How to Wake Up

June 10, 2013
Drawing inspiration from the Buddha’s awakening, Bernhard addresses this ancient tradition’s core ideas in a wise, gentle guide to reducing suffering. Her previous book (How to Be Sick) described her efforts to adapt skillfully to a chronic, life-changing illness. Here she explores Buddhism’s heart to show how “we have the potential to awaken to a peace and well-being that are not dependent on whether a particular experience is joyful or sorrowful.” With assurance the author blends clear explanations, examples, and easy practices (such as the “tracing exercise” to identify the source of dissatisfaction) from her circumscribed life to explore how wisdom, mindfulness, and open-heartedness can improve well-being. The relevance of classic topics such as the three marks of existence (impermanence, no fixed self, and suffering) is deftly investigated. Her discussion of “tanha” (desire) teases out the difference between wholesome aspirations and harmful craving, a sometimes thorny topic for students of Buddhism. While the market is saturated with good introductions to Buddhism, Bernhard excels at demonstrating from personal knowledge that the Buddha’s promises to ease suffering aren’t just empty words.

July 1, 2013
Expanding on the lessons of mindfulness and meditation found in her well-received How to Be Sick (2010), Bernhard switches gears to focus on the venerable and often intimidating idea of awakening. The author begins with the core idea that life is a string of experiences engendered by and producing suffering. From here Bernhard walks her readers through the concepts used in Buddhism to accept and engage this state of being and, in doing so, hopefully become more awake to the reality of life. The book is organized around three fundamental tenets of the Buddha's teachingswisdom, mindfulness, and open-mindednesswith each section broken into chapters that examine these ideas and offer practices that help incorporate them into daily life. Bernhard presents all of this in an easy, straightforward manner that will reassure readers who are less familiar with Buddhist tradition. While this is an ideal book for people beginning to explore Buddhism or alternative methods to handling life's difficulties, this is also a useful book for the more experienced Buddhist or spiritual practitioner looking to revisit fundamental concepts of their practice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)