Journey to the Center: A Meditation Workbook

Journey to the Center: A Meditation Workbook is a must have in anyone's self-improvement collection, whether he or she meditates or not. Heavily laden with psychological terminology, theories, exercises, and opportunities for discoveries, this book can serve as a catalyst for major life changes. Drawing on his experience as a psychotherapist and meditation instructor, Flickstein helps people understand that unresolved psychological issues can hinder spiritual progress. Flickstein does not just encourage readers to deal with issues that may block their psychological and spiritual progress; he gives specific directions for how to remove such impediments. Flickstein also addresses additional obstacles to meditation practices, including attempting to resolve our problems while meditating, not living an ethical life, and denying death. On the road to understanding how psychology and spirituality are intertwined, and in line with his Buddhist background and traditions, Flickstein also walks the reader through what he calls the "Different Facets of the Mind." As he explains each facet, he guides the reader towards appreciating the process by which we can reach deeper levels of understanding. Flickstein unfolds that process for the reader by focusing on psychological exercises and insight meditation instructions. He spends a somewhat significant amount of time encouraging the reader to challenge the notion of a "self." Readers who do not identify with the Buddhist tradition may have some difficulty with this point, although one need not be Buddhist to question the notion of a permanent, fixed "self." Philosophers have made the "self" a subject of study for ages. Readers who wish to explore or challenge the notion of "self" will benefit from Flickstein's book. Others who simply wish to gain deeper levels of self-understanding will also appreciate his work. Additionally, individuals who wish to begin cultivating an insight meditation practice will find Flickstein's book exceptionally useful, especially since readers can record and replay Flickstein's meditation instructions. As someone who has met Matthew Flickstein and attended one of his meditation retreats, I can assure potential readers that this book comes from a compassionate and open heart.

A good workbook to help you come to terms with yourself and Buddhism.

In Journey to the Center, Matthew Flickstein guides the reader step-by-step through a path to spiritual awakening that was mapped by the Buddha 2500 years ago. Written in straight-forward, practical terms, and with great clarity, this book provides the reader with the tools to chart his or her own personal journey through actual experience and contemplation by following the suggestions and exercises offered at each step along the way. Unlike books that keep you "in your head", this book offers the opportunity to experience what is being discussed, so that a firm foundation can be laid for a deep understanding of the nature of all phenomena and the freedom that awaits us at the end of our journey, where "we can finally claim what has always been ours from the start." In the form of a workbook, it provides space to record and journal your experiences. This allows guidance and insight to emerge from the best teacher of all, the one that resides within. This book is unique among meditation guides and I highly recommend it.

Of the hundreds of manuals, articles, books and lectures designed to improve our psyche, this is the most practical, easy-to-read self improvement book I have ever come across. As a stress management therapist I plan to put this book on the top of my suggested reading list for my patients. Matthew Flickstein has taken the elusive, frustrating and confusing search for lasting happiness and points us in a direction unseen before. It's like a caterpillar confined to its 2 dimensional flat world suddenly grows wings and takes flight into another dimension. Flickstein shows us we've been looking in the wrong direction all along.

Occasionally a book comes along that opens doors for its readers, a book that changes lives. The quality that books of this import often share is simplicity--the ability to present deep understandings in a way that is approachable, easy to grasp. and grounded in the well-worn workings of our everyday lives. Journey to the Center is such a book. There is no esoterica, no mystery, instead the gift of clarity is taught in a quiet, humor-filled, stepwise approach that tunes us bit by bit to the here and now. The book begins with a question--who are we beyond our self definitions? With the ten oxherding drawings from the Zen tradition as a framing metaphor, the reader is led through successive sets of meditation instructions that initiate the process of answering that question. Each set of instructions is linked to an oxherding drawing that metaphorically depicts each step of the Way. Flickstein also gives us an insight to work with that is associated with each stage. Insights are articulated to draw us gently deeper into our journey, to help us look carefully at the assumptive underpinnings of our beliefs so that they become conscious and not merely automatic. It is our unconscious material, our automatic reactions to life's situations, Flickstein maintains, that create stress and difficulty in our lives. But reading this book is not only about discovering the subtle threads of awakening in our lives. There is a homey story-telling style and a warmth permeating these pages that is a pleasure to read. This is the Satthipathana Sutta of the Buddha, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, brought to life with teaching tales from many traditions, riddles, homey wisdom, and best of all, a beacon-like clarity that pushes the in-your-face directness of freedom into view. As Flickstein delights in pointing out, it was there all along. To illustrate the point of how we miss the obvious source of our inner wealth by becoming mired in external information, he tells the story of a poor man, dressed in rags, who every day leads a donkey across the border from one kingdom to another. The border guards suspect that he is smuggling something so each day as the man passes they carefully search the donkey's saddlebags. Each day they find nothing but straw. The man begins to dress in finer clothing, he moves into a larger house. The border guards resolve to look more closely because now they are almost certain that the man is smuggling something. But daily as they search the saddlebags, they still come up with only straw. Finally, a border guard retires. He runs into the man and says, "Look, I've retired. I can no longer hurt you. Please tell me what you have been smuggling bacause I know it was something!" The man replies, "Because I know that you can no longer arrest me, I will tell you. I was smuggling donkeys." In this gentle, folksey way, Flickstein is pointing us toward the most obvious source