My book has been published by Phoenix Century Press! AND it has a new title: The Fearless Way: Mudras, Mantras and Chemo – How Learning to Let Go Saved My Life. For several years (yes, I admit to taking years to write this book) the working title was Mudras, Mantras and Chemo. I liked that title because it communicated the essential elements of an Eastern world/ Western world connection, and that there was something about cancer involved, but I kept feeling that something essential was missing.
There were many late night discussions about whether this was really a book about a cancer journey, or was it a spiritual search story, or was it a book to empower others in their own challenges with change (impermanence for those of you who identify with that word). Everyone felt that the essential message was applicable to a broader audience than cancer survivors – though sadly, that seems to be becoming a pretty broad audience.
My good friend David came up with the tag line, “a spiritual search and cancer happened along the way.” That seemed to capture something important, but spiritual is such a loaded word, and I still felt there was something important in the book that I knew could be universally helpful.
Then last July my teacher, Yuan Miao, led a 4-day retreat in the mountains outside of Santa Cruz. One day she talked about being fearless, but she wasn’t talking about being macho and trying to “man up” or “woman up” as the case might be. She wasn’t talking about inappropriate risk taking. She wasn’t talking about denial. She simply looked at us at one point and said, “Greed.” Just that, “Greed.” And then there was a long, long pause while she let us think about that. Then she said, “Letting go.” Another long pause. “Letting go of grasping is letting go of attachment. Without attachment a natural fearlessness develops.”
And then I had the title for my book I had been searching for: The Fearless Way. How do we humans manage the challenge of caring deeply about people and things in our lives and still know that impermanence (change) is inevitable and be prepared to let go gracefully, allowing transformation to happen? My book is the story of my journey to develop that kind of Fearlessness, and my hope is to empower those of you who read it to become more fearless in your own life which I know inevitably calls on you to respond to change.
