Passionate Presence - Softcover

Catherine Ingram is a renowned dharma teacher with communities serving several thousand students in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Since 1992, she has led Dharma Dialogues (www.dharmadialogues.org), which are public events of inquiry into the nature of awakened awareness and its benefits in life. She is the founder and president of Living Dharma, an educational nonprofit organization dedicated to inquiry and service.

Trained in Buddhist teachings, Ingram (In the Footsteps of Gandhi) is also the founder of Living Dharma and conducts Dharma Dialogues for devotees and interested students. Transcending traditional religious practices, Ingram here offers a program of how to develop a heightened awareness of the self. This awareness may be achieved with or without a personal instructor (the author's teacher was the late H.W.L. Poonjajai of India) and involves developing the qualities of silence, tenderness, embodiment, genuineness, discernment, delight and wonder. According to Ingram, engaging in meditation (silence) may lead to heightened creativity that eludes those who pursue ego-driven ambition. She also believes that for noble causes (e.g., environmental movements) to have an effect on society, there must be a strong commitment on the part of individuals to treasure the interconnectedness of all life. Cultivating wonder means, in part, an acceptance that most of life is a mystery and what we understand best can only exist in the present moment. In this thoughtful and clearly written exploration, Ingram details ways to achieve all her stated qualities of heightened awareness at length from a humanistic/Buddhist perspective.
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