Will Johnson

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Titles By Will Johnson

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Breathing through the Whole Body: The Buddha's Instructions on Integrating Mind, Body, and Breath Jan 25, 2012

by Will Johnson

( 64 )

$6.99

Explores the Buddha’s own words on breathing meditation for healing, wholeness, and a deeper understanding of his teachings

• Explains the complete series of steps in the Buddha’s Satipatthana Sutta for refining awareness of the breath, from posture and center of gravity to extending breath awareness beyond the nostrils, lungs, and abdomen to the entire body

• Shows that stillness in meditation refers only to the mind, not to the body

• Reveals breath to be a direct agent of healing for chronic tensions and an agitated mind

Explaining how stillness in meditation refers not to a rigid and frozen body but to a quality of mind, Will Johnson examines the Buddha’s own words at the core of the Satipatthana Sutta: “As you breathe in, breathe in through the whole body; as you breathe out, breathe out through the whole body”--an instruction often overlooked in the majority of Buddhist schools. Exploring the Buddha’s complete series of steps for deepening awareness of the breath, he shows how to invite natural, responsive movement back into the posture of meditation by extending breath awareness beyond the nostrils, lungs, and abdomen to the entire body--a practice that unifies the breath, body, and mind into a single shared phenomenon.

Showing how the flow of breath is directly affected by chronic tensions in the body and in the mind, Johnson explains that when breath starts flowing through more and more of the body, it becomes a direct agent of healing, massaging and melting any areas of tension it touches and moves through, whether physical or emotional. By breathing through the whole body in accordance with the Buddha’s instructions on breath, the body becomes much more comfortable, the mind starts resolving its addiction to thinking, and meditative practice deepens much more rapidly, allowing the teachings of the Buddha to be directly glimpsed and revealed.

Other Formats: Paperback

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The Posture of Meditation: A Practical Manual for Meditators of All Traditions Aug 25, 2020

by Will Johnson

( 89 )

$12.99

The 25th anniversary edition of the classic, comprehensive guide on meditation posture and how to carry its benefits into everyday life—for practitioners of all skill levels

When it comes to meditation practices, the body is as important as the mind—a fact that may come as a surprise to the many people who regard meditation as a strictly mental activity. But, as Will Johnson shows, the physical aspect of the practice is far too often underemphasized. The alert-yet-relaxed sitting posture that is the common denominator of so many meditative techniques is a wonderful aid for clearing the mind and opening the heart, but it also works to activate the natural healing energies of both body and mind.

In this essential guidebook, Will Johnson shows how meditation, too often misunderstood as a mental practice, can be immeasurably enriched through an embodied approach. The Posture of Meditation features a range of simple practices based on the principles of alignment, relaxation, and resilience. This classic book—now with a new section detailing the transformative power of the path of somatic meditation—has helped thousands of people to begin their meditation practice, to refine it, and to experience depths they never thought possible.

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Cannabis in Spiritual Practice: The Ecstasy of Shiva, the Calm of Buddha Aug 14, 2018

by Will Johnson

( 55 )

$10.99

An exploration of the use of cannabis as a sacrament in spiritual practice

• Provides instructions for using marijuana for the spiritual practices of spontaneous movement, ecstatic dance, sitting meditation, and gazing meditation, allowing you to open the body’s energies more fully and get closer to the Divine or your higher self

• Includes a new translation of the Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism, adapted to include energetic practices and the judicious use of entheogenic substances as a legitimate support for spiritual growth

• Includes access to 9 audio meditations

With the end of marijuana prohibition on the horizon, people are now openly seeking a spiritual path that embraces the benefits of cannabis. Drawing upon his decades of experience as a teacher of Buddhism, breathing, yoga, and embodied spirituality, Will Johnson examines Eastern spiritual perspectives on marijuana and offers specific guidelines and exercises for integrating cannabis into spiritual practice.

The author explains how the great Hindu god Shiva enjoyed consuming bhang, a marijuana mixture that would cause his body to make spontaneous movements. From these cannabis-inspired movements, Shiva brought the body-focused practices of dance and yoga to the world. Examining the spiritual path of Shiva, including the Sadhu tradition, Johnson provides specific instructions and protocols for using marijuana as a sacrament as Shiva did. He explores how to embrace cannabis for the practices of spontaneous movement, ecstatic dance, sitting meditation, and gazing meditation. He reveals how the ecstatic surrender to the feeling energies of the body in these practices is enhanced through the ingestion of Shiva’s herb, allowing you to open the body’s energies more fully and get closer to the Divine or your higher self.

