Mark Nepo - The Endless Practice: Becoming Who You Were Born to Be

Praise for The Endless Practice

Mark Nepo is a treasure. His words invariably bring me to a place of greater depth, peace of mind, and lightness of spirit. In The Endless Practice he has given us a great gift. This lovely book is a field guide to being human.

Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion and Still Writing

Mark Nepo has created and encoded a work of wisdom, love, truth, and beauty. Reading his words will open your heart, expand your mind, and nourish your soul. Just holding this book shifted me into a state of grace.

Arielle Ford, author of Wabi Sabi Love: The Ancient Art of Finding Perfect Love in Imperfect Relationships

This book held me in its warm embrace. Mark is a true poet of the soul, using fresh, vivid language to capture realities that are too often cast as mere clichs. What a blessing!

Tosha Silver, author of Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead

ALSO BY MARK NEPO

NONFICTION

More Together Than Alone

Things That Join the Sea and the Sky

The One Life Were Given

Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

Finding Inner Courage

Unlearning Back to God

The Exquisite Risk

The Book of Awakening

FICTION

As Far As the Heart Can See

POETRY

The Way Under the Way

Inside the Miracle

Reduced to Joy

Surviving Has Made Me Crazy

Suite for the Living

Inhabiting Wonder

Acre of Light

Fire Without Witness

God, the Maker of the Bed, and the Painter

EDITOR

Deepening the American Dream

RECORDINGS

More Togther Than Alone

Flames that Light the Heart (video course)

The One Life Were Given

Inside the Miracle (expanded, 2015)

Reduced to Joy

The Endless Practice

Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

Staying Awake

Holding Nothing Back

As Far As the Heart Can See

The Book of Awakening

Finding Inner Courage

Finding Our Way in the World

Inside the Miracle (1996)

An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2014 by Mark Nepo

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Books hardcover edition August 2014

and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Permission information for excerpts from previously published material is on page 311.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or .

Jacket design by James Perales

Jacket photograph (stone path in garden) by Neale Cousland/Shutterstock

Author photograph by Brian Bankston

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nepo, Mark.

The endless practice : becoming who you were born to be / Mark Nepo.First Edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Self-actualization (Psychology) I. Title.

BF637.S4N4596 2014

158dc232014022115

ISBN 978-1-4767-7464-0

ISBN 978-1-4767-7467-1 (ebook)

For my grandmother, Maijessca Nepo (18931987) who told me my hands are the oldest things I own, and her son, my father, Morris Nepo (19202013) who taught me how to use them.

Wakefulness is not a destination but a song the human heart keeps singing, the way birds keep singing at the first sign of light.

T HIS BOOK IS an inquiry into how the soul works in the world, and how by engaging our soul in the world, we are shaped by the endless practice of becoming the person we were born to be. From the moment we open our eyes, we are meaning-seeking creatures, looking for what matters though we carry what matters deep within us. And more than the hard-earned understandings we arrive at, more than the principles or beliefs we stitch together out of our experience, how we stay in relationship to the mysterious Whole of Life is what brings us alive and keeps us alive.

From The Book of Awakening on, Ive tried to offer a whole picture of the human journey, speaking whatever I know of truth while believing in my heart that life, for all its difficulties, is uplifting. And Ive been committed to keeping each other company on this timeless journey were all on, admitting that I have no answers. I believe we all seek this kind of company and find strength in it.

I believe everyone knows first-hand that life is messy and painful, beautiful and unpredictable, that we cant make careers of good running from bad, or positive muffling negative, but that life is full of wonder and obstacle alike. I remain devoted to the truth of that wholeness. Even as I write thisas my wife, Susan, and I are grieving the death of our beloved dog Mira and I am still making sense of my fathers death this past yearI find myself in the endless practice of keeping my heart open to the whole of it. And the journey of becoming who we were born to be never ends. Its limitless, eternal. We dont arrivewe grow.

Throughout the evolution of my books, Ive worked to expand our felt understanding of the totality of the human experience, to affirm our innate knowing of this.

With the subtitle of The Book of Awakening Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have I began to discover the beautiful secret that there is nowhere to go. All we need and dream of is right here before us, within us. With The Exquisite Risk , I offered the sense that risk is not negative but necessary, beautiful, and enlivening. With Unlearning Back to God , I explored the notion that by reclaiming and reawakening the gifts were given, resilience and peace are possible. Through all my books, Ive been a witness to the mysterious truth that living with an open heart and bringing our being and doing together to form care is endless: waking, risking, finding courage, finding our way back to an innate sense of God, and simply but deeply listening. And now, The Endless Practice , the unfolding that never stops, the ever-growing journey of becoming who we were born to be.

So what does it mean to be a soul in the world and to be our truest selves? These are deep, timeless questions that we need to live into more than answer. While there are many insights and stories that can help, the work begins as we find our way and keep each other from retreating from life.

To bring who we are out and to let the world in is a brave and endless practice that clarifies and solidifies the gifts we are born with. There is no arrival point or destination here, only the chance to be more alive as we move closer to the Mystery.

What we can do is learn more specifically how to be a gardener of the soul, so it and we can keep growing. In this book, we will explore the difficult and rewarding aspects of being human, which are often interrelated, including how to restore our trust in life, when suffering makes us lose our way; how to begin the work of saying yes to life, so it can enliven us; and how to make our inwardness a resource and not a refuge.

The ever-changing practice of being human involves learning how to strengthen our heart by exercising it in the world, and how to refine who we are through caring, building, holding, and repairing. To do this, we must discover how to put down our old protections and stop interfering with the life-force that wants to open us like a flower. In this very personal journey, we have the chance to find our faith between who we are and what we do.