Poems and commentary that open the door for a new generation to experience the ecstatic and embodied spiritual truths contained in Rumi's poetry • Reveals how the four practices of eating lightly, breathing deeply, moving freely, and gazing intently can invoke the divinity within us all • Explains how these practices dissolve the self's need for identity so that we may experience a state of transcendent ecstasy and union with the divine • Takes Rumi's path to finding God from theoretical to embodied practices The great thirteenth-century Sufi mystic and poet Jalaluddin Rumi began his life as an orthodox Islamic believer but felt that to fully experience complete union with the divine he must abandon institutionalized religion and its prescribed forms of worship. Surrendering his will to his overriding urge for a much more immediate, intuitive, and compelling union with the divine, he found that by manipulating certain behavioral...

Whenit comes to meditation practices, the body is as important as the mind—a factthat may come as a surprise to the many people who regard meditation as astrictly mental activity. But, as Will Johnson shows, the physical aspect ofthe practice is far too often underemphasized. The alert-yet-relaxed sittingposture that is the common denominator of so many meditative techniques is awonderful aid for clearing the mind and opening the heart, but it also works toactivate the natural healing energies of both body and mind. The author offersguidance and exercises for working with the posture of meditation and advice onhow to carry its benefits on into all the rest of life.