Unconditional Bliss: Finding Happiness in the Face of Hardship

Rating:
Summary: a rare secret revealed
Review: After 25+ years "on the path," I would say that many folks are making, or getting ready to make, a quantum leap in consciousness. How to describe it? From self-help to surrender? From process to acceptance? From mind to Being? From judgement to unconditionality? However one would define it, "Unconditional Bliss" will help anyone achieve it. Cushnir presents a perennial wisdom in a clear, warm and personal style. His two-step inquiry, practiced religiously -- or, rather, spiritually! -- will produce a meaningful shift in one's experience of Self and life. This book should have a long shelf-life, as it makes age old practice highly accessible for our modern age.

Rating:
Summary: This book opened up my life!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Help in troubled times...
Review: Cushnir begins by explaining how he came to experience the rejection and finally, his acceptance of bliss. He writes in a friendly tone that helps you understand how living the questions can promote an abundance of profound results in your life.

Living the questions teaches you to stay in the "now". When faced with difficult situations, you invoke this two-step process that takes you to a place of internal focus where you feel and experience what's going on "now". Cushnir gives real-life examples to help you clearly understand the experience of bliss and how to use the process to keep you focused in the "now".

Cushnir believes that everyone has experienced this profound state of consciousness and explains how we have been trained to reject this mystery of life.

Cushnir divides Bliss into four sections: Terms of Service is an orientation to his perspective and development of the book. Basic Bliss, provides a foundation for the questions and examples to put them to use. Advanced Bliss, clarifies questions about the state of bliss and the process to achieve and remain in the "now". The fourth and final section, Beyond Bliss, examines how living the questions gives you tools to transform your life-perspective and tune in to the ups and downs each of us experiences.

reviewed by Robert Moore

Rating:
Summary: finally
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Two simple steps to Unconditional Bliss!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: This book opened up my life!
Review: This book is such a gift. I went through incredible changes and tragedies in my life this past year, and now towards the end of all the chaos, this book has given me the balance and understanding I needed. It teaches us to accept what is happening, and to understand that we can live in the moment and not stress about what will happen. Thank you to the author - this book is truly exceptional.

Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Review: This deceptively simple book is a gem. The author has condensed a great deal of ancient and modern wisdom into a relatively small volume, and, refreshingly, has done so without inundating the reader with Eastern cultural artifacts. (One can only read so many books in which every other sentence begins with the words, "The Buddha said...")

Highly recommended for beginning and veteran seekers of truth.

Rating:
Summary: Finally
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: finally
Review: 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.