Blinding Pain, Simple Truth: Changing Your Life Through Buddhist Meditation

A self-help book for those who want to heal themselves from pain and suffering using Buddhist meditation. In 2000, incapacitating headaches nearly destroyed Richard Ellis's career. He suffered from the pain and, even more, from his outrage over the pain. His experiences with all but one of the doctors he consulted were disastrous. Their only response to the pain was to prescribe pills, which changed his personality and drained all his intellectual and emotional energy. One wise doctor recommended meditation. Buddhist teachings and daily meditation empowered Richard to heal the suffering caused by both his physical and emotional pain. The pain, once his brutal enemy, became his best teacher, inviting him to let go of the suffering and the image of himself as a victim. "As I have learned," explains Richard, "so can you also learn to reexamine your experiences with suffering and pain and eventually to embrace your life with equanimity, gratitude, and joy." As Richard discovered, Buddhist teachings also provide a new lens for reading the Hebrew Bible, which yields fresh insights into fundamental questions of birth and death, ego and enlightenment, sickness and health -- insights that speak in surprisingly relevant ways to spiritual seekers and to those who want to heal themselves. Included in Blinding Pain, Simple Truth: * The compelling story of how Richard Ellis transformed his chronic pain and suffering into healing and peace * How Buddhist meditation can help relieve suffering by allowing the body's natural healing powers to flourish * New insights into the Bible that complement meditation and assist in healing * Complete with Appendix, Bibliography, and Suggested Reading.