will help you: it contains everything you need to know to start a meditation practice and, even more important, to continue one. It defines what meditation is (and what it is not); dispels the three most common misconceptions about it; advises ways around obstacles; addresses the most frequently asked questions; and shows how meditation can have positive impact on relationships, creativity, and difficult emotions. However, Piver presents meditation as something more than the self-help technique du jourit is a path to love, joy, and courage. This book contains two self-paced programs to help you start herenow!

SUSAN PIVER is an author and meditation instructor whose books include How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, and the New York Times best-seller The Hard Questions. She has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, the CBS Early Show, The Tyra Banks Show, and other national television programs in connection with her books. She leads workshops and retreats around the country on living an awakened life.

Sign up to receive news and special offers from Shambhala Publications.

Or visit us online to sign up at shambhala.com/eshambhala.

START

an open-hearted guide

HERE

to the path and practice

NOW

of meditation

Susan Piver

Shambhala

Boston & London

2015

SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

Cover design and illustration by Kathleen Lynch/Black Kat Design

2015 by Susan Piver

Illustrations 2015 Pier Gustafson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Piver, Susan.

Start here now: an open-hearted guide to the path and practice of meditation / Susan Piver.

pages cm

eISBN 978-0-8348-0307-7

ISBN 978-1-61180-267-2 (paperback)

1. MeditationBuddhism. I. Title.

BQ5612.P59 2015

294.34435dc23

2014047499

To my esteemed meditation students and members of the Open Heart Project for inspiring me with their practice.

To my teacher, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, for teaching me everything I know.

To his father, Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche, for teaching me everything I dont know.

To my treasured spiritual friend and meditation instructor who shall remain nameless because he prefers it that way for some reason, for ushering me onto the path with so much love and precision.

And in memory of my beloved father, Julius Piver, for teaching me how to finish the job.

My gratitude to each is the beacon that lights my way.

CONTENTS

If you want to meditate but have no idea where to begin, this book will help you.

If you used to meditate and are looking for a way to reenter your practice, this book will help you.

If you know you want to try meditation but are reluctant for any reason to go to a meditation center, this book will help you to try it without risk or nervousness.

In all cases, we are going to Start Here. Now!

Welcome to Start Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation. This book contains everything you need to know to start a meditation practice and, even more important, to continue one. It defines what meditation is (and what it is not), offers tips for making the practice a part of your life, dispels the most common misconceptions, describes the obstacles we all face and how to navigate them, and addresses the most frequently asked questions. I give you a concise overview of the various popular styles of Buddhist meditation and offer suggestions should you want to explore them further. Most important, this book contains specific, concrete, actionable steps for beginning your own meditation practice in a stress-free, dogma-free, jargon-free way.

Meditation is more than a practice; it is a way of being in the world. It is a path. In this book, I have also tried to describe some of the ways your practice carries over into your off-the-cushion life to increase self-confidence, improve relationships, enhance creativity, and create a foundation for working with strong emotion.

Though this book can stand alone as a guide, there are two self-paced programs that can go along with it. The first, a seven-day meditation challenge (in chapter 19), lays out a detailed plan for slowly but surelyand simplyintroducing the practice to your life, which Im sure is already quite busy and full. Still, it is totally possible to make time for meditation and this program shows you how. Ive created seven guided meditation videos to support and guide you each day of this challenge and you can access them anytime at my website, www.susanpiver.com/shn-resources. The second is a complete plan for creating a weekend meditation retreat at home.

Okay, lets face it. Starting a meditation practice is not that difficult. Ive started mine countless times! What is difficult is sustaining the practice. As founder of the Open Heart Project, an online community of more than twelve thousand meditators all over the world who have been receiving weekly meditation instruction from me for three years, Ive learned a lot about what helps you to keep going. Ive put all of that information into this book and, if you are interested, my website also includes a self-guided program with different lessons which you may learn more about at www.susanpiver.com/shn-resources.

If you are serious about making meditation practice an ongoing part of your life, this book is for you. I will be with you each step of the way.

I have had the extraordinary good fortune to be trained by brilliant, compassionate, realized teachers. It is my delight to share with you what Ive learned over nearly two decades of Buddhist study and practice. Though I have done my best to understand what I have been taught and bring it into my experience so that I can share it with you, I am not being humble when I say that my mind may not be big enough to grasp these profound teachings. Therefore, I may have made mistakes. If so, this is a reflection of my own lack of understanding, not of any flaw in their teachings.

Ive been practicing Buddhist meditation since 1993 and took formal vows as a Buddhist in 1995. In 2004, I completed a deeper course of study in a seminary in my lineage (Shambhala Buddhism, a Tibetan school). It was only then that I was eligible to take training as a meditation instructor, which I did in 2005.

Since that time, I have taught meditation to people all over the world. I have led retreats on meditation and creativity, meditation and relationships, meditation and mindful communication, meditation and... meditation. Ive authored eight books that have been translated into thirteen languages. I have written and spoken about meditation and its impact on everyday life for close to a decade now.

In 2011, I started what has turned into the largest nondenominational online mindfulness community in the world, the Open Heart Project. As of this writing, there are over twelve thousand members who sit down to meditate with me every day. I lead online retreats for them, teach classes for them virtually, and create and email new meditation instructional videos to this growing group of wonderful, smart, independent-minded seekers in more than forty countries. Thus I have given meditation instruction countless times! Ive counseled many people on how to work with the difficulties of establishing the practice as a part of everyday life. Ive come to know the most frequently asked questions and the most commonly encountered obstacles. Throughout, Ive had the honor of hearing many, many stories about the positive impact of meditation practice on difficult emotions, depressions, relationship problems, physical injuries and illnesses, traumas, boredom, frustration, and confusion. Ive developed a great appreciation for what it takes to establish a consistent meditation practice, and I want to share with you what Ive learned so that you too can make this exceedingly simple and profound practice a part of your life.