Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet

What I love about this new book by Roshi Joan Halifax is how she reaches out through her beautiful and careful words to the heart of each reader, with "life-giving hands" as she calls the engagement of compassion. You can feel her personally touching you as you read. Wherever you are in your life and work, she's been there and she knows how hard it is to stay on track, to stay energized and loving, to be the best version of a human one can be. I felt her openness to my goodness as well as my shadow self, as if she's rooting for me and all of us to wake up, relax, love, grow and do the good work the world needs us to do. I'll keep this book close--a guidebook for life in our times.

Walking with others on the path of care is what gives me a sense of hope. But it can also be a tenuous journey on which we come to face our shadow-sides in the thick of what Joan Halifax calls “edge states.” For the broad spectrum of caregivers we are and need to be: parents, teachers, neighbors, community organizers - voters! - as well as professional social workers, hospital/prison chaplains, counselors, psychotherapists, medical professionals, and social justice advocates, Roshi Halifax provides both philosophical wisdom and practical skillfulness in how we can navigate that path courageously and wholesomely, with both compassion and equanimity in tact. Maintaining a “soft front and strong back,” we can sustainably nourish ourselves and care for others, without spiraling down into the collapse of empathic distress and caregiver burnout. Living in a time when our well-being depend on care, I can’t think of a more important perspective to share. This is a beautifully written and truly inspiring book, and I am so grateful for the support it offers.

I read a lot of books, always in search of motivation or some new nugget to help process my own thinking/feeling and the world around me. So many books on EQ, enlightenment, self help, etc. speak to us almost as children in need of a lecture - or almost presents life and emotions as a game that needs to be won. This book is so thoughtful, beautiful, easy to read, easy to understand and integrate...it is so smart! And yet, reading this book is like sitting with a trusted, enlightened friend who speaks as if we are all equals, students on a journey. Roshi Joan Halifax is so thoughtful and grounded; she is clearly very far along in her journey, but never-ever makes us feel that we're behind. So refreshing. Regardless of what brought you here to consider this book, buy/read this book. This is easily the best book I've read in a very long time. Highly recommend. Safe travels.

This is such an important book for all those in any of the helping professions, as it discusses the 'edge' between appropriate and necessary care of others and 'falling off or over the edge' into apathy or distress. And there is so much more, so it is very useful for activist and those that are noting disapproval and outrage towards what is happening in the US and in other parts of the world at this time. Roshi Joan's writing is simple yet effectively, helps one to understand and feel what appropriate and inappropriate empathy, altruism, integrity, respect and engagement are like. She also offers simple and effect practices for those times when we do fall over or off those edges.The book is filled with personal anecdotes from her own life which only adds to the authenticity of what she is conveying. As such, this book is for everyone, not just professionals and caregivers. Highly recommended!

I have read Halifax before and she is a truly wise woman.She looks at what she calls Edge States and what can happen when we slip over them. These are all virtues by any religious or moral view: altruism, empathy., integrity, respect and engagement. Yet with all of them, it's possible to stand at the top, happy with one's efforts, and then slide off into the slough.For example, empathy can turn into distress, integrity into moral suffering, engagement can result in overwork and burnout. Roshi Joan Halifax has many years of experience as an antropologist, Buddhist teacher, and caregiver to the dying. She has many years a founder, abbot, and head teacher of the Upaya Institute and Zen Center, in Santa Fe.He Buddhist beliefs do not keep this from being an outstanding book for anyone of any religious belief, or non-belief.

Despite wanting to read this book slowly, I found myself rocketing along because Roshi Joan Halifax’s writing is so beautiful and riveting. Whether fast or slow, you will want to read it again and again to appreciate the wisdom she offers so generously. This is a true masterwork – do not miss it.

This book is, plain and simply, beautiful. It is real, it is wise, it is practical. And it is human.I was fortunate to be with Roshi Joan in Seattle when she first held her new book, this book, at its national release. She said when looking at its cover and touching it with embodied gentleness: “It’s a beautiful book, isn’t it?” And it is.Understanding edge states has already had a profound impact upon my life, at work, at home; with my colleagues and with my family. I’ve already begun sharing it with others—and its impact is being realized.It’s true (and it’s still a choice we can all make): “Compassion is not a luxury, it is a necessity.” And we need it more than ever. We are compassionate by nature—we just need to wake up, engage, and realize what will best serve in each and every moment...with grace and G.R.A.C.E. Standing at the edge takes courage—but we have to understand and realize that we are there and that, when there, in those moments, we have a choice and an opportunity.Thank you Roshi, for being you and for this gift. May it find a wide audience so that its light can warm this cold world—if only this one little corner of it.

Great inspiring book

As qualidades de altruísmo, empatia, integridade, respeito e engajamento são chave para uma vida compassiva e corajosa. Mas podemos cair no lado danoso destes estados, como distress empático ou altruísmo patológico. Além de falar sobre meditação, neurociência, conta maravilhosas histórias de toda a sua vida para ilustrar os temas com casos reais. E termina dedicando um capítulo à compaixão permeando estas outras qualidades. #mustread

Joan Halifax Roshi in questo libro supera se stessa: profondo, leggibile, narrativo, saggio e arguto. Chi è interessato a meditazione, zen, crescita personale non può non averlo in libreria