A thoughtful, down-to-earth look at helpful ways to lessen human suffering.

Suffering may well be the most difficult part of life, as Episcopal priest and therapist Gordon Peerman knows first hand. Based on his conviction that Buddhist teachers have a lot to teach about dealing with suffering, what helps and what doesn’t, Peerman takes readers on a lively, even light-hearted, journey through nine Buddhist practices that can bring “blessed relief” to a wide range of human suffering: Feeling Inadequate / Mindfulness; Wanting “Other”/ Dropping the Story; Anxiety / Spacious Awareness; Perfectionism / Kind Attention; Destructive Anger / The Way of Nonharming; Conflict / Nonviolent Communication; Hurt / Beginning Anew; Woundedness / Bowing to the Moment; Injustice / Softening the Heart.

Peerman’s experience of coming to Buddhist practice, by way of Thomas Merton and the Trappists, has been evolving over a twenty-five-year time span, but rather than abandon his Christian tradition, Peerman brings the riches he has discovered to his birth community. Peerman’s writing is warm and down-to-earth, his stories moving and interesting, and his suggested exercises for putting theory into practice, wonderfully useful. This book will especially appeal to Christian audiences interested in the writings of Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, and Thich Nhat Hanh.