Breathe into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are - Softcover

Lewis, Dennis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0835608727 ISBN 13: 9780835608725

Publisher: Quest Books, 2009

Synopsis

Following up on author Dennis Lewis' previous books on breathing, this represents his most straightforward, nurturing approach to the subject. Divided into brief, accessible chapters, the book features short, simple breathing exercises that lead readers to a profound awareness of their essential being through the miracle of the breath as it manifests in the body. Lewis presents breathing as an ever-present gateway to awakening to the true self. Based on his extensive teachings and workshops as well as his engagement with various traditions including Taoism, Advaita, and the Gurdjieff Work, Breathe into Being helps readers awaken to a larger perspective to receive new, direct impressions of the truth of their lives. Readers also become conscious of their bodies as a sacred temples that can lead to the source of all being; release constricting physical and emotional tensions; and enhance breathing itself in new self-created conditions of comfort, openness, and ease of being.

About this title

About the Author:

A former businessman (co-founder and former president of Hi-Tech Public Relations) and a long-time-student of Taoism, Advaita, and the Gurdjieff Work, Dennis Lewis teaches the transformative power of presence through Authentic Breathing®, qigong, meditation, mindfulness, and self-inquiry. He leads workshops throughout the United States, at venues such as Esalen Institute, The New York Open Center, The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, and various qigong conferences. He is co-editor, with Jacob Needleman, of two books: Sacred Tradition & Present Need (Viking) and On the Way to Self Knowledge (Knopf). Both books were published in the 1970s. His book The Tao of Natural Breathing: For Health, Well-Being and Inner Growth was first published in September, 1996, and was republished by Rodmell Press in May, 2006. His two-cassette audio program entitled "Breathing as a Metaphor for Living" was released by Sounds True in September 1998, and then re-released on CD in April 2005 as "Natural Breathing". His most recent book Free Your Breath, Free Your Life: How Conscious Breathing Can Relieve Stress, Increase Vitality, and Help You Live More Fully was published by Shambhala Publications in May 2004. His writing has also appeared in numerous publications, including Yoga Journal, Gnosis, Parabola, Somatics, Library Journal, Manas, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is a member of the National Qigong Association.

Review:

"Dennis Lewis has a deep understanding of the central importance of breathing, in both its physical and spiritual dimensions--as the breath of life and the breath of the spirit.
" --John Welwood, author of Toward a Psychology of Awakening

"Breathe into Being is a most practical, user-friendly yet profound guide to awakening, with simple exercises that blow away the conditioned mind's veils, allowing one's inner light to shine forth. I highly recommend it.
" --Leonard Laskow, M.D., author of Healing with Love

"Dennis Lewis has written a very wise and highly readable book about one of the most fundamental insights of the great spiritual traditions: the breath is a mediator between mind and body, and is a bridge to the transcendent. This is a marvelous guidebook in cultivating awareness and living in the now. All valid spiritual instruction is simple and unadorned--as simple as breathing, as Lewis makes clear in Breathe into Being."
--Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words and The Power of Premonitions

"We all know that breathing is essential to life. But this book helps us to discover its immense importance not only to physical life, but to the very meaning of what we are and what we can become" --Jacob Needleman, author of Why Can't We Be Good? and The American Soul

"Breathe Into Being is both a fun and a must read, a fountain of practical wisdom for self-exploration that is delicious on the tongue of the soul while quenching our thirst for the knowledge of enlightenment. It is perhaps the most important self-help book - in the deeper sense of that expression - to come out in the new millennium.
" --Glenn H. Mullin, author of The Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation

About this edition

• Publisher: Quest Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0835608727
• ISBN 13: 9780835608725
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 115