Meeting The Dragon: Ending Our Suffering By Entering Our Pain [Hardcover]

Robert Augustus Masters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2009

Pain can be a real pain, and it can also be something altogether different, if we will but meet it, rather than turning away from it. In this his latest book, Robert Augustus Masters describes how to end our suffering by entering our pain, step by conscious step, finding ever-increasing freedom in so doing. Pain comes with Life, often inevitably so, and can serve Life if we do not turn it into suffering (meaning that we do not make a self-binding story out of it starring us in the victim role), but instead turn toward and enter it. And how do we do this? We name our pain; we turn toward it; we enter it; we get intimate with all of its qualities (its directionality, texture, temperature, color, density, shape), going into it until we reach its heart. Eventually we emerge; our pain may not be gone, but we now have a very different relationship with it, a relationship that serves our healing and awakening. The degree to which we turn our pain into suffering is the degree to which we obstruct our own healing. Suffering keeps pain in the dark. When we are busy suffering, we are without healthy detachment, being removed from the naked reality of our pain (our attention being far more focused on our storyline than on the nonconceptual rawness of our pain), but not removed in a way that permits us to focus more clearly on what is actually going on. To work effectively with our suffering, we need both to stand apart from its script (so as to more clearly bring it into focus), and to cease distancing ourselves from our pain. As we become more intimate with our pain, we find that we are less and less troubled by it, until our pain is but grace, however fierce. MEETING THE DRAGON is all about cultivating such intimacy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

MEETING THE DRAGON is a courageous and poetic invitation to wholeness, brilliantly conveying the inextricable link between entering our pain and embodying our ultimate expansion. Robert guides us into the dragon s lair, artfully showing us the way through murky caverns, bringing us face to face with our own dragons. Once there, we receive the most valuable teaching of all: that the dragons fire is ultimately indistinguishable from the treasure it protects, that the gatekeeper is actually the gateway. Right there in the heart of our pain are the very lessons that we most need to grow. What a beautiful thing to remember! I highly recommend this wondrous book. --Jeff Brown, author of SOULSHAPING

The language is passionate, evocative, and richly poetic. The message is wise and profound: pain is an inevitable part of human life, but suffering is optional. By entering your pain, really experiencing it, getting to know it (ceasing to resist it, avoid it, or compensate for it), Masters suggests you can discover in it the seeds of a profound shift of consciousness. --Terry Patten, co-author of INTEGRAL LIFE PRACTICE

Dr. Masters offers us a sensible path of empowerment with whatever dragons we must face. He outlines a gentle yet dynamic approach leading the reader step by step away from suffering towards a fuller sense of personal authority and dignity. He has crafted a very helpful contribution to the field of working with pain which will be of benefit to many. --Ian Macnaughton, Ph.D., editor of BODY, BREATH & CONSCIOUSNESS

About the Author

ROBERT AUGUSTUS MASTERS, Ph.D., is the author of nine books, including Transformation Through Intimacy and Darkness Shining Wild, as well as a master integral psychotherapist, trainer of psychotherapists, and teacher of spiritual deepening. He holds a doctorate in Psychology, and has taught and worked worldwide. For over 30 years, he has been creatively integrating mind, body, emotion, and spirituality in his work. He lives in White Rock, British Columbia with his wife Diane, who teaches and works side-by-side with him.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Tehmenos Press (February 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 098116840X
• ISBN-13: 978-0981168401
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D., is the author of 11 books, including Transformation Through Intimacy and Darkness Shining Wild. He holds a doctorate in psychology, and is a highly experienced psychotherapist, bodyworker, trainer of psychotherapists, and teacher of spiritual deepening. His integral, intuitive work dynamically blends the psychological and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing embodiment, authenticity, deep shadow work, emotional openness and literacy, and the development of relational maturity.

He has seen and personally experienced the highs and lows of spirituality from many perspectives, including as a practicing psychotherapist for 32 years and as a spiritual teacher. Those who work with him are taught, among other things, how to turn toward and enter their pain so that they might pass through it, rather than rising above or otherwise avoiding it. At essence his work is about becoming more intimate with all that we are -- dark and light, high and low, shallow and deep, neurotic and transcendent, dying and undying.

He and his wife Diane work and teach in extraordinarily close conjunction, doing all their groups, sessions, and trainings together. To learn more about what they offer, visit www.robertmasters.com (where you can subscribe to his free newsletter, The Crucible of Awakening). They also offer online work; for more information go to www.masterscenter.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Title Says It All..., November 29, 2009

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DELFIN J PARIS III (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Meeting The Dragon: Ending Our Suffering By Entering Our Pain (Hardcover)

Bob Masters has it right. When I first started seeing my therapist, and asked her how to "fix" a number of issues I was having, she laughed and told me there was virtually nothing to actually "do." She did, however, notice that I seemed extremely disassociated from my pain, and encouraged me to start tracking all difficult feelings. I thought this was the biggest waste of time, because I always thought pain was just a trigger to take action, and move into pleasure. Not so!

Masters (like my therapist) encourages you to explore your pain, and suggests that it is really the ONLY way to effectively process these tough feelings. Since this is a new strategy for guys like me, it's one of the more difficult challenges I have taken on. Staying in pain, and exploring it (without wallowing in despair, pity, or helplessness) is not only tough, but also not a lot of fun! But, it is essential.

Anyway, if you're constantly immediately moving out of pain, finding yourself in escapism, addiction, restlessness, etc., you owe it to yourself to explore this book. And your pain!

Thanks, Dr. Masters!