Beyond Mindfulness: The Direct Approach to Lasting Peace, Happiness, and Love

by Stephan Bodian

Written by meditation expert, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher Stephan Bodian, this book takes you beyond familiar mindfulness practices by offering guided meditations and direct pointers that invite you to realize your natural state of inherent wakefulness and peace. No regular practice is required, just the willingness to open yourself to a transformative new way of experiencing life. Mindfulness has permeated our modern lives, and with good reason—it’s been proven to boost mood, reduce stress, improve health, and maximize performance. But in our achievement-oriented culture, the practice of mindfulness can feel laborious and mechanical, like one more task on your endless to-do list. What if you could let go of effort and struggle and relax back into the happiness and ease that is your birthright—and is always readily available to you? Beyond Mindfulness offers teachings and practices based on the direct approach to spiritual awakening that take you beyond the mechanics of being mindful and open you to the non-dual dimension of being, where the separation between self and other reveals itself to be a painful but seductive illusion. Once you realize this new way of seeing, you’ll learn how to move beyond mindfulness into awakened awareness and discover that the love, compassion, wholeness, health, and happiness you’ve been seeking were there all along.

Genres: Spirituality, Self Help, Buddhism, Nonfiction, Meditation, Zen

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

About the author

Stephan Bodian is the bestselling author of Meditation for Dummies (now in an updated third edition) and Wake Up Now: A Guide to the Journey of Spiritual Awakening. He’s also the author and narrator of the critically acclaimed mobile programs Mindfulness Meditation and Freedom from Stress (produced by Mental Workout) and an internationally recognized expert on meditation, stress management, and spiritual awakening. His new book, Beyond Mindfulness, is now available on Amazon.com

Trained for 10 years as a Zen Buddhist monk and licensed as a psychotherapist, Stephan has been a pioneer in the integration of Eastern wisdom and Western psychology and in the application of mindfulness in everyday life.

As a teacher, counselor, consultant, and mentor, Stephan’s approach blends mindful attention to moment-by-moment experience with transformational techniques from Western psychotherapy and the nondual wisdom of Zen and other spiritual traditions. Drawing on his decades of experience as both a therapist and a meditation teacher, he specializes in offering guidance that’s customized to the needs of the individual practitioner.

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the approach of this book. It was very interesting and I think it has a lot to teach. Unfortunately, I still feel like I am at the beginning of my path and hence would recommend this book to someone who has a basic grasp of mindfulness.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there's anything you ever wanted to know about the practice of mindfulness, this book has got every single aspect covered! It's laid out in a really well-structured format, with a useful introductory chapter followed by seven main chapters, each consisting of teachings and explanations of that element of mindfulness, guided mediations with bits of dialogue in italics, and exercises in greyed-out text boxes. There are also questions at the end of chapters to consolidate what you have learned and to get you thinking.

This is a great starter guide to mindfulness, however I would recommend it more for people who are truly passionate about the idea and intend to incorporate it into their everyday lives, as to oppose to those that just have a casual interest. This is because the text can be quite 'wordy' and heavy at times, and requires quite a bit of peace and tranquility to be able to absorb all of the teachings as they are. For that reason I rated this four stars instead of five.

[Greg B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear, concise guide about the direct path to spiritual awakening.

This book discusses topics and a spiritual path that are difficult for our rational minds to understand. The main challenge for this subject matter is to discuss something that is beyond concepts (even that previous sentence may seem like a riddle to one's rational mind).

Not an easy task for any author! Yet, Stephan Bodian does an excellent job discussing the ideas of non-duality and spiritual awakening. He does this skillfully using clear, simple language, and in a contemporary style. I found myself highlighting many areas of the book that resonated with me at a deeper level. There are also guided practices and helpful "questions and answers" sections sprinkled throughout the book.

Stephan also discusses the limits and potential pitfalls of conventional mindfulness, which I found helpful.

Overall, a wonderful book and introduction to non-dual approaches and the direct path of spiritual awakening.

