Which Way Is Up?

Description

A heartfelt guide for meeting difficult times with mindfulness, compassion, and courage—from a psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner who learned from her own crisis.

Features explorations of the three types of fear and practices to transform into opportunities for personal growth.

This three-part guide feels like a friend stepping up to offer support during difficult times. It warmly invites readers into a safe space to contemplate their personal fears and encourages them to re-imagine their personal crisis as a journey that they can emerge from by learning how to work with—rather than against—fear.

Using personal examples from her own recent bardo crisis—undergoing cancer treatment during the pandemic—and offering contemplative prompts for inner-reflection and a meditation practice in each chapter, psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner Susan Chapman demystifies the three main types of fear people experience (frozen, awake, and core), and how to meet each with love. This heartfelt guide from someone who’s been there and done the work will help us get through life’s challenges and restore our equilibrium, while also inviting a valuable opportunity for personal growth. 

Which Way Is Up? draws from traditional Buddhist teachings on the bardo, a Tibetan word most often associated with the period between death and rebirth. Chapman likens the bardo to abrupt episodes in our lives when things seem to turn upside down and we can’t find our footing. In such times of not-knowing—whether it’s navigating the end of a relationship, a health scare, the loss of a career, or other unexpected challenges—our fearful mind tends to panic trying to make sense out of our experience. Instead, Chapman meets the reader in their groundlessness to show how these turning points can force us to let go of our assumptions about the future and allow something new to be reborn.“When Susan received a diagnosis of cancer during the isolating years of the Covid pandemic, she was able to draw on her years of Buddhist training for support. In this book, she shares the insights and practices that sustained her in dealing with the initial shock of the diagnosis and throughout the challenges of treatment. Susan structures her book around the teachings of bardos, or what she calls times of ‘rude awakening.’ Her book is unique in its straightforward discussion of fear and the power of compassionate wisdom to move through fear to healing. It is a great resource not only for cancer patients but for anyone going through an abrupt or startling transition in life.”
—Judith Lief, author of Making Friends with Death

“Forged by the fires of direct experience, and buttressed by decades of deep meditative practice, this is a profound and practical journey of the heart crafted by a spiritual warrior. Susan Chapman deftly translates the Buddhist teachings on the bardo into language you can understand and immediately apply to the challenges of life. If you want to learn how to transform obstacle into opportunity, this book is for you.”
—Andrew Holecek, author of Reverse Meditation
 
“This book is like a wise old friend accompanying us in the most difficult of times. Susan Gillis Chapman goes right to the heart of our deepest fears, sharing her own story in a way that sheds light on our greatest moments of suffering and invites us to allow the journey to be transformative. She offers clear practices and insights that serve as signposts to guide the reader through difficulty with compassion and fierce love.”
—Hala Khouri, author of Peace from Anxiety
 
“With a warrior’s strength and a mother’s tenderness, Susan Chapman takes us on her cancer journey, from the paralyzing grip of fear to the open expanse of love, framed by the traditional bardo teachings. This is a compelling book.”
 —Irini Rockwell, author of The Five Wisdom Energies
 
“In this tumultuous age of global uncertainty, Which Way Is Up? invites us to dive deep down into our collective heartbreak in order to resource from the fertile and regenerative depths of meditation practice. Susan Gillis Chapman offers steadfast compassion, grace, clarity, and a generous invitation for growth. She supports the reader each step of the way, as she offers the medicine of seeing and perceiving more clearly, from the heart, as an alternative to feeding fear, reactivity, and overwhelm. She invites us to come home to peace with our ever-changing world and human experience and to move from a fear-based response to freedom of the heart.”
—Deborah Eden Tull, author of Luminous Darkness

“Enlisting the basics of contemplative psychology, Susan guides her readers into embodied listening, the discovery of innate bravery, and the capacity to strengthen compassion in the face of real challenges. This book offers compassionate wisdom—directly from the heart—and will benefit anyone undergoing groundless times.” 
—Melissa Moore, author of The Diamonds Within UsSUSAN GILLIS CHAPMAN is a retired family therapist (LMFT) who has been studying, practicing, and teaching mindfulness and compassion meditation for over forty years. She was introduced to contemplative prayer in a Catholic convent school and in 1974 transitioned into studying Buddhism with her teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. With a master’s degree in Buddhist and Western psychology, she worked in the field of domestic violence intervention in addition to her private counselling practice. To deepen her spiritual training, she spent nine years in retreat and also completed a three-year retreat program at Gampo Abbey with her mentor, Pema Chödrön. She is the author of The Five Keys to Mindful Communication and founder of Green Light Conversations. For more information visit www.susangillischapman.com.US

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