Naked Buddhism: 39 Ways to Free Your Heart and Awaken to Now

Rating:
Summary: take some care here
Review: deida's stuff is pretty much just adi da's stuff with a slight twist. deida was a one-time devotee of da's organisation, adidam, and if you check through da's books (especially early ones like 'the enlightenment of the whole body', 'the garbage and the goddess', 'love of the two-armed form' and 'the dreaded gom-goo') you have more or less already seen the scope of deida's teaching. also it might help to know that da is considered to be a dangerous, misleading failure by the majority of spiritual teachers world-wide, as well as many noted ex-students, and as deida's work is such a close match to da's then maybe it is better left alone.

Rating:
Summary: This book will take you deeper
Review: I love this book. In poetically beautiful language the author describes subtle but powerful practices that open my heart beyond my habitual limited sense of self. For me this book transends the normal fare of banal new age spirituality. It offers lucid practical spiritual guidence while making absolutely obvious to me, depths of consciousness I could previously only intuit. Naked Buddhism offers an extensive array of straight forward easy to grasp practices for deepening spiritual awarness.

Rating:
Summary: Profound, beautiful
Review: In a language that is straightforward and direct, Deida guides us to the profound openness that lies just beyond our fears and passions. Deida's depth of understanding and feeling is amazing and through this series of simple yet profound essays, he disrobes every aspect of life, death, sex, success, fear, desire, illness, and relationship, and reveals the depth of love that we always are as any of this. This book is not only a meditation but a set of practices for spiritual growth. It is one of my favorite books of all time, one of the books I come back to over and over again. This book is a profoundly beautiful and original work. Put into practice, these teachings can open you to a delicious, moment-by-moment embrace with the divine. Being naked or Buddhist is not required.

Rating:
Summary: A powerfully written and thoughtfully presented selection
Review: Naked Buddhism: 39 Ways To Free Your Heart And Awaken To Now by David Deida is a powerfully written and thoughtfully presented selection of brief passages on the fleeting nature of life, sexuality, passion, and the "moment of now", and the importance of opening one's heart and one's love. From sexuality as an art to coming to terms with impending death, Naked Buddhism is a profound and memorable treatise, and a highly recommended contribution to the growing library of Buddhist literature for contemporary American readers.

Rating:
Summary: Spirituality or Sexuality?
Review: The two become one in Naked Buddhism.

David Deida is not a Buddhist. Although naked awareness is the main practice in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. David says this book is more of a deep bow to the bare essence of Buddhism.

He is seeking to build bridges from ancient wisdom to modern thought. Naked Buddhism is more poetic than religious. Luminous prose glides across page after page condensing at times into a subtle truth or vibrant revelation.

Each chapter presents a way to awaken to a bare openness. "Open" is a word used frequently and at first I had trouble understanding exactly what the author was trying to get across. It seemed mysterious and all encompassing.

"Your life is adorned with various gains and losses, pleasures and pains. In the midst of every present moment, you are either opening or closing. You are either feeling all while giving your deepest gifts of love or you are waiting." Pg. 73

Perhaps like being one with God, the universe and all. Maybe an acceptance. To experience instead of running from your fate.

He awakens you with questions and statements which help uncover truth:

-Are you ready for death?
-Fear is the opposite of love.
-Most of your life is out of your control.
-You are love.

"For your life to feel profound and full of love's power, practice opening at all times, including times of hurt. Feel and breathe your heart's deep hurt, and the hurt of others, without closing. Offer the openness of your heart to everyone, and especially to those who are wounding you. The only alternative is to close and live unfulfilled." Pg. 93

Is he not talking about unconditional love here? That amazing love that is so understanding, forgiving, healing, nurturing and at times terribly painful? Is he saying we should embrace the good and bad in our lives with equal passion?

There are 39 Ways to Free Your Heart and Awaken To Now:

1. Love Fully and Die - A short meditation asking you who you love and where are you now? A focus on being in the moment.
2. Feel Before Memory - Helped me realize that at times it is better to forget the present
worry because soon it will be in the past.
3. Give Everything Now - Give up waiting in order to live.
4. Unfold Your Heart - What would you do if you let your deepest gifts flower?
5. Resist Nothing - How to experience true bliss.
6. Breathe Everything - Most of your life is beyond your control.
7. Wear Everyone's Shape - How to give the gift of openness.
8. Offer Yourself As Love - Who are you becoming?
9. Unclench As If Asleep - An underlying feeling of peace.
10. Relax As You Are - How to approach negative emotions.
11. Honor Your Depth - Intention
12. Open While Failing - Potential greater than reality.
13. Appreciate Dissatisfaction - Remind yourself how to open fully.
14. Don't Wait For Perfection - No limits to opening.
15. Do Love Through Your Body - What is your identity? How does this play out in your life?
16. Be Reminded By Jealousy - False hopes of fulfillment. I found this meditation rather enlightening. I never thought of jealousy in that way.
17. Express Who You Really Are - What do you hunger for?
18. Live As Love - Becoming unselfish.
19. Remain Open When Disgusted - Accept
20. Undo All Effort - Worry and how to lose anxiety.
21. Allow Love's Hurt - Opening can involve feeling pain.
22. Recognize Your Refusal - The issue of acceptance.
23. Let Love Live As Anger - Love through anger.
24. Permit Your Heart's Wild Passion - Violence as a form of self-abuse. Pretty intense section which involves a dissolving of boundaries.
25. Live Your Heart's Truth - What to do instead of avoiding the truth.
26. Ravish Beyond Safety - Masculine/Feminine roles. Can the power be shared?
27. Enjoy Flowery Combat - How we are attracted to reciprocal sexual energy.
28. Unguard Your Sex - The layers of fear, hurt and anger.
29. Don't Settle for Fulfillment - What happens when you achieve your wildest dreams?
30. Be Free As Love Now - Does the need for accomplishment define your life?
31. Shine As Love's Light - Light is what love looks like.
32. Play Sexuality As Art - Keeping passion alive.
33. Open Deeper Than Need - What is the deepest desire of the feminine heart?
34. Trust Him More than Yourself - How can you trust?
35. Exaggerate Sex to Liberate Love - Saturating your body in love.
36. Hold Nothing Back - Appreciating gifts
37. Offer Sex for the Sake of All - Shifting energy from tension to passion.
38. Awaken Sexually As Bliss and Emptiness - Is sex now a routine?
39. Be Alive As Gifting - Ungiven gifts hurt. Giving your deepest gifts to the world will free you.

This book is not light reading nor is it really difficult reading. You have to be in the moment when reading this book. You will find yourself taking ideas, rejecting others. Mostly I found this helpful for reflection. It brings out issues to contemplate and seal in your mind or heart. While I read the entire book in one sitting, this book is perhaps best read as mini-meditations that are not necessarily religious.

Who are you now and who are you becoming?
Do you like where you are now?

David Deida awakens these types of thoughts through his 39 meditations. I also enjoyed his unique insights into human sexuality.

Poetic and Awakening.