Living in Process : Basic Truths for Living the Path of the Soul - Hardcover

Schaef, Anne Wilson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345394070 ISBN 13: 9780345394071

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1998

Synopsis

"Life is a process.
We are a process.
The universe is a process."
--ANNE WILSON SCHAEF

The bestselling meditation books by renowned writer and lecturer Anne Wilson Schaef have helped millions attain a healthy measure of calm in today's chaotic world. Now, in Living in Process, Dr. Schaef offers us a bold, new way of engaging in life--by shifting our obsession with "product" to a mindful participation in "process." Shaef teaches us an action philosophy that will reconnect us with our deep, long-forgotten spirituality--filling our souls and setting our spirits free.

What is process? It is the way of doing, not what is done. It is the tone of voice, not what is said. It is living life in three dimensions, from the inside, instead of trying to control it from the outside. It is a living, moving, evolving energy . . . a shift in our perception of reality . . . the interconnectedness of all things in the nonlinear motion of the universe. It is deeper than thought, more concrete than concept, more fluid than facts.

Drawing on inspiring real-life stories, the experiences of professionals worldwide who have participated in her "Living in Process" intensives, and her close association with native peoples from around the globe, Dr. Schaef shares her evolutionary model for maintaining our balance in the midst of life's seismic upheavals. With her inimitable wit and charm, she guides us to a larger spirituality and a rediscovery of our personal power. For Living in Process is a moment-by-moment revealing of, and reveling in, our life as mystery--and an honoring of its true challenges, truths, and joys.

About this title

About the Author

Anne Wilson Shaef, Ph.D., is an acclaimed writer, lecturer, organizational consultant, and workshop facilitator. She consults internationally with businesses, schools, and mental health and treatment centers and trains health-care professionals in Living in Process Facilitation, a method she developed. She lives in Boulder, Montana.

From the Inside Flap

s a process.
We are a process.
The universe is a process."
--ANNE WILSON SCHAEF

The bestselling meditation books by renowned writer and lecturer Anne Wilson Schaef have helped millions attain a healthy measure of calm in today's chaotic world. Now, in Living in Process, Dr. Schaef offers us a bold, new way of engaging in life--by shifting our obsession with "product" to a mindful participation in "process." Shaef teaches us an action philosophy that will reconnect us with our deep, long-forgotten spirituality--filling our souls and setting our spirits free.

What is process? It is the way of doing, not what is done. It is the tone of voice, not what is said. It is living life in three dimensions, from the inside, instead of trying to control it from the outside. It is a living, moving, evolving energy . . . a shift in our perception of reality . . . the interconnectedness of all things in the nonlinear motion of the universe. It is de

Reviews

In what may be considered a postmodern approach, the author of the bestselling Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much articulates a way of spiritual growth and development that is a recasting of ancient wisdom for modern people. Emphasizing awareness of internal experience over the striving for any external result or gaining any predetermined parcel of knowledge, and emphasizing our connection to a Creator that, Schaef says, is itself a process, she sounds radical in the way that resembles the wisdom of native peoples. Rejecting all the toxic baubles and obsessions of our addictive "technocratic, materialistic, mechanistic" culture, Schaef (who has learned in recent years that her biological father was Native American) draws together basic hallmarks of a life lived in process. Honesty, self-responsibility and an overarching desire to live one's life as a spiritual path: these unpretentious yet uncompromising values, one suspects, would win the approval of the old Koori man whom she quotes as once saying to her, "You know what's the matter with you people? You work. Work is your main problem." Despite real-life stories that show that Schaef's insights flow from an evolving work, her descriptions of what she calls "deep process" are so vague that readers may leave her book more frustrated than enlightened
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Living our Process in Human Relationships"
Excerpt from Living in Process by Anne Wilson Schaef

When we live our process, we are not self-centered, and we are not defined by others. Others may not always like our respecting our process, and they will like it when we are respecting theirs.

        I ran into a friend I hadn't seen for a long time and she looked marvelous. The last time I'd seen her she was depressed and angry and complaining about her husband and seemed to spend a lot fo time in this state. I remarked on how well she looked, and said that I was pleased to see her so happy.
        "Oh, I've just spent two weeks in a cottage all by myself at the beach. It was absolutely marvelous," she exclaimed.
        Knowing that she and her husband had plenty of money, and seeing the effect that being at the beach had on her, I said, "Why don't you get a cottage at the beach so you could go there whenever you want?"
        "That's out of the question," she said. "My husband hates the beach. He likes the mountains. We have a place int he mountains. I am a married woman and one has to make compromises," she growles, returning to her angry , depressed state.

        It's difficult to believe that this is what the Creator asks of us in this intimacy of relationships.
        Too often, we have structured our relationships so they cannot meet the needs of those within them. Often, typical relationships that could be meaningful and growth-producing are busy with seven simultaneous relationships.

THE SEVEN RELATIONSHIPS

1&2. Each person has a relationship with their spirituality -- their self. These two relationships are essential primary relationships and are necessary for any other relationships to occur.

3&4. these two relationships are each person's fantasy relationship woth the other. In healthy relationships these relationshps can be fun and playful and are usually chared: "I see you as my knight in shining armor." "You aree poetry in motion." These fantasy relationships can enrich relationships when both individuals know that they are clearly fantasies and not real or important. It's only when one or both partners keep these fantasy relationships secret and/or project them onto the other that the relationship is in trouble. Honesty is critical. If the relationship cannot tolerate honesty, it's in trouble.

5&6. These are the mask relationships. Mask relationships are made up of my mask relating to your mask and are the hallmarks of dysfunctional relationships. Most relationships have some aspect of masked selves to them. Relationships, and hopefully intimacy and reality, can melt the masks fairly quickly and the relationships evolve. There are some mariiages and other relationships that are built entirely on maks relationships, and one feels a progressive deadness in those relationships.

7. This is the real relationship that exists. This realationship may never be present in some lives, and it is always a blessing when it is. This realtionship is the one that mirrors, reflects, and augments our primary relationship with our living process. When experiences with another human being, this relationship is very precious. This relationship is a process, not a "thing."


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0345394070
• ISBN 13: 9780345394071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360