Exploring the Buddhist practices of calming the mind and grounding yourself in sensory awareness, Johnson shows that, while traditional Buddhist teachings forbid the use of intoxicating substances, Buddhists who use cannabis are not committing a cardinal sin--in following our dharma, we must embrace what best supports our spiritual practice. He concludes with a new translation of the Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism--what he calls the Five Precepts of Embodied Responsibility--adapted to include energetic practices using breath, interaction with the energies of nature, sacred sex, and the judicious use of entheogenic substances, such as cannabis, as legitimate support for spiritual growth.

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Eyes Wide Open: Buddhist Instructions on Merging Body and Vision Apr 11, 2016

by Will Johnson

( 11 )

$6.99

Meditation practices to awaken the body and create a mind like a mirror, to literally see things as they are

• Draws on the story of the monk Shenxiu to create a meditation practice for profound relaxation, inclusion and connection to the world around us, and realization of our essential nature

• Explains how our attitudes, beliefs, and bodily tensions distort our perceptions and lead to our sense of separation from the world outside our bodies

• Details techniques of vision, such as sky gazing, eye gazing, and mirror gazing, that lead to an ecstatic mindfulness

Right behind your eyes, you are there. You can feel yourself there, looking. So intimate is your connection with your looking that when you say, “I’m looking,” you’re implying that how you look and what you see are a direct reflection of who you are in this moment. Your attitudes and beliefs reflect what you see, and the way you live in your body can color your perceptions as well.

This splitting in two of experience--an inside-the-body world and an outside-the-body world--creates in many of us a sense of isolation and loneliness, a feeling of disconnection from the larger world at which we look. But the visual field is equally capable of reflecting a sense of connection and inclusion, an invitation to merge with the larger universe rather than confirming how irrevocably separated we are.

Drawing on the story of the seventh-century Chinese monk Shenxiu, Will Johnson offers meditation exercises to create a mind like a mirror, cleansing it of obscuring layers of worry and emotion to literally see things as they are, not just how we perceive them to be. He explains how to awaken your body to the sensations we learn to ignore when we lose ourselves in thought and tense ourselves in ways that stifle the body’s vibrancy. He offers meditative techniques to silence the projections of the mind and enter into a condition of ecstatic mindfulness. He details gazing practices, such as sky gazing, eye gazing, and mirror gazing, to cleanse our vision and remove whatever is distorting our perceptions.

Through this new kind of seeing, divisions between your inner and outer world start to drop away. You begin to experience an intimate connectivity to the world you look out onto. By cleansing the mirror of the mind, we can come out of the dreams of who we think we are and awaken into our true, essential nature.

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Breathing as Spiritual Practice: Experiencing the Presence of God Oct 8, 2019

by Will Johnson

( 25 )

$9.99

A guide to meditative breathing practices in Western religions and how these practices provide a direct experience of God

• Reveals how Western spiritual traditions, such as the Book of Genesis, the Jewish teachings of ruach, and the poetry of Rumi, contain hidden instruction for meditative breathing practices

• Explains how breathing practices can bring all of us, including Christians, Muslims, and Jews, closer to a direct experience of the palpable presence of God

• Provides guidelines and best practices for meditative breathing through a personal journal of the author’s own meditative retreat

Surprised by the number of attendees from Western spiritual traditions at his Buddhist retreats, Will Johnson wanted to understand what drew them to this type of spiritual experience. He found many devoted Christians were in search of a more direct experience of God beyond faith alone, so he began exploring what breathing practices could be found in the sacred texts of Western monotheistic religions. Johnson discovered that, like their Eastern counterparts, Western traditions speak of gaining direct access to God via the breath. After experimenting with these teachings during a 10-day retreat at a desert monastery, he discovered that each of us has the potential to open up to the presence of spirit in every breath.

In this book, the author offers a close look at the importance of breath in each major Western religion, including the Jewish teachings of ruach as life-giving spirit in the form of breath and the Islamic poetry of Rumi, which describes breath as essential for cleansing the soul. He then ties each breathing tradition to the Book of Genesis, sacred to Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” Just as God blew life into Adam, every breath we take--if we follow the breathing practice of surrendering completely to inhalation--can open us up to the presence of God.

