James baraz biography

About the author .
James has been a meditation teacher since 1978.
James Baraz has been a meditation teacher since 1978.

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James Baraz - About James

"I believe every person wants to be happy. At the core, all of our actions are motivated by a longing for genuine well-being. Our own well-being and joy have the capacity to awaken those qualities in others around us, becoming a gift to everyone we meet." -- James Baraz

In 2003, I started the Awakening Joy course so that the Buddhist teachings that I’ve so benefited from could be made accessible to and practiced by anyone whether or not they were interested in Buddhist philosophy. My approach has been to present these principles and practices with a particular emphasis on how they can lead to true happiness. I’m grateful that the course has become more popular than I ever could have imagined, with thousands of people from all over the world practicing the principles it offers.

I lead Awakening Joy workshops, often with my wife, Jane, at Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, and other venues in the United States and abroad. In 2010, with Shoshana Alexander as co-author, I wrote Awakening Joy, a book based on the course.

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James Baraz > Quotes

“RAIN When you are in the midst of a strong emotion, take a few moments to try this approach: Recognize what you are feeling and name it. Anger, fear, sadness, confusion? Allow the feelings to be present, without pushing them away and without getting lost in them. Investigate the feelings in your body and mind. Explore the landscape of the emotion with curiosity and interest. Where in your body do you feel it? How does it feel in your mind—heavy, tight, open, agitated? Non-identification is the key to freeing yourself from the emotion’s grip. Don’t take it personally. What you are feeling is a human emotion that arises and passes away. It does not define who you are.”
― James Baraz, Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness

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Awakening Joy: Life Skills for Living, Loving, and Serving Life to the Full

“A simple shift of perspective is transformative.”James Baraz

“Don’t miss it!” says James Baraz, author of Awakening Joy and creator of the very intriguing 5-month Awakening Joy course. “Don’t miss it” refers to the present moment—the gladness, the beauty, the uniqueness. James explains that in order to awaken our joy, we need to savor the wholesome moments and not turn away distracted, slipping back into our habitual mental ruts. James’ teachings take us deeply into states like gratitude and compassionate presence, to where we can focus our attention on how it feels to feel good somatically, thereby creating new neural pathways that strengthen awareness and aliveness. James has witnessed a lot of people learn to love themselves and turn their lives around as a result of this teaching. Why are we the last ones to see the goodness inside ourselves? he wonders. How can we so radically underestimate ourselves?

Rest in the landscape of gratitude