Contents
Guide
Pages
Praise for Letting Go of Nothing
Peter Russell is like a friend who offers us a cool drink of water on a hot day. Letting Go of Nothing invites us to pause, step back, and see if there is another way of seeing that allows the mind to relax its grip and for a natural letting go to happen. Wise, eloquent, and subtle.
John J. Prendergast, PhD, author of The Deep Heart and In Touch
Cuts right through to the essence of what is important for us to live a content, joyful life, waking up to who we truly are and being able to make meaningful contributions. I heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for more peace in their life and for anyone wanting to wake up. Enjoy!
Lama Palden Drolma, author of Love on Every Breath
Letting Go of Nothing is a marvelously simple, clear, and concise guide to discovering the freedom and peace of mind that is right here. In plain language, Peter Russell illuminates a lifelong, moment-to-moment path of seeing how we create unnecessary suffering and waking up to the unfettered wonder of simple presence. This book is practical, wise, warm-hearted and refreshingly down to earth. I recommend it very highly.
Joan Tollifson, author of Nothing to Grasp and Death: The End of Self-Improvement
Seven centuries ago, Meister Eckhart, one of the greatest Christian contemplatives, decided to find which is the greatest and best virtue. He concluded that it is letting go of cravings, and around the world and across the centuries thousands of sages have echoed this theme. Now, in an era that desperately needs this skill, Peter Russell provides us with a simple, lucid guide to the importance of letting go and how to do it.
Roger Walsh, MD, PhD, University of California Medical School, author of Essential Spirituality
In this insightful book, Peter Russell takes us on a personal journey in which he reveals what life has taught him about being human. Each of the short chapters contains a peek into his own awakening journey, where we are reminded that what seems to create a life of happiness and fulfillment has little to do with ones outer circumstances but rather with our openness to the is-ness of each moment. This is more than a book about finding inner peace though it is that, for sure. It is also a book about human possibilities.
Susan Campbell, PhD, author of Getting Real and From Triggered to Tranquil
This book expresses the essence of spiritual wisdom without excess baggage. It is a clear glass of water, a refreshing simplicity. In it, Peter Russell has given elegant expression to what stands forth when we let go into what is, without resistance or confusion. Enjoy it, and may you find it easier and more natural to keep letting go into the spacious beauty of what is, here and now.
Terry Patten, author of Integral Life Practice and A New Republic of the Heart
Letting Go of Nothing is at once a wise yet completely practical distillation of the many avenues available to all who are searching for peace, love, and contentment by living a more awakened life. Each chapter is concise and continually points the reader to our true nature while also humbly and wholeheartedly accepting the challenges of our human expressions. Peter Russell writes with a profound directness and simplicity wrought from his own experience. Here is a book that is, indeed, bringing awakening down to earth.
Dorothy Hunt, spiritual teacher, author of Ending the Search
People in Western societies are besotted with the concept of being in control at all times in all ways. This chronic uptightness leaves nothing to chance and the flowing ways of nature. In Letting Goof Nothing, Peter Russell shows that in order to be happier and achieve more, we must embrace the paradox of letting go. As Russell shows, this is not new-age pop psychology but ancient wisdom. It endures for one reason: it works.
Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind
The realization that we are not our thoughts is a gateway to liberation. Letting Go of Nothing offers wise guidance and inspiration, pointing to the deep peace and freedom that arises naturally in moments of letting be.
Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion
This book not only makes a clear case for why unhappiness is not intrinsic to human nature but provides a roadmap from our stuck point to the destination a sense of self-control and freedom from the prison of chronic unrest. Why would anyone not integrate this straightforward and profoundly effective technology of mind to create a radically transformed life?
Barbara Fields, LHD, executive director of the Association for Global New Thought
This book reads like the distilled wisdom of a whole lifetime of inner exploration, expressed with great clarity and simplicity. You can read the book sequentially, or open chapters at random, and you will be enriched and enlightened by what you find.
Steve Taylor, author of The Clear Light and Extraordinary Awakenings
I have long appreciated the writings of Peter Russell and his eagerness to bring the spiritual and the scientific together. In this book he invites us into his soul and value system, his application of meditation and Buddhist practice to his own way of seeing the world and self, and in doing so he summons us to the deep peace of our true nature. I too take hope, and Peter Russells book affirms it, that our species will wake up to down-to-earth spiritual wisdom that all our religions, when healthy, call us to keeping it simple, understandable, and effective so that we and the sacred planet we share might become sustainable once more.
Matthew Fox, author of Meister Eckhart and other books
In Letting Go of Nothing, Peter Russell has distilled the essence of the traditional path of surrender into clear, simple, accessible language. Every short chapter contains both a unique insight and a pathway that, if followed in ones own experience, will lead directly to the peace that passeth all understanding. Short enough to be read in a weekend, profound enough to last a lifetime, Peters book is a gem of contemporary spirituality.
Rupert Spira, author and teacher
Letting Go of Nothing is a clear, engaging book filled with deep wisdom that presents the heart of the Buddhas teachings in a down-to-earth, highly user-friendly way. This beautiful, jargon-free guide shows how to free the mind of its self-created prison. If the reader puts these teachings into practice, they will definitely find support for genuine liberation.
James Baraz, author of Awakening Joy and cofounder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center
A LSO BY P ETER R USSELL
The Brain Book
The Consciousness Revolution
The Creative Manager
From Science to God
The Global Brain
The TM Technique
The Upanishads: A New Translation with Alistair Shearer
Waking Up in Time