Unconditional Bliss: Finding Happiness in the Face of Hardship

As a longtime seeker of enlightenment, I've read many a book that promised guidance. And I've received a fair share. But this book has come into my life at a crucial time and seems, more than others before it, equal to the task. It provides a simple and effective--I didn't say "easy"-- method for attaining bliss by teaching a two-question process. The first question brings one's present reality into focus; the second gives one a "leg up" on accepting that reality.When I read a book that thoroughly meets my needs, as now, I don't pretend to be impartial or a careful critic. In fact, I want to say that the writing is exquisite, but don't know how much my pleasure in the book's content informs that opinion. If timing is everything, and I believe it is, then my wish for you, reading this review, is to share my good fortune. May you meet this book with an open heart, letting the gift of its message march in.

Unconditional Bliss came into my hands during a devastating breakup. I needed what most self-help books, with their bright covers and promises, never gave me: specific strategies for handling moments of crisis. With great gentleness and humor, Howard Raphael Cushnir asks the reader to study the way he or she feels joy or grief, to see how breathing and self-talk affect that process. The way he does this showed me tools I had never before recognized, and what I learned from using them changed my life. I recommend this book with all my heart.

Unconditional Bliss came into my hands during a heart-breaking, nerve-wracking break-up. What I needed more than anything was something so many self-help books with bright covers and promises had failed to give: specific guidance through moments of crisis and grief, specific steps toward bliss (though all I was really hoping for at the time was an end to misery). With humor and great gentleness, Howard Raphael Cushnir lays out the anatomy of how we feel sadness and happiness in all its subtlety. He asks the reader to slow way down to look at the way breathing and self-talk affects his or her passage through a feeling. For me, the result was strange, immediate and exciting. In those micro-minute workings were the tools I needed. I recommend this life-changing book with all my heart. It is a gift.

In his new book, author Howard Raphael Cushnir asserts that it's possible to experience radiant bliss no matter how bad life gets. "I invite you to experience this bliss," he writes, "when it's easy, when it's a challenge, and when it seems utterly impossible." Then, stunningly, he shows the reader exactly how. In this elegant, straightforward book, Cushnir shares a simple practice he calls Living the Questions that can help us to access "the bliss that lives within." A self-described skeptic, Cushnir describes how he discovered this bliss by paying close attention to his experience after his life fell apart. Candid self-revelations support his thesis that one needn't be an expert to find this deep and abiding inner bliss. The practice he distilled consists of two simple questions, to be asked and answered moment-by-moment. Examples throughout the book illustrate how the practice applies to daily situations, from the mundane (overeating, traffic) to the deep-seated (loneliness, loss, unresolved childhood issues). Highly accessible and practical, yet profound in its implications, it's a great read with a great message.

The title of this book says what you get after reading just the first ten chapters. This book is so honestly and helpfully written that you can't help but be enriched. I have seen many books like this, but Cushnir is so direct, clear, and makes it so easy (i'm so glad i don't have to sit in the lotus position to get the benefits!) that you feel like a new person every time you read another chapter. I have already given several copies as gifts, and i plan to reread the book every few months to keep reminding myself to ask and live the questions. A phenomenal book.David Siegel Author