Through his own contemplative journey, Johnson shares his experience of striving to surrender to the fullest presence of God through each breath. As he takes the reader step-by-step through his own breathing practice, the author explains his physical and mental techniques for meditating successfully through breath and provides helpful guidelines to get the most out of meditative retreats. Johnson also offers deep reflections on how these shared practices of experiencing God through the breath transcend religious differences.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

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The Spiritual Practices of Rumi: Radical Techniques for Beholding the Divine Aug 13, 2007

by Will Johnson

( 18 )

$12.99

The secret Rumi found in beholding the Divine in his sacred relationship with Shams-i-Tabriz

• Shows how, in 1244, Sufi poet and mystic Jalaluddin Rumi was first brought to a state of ecstatic union with the cosmos and all its creatures

• Reveals the radical spiritual practice Rumi formulated in his private retreat with the mendicant seeker Shams-i-Tabriz

• Uses the poetry and prose of Rumi to explain how to come face-to-face with the Divine

One of the most extraordinary events in the history of Sufism occurred in 1244 when the Sufi poet and mystic Jalaluddin Rumi met a wandering seeker named Shams-i-Tabriz. Upon meeting, the two men immediately went into private retreat together, emerging ninety days later in a transformed condition.

In The Spiritual Practices of Rumi, Will Johnson reveals the radical spiritual practice that transpired between Rumi and Shams. To put it simply, they sat and gazed into each other’s eyes. Because the eyes are portals to the soul, their sustained gazing formed the basis of a devotional practice that opened the doors to a profoundly ecstatic state of divine union. Johnson draws on the poetry and prose of Rumi to unfold his story. He also explains how one may embark on the practice of intentional gazing to experience the state of ecstatic divine union shared by Rumi and Shams so many centuries ago.

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Aligned, Relaxed, Resilient: The Physical Foundations of Mindfulness Jul 5, 2000

by Will Johnson

( 12 )

$14.99

The emphasis on the mind in meditation can be somewhat misleading: If we pay attention only to mental processes and overlook the experience of the body, we can remain stuck in our heads and not be able to break free of the involuntary thinking that we find so claustrophobic and toxic. This short, practical guide helps us embrace the fact of our embodiment—the experience of the sensations, movements, and gestures of the body—and to realize that mindfulness is the natural state of awareness of a body that has learned how to experience its feeling presence. Johnson takes us through the three primary principles of the posture of meditation: alignment, relaxation, and resilience. He devotes a large part of each chapter to specific practices to help the reader experience different aspects of physical presence. This book is of interest to meditators of all traditions—Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Jews, and others—as well as therapists, bodyworkers, and anyone interested in body-centered psychology and other natural modes of healing.

Other Formats: Paperback

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Rumi's Four Essential Practices: Ecstatic Body, Awakened Soul Jan 19, 2010

by Will Johnson

( 19 )

$8.99

Poems and commentary that open the door for a new generation to experience the ecstatic and embodied spiritual truths contained in Rumi’s poetry

• Reveals how the four practices of eating lightly, breathing deeply, moving freely, and gazing intently can invoke the divinity within us all

• Explains how these practices dissolve the self’s need for identity so that we may experience a state of transcendent ecstasy and union with the divine

• Takes Rumi’s path to finding God from theoretical to embodied practices

The great thirteenth-century Sufi mystic and poet Jalaluddin Rumi began his life as an orthodox Islamic believer but felt that to fully experience complete union with the divine he must abandon institutionalized religion and its prescribed forms of worship. Surrendering his will to his overriding urge for a much more immediate, intuitive, and compelling union with the divine, he found that by manipulating certain behavioral aspects of his physiology--eating lightly, breathing deeply, moving freely, and gazing raptly--he was capable of loosening the rigid confines of the self, thereby overriding its limitations and achieving a transcendent merging with his own divinity.

His message is simple: if you wish to affect the spirit, you must first make changes in the way your body responds to the world. Through clearly written commentary interspersed with Rumi’s beautiful poems, this book details these four practices in a very precise way. As such, it is a sweet and open invitation to follow the examples set forth in order to embark upon one’s own path of inner illumination. The freshness of Rumi’s poetry dissolves the 700 years that separate his life from our own time, making his message as pertinent today as when he walked the streets of Konya, Anatolia (present-day Turkey), reciting his inspiring verse. This book allows us, through Rumi’s gentle guidance, to touch the face of God that resides deep within us all.