[Elizabeth Schlatter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A better title could be "Mindfulness, Plus," as in, mindfulness is critical but not in a progressive manner, to attaining enlightenment. And this is really useful if you're someone (like me) who had a mistaken impression that I'd have to be "more mindful," meditate more, and just always be "more" to get somewhere. This author points out how peace and awareness are a given, basic state that just need uncovering and returning to. So mindfulness and meditation are tools to remember that state and return to it, but not required. Sort of takes the pressure off the need to always be improving yourself for a goal, to instead realize that what you may want you already have. And that's a win! The only thing I didn't like is that were a lot of meditations in the book, and I find those pretty useless for me personally. I can read a meditation and then "do" it because my eyes are closed and my memory isn't good enough. I need an audio recording to go through a specific meditation practice like what Bodian offers throughout this book. Otherwise, this is a helpful and pretty short read.

[Tobias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bodian lays out his direct approach (awakened awareness) in easy terms but the book is mostly enjoyable if you fully accept nondualism. I'm agnostic on the nondual approaches (though I've tried it), and at times I found Bodian to be too dogmatic in his beliefs in nondualism.

The book itself is well-written with short and aptly titled chapters & parts. It shifts between Bodian's stories of nondualism, his beliefs and brief meditations you should try out.

I found that it lacks self-criticism and leans too heavily into its beliefs. At times I found Bodian to be too convinced of his own beliefs.

This book is for you if:
You're interested in learning about nondualism.
Or you believe in nondualism and crave more.

[joyce w. laudon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Those who are interested in, or already integrating some mindfulness into their daily lives, may want to give this title a read. The author is interested in helping people to move past mindfulness, even though he found the practice to be very helpful. He sees this book as a resource for those who are beginning to look for something more. The author has studied both mindfulness and psychology and has pondered these approaches.

Honestly, I found this one a bit difficult to understand and connect with. I found the language to be somewhat obfuscating. That may be because I have not read his earlier works.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

[Kelton Hirst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book,
Encapsulates an incredibly ineffable concept that you can only realise through practice or epiphany prompted from your own ning nong brain.
This type of non-dual awareness I feel is essential knowledge for us as humans, it breaks the spell of some sort of essential nature and allows us to loose the grip we have on the what is not and gets us to recognise to find solace in what is and what always will be ever pervasive, our boundless awareness.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this study on mindfulness very helpful. There were many exercises that were new mindfulness tactics for me. I have tried multiple times to meditate unsuccessfully so I appreciated some new techniques.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Wendy Haylett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice intro to simple awareness versus mindfulness

Stephan Bodian easily connects you to the differences between mindfulness and awareness. The exercises didn't seem as helpful it engaging as the book progressed, which is why 4 not 5 stars. I enjoyed the questions from his students.

[RACHEL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bodian has given readers a good look at mindfulness and some of the ways it has been taught and what aspects that others over look. "Beyond Mindfulness" speaks well to the non-duel outlook of which the West needs to learn more.

My copy was a gift through Goodreads First Reads.

[Joseph Weyek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond Mindfulness is Beyond Me. Alas.

[Sarah Koz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tough topic to articulate, and This guy nails it.

[Josephine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe I’m not actually ready to advance in my understanding of meditation 🤷🏼‍♀️ dnf … too dry and technical, in a Zen kinda way.

[Barbara Carder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you a seeker? Read this book

[Taka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four years Nasruddin herded donkeys carrying baskets of various items back and forth across the border with the neighboring kingdom. The border guards suspected he was smuggling something, but despite their concerted searches, they could never find anything. After he retired, Nasruddin moved to a distant city and one day ran across one of the border guards at a roadside cafe. "Nasruddin," the guard greeted him, "what a surprise." After chatting for a few minutes, the guard couldn't help asking the question he'd been harboring for so many years. "Tell me, what were you smuggling?" "Ah," replied Nasruddin, sipping his tea, "I was smuggling donkeys."


"After all, you've never been in charge, even for an instant, and surrender is just an acknowledgment of what has always been the case" (99)
"If you feel moved to explore your emotions, you can remove any labels, concepts, or stories and invite the direct, unmediated experience of the emotion itself. When you stop resisting it, trying to get rid of it, or even making an effort to be mindful of it, but just let it be as it is in the open, unconditional awareness, you may discover that it's merely a movement of energy, one of the many movements in the dance we call living" (110)

"Although awakened awareness does not harbor a preference for positive or negative emotions, it does, by its very nature, prefer freedom and openness to fixation and contraction" (110)

"[Awakened awareness] doesn't prefer one experience over another and doesn't try to edit or suppress what arises... (122)