Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering [Hardcover]

Phillip Moffitt (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 15, 2008

  Why do we suffer? Is there a purpose to our pain? Noting that human beings have wrestled with such questions for thousands of years, Phillip Moffitt has found answers for his own life in Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Reflecting on his own journey from Esquire magazine editor-in-chief to Buddhist meditation teacher, Moffitt provides a fresh perspective on the Buddha's ancient wisdom, showing how to move from suffering to new awareness and unanticipated joy.

  In this deeply spiritual book that is sure to become a Buddhist classic, Moffitt explores the twelve insights that underlie the Buddha's core teaching--the Four Noble Truths--and uses these often neglected ideas to guide readers to a more meaningful relationship to suffering. Moffitt write: "These twelve insights teach you to dance with both the joy and pain, finding peace in a balanced mind and calm spirit. As the most specific, practical life instructions I have ever encountered, they serve as an invaluable tool for anyone who seeks a life filled with meaning and well-being." Practicing these twelve insights, as Moffitt suggests, will help readers experience life's difficulties without being filled with stress and anguish, and they will enhance their moments of happiness.

  With engaging writing and a strong message of self-empowerment, Dancing with Life offers a prescriptive path for finding joy and peace that will appeal to meditation students and readers of "Dharma Wisdom," Moffitt's column in Yoga Journal, as well as anyone searching for a more authentic life.

FREE Online Study Materials are available to accompany the book and assist you in deepening your understanding and practice of the Four Noble Truths. Receive a free on line Study Guide or Teacher Guide and Free Weekly Teachings & Reflections based on the material from the book. 
These are available at dancingwithlife.org

Editorial Reviews

Review

Recommended for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Four Noble Truths and how to make them an intimate part of life. --Elephant Journal: Book review
 By Todd Mayville

A handbook for those of us who wish to lessen our suffering. --"Wise Brain Bulletin" By Rick Hanson

From the Author

I'm pleased to introduce you to Dancing with Life. It is my hope that by reading this book you will discover a new relationship to suffering that allows you to live more fully.

Even under the best of circumstances, life is challenging, and much of the time it is difficult. It is always uncertain, constantly changing, and mostly out of your control. Whether it is taking you on a wonderful ride or stepping on your toes, life will move you with the rhythm and in the direction of its own unfolding, regardless of your best intentions. Life dances and you must dance with it. This is the necessary price and mysterious gift of being alive.

If life is going to dance with you, then what kind of dance partner do you wish to be? Finding a way to be at ease with the dance itself is a crucial skill in finding freedom and meaning in life. 

Dancing with Life teaches you how to move from suffering to joy in your life.

This book does not offer academic theories or vague promises of finding happiness. Rather it presents a practical approach for dealing with pain and hardship based on the Buddha's teaching of the Four Noble Truths. It leads you along the path of exploring suffering--all suffering, but yours in particular--in order to reach a destination where you can experience what is called a "direct" or intuitive knowledge of the meaning of suffering in your own life. Through this intuitive knowledge, you can find a new relationship with your suffering that will bring you increased meaning, joy, and liberation, no matter how difficult your life may be. 



Other spiritual teachers have offered advice on how to deal with pain and hardship, but it was the Buddha who specifically focused on liberation from suffering as the path to liberation in life. In order to take the Buddhist approach, it is not necessary for you to adopt a creed, sacrifice your religion, or transform yourself into some new person. You simply must have faith in the possibility that understanding your suffering can bring about a radical change in how you experience life.

I feel confident that the Buddha's wisdom provides a way--not the way, mind you, but a way--into a more meaningful relationship to life. I base this judgment on my own life experiences, as well as the experiences of my students. May this book help you learn to dance with life--your life just as it is.

With Metta,

Phillip Moffitt

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; First Edition edition (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594863539
• ISBN-13: 978-1594863530
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In 1987 Phillip Moffitt walked away from his highly successful post as chief executive and editor-in-chief of "Esquire" magazine to focus on his inner life. After leaving "Esquire," Phillip spent most of his time studying Theravada Buddhism and practicing vipassana (insight meditation). He also became interested in the mind-body connection and studied yoga, Jungian psychology, aikido, and somatic healing techniques. After he had been practicing vipassana for seven years, Phillip was invited by Jack Kornfield, the founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, to participate in Spirit Rock's three-year teacher training. In 1998 after completing his teacher training, Phillip established the Marin Sangha in San Rafael, Calif. In addition to teaching the Marin Sangha, Phillip travels throughout the U.S. and Canada leading silent meditation retreats and is co-guiding teacher at Spirit Rock. Phillip's primary teachers are Ajahn Sumedho and Sri Swami Balyogi Premvarni.

Between 1999 and 2006, Phillip wrote a regular column for "Yoga Journal" called "Dharma Wisdom." And in 2008 he published his first book about living the dharma in daily life, "Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering."

In addition to devoting himself to teaching the dharma, Phillip also does what he calls "Life Balance" work, a process he developed for helping others find more meaning and a greater sense of well-being in their lives. In 1991 he founded the Life Balance Institute (www.lifebalanceinstitute.com).

