Breathe into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are [Paperback]

Dennis Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2009

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A refreshingly simple, straightforward, and enjoyable exploration of the connections between body, breath, awareness, and presence. This user-friendly guidebook will help you be more embodied and awake.
—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

Dennis is a master teacher who stands fast in the profound truth that when we welcome this moment just as it is, life works. How simple. How overlooked. How astonishing and wonderful. The secret he reveals: all that we need do is attend to our body’s natural function of breathing in, and breathing out. Nothing more is needed. Listen to Dennis. Breathe. Be still and awaken into living your alive, joyful and harmonious Presence that Dennis so beautifully reveals.

—Richard Miller, PhD, author of Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga is president of the Center of Timeless Being and co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapists

Product Details

• Paperback: 115 pages
• Publisher: Quest Books; Original edition (May 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0835608727
• ISBN-13: 978-0835608725
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #664,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dennis Lewis (1940-), a long-time-student of Taoism, Advaita, and the Gurdjieff Work, teaches the transformative power of presence through Authentic Breathing(R), 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.

Lewis co-edited two books (now out of print) with Jacob Needleman in the 1970s: "Sacred Tradition & Present Need" and "On the Way to Self Knowledge." 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 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 most recent book "Breathe Into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are," was published by Quest Books in May 2009.

He is a member of the National Qigong Association and is listed in Who's Who in America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathe into Being, May 27, 2009

By 

Idriys Dudley "Idriys Dudley" (Phoenix) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breathe into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are (Paperback)

A spaciousness permeates this small, yet big book. Each short one-to three page chapters reverbrates a welcome fullness vibrating with presence. This presence is like an opening. What is this presence? It is the very breath of life. The Author brings this alive and yokes it to the very essence of who we are. Through vibrant exercises, and startling insights he directs our attention to the breath as the thread weaving it all together.

One practical aspect of the book provides healthy breathing habits given here for the practical person desiring a more holistic relationship to the body: the many breathing spaces, the release of physical knots and tensions, the benefits of belly breathing, how, when and why we hold our breath, etc.

The Author cites the simple fact that breathing is a miracle and it is a portal. It is the closest aspect to us, as close as our beating heart, our breath, however provides us opportunities to glimpse the being that is breathed: Ourselves. We are born and we breathe. We expire with our last breath.

We breathe consciously and we tune into the fact of being breathed, and to the mysterious breathing pulse of life in all its myriad and mysterious forms all around us, within us and out into the universe. Thus we are connected to this mysterious oneness.

Dennis Lewis in this 115-page book weaves practice with opportunities for self examination and questions. He provides much practical material and a divine ground underneath it to draw our attention to the many moments in life available to us for gradually awakening to "Who You Really Are."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathe into Being; Vintage Dennis Lewis, June 8, 2009

By 

Michael White "breathmike" (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breathe into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are (Paperback)

Truly getting in touch with our deepest selves relies greatly on developing full but subtle body awareness and reconnecting with our breathing in the way it feels and influences our body, mind and spirit.
Breathe into Being slowly and carefully helps you map and travel this territory with the goal in mind of wholeness and inner peace.
Michael Grant White, Director, The Optimal Breathing School and Institute

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Breathe, April 28, 2010

By 

Andrea Garrison "onlinewithandrea" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breathe into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are (Paperback)

It is a fact that breathing is truly essential to life. As I read Breathe into Being I felt like I was taking a relaxing, meditative journey focusing on the beauty and the power of breathing to connect, to know, to heal and to understand all. This book takes you through the full experience of breathing, proper breathing which includes inhaling and exhaling deeply from the diaphragm in which Lewis refers to as the spiritual muscle. Breathing properly helps us to release constrictions and to increase energy in the upper chest and spine. When you read this book you will appreciate the stillness, the presence and the sensation of the moment and the freedom that you gain from experiencing total relaxation when you focus on the breath. Breathe Into Being Awakening to Who You Really Are is a quick, thorough read that will help you to breathe better and to appreciate the power that we each have to awaken to who we really are by simply breathing into being. For more information please visit the Dennis Lewis website and listen to the Dennis Lewis onlinewithandrea interview with host Andrea R. Garrison.

Andrea R.Garrison
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