Emotional Rescue: How to Work with Your Emotions to Transform Hurt and Confusion into Energy That Empowers You

by Dzogchen Ponlop

Overview

In this life-changing book, acclaimed Buddhist teacher Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche shows how to free yourself from being a victim of your emotions by gaining the awareness and understanding that will help you harness their power.

      Emotions bring color and meaning to our lives, but they can also put us on an exhausting rollercoaster ride that takes us to blissful peak states, the depths of delusion and despair, and everything in between. It is only by learning to relate to our emotions skillfully that we benefit from their richness and glean wisdom, rather than letting them control us. Emotions get their power from a simple but deep-seated source: our lack of self-knowledge. When we bring awareness to our experience of emotions, something truly amazing happens—they lose their power to make us miserable.
     In this book, Rinpoche leads us through the three steps of his Emotional Rescue Plan. Mindful Gap is the practice of creating a safe distance between you and your emotions, which gives you the psychological space to work with their energy. Clear Seeing involves recognizing the bigger picture. Last, Letting Go is the practice of releasing stressful physical and emotional energy through exercise, relaxation, and awareness. With each step, we become increasingly familiar with the inner workings of our emotions, seeing straight to the heart of anger, fear, passion, jealousy, and pride. With time and practice, instead of leading us astray, our emotions become our guide towards living a more compassionate, creative, and fulfilling life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399176647
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/19/2016
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is a widely celebrated Buddhist teacher and the author of Rebel Buddha: A Guide to a Revolution of Mind. (“Rinpoche” is an honorific reserved for highly respected Buddhist teachers.) He is the founder and president of Nalandabodhi, an international network of Buddhist centers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Part 1 Working with Emotions 1

1 Getting to Know Your Emotions 3

2 Mindfulness Is the Key 21

3 Help Is on the Way 45

4 Getting the Big Picture 61

5 A Sigh of Relief 75

6 Thoughts and Emotions 91

7 An Unexpected Gift 105

Exercises and Pointers: Notes on Further Training 123

8 Mindful Gap: Look 127

Mindfulness at the Kitchen Sink 127

A Shift in Perception 128

The Flow of Activity 130

Daily Reminders 132

Catch and Release 133

9 Clear Seeing: Explore 139

Your Personal Limits 139

Your Emotional Habits in Relationships 142

Compassion in Your Community 144

How You Speak and Listen to Others 145

Listening with Your Heart 150

10 Letting Go: Relax 155

Relax Where You Are 155

Connect with Your Senses 157

Fresh Sight 158

Natural Sound 160

Bright Smell 161

Pure Taste 162

Clear Touch 163

11 It's Not About Being Perfect 167

Who Are Your Role Models? 167

Review Your Goals and Intentions 168

If You're Making an Effort, You're Making Progress 170

Part 2 Exploring Emotions Further: A Classic Buddhist Approach 173

12 The Way of the Buddha 175

13 The Warrior on the Battlefield 181

14 What Is a Buddhist? 191

15 Pandora's Box 201

16 Restoring Balance 209

17 Dealing with Difficult People 221

18 A Vision of Peace 239

Index 245

Editorial Reviews

"Ponlop Rinpoche gives us here a down-to-earth guide to recognize, understand, transform, and utilize the basic energy of even our negative emotions to live fresh and genuinely happy lives."
—Richard Gere

"Emotions can tangle and trip us up with no understanding of their wild chaotic possibility. In this important book Ponlop teaches us step by step how to unwind emotions and use their energy and power. We no longer have to be at the mercy of anger, delusion, desire, and aggression. Happy he wrote this book."
—Natalie Goldberg, author of The Great Spring and Writing Down the Bones

"Dzogchen Ponlop's teachings always beautifully balance the ancient Eastern with the modern Western, the profoundly complex with the freshly simple. In Emotional Rescue, he turns his attention to perhaps the most urgent topic faced by meditators: how to deal with difficult emotions. The three-step process for mindfulness of emotions contained in this book is deeply rooted in the wisdom of Buddhist psychology, yet offered free of jargon by a modern master. I will definitely be using the deep insights of this book in my own practice and in my work with students."
—Ethan Nichtern, author of The Road Home: A Contemporary Exploration of the Buddhist Path

From the Publisher