Staying Awake: The Ordinary Art

by Mark Nepo

Most of us can remember a time when we felt completely awake--fully present, deeply engaged, our heart and mind wide open. We also know those periods of sleepiness when our purpose is unclear, we lose our way in relationship, and life's challenges seem more than we can bear. In Staying Awake, Mark Nepo invites us to inhabit our truest selves in all ways in all directions, as we find our own voices in the One Conversation in which each of our lives is a story waiting to be told.



With a poet's keen view of the vast and often hidden territory of the inner life, Mark Nepo talks directly about what a gift it is to be here and about the resources that the mysteries of being and experience reveal. Informed by his journey through cancer, he explores the lessons brought to us by the press of love and suffering. For each of us is born awake and yet it takes courage to stay awake, to remember that all we encounter is real.

Sharing his own rich poetry along with the inspired writing of luminaries across generations, Nepo guides us in the central practice of staying awake: to be who we are, no matter what we face, and to enter our days and moments to the fullest. We do this, he teaches, by holding nothing back--by bringing all of who we are to every situation, enlivening our connection with everything life has to offer. Using teaching stories and a series of exercises and reflections, Nepo invites us to listen to our own stories and to find our own wisdom.

We are stronger, gentler, more resilient, and more beautiful than any of us imagine, teaches Mark Nepo. Staying Awake is his offering to all of us who seek the love of truth and the truth of love that help us live.

Highlights

The direct tasting of life
- The unwanted guest and what it asks of us
- The deep listener, the deep speaker, and the deep questioner within
- Metaphor and whole-mind thinking
- The gifts of paradox
- The risk to be present
- The reliable truths that never change
- Nine hours of poetry, story, exercises, and explorations for practicing the ordinary art of staying awake

Audio CD

First published February 28, 2012

About the author

Mark Nepo is a poet and spiritual teacher whose work explores inner transformation and the courage to stay open to life. Known for the bestselling The Book of Awakening, he has written more than twenty books and created numerous audio projects that invite readers to reflect, heal, and deepen their relationships. A cancer survivor, he often describes his illness as a turning point that shaped his understanding of presence and vulnerability. After many years teaching literature and poetry, he devoted himself to writing and guiding others through workshops and retreats. His reflections have been featured widely, including on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday, and he continues to write about living with authenticity and attention.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Donohue]

Hi everyone I got the audiobook I'm not quite through it all but Mark has a great way of speaking and his writing is not confrontational nor is it absolute, he gives many ways in, Instead of only one way. When I keep focus on what's going on with me and laid over his experiences a match develops and I get a better understanding of what I'm going through which is a tough time right now and very emotional and as I feel these feelings listening to him I feel like made a good choice. I've supplemented with this audiobook because of my readings of his other book which is a daily read the book of awakenings. Thanks NMB

[Dominic Gadoury · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's got good solid principles and a great message, but after a while the stories and analogies were too heavy.