The Empty Path: Finding Fulfillment Through the Radical Art of Lessening

(Paperback)

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A guide to embracing emptiness to declutter the mind and distill our experience of daily life to its essential beauty, clarity, and joy

"A truly extraordinary and transformative book."
-- Dean Ornish, MD

A clear and empowering antidote to our culture's never-ending quest for more, The Empty Path is a how-to manual for cultivating the Buddhist principle of emptiness as the source of fundamental satisfaction in our lives. By exploring this often-misunderstood core teaching, author Billy Wynne dispels the common misconception that peace and fulfillment come via accumulation or achievement. Instead, he presents "the art of lessening" as the path to appreciating the depth and beauty contained in each moment. Wynne uses real-life examples and accessible practices to help us realize our inherent wholeness, overcome the barriers to lasting happiness, and replace anxiety with unbounded gratitude and ease.

Reviews

"This is a truly extraordinary and transformative book. It distills the most profound and fundamental truths about happiness and healing to their essence -- and it's beautifully written as well. Highly recommended!"
-- Dean Ornish, MD, clinical professor of medicine at UCSF and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Undo It! and other books

"The Empty Path is a profound commentary on where true peace lies. A counterintuitive approach in a world that is forever caught up in the next thing, this book allows us to calm our minds and open our eyes to the perfection in this moment. I felt both less alone and more alive while reading it. Thank you, Billy."
-- Annie Grace, bestselling author of This Naked Mind

"Billy Wynne gently calls into focus the richness of this moment in his accessible and actionable guidebook for living fully."
-- Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness and Real Life

"An engaging, practical, and readable guide to the mystery at the heart of every ordinary moment -- the emptiness that Mahayana Buddhism considers the most important thing there is, even though it's not a 'thing' at all. Yet it's the heart of who and what we are, the groundless ground of all our being. Billy Wynne makes tastes of it accessible in this enjoyable offering."
-- Henry Shukman, author of Original Love and cofounder of The Way app

"Wynne promotes the practice of stepping back from a life packed with work, self-help, and unhealthy attachments, and finding meaning with less. . . . Each chapter includes reflections and detailed guided meditations, making the book both personal and practical."
-- Lion's Roar

"In a book filled with honesty and heart, Billy Wynne introduces the path of awareness and inquiry through the lens of his own life story, intensely intimate yet at the same time universal and accessible. For each area of focus, a guided meditation supports the healing practice of making real the spiritual life already embedded in our life of today."
-- Karin Ryuku Kempe Roshi, MD, co-spiritual director of the Zen Center of Denver

"There are the events of our lives and there is how we experience these events. The Empty Path is a heartfelt and wise guide for reflecting on and transforming our most basic assumptions about how we experience time and space, showing us the way toward greater spaciousness and ease."
-- Marc Lesser, author of Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader

"Billy Wynne has masterfully written a book that is an expression of the empty path itself and at the same time a guidebook for the journey. By reading words, one can grasp the great reality, and with each chapter in this book, one begins to experience the 'lessening' that Wynne refers to so often. And with this lessening, a lightness of being and innate joy come to life. This book is at once wise and inspiring, tender and loving. It will open your heart."
-- Peggy Metta Sheehan, MD, co-spiritual director of the Zen Center of Denver

Author Bio

Billy Wynne has studied Buddhism and mindfulness for thirty years. He received lay Zen Buddhist ordination from the Zen Center of Denver, where he teaches classes and serves on the board. After a career spent traveling the world with an NGO and working as a health and well-being entrepreneur, he is now a certified meditation teacher and mindfulness-based coach.