First published in 1979 and a perennial favorite since, A Gradual Awakening was poet and teacher of meditation Stephen Levine’s first public book.

“When my Guru wanted to compliment me, he called me simple; when he wished to chide me, he called me clever. This book about vipassana meditation is simple... clear and familiarly comfortable. It just is what is. This simplicity surprises me when I realize that the book deals with profound topics that I have often fruitlessly pondered in ancient tomes of Buddhist lore. I always knew in my heart that these matters were quite simple, and so it is a delight to see them so presented.” —Ram Dass

We experience many forms of hell as we watch the mind and body. And it is here we meet the demons of our impatience, of our greed, of our ignorance, the demons of our attachment to the idea that there’s someone to get enlightened; the demons of our attachment to even knowledge and clarity which make it difficult after a good sitting or a good day to put up with the hustle and the noise and stress of a changeful life. The demons aren’t the noise. They are our aversion to the noise. The demons aren’t the impatience; they’re our attachment, our aversion, our impatience with our impatience.

When you can accept discomfort, doing so allows a balance of mind. That surrender, that letting go of wanting anything to be other than it is right in the moment, is what frees us from hell. When we see resistance in the mind, stiffness in the mind, boredom, restlessness ... that is the meditation. Often, we think, “I can’t meditate, I’m restless,” “I can’t meditate, I’m bored,” “I can’t meditate, there’s a fly on my nose.” That is the meditation. Meditation isn’t to disappear into the light. Meditation is to see all of what we are.

Stephen Levine has taught meditation and worked with the living, dying, and caregiving for many years. Among his other books are:

·    Who Dies?

·    Healing into Life and Death

·    Embracing the Beloved