Our ego, and its accompanying sense of nagging self-doubt as we work to be bigger, better, smarter, and more in control, is one affliction we all share. But while our ego is at once our biggest obstacle, it can also be our greatest hope. We can be at its mercy or we can learn to work with it. With great insight, and in a deeply personal style, renowned psychiatrist and author Dr. Mark Epstein offers a how-to guide that refuses a quick fix. In Advice Not Given, he reveals how Buddhism and Western psychotherapy, two traditions that developed in entirely different times and places, both identify the ego as the limiting factor in our well-being, and both come to the same conclusion: When we give the ego free rein, we suffer; but when it learns to let go, we are free.
Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself, Mark Epstein MD, Penguin Books, Paperback, 204 pages., $16.00
Mark Epstein, M.D., is a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and the author of a number of books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy, including The Trauma of Everyday Life, Thoughts without a Thinker and Going to Pieces without Falling Apart. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University.
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Introduction
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1
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1. Right View
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19
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2. Right Motivation
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41
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3.Right Speech
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65
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4. Right Action
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85
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5. Right Livehood
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105
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6. Right Effort
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123
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7. Right Mindfulness
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149
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8.Right Concentration
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169
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Epilogue
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189
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Acknowledgments
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193
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Notes
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195
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Index
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199
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