A guide to freeing yourself from self-induced suffering/b>
- Provides contemplative practices and exercises to help you recognize how you cause your own suffering
- Explores the dynamics of the mind and how it sets the stage for distress
- Explains how mental states of suffering are created and how to control your mind to stop those thought patterns and assumptions
Most of us believe that suffering is inevitable. Stress, shame, depression, grief, loneliness, disappointment, the feeling that life is incomplete every negative experience contributes to the emotional and psychological pain that impedes our ability to live happy, fulfilling lives. But what if most suffering could be avoided? Is there an antidote to inner turmoil that can be learned and applied to everyday life?
In this groundbreaking work, Peter Ralston reveals how to free yourself from mentally created suffering. He explains how most creatures don’t experience suffering the way we do. They don’t worry or fret, fear the future, or imagine they are somehow flawed or less than they should be. Exploring the dynamics of the mind that set the stage for distress and that get us into trouble, he explains how mental states of suffering are created, how to recognize when you cause them, and how to stop suffering-inducing thought patterns and beliefs.
Sharing contemplative practices and exercises to help you end your inner turmoil and foster growth, awareness, and freedom, Ralston provides an empowering way to create a more complete, powerful, and peaceful life experience.
About the Author
Peter Ralston is a founder of the consciousness movement in the San Francisco Bay area and the creator of the
Art of Effortless Power, an internal martial art based on effortlessly effective interaction. Born in San Francisco but raised primarily in Asia, he began studying martial arts at the age of 9 in Singapore. By the age of 28 he had black belts or expertise in almost every martial art there is and was developing his own Art of Effortless Power. In 1978 he became the first non-Asian ever to win the World Championship full-contact martial arts tournament held in the Republic of China. The founder of the Cheng Hsin Center and the author of several books, including
The Book of Not Knowing, he currently lives outside of San Antonio, Texas.
Industry Reviews
“Peter Ralston has created a mighty tome that clearly lays out why we suffer, the mechanics behind our suffering, and solutions that we can actually use to end our personal suffering. The practices offered bring us to awareness, and that is a beautiful doorway to freedom from pain and freedom from suffering. In a day and age when we can experience many difficulties just by living life, Ending Unnecessary Suffering is a gift to us all.”
– Selina Maitreya, spiritual teacher and author of Raise Your Frequency, Transform Your Life
“Ralston has clearly outlined the cause of unnecessary suffering, which is the distinction between concept and experience. Concept separates us from experience, and this separation, he explains, is a major cause of suffering that is internally created. Experience is in the here and now and is closer to a state of being that doesn’t add to the limitations of concept that leads to suffering. He offers practices to move from understanding to a functional state of experience. There is much in this book to help you become a person who lives from experience if you follow the process he presents.”
– Robert Nadeau, Aikido 8th Dan Shihan
