In The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is, contemporary non-dual spiritual teacher Jon Bernie reveals how working through existing negative beliefs about ourselves and the world, as well as embracing our struggles, can set us on the path toward an awakened life. Using this compassionate and heart-centered approach to accepting our most difficult feelings, readers will learn to move through them and beyond, into absolute freedom, happiness, and peace.
What do you really want—isn’t it happiness? And what keeps you from being happy? Could it be that your need to cling so tightly to what you believe—about yourself and life, about how things should be—is what’s holding you back? In The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is, a contemporary spiritual teacher in the non-duality tradition reveals how confronting and letting go of our negative beliefs about ourselves and the world ultimately sets us on the path toward an awakened life of profound joy, meaning, and purpose.
We all want peace and freedom and love and happiness, we all want to be fulfilled, but so many of us fail to reach the level of contentment we’ve built up in our minds, often believing there’s something wrong with us and blaming ourselves, others, or circumstances for our perceived lack of accomplishment or satisfaction. But the truth is, happiness is not something you have to get or achieve, because it’s something you already have—in fact, it’s what you already are.
With this book, author Jon Bernie—counselor, healer, and teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti—sheds light on the struggle to find happiness, showing how our unexamined beliefs distort our identities and make us suffer by creating unconscious tension in our bodies and minds. You’ll learn how to bring awareness to these patterns and begin to unravel the tightly held, negative beliefs that have overshadowed your existence, finally moving through them and into a brightening of experience and the realization of true happiness, liberation, peace, and fulfillment.
Using this compassionate, heart-centered approach, you’ll work with your feelings rather than resist them, and find guidance and support in surrendering to the relief of not knowing. You’ll also learn to relax into and live as awareness in your day-to-day life. Most importantly, you’ll discover that which you’ve been seeking but has never really been out of reach—something that is, indeed, beyond belief: the unbelievable happiness of accepting what is.
| Foreword |
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| Introduction: Unbelievable Happiness |
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1 | (7) |
| Author's Note: How to Read This Book |
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8 | (2) |
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10 | (4) |
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14 | (4) |
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3 Path of Least Resistance |
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18 | (3) |
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4 Simply Bringing Attention |
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21 | (4) |
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5 The Positive Side of Belief |
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25 | (4) |
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29 | (4) |
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7 The Essence of Meditation |
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33 | (5) |
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38 | (4) |
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42 | (3) |
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45 | (3) |
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48 | (3) |
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12 Finding the Guidance System |
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51 | (3) |
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54 | (2) |
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14 Meditation: Stillness and Balance |
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56 | (3) |
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15 The Natural Force of Awakening |
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59 | (4) |
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16 Questions That Release You |
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63 | (4) |
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17 The Hallmark of Intimacy |
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67 | (3) |
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18 Suggestions for Transformation |
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70 | (4) |
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74 | (4) |
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20 The Quality of Awareness |
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78 | (3) |
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21 Transmission of the Flame |
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81 | (4) |
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85 | (4) |
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89 | (3) |
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92 | (4) |
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25 If It Feels Good, Belt! |
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96 | (4) |
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26 Clearing, Grounding, Integrating, and Expanding: A Seven-Step Protocol |
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100 | (10) |
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27 Offering into Awareness |
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110 | (3) |
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28 Expression and Inspiration |
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113 | (3) |
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116 | (3) |
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30 "Hell Is Other People" |
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119 | (4) |
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31 Relationship and the Spiritual Process |
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123 | (4) |
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32 Love and Connection: Intimate Relationships |
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127 | (4) |
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131 | (2) |
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133 | (5) |
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35 Transmission: The Deepest Inheritance |
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138 | (4) |
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36 Connected in the Big Heart |
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142 | (3) |
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145 | (4) |
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38 The Light That You Are |
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149 | (4) |
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153 | (3) |
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156 | (4) |
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41 Meditation: Going Deeper |
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160 | (5) |
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165 | (4) |
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43 Being Is the Fullness of Life |
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169 | (3) |
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44 Releasing the Struggle |
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172 | (4) |
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45 Turn Toward What's Difficult |
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176 | (3) |
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46 Change, Loss, and Tenderness |
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179 | (3) |
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182 | (4) |
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48 Life Begins with Awakening |
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186 | (3) |
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49 You Can't Follow Anyone Else |
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189 | (3) |
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192 | (3) |
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51 Planting Seeds of Intention |
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195 | (3) |
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52 The Meaning and Purpose of Our Lives |
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198 | (2) |
| Afterword: The Beginning of Life |
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Jon Bernie is a contemporary spiritual teacher who offers a compassionate, heart-centered approach to awakening. His teaching focuses on returning the attention to the already enlightened state that lies at the core of our human experience. He has four decades of practice and study in the Zen, Theravada Buddhist, and Advaita traditions, and was formally asked to teach by Adyashanti in 2002. Jon is also an experienced healer and teacher of somatic embodiment, trained in the Alexander Technique, Zero Balancing, and the Qigong system of Dr. Yu Penxi. He works closely and intimately with individuals to facilitate consciousness development and deep emotional healing.
Jon leads classes, intensives, and retreats in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally. He also does intensive, one-on-one work with individuals both in person at his San Francisco office, and remotely by phone or video chat.
Foreword writer Adyashanti is an American-born spiritual teacher devoted to serving the awakening of all beings. His teachings are an open invitation to stop, inquire, and recognize what is true and liberating at the core of all existence. Adyashanti is author of The Way of Liberation, Falling into Grace, Emptiness Dancing, True Meditation, and The End of Your World. Based in California, he lives with his wife, Mukti, and teaches throughout North America and Europe, offering satsangs, weekend intensives, silent retreats, and a live Internet radio broadcast.
