Doors of Joy
Regular price
€16.99
We know from countless spirituality and self-help books that authentic joy has no object - it is truly free and boundless. And yet, try as we might, how many of us can say that joy is more than a fleeting feeling? Daniel Odier's approach, which is based in part on his study of Chinese Zen, is refreshingly straightforward. All it requires is a willingness to disengage from our habitual ways of thinking, and practise being present throughout the day. He calls his method, "The Practice of Consciousness." Its purpose is to unlock our spontaneity and recover our innocence and creativity. He writes, "Consciousness manifests itself as presence. To work with presence is similar to learning a musical instrument. To enter this state, take a sensation such as the feel of your bare feet on the ground. Enter deeply into the contact; breathe by relaxing your abdomen; and after fifteen or twenty seconds, leave the sensation and return to your habitual mode. Doing this thirty, forty or fifty times a day allows us to enter into a deep acquaintance with sensation."
With a nod to Aldous Huxley, whose book The Doors of Perception laid the groundwork for the psychedelic and sexual revolutions, Odier's aim is nothing short of total human liberation. Still, he is realistic about the power that habit and our ingrained ways of operating in the world has over us. The 19 meditations in The Doors of Joy are designed to loosen their grip and give joy an opening into our lives. With The Doors of Joy, Daniel Odier has discovered the trip-wire that keeps us from experiencing lasting joy, and gives us the tool kit that will bring it back into our lives for good.
Daniel Odier was born in Geneve in 1945. He is a novelist, screenwriter and poet, and has published over 46 works including the bestselling Tantric Quest (Inner Traditions), and Desire, The Tantric Path to Awakening (Inner Traditions). Anais Nin called him "an outstanding writer and dazzling poet". The author began his studies with Kalu Rinpoche in 1968 and remained his disciple until his passing in 1989. In 2004, Odier received the Ch'an ordination in the Lin t'si and Caodong schools in China, as well as permission to teach the Zhao Zhou Ch'an lineage in the West. Daniel taught Tantra and Buddhism in several American Universities in 1995. Every year he gives workshops and seminars in Europe, Canada and the United States.