Ed Shapiro - The Unexpected Power of Mindfulness and Meditation

ACCLAIM FOR

THE UNEXPECTED POWER OF MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION

Treat this book as you would a cookery book. You wouldnt just read recipes; youd try them out. Like cookery, meditation only makes sense if you experience it.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Ed and Deb remind us all just how important it is to look after the health and happiness of the mind. With warmth and humor they show us how to integrate the timeless qualities of awareness and compassion into everyday life.

Andy Puddicombe, founder, HEADSPACE

Mindfulness is the awareness that arises when we pay attention to the present moment. It accesses us to core aspects of our mind that our very sanity depends on, as does our capacity to live wholeheartedly in this crazy world.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness teacher

I can be as nuts as the next person, living in a world like we live in with the craziness and chaos. It takes work to retain our sanity in the midst of all that, and to me meditation is the most powerful tool for doing so.

Marianne Williamson, New York Times best-selling author, A Return to Love

Ed and Deb Shapiro are two warm, caring, and capable individuals. Their work makes our planet a safer and more loving place to live.

Bernie Siegel, MD, best-selling author, Love, Medicine and Miracles

If there is one book you read about Meditation, this should be the one. Hear about some of the cool people who do it, why you should do it, and how.

Sharon Gannon, Jivamukti Yoga

What an accomplishment! Ed and Debs profoundly unique book offers a one-stop shop for those engaged in mindfulness and meditation. The direct transmission contained in this book can take us one step further. We find it especially useful to help stabilize spiritual activism in these challenging times and well refer it widely.

John Steiner and Margo King, transpartisan activists

I hope that your work is reaching many. It deserves it and so do they.

Stephen Levine, international best-selling author

Ed and Deb bring compassion and heart to a modern world where it is sorely needed.

Ram Dass, author, Be Here Now and Still Here

Acceptance of what is, that is meditation. This book will help you make friends with your mind. Ed and Deb are spreading love in the world; be a part of it!

Parmita Pushman, White Swan Records

The pausing has been profound. It has invited me to arrive in the here and now with my child clients, and to accept whatever happens without judging.

Megan Cronin Larson, play therapist

The wonderful Shapiros are a conduit of joy and spiritual energy that heals hearts on their subtle level.

Dr. Lex Hixon, author, Coming Home

Ed and Deb make a connection to their friends spirit. They then bring their spiritual energy all over the world for world peace.

Kitaro, Golden Globe Award and Grammy Awardwinning musician

I know Ed and Deb as their television producer and they walk their talk.

Joanne Sawicki, creator, Channel Health TV

Copyright

Copyright 2019 by Ed and Deb Shapiro

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

The Unexpected Power of Mindfulness and Meditation is a new work,

first published by Ixia Press in 2019.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Shapiro, Eddie, 1942 author. | Shapiro, Debbie, 1953 author.

Title: The unexpected power of mindfulness and meditation / Ed Shapiro, Deb Shapiro.

Description: Mineola : Ixia Press, 2019.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018045965 | ISBN 978-0-4868-3182-4(paperback) | ISBN 0486831825

Subjects: LCSH: Mind and body. | Mindfulness (Psychology) | Meditation. | BISAC: BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Meditation. | SELF-HELP / Meditations. | PHILOSOPHY / Mind & Body.

Classification: LCC BF161 .S434 2019 | DDC 158.1dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045965

Ixia Press

An imprint of Dover Publications, Inc.

Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

83182501 2019

www.doverpublications.com/ixiapress

To Debs mother Anne, and

to our teachers, both past and present.

May all beings be happy.

Contents

FOREWORD

T hank goodness Ed and Deb have so beautifully enfolded the gifts of the fascinating individuals in this book, within the moving stories of their own transforming experiences! In this living book they have masterfully woven the many voices into a symphonythe insights harmonize and contrast with each other in a marvelous rich flow that is both calming and energizing, creating a single collective yet selfless voice.

Reading this book is itself a powerful meditation. Without even trying, you effortlessly go deeper into your mind and heart. By flowing along page-by-page, teacher-by-teacher, insight-by-insight, you will find you are naturally developing mindfulness.

What a privilege to strike a key chord at the opening of this treasury of heartfelt advice by many of the greatest people you would ever hope to meet, all seasoned and realized meditators, way beyond me! And what a challenge to partner with Ed and Deb to move this magical meditation train along toward the meaningful life that is the destination for every single one of you dear readers!

I only dare proceed because I find a job for myself here with this miracle train, where the engine is the great heart of all spiritual teachers, visionaries, and poets throughout the world from all times; the kind and skillful engineers are Ed and Deb, and the cars you ride in so comfortably are the spacious realizations of all the great meditators who carry you along.

I am just the conductor who sees you up the steps, shouts out Aaaallll abooooaaaard! and then swings up alongside you all! Congratulations for embarking on this very special and magical journey.

Tenzin Bob Thurman

Jey Tsong Khapa Professor

Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies,

Columbia University

President, Tibet House US

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

O ur deep thanks to our agent, Bill Gladstone, for his inspiration and support, and to Fiona Hallowell, our editor at Ixia Press. To Kiri Westby, Jim and Jane Cronin, Megan and Rob Larson, Helen Green, Parmita Pushman, and Julie Carpenter. And a big thank you to all the contributors. You make this book glow with wisdom.

PART 1

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

ABCs

Its kinda like when you have to shut your computer down when it goes crazy. Then you turn it on, and its all okay again. Thats what meditation is to me. Ellen DeGeneres

T hey once appeared mysterious and beyond our comprehension, but mindfulness and meditation are now showing up everywhere from exercise classes to ads for computers or cars; on the wall behind the counter in our local post office hang fliers announcing meditation and yoga classes next to the overseas postal prices; meditation tips are offered by famous celebrities, such as Lady Gaga, Oprah, or Sting; and no self-respecting bookshop is without a how-to-meditate section. We have taught housewives, athletes, teachers, doctors, and CEOs, in town halls, high school gymnasiums, corporate boardrooms, and on television.

However, this poses a conundrum. If mindfulness and meditation are so available and well known, and if health reports are right in saying we should all be practicing them, why do so many of us ignore this or find excuses not to try? How ironic that the best things for us are those we seem to avoid the most, which is like being affected by poison while resisting the antidote.