Reverse Meditation by Andrew Holecek

Reverse Meditation Reviews

• 
  Josie

  Andrew Holecek’s book Reverse Meditation is a treasure, to be slowly digested and revisited, as it imparts salutary wisdom and valuable ways to use meditative practices to go within and experience openness and transformation. The guidance offered in the book is practical and clear. It is a beautiful exploration of how suffering can be viewed as a sacred gift to be opened and embraced.
  
  Andrew’s book resonated with me in a profound way. I appreciate the depth of knowledge and experience being shared in the book as well as the extensive references to relevant authors / teachers and research that has contributed to the material included. I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to read it.
  
  I highly recommend Andrew’s book and will recommend it to others.
  
  Thank you NetGalley and Sounds True Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
• 
  Tess

  If you like Pema Chodron’s WHEN THINGS FALL APART or Jon Kabat-Zinn’s FULL CATASTROPHE LIVING, you will find that REVERSE MEDITATIONS brings new depth and practicality to those foundational Buddhist teachings. Meditation, Holecek tells us, is not an invitation to numb ourselves from life’s challenges. On the contrary, he encourages us to bravely step into life’s most daunting moments by using simple on-the-spot meditative techniques to expand our awareness and open to insight. Here, meditation is not compartmentalized to the cushion, but becomes fully integrated into the daily rollercoaster of living. The result is a less avoidant, less fearful, more openhearted and resilient way of being in the world. Narrated by the author, the Audible version is imbued with the clarity and emphasis of his voice. We cannot control the weather at sea, but we can learn to navigate the storms and become curious about what they can teach us. As a longtime meditator, REVERSE MEDITATIONS has given new strength to my rudder.
• 
  Donald

  Read it and I feel as though I've been pranked somehow. I would recommend this one for anyone looking for a great example of being verbose. Every time I found my chin on my chest, I went back a few pages to a place I recognized having read. I didn't want to miss anything important.
  If you want to read up on meditating I would not start with this one. This is the sort of thing one reads when every other title on meditating, written over the last...say, three thousand years, has been pored over — more than once.
  I know... ouch.
  All that being said, at least I finished it. Unfinished stuff gets one star...
• 
  David

  The first part of the book establishes the basics, diving into the central concept of contraction which is defined as the retreat from reality that typically happens when things start to hurt.
  
  The second part of the book goes through 3 different meditative practices, what the author calls referential, non-referential and reverse meditation.
  
  Essentially, referential is Samatha while non-referential is Vipassana Meditation.
  
  A more accurate term for Reverse Meditation would be Masochistic Meditation. In essence, you are deliberately inflicting pain on yourself to change your relationship with it through meditation.
  
  The meditation starts with doing something that hurts. The author suggests digging our fingernail into our thumb or gently biting our tongue or lip.
  
  There are then 4 stages to go through based on the acronym OBEY:
  1. Observe: briefly pull back from the pain and witness it
  2. Be with the pain: without running commentary on it
  3. Examine: investigate the nature of pain
  4. Yoke with the pain: become one with it
  
  The pain is reinitiated in step 2 and the intensity increased in step 4.
  
  I found it really interesting how the author has adapted meditation to harness the power of hormesis to change our relationship to pain.
  
  Whether you choose to actually practice his form of meditation, this book communicates a lot of helpful concepts.
• 
  Cheryl

  Our intention in this book is to replace reductionism with elevationism, demotion with promotion, and degrading with upgrading. Instead of reducing everything to impure matter, we will elevate everything into pure spirit. “Pure spirit” is a feeble way to depict the ineffable. The Japanese word kokoro, “heart-mind-spirit,” comes closer, but no finite word can embrace the infinite. And although we may use the word elevationism to refer to the reverse of the reductionist view, this new view is elevated only because it stands in sharp contrast to our tainted views. In essence, “elevation” to the sacred view is actually very ordinary. It’s the natural state. Reducing everything into the profanity of lifeless matter is what’s unnatural. So the sacred world appears elevated only from our sullied reductionist stance.
  
  I really like this idea and haven't heard it in quite these terms, but this book was not the way into the subject, way too dense and abstruse. There are some exercises in the book that try to shed light on the process but it sounds like a million step process which no one has time for. Worth another try in another format.
• 
  Lorena

  I have mixed feelings about this book. I found the meditation instructions very helpful and would recommend them to anyone starting or having difficulty maintaining a meditation practice. Some other aspects of the book I had trouble with, such as the Buddhist concept of no self and the idea that master meditators should have no preference for pleasure over pain.
  
  I particularly liked the author’s discussion of referential and nonreferential meditations and his explanation of reverse meditations. The exercises give the reader a chance to practice these meditations in a natural progression.
  
  Thanks to Sounds True for providing me with an unproofed ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.
• 
  Cynthia

  This book is for fairly advanced meditators. The gist of the book is that you need to face your fears, pain, and suffering head on, If you don't, you'll bottle up stress and be the worse for it. With techniques for doing "reverse meditation," this book offered something truly new in this field of study and interest.
  
  I appreciated this book, especially as I read it while suffering a severe tooth ache and then a root canal. I can honestly say the book helped grow as a person and get through a bad time. The style of the writing was a bit repetitive and difficult to read, but overall, this was a book worth reading.
• 
  Joni Owens

  Whew this isn’t chill out and zen meditation for sure. I’ve only tried a couple and ended up bawling. I ain’t ready for the hard stuff.
  
  My favorite part was the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The author did an amazing job picking them out. (As well as the rest of the book I’m just emotionally raw right now, so I’m irrationally mad at them. Ha)
  
  This is not for the faint of heart. It’s not easy to confront feelings you’d rather compartmentalize.
• 
  JadersCorner

  ARC NETGALLEY REVIEW DIGITAL
  
  Highly recommend to anyone wanting to deepen there meditation practice, or pair with their yoga meditation practice. The author is articulate clearly and it’s easy to understand, and deep dives on several topic that are critical to meditation.
• 
  Carolyn Bowman

  This was a deep dive in meditation. Quieting the mind and body in non duel moments can be enlightening. Going into the pain. Witnessing the pain without judgement.
• 
  Liz DeLise

  One of the better meditation books I've read. Would recommend.