Jim Dreaver - End Your Story, Begin Your Life: Wake Up, Let Go, Live Free

There are no fancy poses or intricate breathing techniques in here, but this is the real deal. Such a beautiful teaching. So lucid and clear. Let go of your imaginations about who you are and what the world is, your story, and discover your true nature. I have known Jim for over 25 years now. We struggled together toward clarity. He has done an excellent job of clearly stating both the practice and the teaching, making it relevant to life as we know it, and making it a fun, interesting read. I have no hesitation in wholeheartedly recommending this work.

ERICH SCHIFFMANN, yoga master and author of Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

A powerful and wisdom-rich book that will help you reclaim your greatest life.

ROBIN SHARMA, author of the national bestsellers The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO

This is the book all seekers of spiritual awakening have been waiting for. Jim takes the ageless spiritual truths from the East and presents them in a practical, easily understood manner from a Western perspective. This book will get you onto the right path to spiritual fulfillment; it changed my life and will change yours as well.

Bob NOZIK, MD, professor emeritus, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, author of Happy 4 Life: Here's How to Do It

I love this book! It is for anyone who is serious about enlightenment and the freedom it brings. Through his own experience and wisdom, Jim Dreaver demystifies awakening andusing the simple tools he calls the practice and the teachingmakes its realization more tangible and reachable with every page. Profound and comprehensive, easily understandable, and down-to-earth practical, this manual may literally shorten a seeker's path by decades.

MADHUKAR THOMPSON, author of The Odyssey of Enlightenment

Written in a simple, straightforward style, this book is a real gift to the world. I'd call it a primer for living.

SUSAN CAMPBELL, PHD, author of Getting Real and Truth in Dating

Jim Dreaver is a brilliant thinker and writer. Steeped in rich personal experience, End Your Story, Begin Your Life makes complex and confusing Eastern concepts accessible to the Western mind. With extraordinary clarity and simplicity, this book takes us on a journey that leads to the fulfillment of our deepest hopes and longings.

JOHN AMODEO, PHD, author of The Authentic Heart and Love and Betrayal; coauthor of Being Intimate

For many, life can feel like a skipping recordthe same patterns repeating themselves over and over again, creating a narrative that limits our ability to truly live. End Your Story, Begin Your Life is overflowing with wisdom. Jim Dreaver's words are both inspiring and life-changing. This book offers a powerful yet simple path that leads from the prison of the mind to the expanded freedom that is possible in everyone.

DARREN MAIN, author of Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic

This edition first published in 2011 by

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Charlottesville, VA 22906

www.hamptonroadspub.com

Copyright 2010, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted 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 Hampton Roads Publishing, Inc. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57174-659-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on request.

Cover design by Jim Warner

Interior design by Frame25 Productions

Typeset in Goudy Old Style

Printed in the United States of America

QG

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

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For Adam, with love.

And for his generation and all the generations to come

Whoever enters the Way without a guide will take a hundred years to travel a two-day journey.

Rumi

Chapter One
Step 1: Be Present with Your Experience

Chapter Two
Step 2: Notice the Story

Chapter Three
Step 3: See the Truth

Chapter Four
Questioning This Me

Chapter Five
Awakening to Freedom

Chapter Six
The Power of Love

Chapter Seven
Creating a New Story for Your Life

I have a vision: the world is at peace, at last. It is a dynamic, vibrant, and creative peace. All the countries of the world are like one big, happy family. Sure, they continue to bicker and squabble with one another, as families do, and they still have their own internal problems stemming from their economies, environmental challenges, and different social issues.

However, there is enough real consciousness throughout humanity to ensure cooperation and harmony between nations. Wars and terrorism have ended. Wealth is more evenly distributed, which means extreme poverty and hunger are now rare. Very few are oppressed or downtrodden.

People throughout the world have each other's best interests at heart. They care about, support, and cheer each other on. Competition takes the form of everyone encouraging others to be their best, and to excel at whatever they do. With so much love and goodwill in the air, peace really does prevail on earth.

So how did this happen? It is simple. Enough of us looked inward long enough to wake up to the wisdom, love, and freedom inside. We realized that the entire conceptual realm between our earsall our personal, cultural, national, religious, and ethnic storieswas not fundamentally real.

We saw that the stories we tell ourselves and others appear and disappear, shift and change, and yet we, as the awareness or consciousness that notices and creates them, are ever-present, always here. We came to the realization, in other words, that there are no enemies, except those we fabricate in our own minds. This knowledge frees us from psychological and emotional suffering and is the source of our individual and collective peace, joy, and meaning.

This, then, is my vision. The book you hold in your hands is my plan for helping make it a reality. If the vision resonates with you, share it with others. Awakening to the truth of who and what we are is the most important task facing us. It always has been, only more so now than ever. Working together, we can change the world.

The teaching and practice making up the heart of this book come directly out of my own experience as a seeker of truth. I was on a spiritual journey for twenty years, seeking enlightenment, or inner freedom.

Then, in the spring of 1995, my seeking came to an end when I finally realized my true nature. I have been at peace, free from conflict and suffering, ever since. The main elements of my own story, that of how I came to understand that I am not my story, are in this book.

However, I will relate one key anecdote now. Between September 2003 and the end of January 2004, I experienced a health crisis that literally turned my life upside down. I had three strokes, each worse than the last. The third landed me in the hospital for six days, spending four in intensive care. When I came out, I couldn't move the right side of my face, my right arm and hand were severely impaired, I walked with a limp on the right side, and I had difficulty thinking and speaking. It took me almost two years to recover.