You can access Phillip's teachings at www.dharmawisdom.org.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 92 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different Kind of Dharma Book June 16, 2008

By William H. Coffin

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Most of the Dharma books that I've read fall into two categories: lightweight new-age fluff or heavily-footnoted scholarship. This book avoids both extremes. It's very compactly written, with no apparent filler. (If anything, I think he is too brief in touching on some important points.) I find the title of the book to be a bit unfortunate, but it's actually appropriate to the subject matter.

The book is structured around the Four Noble Truths, and as a long-time Buddhist (with a strong predilection for scholarly detail) I thought that it couldn't teach me anything new. It did, though, and on a number of levels. You might think you know all about the 4NT, but this version from the Samyutta Nikaya really adds a new dimension, and is directly applicable to one's practice.

In short, I give this book a pretty-much unqualified rave. A few stylistic weaknesses and an overuse of italics, but in content it's deeply inspiring and immediately useful.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dancing with Life is a Grand Slam World Series Home Run for this genre of literature. May 1, 2008

By Fred Mitouer

Format:Hardcover

Phillip Moffit has articulated the core teachings of the Buddha in accessible and down to earth ways that relate soulfully and imaginatively to daily life. The teachings are affirming; and one cannot help but feel empowered and befriended by Phillip's nurturing voice and courageous stance.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars if you want to "walk the walk", get this book October 13, 2008

By Sharmila Dissanaike

Format:Hardcover

As a long time practitioner in the Theravada tradition, I expected this book to be a bit "light" on content. In reality, this is one of the best workbooks for walking the path that i have come across. Moffit interprets Ajahn Sumedho's explication of the 12 aspects of the four noble truths in terms of modern life, and thereby turns what was previously an intellectual teaching into an eminently practical day-to-day guide for real life in a hectic, stressed-out world. I have read this one over and over as we learn, forget and relearn these vital teachings, and progress deeper in understanding

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book! April 29, 2008

By Ann Pendley

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Perhaps the best Dharma book I've read. Like all gifted teachers, Phillip presents complex ideas in a way that makes them easy to grasp - regardless of one's level of practice. The book is readable, and the concepts can be readily applied to daily life. Dancing with Life is a great teaching tool too - one that I'll use for years to come.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem of a book! June 30, 2008

By Brooke A. Brown

Format:Hardcover

Moffitt's book is a gem: it is a handbook to help us develop and hone our skills so that we respond to our suffering in a way whereby we are not defined by it. The book--an explication of the Four Noble Truths, which is the Buddha's primary teaching--is well organized, full of examples from Moffitt's life and the lives of his students, and is eminently readable, His style is lucid and alive, and his book is a treasure to savor. I highly recommend this book to anyone whether or not they are familiar with the Buddha's teachings.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Still Point: Where Life & the Dharma Dance July 3, 2008

By Michele McCormick

Format:Hardcover

Written by a man who walked away from his position as CEO & Editor in Chief of Esquire Magazine, this treatise is the real thing! Given his command of knowledge in all matters literary, what could have been another cerebral exercise is in fact a work of heart.

Two days ago, I encountered Phillip walking down a rural road at sunset. In silence, we passed one another. Although, I don't really know this man, there existed in that moment an implicit recognition of mutual presence and purpose. When our gaze met and held, I found there... joy, a radiance, peace. No kidding.

Having just finished my read of "Dancing with Life", I thought, "here is an author, a teacher... who literally 'walks his talk' ".

The book is like that--filled with easily understood and accessible content, literary references, stories, metaphor, and allegory. He skillfully integrates case examples from the lives of his students, and wisdom gleaned from years of study in the original Buddhist texts. Backed by his very real practice and lived experience, the content comes alive in one's heart, and is not easily forgotten.

A central theme encourages the reader not to rely on conceptual teachings of the Four Noble Truths; rather, to intentionally pursue a 'lived" or "felt experience" of the insights through the practice of mindful meditation. Ultimately, the possibilities are limitless.... to fully embrace all of life at T.S. Eliot's dynamic "still point" is readily available... that place where suffering and joy passionately tango together in the dance of life. A highly recommended read!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book can make a difference! January 22, 2009

By Susan Gochoel

Format:Hardcover

Dancing with Life. This book can make a difference!
Although a student of yoga for many years, I had never explored Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Phillip Moffitt came to Seattle and talked about his book Dancing with Life. I bought the book with a great deal of curiosity, and it quite literally blew me away. It was as though Moffitt was adressing each chapter directly to me. ALL the chapters speak to the very heart of what it is to be human, deep sorrow and joy alike. He speaks with passion, yet plainly, leading you through the Buddha's Four Noble Truths: a path for finding freedom from suffering. Moffitt puts on the page so many personal insights as to how we may move to living our lives more happily, more at ease, regardless of daily difficulties, struggles. Hope!
As an artist, I also especially loved the "dancing with life" metaphor he spins, interwoven with the beautiful poetics of T. S. Eliot, creating a brilliant fabric that you want to wrap, embrace yourself with over and over again. Since reading the book, I have joined a meditation study group and find myself on my meditation cushion several times a week. DWL is one of those rare books that can influence you. This book can make a difference!