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Balance of Body Balance of Mind: A Rolfer's Vision of Buddhist PRactice in the West Dec 28, 2015

by Will Johnson

( 4 )

$3.49

Ancient Buddhist meditations and modern Western somatic therapy are united by their healing capabilities in this fascinating book. Both philosophies recognize that a structurally balanced human body is the key to a mentally and emotionally balanced human mind. The beautiful simplicity of the healing techniques and explanations detailed within will ensure that you attain the spiritual and physical balance needed to create an optimum environment through: Understanding the experience of balance; Balancing time, living in present time, and accepting change; Balancing sound, vision and the components of reality; Balancing your heart and breath; Balancing "luminous vision" and the "luminous world"; Understanding suffering and its causes.

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For The Love of St. Maarten May 24, 2021

by Will Johnson

( 1 )

$19.99

About the Author

'Will Johnson was born on the island of Saba in the Dutch West Indies. At the age of thirteen, he went to Boys' Town in Curacao to further his education. After acquiring a high school diploma, he moved to the island of St. Maarten, where he became involved in writing for the newspaper and was a radio announcer.

In 1968, Mr. Johnson began publishing his own newspaper, the Saba Herald, and recently he authored and published the book, Tales from My Grandmother’s Pipe. In 1969, he ran unsuccessfully for
the senate of the Dutch -Windward Islands, but in
1971, he managed to win an overall majority of seam
for his party on the island council of the Dutch
Windward Islands (i.e. St. Maarten, Saba,. and St.
Eustatius). In 1975, he became commissioner and
acting administrator of Saba and served as such until
1983. Besides being a member of the island council
of Saba, he has also represented the island in the
Legislature of the Netherlands Antilles since 1983. Mr.
Johnson has been decorated by the Dutch as a Knight
in the Order of Oranje Nassau and by Venezuela as
Grand Officer in the Order of Francisco de Miranda.

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La postura de meditación: Manual practico para meditadores de todas las tradiciones (Spanish Edition) Sep 22, 2012

by Will Johnson, Juan Carlos Valdovinos

( 7 )

$8.99

En las prácticas de meditación, el cuerpo es tan importante como la mente aunque muchas veces quede relegado a un segundo lugar. Conseguir un estado de "relajación alerta" es el denominador común de tantas técnicas meditativas que despejan la mente, abren el corazón y activan las energías sanadoras naturales, tanto del cuerpo como de la mente.

Will Johnson se propone guiar a todas aquellas personas que se atrevan a adentrarse en estas prácticas, con ejercicios para trabajar posturas y consejos que trasladan los beneficios de la meditación a todos los aspectos de la vida. El objetivo es conseguir despertar la inteligencia innata del cuerpo y facilitar el camino hacia una vida rica y plena. El despertar espiritual no es una huida del cuerpo humano, sino una entrega consciente a la experiencia de ser plenamente humano.

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Yoga of the Mahamudra: The Mystical Way of Balance Jun 23, 2005

by Will Johnson

( 8 )

$11.99

Presents three simple yogic principles from Tilopa's Song of Mahamudra

• Explains how balance is the key to achieving higher consciousness

• Includes somatic koans

Mahamudra, literally "the great gesture," is often looked upon as the highest manifestation of consciousness known within the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition. In Yoga of the Mahamudra, Will Johnson explains how it is possible to bring forth the condition of mahamudra naturally by utilizing the mystical yoga of balance to create what he calls the embodied cross.

He presents three simple yogic principles from Tilopa's Song of Mahamudra. The first principle, "do nothing with the body but relax," forms the vertical axis of the embodied cross. It is an internal process that focuses on the upright structure of the body, which opens up our relationship to the divine source. The second principle, "Let the mind cling to nothing," allows the horizontal flow of energy to our mind. This horizontal axis represents our relationship to the world: what we see and hear, and what our mind does with the objects we perceive. The establishment of these vertical and horizontal flows of energy allows us to embody the third principle, "to become like a hollow bamboo." In this way the body and mind become extraordinarily fluid, surrendering to the currents of the life forces that constantly flow through them like air through a flute. The author concludes with a number of somatic koans, exercises that allow the direct experience of balance and lead to the creation of the embodied cross.

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