Reverse Meditation

How to Use Your Pain and Most Difficult Emotions as the Doorway to Inner Freedom

By: Andrew Holecek

Narrated by: Andrew Holecek

Disruptive practices to revolutionize your relationship with meditation and fully engage with the full breadth of your experience.

Why do we meditate? The main reason most modern people start meditating is because it helps us feel better—reducing anxiety, improving sleep, decluttering the mind, and so forth. “But where does your meditation go when things go bad?” asks Andrew Holecek. “Where is your spirituality when ‘rock meets bone,’ as they say in Tibet—when the crap hits the fan?”

Reverse Meditation is for anyone who wants to bring the challenges of life onto the path of awakening. When things get hard, it’s time to turn your practice on its head—and throw out any assumption that meditation exists to insulate you from the confusion, difficulties, and uncertainty of life. “By putting your meditation into reverse,” Holecek teaches, “you’ll actually find yourself going forward. Step into your pain and you can step up your evolution.”

With his signature blend of depth and accessibility, Holecek invites you to explore:

• Three core forms of meditation—mindfulness, open awareness, and the boundary-smashing reverse meditations
• How to know when you’re ready to engage with reverse meditation
• On-the-spot practices for snapping into a meditative mindset in difficult situations
• Contraction and expansion—how to dismantle habits of avoidance to become more open, resilient, and fully alive
• How reverse meditation opens you to a direct experience of the fundamental perfection of reality—just as it is

“These unique meditations are designed to reverse our relationship to unwanted experiences, which means going directly into them instead of avoiding them,” says Andrew Holecek. “It’s not an easy journey—yet this path leads to the discovery of unconditional happiness, basic goodness, and true freedom in the most turbulent situations.”

©2023 Andrew Holecek (P)2023 Sounds True

Critic reviews

“Andrew has done it again! First he nudged us toward lucidity in the sleep bardo with his awesome book Dream Yoga. Then toward more lucidity in the life bardo with the even more awesome Dreams of Light. Now he brilliantly demonstrates how there need be no gaps, even when we confront the untoward, when we are jarred out of positive awareness by adversity and pain and injury, and we turn it all into advantage in his latest great work, this wonderful Reverse Meditation. I cannot recommend it highly enough—a great read and immensely useful for thriving and evolving positively in this world of obstacles.” —Robert Thurman, professor emeritus, author of Wisdom Is Bliss and the Bantam Books translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“Reverse Meditation is a brilliant masterpiece that illustrates that Andrew Holecek’s extensive exploration of inner space has given him a unique perspective of outer space. Andrew understands that each and every one of us is in space at this very moment. Not only are we all traveling through the Universe on this spaceship that we call Earth, but we also generate the illusion of solid ground through our individual egos. Andrew clearly demonstrates that many of the problems we all face can be traced to our futile attempts to give our egos a place to stand. Through reverse meditation, we can mold ourselves into the softest, most open, yet strongest and most indestructible thing in the Universe—space itself. Nothing can hurt space! A must-read for anyone who wants to improve their life and expand their horizons.” —Ron Garan, former NASA astronaut, author of Floating in Darkness

“Meditation sometimes becomes dualistic: we learn to let go of thoughts and feelings, to cultivate an empty mind. What do we lose when we split ourselves like that? What might we realize if, instead of contracting in the face of pain and other unwanted experience, we open up to them—realize our nonduality with them? Reverse Meditation shows us how to do that and how it can transform our lives.” —David R. Loy, author of Money, Sex, War, Karma

Deep and thorough

A surprisingly thoughtful and fresh take on a variety of meditation styles. I wasn’t expecting so much from the title, but I liked the author on a podcast so figured I’d give the book a listen. Glad I did.

Practice this an you will change

Though I have meditated for many years this book gave me important new insights that have changed my life. Follow these meditations and your life will unfold in a glorious way. Thanks for the clear presentation of so many teachings.

Very helpful!

Some helpful tools included. Lots of good information from a knowledgeable author.Thanks for the listen!

Best.

Andrew Holecek is extremely knowledgeable about the awakening process with a wide range of study, practice and experience. His communication abilities both writing and speaking are of the highest order.

So insightful

I’m so thankful to have found Holecek’s works. He has an amazing way of conveying understanding.

Life Changing Material

There are a few books on meditation that have been life changing for me. One was ‘The Science of Enlightenment’ by Shinzen Young and another was ‘The Mind Illuminated’ by Culadasa. This book enters that canon for me. I’ve sometimes struggled with bridging the gap between meditation in solitude and integrating that mindset into daily life. This book will show you how, by making the ‘pains’ of life into fodder for your practice. Thank you Mr. Holocek for sharing your wisdom.

Transformative

This book was deeply inspiring and immediately applicable. That we can actually use our pain as a way to live more fully and the step by step process for that is a gift. Andrew’s reading of the book was super engaging - just like his retreat talks. This book is pure genius.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

This audiobook brings this quotation into a full understanding. That I do not neccesarily have a fear of death, but have had a feeling of anxiety of the pain leading up to death. Now I feel that I can work with this uneasiness which allows me to mature and transform these sensations. I can be in the midst of chaos and still be calm at heart.

I tried but could not follow this book

Trying to destress and relax but this book was not the thing for me. It might help others and maybe I am just not ready for the concept.