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General & Miscellaneous Religion, Healing, Buddhism
Healing Zen by Ellen Birx β€” book cover

Healing Zen

by Ellen Birx
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Overview

Every day new research attests to the link between spirituality and health. In Healing Zen, which focuses on the concept of "healing as wholeness," a nursing professor and Zen teacher demonstrates how the practice of awareness and meditation can help restore energy, build endurance, and suffuse our lives with compassion and joy.

Drawing on her twenty years' experience as a nurse, Ellen Birx takes us on a deeply human journey through the nonlinear process of healing. Profound and inspiring stories are set alongside teachings from the Zen tradition to illustrate how wholeness is found in the midst of illness and disease.

Wise and down to earth, Healing Zen shows how daily activities like eating, touching, and bathing are vital aspects of the art of healing, how pain and death are part of life, and how those who are healthy can learn from those who suffer. The author demonstrates how listening keeps us present in the moment; perseverance ensures progress and helps us cope with grief, recurrence, and other challenges; accepting our ordinariness and reconnecting with the flow of daily life give us the power to let go of the drive to excel.

This beautifully packaged book, complete with an introduction to meditation and a resource list, makes a heartfelt gift for health professionals, caregivers, patients, or anyone struggling with the demands of life.

About the Author, Ellen Birx

Ellen Birx, Ph. D., R.N. is a nurse and professor in the School of Nursing at Radford University, Virginia. She became a Zen teacher under Roshi Robert Kennedy in the lineage of Roshi Bernie Glassman. She is the cofounder of the New River Zen Community.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Ellen Birx, a registered nurse, professor, and Zen teacher, offers an elegant and compelling collection of short essays on the connection between spirituality and healing. Organizing this lovely book around three themes -- developing a daily practice, the dynamics of healing, and how compassion helps us heal -- she brings to light not only the vital link between mind, body and spirit but also the "ordinary" beauty of being human. Whether one is ill or caring for someone who is, the opportunity to feel wholeness, to heal, is always present in the basic activities of working, eating, laughing, grieving, or just simply breathing. "When you let down the walls and embrace all of life, you see that you are larger than you think," Birx explains. "This realization is enlivening, healing and full of possibility."

Book Details

Published
March 1, 2002
Publisher
New York : Viking Compass, c2002.
Pages
240
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780670030538

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