Find a sense of nourishment and embodied aliveness in every aspect of your life with this fresh and accessible guide to Zen practice.

Buddhism aims for the development of a flexible mind and skillful responsiveness--whether toward problems in one's personal life or broader issues like the ecological crisis. But in a culture now saturated with cliches about mindfulness and unrealistic fantasies about happiness, what does it truly mean to walk this path? The key practice is that of embodied aliveness.

In The Path of Aliveness, Zen and Taoist Qigong teacher Christian Dillo offers a path of meaningful transformation tailored to our times. Through potent conceptual work and practical examples, he shows how to carefully examine the interrelationship between our senses, body energy, thoughts, and emotions so that we can transform our lives in the direction of less suffering and more freedom, wisdom, and compassion. This secular reconstruction respectfully plumbs Buddhist tradition--including classic teachings such as the foundations of mindfulness meditation, the four noble truths, and the practice of loving kindness--while encouraging practitioners to rely on their own embodied experience for maintaining an alive and engaged presence no matter the circumstances.

The Path of Aliveness: A Contemporary Zen Approach to Awakening Body and Mind, Christian Dillo, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 336 pp, $21.95

Christian Dillo spent over twenty years as a residential monastic at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Colorado, completing Dharma transmission with Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. In 2015 he began serving as Guiding Teacher at the Boulder Zen Center, where he now lives with his wife, son, and several students.

CONTENTS: The Path of Aliveness
	Preface	ix
	Introduction: Being Fully Alive	1
	PART ONE: TRANSFORMATION
1.	Ingredients of Transformation	23
2.	The Physical Posture of Seated Meditation	38
3.	Mental Postures of Transformation	49
4.	Mindfulness and Bodyfulness	60
5.	The Four Gates of Mindfulness	71
	INTERLUDE: Transformative Phenomenology	81
	PART TWO: LIBERATION
6.	What Is Liberation from Suffering?	93
7.	The Four Enactments	101
8.	Intimacy with the Field of Mind	115
9.	Bodyfulness, Kindness, Presence	121
10.	Emotional Freedom	130
11.	Habits and Karma	142
12.	The Path of Nourishment	151
	INTERLUDE: Buddhism and Psychotherapy	158
	PART THREE: WISDOM
13.	What Is Wisdom?	167
14.	Reality Is Withdrawn	172
15.	The Two Truths	182
16.	The Relinquishing of All Views	187
17.	Consciousness and Self	196
18.	Undivided Activity	206
19.	Wisdom as Expression	206
	INTERLUDE: Felt Sense	222
	PART FOUR: COMPASSION
20.	What Is Compassion?	233
21.	The Role of Ritual	243
22.	Unlimiting Mind	250
23.	Independence and Connection	255
24.	Ethics as Investigating Aliveness	263
25.	Ecological Compassion	277
	Epilogue	291
	Notes	293
	Index	307