Zen Body-Being

Zen Body-Being

An Enlightened Approach to Physical Skill, Grace, and Power

About the Book

A Zen-inspired “physical education” program for martial arts practitioners and anyone interested in mind-body transformation

Using simple, clear language to demystify the Zen mindset, Ralston draws on more than three decades of experience teaching students and apprentices worldwide who have applied his body-being approach.

More of a transformative guide than a specific list of exercises devoted to any particular physical approach, Zen Body-Being explains how to create a state of mental control, enhanced feeling-awareness, correct structural alignment, increased spatial acuity, and even a greater interactive presence.

Exercises are simple, often involving feeling-imagery and meditative awareness, which have a profound and sometimes instant effect. Areas of exploration include:

• Beginner’s Body-Being
• Three aspects of body awareness
• Five principles for an effortlessly effective body
• Opening a door--five steps to transformation
• Fourteen points on structural alignment

Where similar guides teach readers what to do, this book teaches readers how to be.

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Praise for Zen Body-Being

"Working with Peter changed the way I move my body. I exercise, dance, and live differently…it’s not only a powerful way to live in a body but a powerful way to live in a body but a powerful way to live. His knowledge and application of body mechanics is more relevant than anything I learned in seven years of medical education."—Kate McQueen, MD; Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UTHSC-Houston"Zen Body-Being is clearly stated. Peter’s ideas, concepts, and truths help you transform your skills, balance, grace, power, and the experience of being in your body."—Howard James, founder Hawaii T’ai Chi Ch’uan Association
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About the Author

Peter Ralston
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About the Author

Laura Ralston
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