Three Steps to Awakening: A Practice for Bringing Mindfulness to Life

It occurred to me as I finished this book that in a way Larry Rosenberg has written the same book three times (I'm referring to his first book, "Breath by Breath;" his second, "Living in the LIght of Death;" and now this one."Breath by Breath" was an instant classic - a true "desert island" guide to both mindfulness of breathing and carrying the practice off the cushion into every part of daily life. For many practitioners it can easily be the first -and last - meditation manual they will ever need. "Living in the Light of Death," which came out some years later, offers even greater clarity and really does, as Rosenberg so wryly puts it, "attempt to answer the question of whether there is life BEFORE death" by showing us that the groundless, infinite mystery most of us spend our entire lives avoiding is always there to free us if we turn towards it instead and make it our practice. Unlike a zillion other books that offer speculation about what happens after death, it is a guide to how to live, moment by moment, developing a heart-mind that is ready for whatever comes next, whether the "next" in question is next moment or next life."Three Steps," in the context of these two other classic, essential books, is so short, so jargon-free and simple that a casual reader might miss the profound "pith essence" nature of the instructions it contains. It is the distillation of four decades of intensive practice and inquiry and an enormous amount of teaching. The three steps (mindfulness with breathing, the four applications of mindfulness, and choiceless awareness) are taught as precisely and concisely as possible, with helpful Q & A from students interspersed.Rosenberg pays homage to all of his teachers here, but particularly to Krishnamurti, ending with a lovely afterword about his teaching and its impact. The flow through the three steps is something like this: get concentrated and settled; use your now-focused awareness in service of liberating insight; drop any residual clinging, and live in self-existing wakefulness, freedom and service. "Three Steps" joins Larry's two other books on a small shelf I've reserved for quintessential practice texts. I'm so grateful for his work.

Since mindfulness found me several years ago I have read pretty much anything I can put my hands on about the topic.There are some excellent books too by authors like Thic Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Thubten Chodron, Bhante Gunaratana, Marc Lesser, Mark Williams etc.But there’s really is some very poor stuff out there – and as mindfulness goes mainstream I suspect that’s a wave we’ll need to get used to: lots of opportunists with little of value to add jumping on the bandwagon for a few sales.Because I have purchased some really useless works on the topic I have tended to be guided recently by the number of reader’s reviews and the average ratings – not an altogether bad strategy. However, if I had followed that path I’d have missed this one of a kind book by Larry Rosenberg (the perils of being judgemental!).Rosenberg’s book is, in my experience, unique. He provides a three-part approach to ‘cushion practice’ that I suspect will be the backbone of my practice for many years to come. But more than that – for someone like me who cannot get away for lengthy retreats he offers a perspective on a way of making everyday life, our relationship and real life challenges, as valuable a tool for practice as time spent on the cushion.This is without doubt the most practical book I have purchased on mindfulness – it fills a void that so many others seem to miss. This doesn’t make it a better book than the other classics works – it complements all the others extremely well and, in my experience, helps one to draw more meaning from those others.I think many of the better authors on the topic assume that most readers have already established a robust practice, of which they are confident, and that their main interest in reading further is to go deeper on the topic. Not entirely true for all of us – some of us also want to get a stronger feel for how to integrate our practice into our everyday lives.There are a lot of great lines in this book – but the one that, for me, exemplifies most what it’s about is Rosenberg’s comment that this approach “…has allowed me and many others to realize that meditation can be a way of life, not simply a collection of techniques reserved for special postures and places designated as ‘spiritual’.”This book is golden.p.s. after reading the book I found some recordings that echo the book – on the ‘Dharmaseed’ site; they are a great accompaniment.

There are few teachers of Larry Rosenberg's Caliber on the planet...period. His self-effacing, comedic (and minimalistic) delivery is deceptive; there is nothing ordinary about this man. He was one of the first Western teachers in the 60's to drop out of a Top University position (on nothing but faith), give up everything he had, and blaze an epic trail through Asia, studying with the most celebrated Masters of the 20th Century in the most trying circumstances imaginable. When he came back he founded the first Urban Vipassana Center (CIMC) and firmly planted undiluted Buddhist wisdom straight into US daily life (now nearly every major US City has one).In this book he has distilled all he has learned and practiced through 4 decades of study, practice and intensive reflection into the most practical techniques available, contextualized in the most accessible teachings of Buddhadharma I've read anywhere.He opens the book with a quote about the relentless passion of Hokusai "The Old Man Mad About Drawing." In truth, Larry Rosenberg IS Hokusai...The Old Man Mad About LIVING.If an Octogenarian this passionate about Waking Up doesn't get your heart pumping, forget about any other Dharma books...they ain't gonna work for you.

I truly enjoyed Breath by Breath, not so much this book, possibly simply because my practice has not reached the level of awareness argued in the book, it still made me reflect on the "here and now" and so it was time well spent. Recommended.