Unbelievable Happiness of What Is

Bernie, Jon

• Publisher: Non-Duality
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781626258730
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

What do you really want—isn't it happiness? And what keeps you from being happy? Could it be that your need to cling so tightly to what you believe—about yourself and life, about how things should be—is what's holding you back? In The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is, a contemporary spiritual teacher in the non-duality tradition reveals how confronting and letting go of our negative beliefs about ourselves and the world ultimately sets us on the path toward an awakened life of profound joy, meaning, and purpose.

We all want peace and freedom and love and happiness, we all want to be fulfilled, but so many of us fail to reach the level of contentment we've built up in our minds, often believing there's something wrong with us and blaming ourselves, others, or circumstances for our perceived lack of accomplishment or satisfaction. But the truth is, happiness is not something you have to get or achieve, because it's something you already have—in fact, it's what you already are.

With this book, author Jon Bernie—counselor, healer, and teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti—sheds light on the struggle to find happiness, showing how our unexamined beliefs distort our identities and make us suffer by creating unconscious tension in our bodies and minds. You'll learn how to bring awareness to these patterns and begin to unravel the tightly held, negative beliefs that have overshadowed your existence, finally moving through them and into a brightening of experience and the realization of true happiness, liberation, peace, and fulfillment.

Using this compassionate, heart-centered approach, you'll work with your feelings rather than resist them, and find guidance and support in surrendering to the relief of not knowing. You'll also learn to relax into and live as awareness in your day-to-day life. Most importantly, you'll discover that which you've been seeking but has never really been out of reach—something that is, indeed, beyond belief: the unbelievable happiness of accepting what is.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction: Unbelievable Happiness
• Author’s Note: How to Read This Book
• 1.: Taking the First Step
• 2.: Path of the Heart
• 3.: Path of Least Resistance
• 4.: Simply Bringing Attention
• 5.: The Positive Side of Belief
• 6.: What Is Awakening?
• 7.: The Essence of Meditation
• 8.: Here to Be Here
• 9.: Being, Not Doing
• 10.: So What Can I Do?
• 11.: Accepting What Is
• 12.: Finding the Guidance System
• 13.: Surrender
• 14.: Meditation: Stillness and Balance
• 15.: The Natural Force of Awakening
• 16.: Questions That Release You
• 17.: The Hallmark of Intimacy
• 18.: Suggestions for Transformation
• 19.: Just Listening
• 20.: The Quality of Awareness
• 21.: Transmission of the Flame
• 22.: Mirror of Truth
• 23.: Beyond Understanding
• 24.: Working with Belief
• 25.: If It Feels Good, Be It!
• 26.: Clearing, Grounding, Integrating, and Expanding: A Seven-Step Protocol
• 27.: Offering into Awareness
• 28.: Expression and Inspiration
• 29.: Mirror of Reality
• 30.: “Hell Is Other People”
• 31.: Relationship and the Spiritual Process
• 32.: Love and Connection: Intimate Relationships
• 33.: Looking in the Mirror
• 34.: The Freedom Equation
• 35.: Transmission:The Deepest Inheritance
• 36.: Connected in the Big Heart
• 37.: The Healer’s Path
• 38.: The Light That You Are
• 39.: The Deepest Embrace
• 40.: Lighten Your Load
• 41.: Meditation: Going Deeper
• 42.: The Rude Awakening
• 43.: Being Is the Fullness of Life
• 44.: Releasing the Struggle
• 45.: Turn Toward What’s Difficult
• 46.: Change, Loss, and Tenderness
• 47.: Be Right Here
• 48.: Life Begins with Awakening
• 49.: You Can’t Follow Anyone Else
• 50.: Living from the Heart
• 51.: Planting Seeds of Intention
• 52.: The Meaning and Purpose of Our Lives
• Afterword: The Beginning of Life
• Acknowledgments