The Direct Route to Abiding Peace

Summary

Are we limited, damaged, and inadequate? Gail Brenner says we are not. She understands that the self-help movement can be useful, but believes that we possess the capacity to spontaneously find inner peace. She shares ideas for shedding the stories and thought patterns that bring about negative feelings. “The end of suffering is possible in any moment; we don’t need to keep searching for it,” she says. Brenner feels that the act of seeking implies that we think there’s something wrong that needs to be fixed. “Self-help is seeking for something outside ourselves that we think we don’t have.” She also believes that it is important to welcome and observe the feelings that are contributing to our suffering because we can learn from them. “Our attention to our experience is power because it comes from this place of infinite life…when we’re in touch with that, these conditioned patterns of thoughts and feelings begin to unravel.”