When Bad Lands: How Not to Numb Out, Freak Out, or Bottom Out – Buddhist Style

by Alan Kent Anderson

CHANGE. Sometimes it wells up from within and we enter gracefully. At other times it is utterly choiceless and the past,
present and future get burned up in the most unforgiving flames.

The Seven Skills presented in When Bad Lands help guide us through this challenging and rewarding journey. This is not a shortcut to clean up the surface or soften the edges. Rather, it is a mirror for courageously seeing ourselves with humor and heart.

162 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 9, 2019

Reviews

[Richard Heilbrunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accepting The Present Moment

In this book Alan challenges us to accept the present circumstance and to utilize our disappointment and challenges to wake us up and provide the ground to initiate change and engage our individual journey. Being In Touch—Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche You can’t fundamentally improve things by thinking that last time you did badly; therefore, this time you should do better. If you’re comparing now to last time, you can’t improve at all. Things have to be measured on the merits of the present given situation, and that situation can actually seem very cruel to you. If you are out of touch, the situation rejects you. If you are right there it accepts you infinitely, beautifully. However, if you are disconnected from what’s happening, the situation rejects you painfully. It may even destroy you. Dealing with the chemistry of a situation is like that. If it’s the right medicine, it cures you. If it’s the wrong medicine, it poisons you. Relating directly is very sharp, pointed. However, it is helping us, in the fundamental sense, because we can’t con situations. We can’t change them at all by trying to work around them or approaching them by the back door. Things don’t work that way. Our approach has to be honest, direct, and very precise. . . . The softness in the situation has to come from you rather than someone else adding it in. (WSM 69)

[Eric Bergstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this book. I related to on a level of being a part of the Shambhala community for a few years, but also think others outside Shambhala or Buddhism is general. Definitely a book you want to highlight certain areas so you could go back later when you read over certain chapters. Most of all, I think Allen’s Way of explaining terms like Basic Goodness, Geniune Heart of Sadness as well as the whole Chapter on meditation, are really very fresh and new for me as I have heard those things explained by many people, but something about the way Allen words these things in his book Quite profoundly simple And to the point. The 7 skills mentioned in his book are indispensable to anyone and everyone. By the first couple of chapters you will already be able to begin to see a little better how your mind works and how to take an active part in being aware of that. I recommend this book to EVERYONE!!!

[Alan Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Bad Lands just won the 2019 Nautilus Gold Prize award for the category: Religion/Spirituality of
Eastern Thought. (Previous winners include Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rachel Maddow...) It also won the Next Generation Indie Books Silver Award.

[Louise E · Rating 5 out of 5]

So enlightening!