Acknowledgments

My heartfelt and deepest gratitude goes out to my dear friend, senior advisor, and tireless editor at Clear Water Sangha, Kenneth Haugan, without whom this book would not have happened. Kenneth’s myriad skills and longstanding support are the backbone that has made my work possible.

I would be at a complete loss without my assistant and close friend, Lisa, whose amazing organizational service on so many levels has been enormously beneficial to me and in our service to those in need.

I’d also like to express a special thank you to my dear friends Adyashanti and Brother David Steindl-Rast for their contributions to this book. Their friendship, love and support spanning from almost two to over four decades, respectively, has been nothing less than a profound blessing.

A very warm and grateful thank you to: Dr. Fritz Smith, Joan Tollifson, Dr. Dan Kalish, Hugh Milne, Dr. Richard L. Miller, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Megan Cowan, Chris McKenna and Stephan Bodian for their generous endorsements.

Many thanks to the wonderful crew at New Harbinger who created the opportunity for this book to be realized: Catharine Meyers, Matt McKay, Julian and Catherine Noyce, Clancy Drake, Gretel Hakanson, Julie Bennett, Cassie Kolias, and Fiona Hannigan.

Also crucial to the completion of this book was years of transcription service of public talks by Lee Zipin. This work also wouldn’t be possible without the help of dedicated volunteers like Lyde, Mark, Sajohn, Patricia, Elizabeth, Steve and Sam.

I am profoundly grateful to my teachers Jean Klein and Robert Adams. Their radiant embodiment mirrored and clarified the pathless way.

And, of course, I want to thank my friends, family, and loved ones—especially my partner and sweetie, who is the love of my life—for their unconditional love and support.

Jon Bernie is a contemporary spiritual teacher whose teaching focuses on returning attention to the already enlightened state that lies at the core of our human experience. He has four decades of experience in the Zen, Theravada Buddhist, and Advaita traditions, and was formally asked to teach by Adyashanti in 2002. Jon is also an experienced healer and teacher of somatic embodiment, with training in the Alexander Technique, Zero Balancing, and Qigong. He leads classes and retreats in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, and does intensive, one-on-one work with individuals to facilitate consciousness development and deep emotional healing. To find out more about Bernie and his teachings, please visit www.jonbernie.org.

Foreword writer Adyashanti is an American-born spiritual teacher devoted to serving the awakening of all beings. His teachings are an open invitation to stop, inquire, and recognize what is true and liberating at the core of all existence. Adyashanti is author of The Way of Liberation, Falling into Grace, Emptiness Dancing, True Meditation, and The End of Your World. Based in California, he lives with his wife, Mukti, and teaches throughout North America and Europe, offering satsangs, weekend intensives, silent retreats, and a live Internet radio broadcast.