Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering

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Building on a history of finding his way out of a meaningless, albeit successful, worldly life into a life of service, Phillip Moffitt has crafted a highly practical handbook for navigating the inevitable challenges that beset us. A marvelous tools to have handy when our better knowing is overwhelmed by those often mysterious interior storms, this book communicates a desperately needed feeling that we can indeed succeed in shaping lives of meaning.” The teachings presented in this book are my best effort to discern and point to what is true and useful for you to explore regarding the Nine Bodies in your meditation practice. With exploration and practice, it is possible to gain new understandings, more flexibility in your meditation, and possibly a new energetic facility in your mind. At the height of his career, Moffitt was CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Esquire magazine. However, Moffitt was not satisfied. So he traded his traditional successful life for a shot at inner peace. He took up mindfulness meditation and changed his life.

After that first meeting, I returned to Rishikesh many times to study with Balyogi. And, for years, I practiced the teachings such that I had a direct experience with what Balyogi was pointing me toward. When I was ready, I shared my experiences of these teachings with experienced meditation students on a limited basis. Many students found them to be of great value and asked for more in-depth exposure. Due to this student response and at Balyogi’s urging, I resolved to write a thorough explanation of my own understandings of consciousness that have arisen from working with these teachings.

Moffitt was 34 years old when he began to focus full-time on personal growth. He had enjoyed great success, but his life “seemed out of balance. I felt as though I wasn’t living from my authentic self. Even though my external life was fun and stimulating, my internal experience was that of not being connected to a larger purpose.” Renounce behaviors and attitudes that engender clinging. Three practices: renounce always being right, do not measure your life by how many goals are met, and give up being the star of your own movie. Renounciation is a walk through a desert: it is not easy. Remind yourself why you chose this path.

The Buddha discovered a path for finding freedom from dukkha or suffering, which he called the Four Noble Truths. This set of attitudes and practices he prescribed doesn’t require you to create some new and improved version of you—one that you can only hope will someday emerge. You can take these steps as the “you” who exists right now—the one who gets lost, afraid, angry, and caught up in desire, despite good intentions. All that’s required is that you let go of your preconceived notions about suffering and open yourself to exploring the role that it plays in your life. Many people come to dance when they are experiencing hardships in life. On a night when you feel lonely but can’t bring yourself to call a friend, taking a stranger’s hand and losing yourself in the music can be appealing. People interviewed for one study saw dance classes as a lifeline, a secure, stable routine that they could cling to when the rest of life was chaotic and hard. 4. Dance helps us stay young You are not controlled by your views and opinions or the story of your past, but rather you have a “don’t know” mind that responds wisely to whatever you encounter in life. Moffitt quotes Ajahn Chah: “There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering that leads to more suffering and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. If you are not willing to face the second kind of suffering, you will surely continue to experience the first.” The author is a former editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine who abandoned his fast-paced, successful career cold turkey to pursue a more meaningful life. A more meaningful life, he found. None of the teachings in this book require leaps of faith. All of these teachings can be applied by atheists, agnostics and believers alike.Overcoming wholesome craving is harder: have morals, use meditation to cultivate wisdom, accept that all outcomes cannot be controlled. Moffitt’s ultimate goal is to eliminate or lessen what he calls “the emotional chaos of the untrained mind.” Our minds are constantly racing in a state of turmoil. We make plans and they fall through. We react and we often react poorly. What Moffitt would like us to do is to not perceive ourselves as having to react, but rather choosing how to respond. This slight adjustment in perception can make a world of difference. Insights come only through reflection, and not belief. (Perhaps one of the biggest points in this book.)