Product Description

Present moment awareness is an essential ingredient in life if one expects to experience any degree of authentic peace and contentment. It has been acknowledged for centuries as the cornerstone of spiritual awakening in all traditions of Eastern thought. In the West, however, it is still a relatively unrecognized concept of living. The Western mind is always restless, never content with the moment. Its internal dialogue is always firing off thoughts filled with emotional content and pulling the individual out of the present and into the past or future. But individuals raised in Western culture are becoming increasingly more aware of their overall sense of mental exhaustion, their lack of discipline and their inability to focus on demand. They are willing to expend the energy necessary to experience inner peace and a quiet mind that is waiting to follow the direction of their will. They are realizing that the endless struggle to fulfill the insatiable appetite of instant gratification is fruitless and tiresome at best. They are ripe for a new path in life and eager for a new set of instructions. This is the purpose of The Practicing Mind. It comprehensively deals with helping the individual understand exactly what present moment awareness is, how we are raised in a manner contradictory to this, and how we change our mindset to make this a part of our daily living. This book is accessible to readers of all philosophical backgrounds. Regardless of your perspective, you will find the book's insights most compelling.
You can find the wisdom of both The Practicing Mind and The Meditating Mind in the combination package: The Total Mindset.
For your convenience, THE PRACTICING MIND is now in mp3 CD audiobook format.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49902 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Released on: 2006-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 100 pages

Review
Like many of us, Thomas M Sterner was enrolled in music lessons when he was a child. He was not an amazing prodigy and he didn t enjoy the lessons any more than the rest of us did. Fortunately, Sterner s love for music was strong enough that he eventually returned to his study of piano and became a successful musician. Love of music, however, doesn t account for his success as a piano technician, responsible for providing perfect instruments for performances by world-class musicians. Nor does love of music explain his success on the golf course. The common denominator in these endeavors is practice, and the point made by Sterner in this book is that Everything in life worth achieving requires practice .... [Practice is] a process which settles all areas in your life and promotes proper perspective on all of life s difficulties. As the author explains, everything we do is practice; why not embrace this and learn strategies and mindsets that allow us to practice effectively? It will come as no surprise that Sterner urges us to break our addiction to multitasking and instant gratification. Mindfulness, attention to detail, and being in the moment are terms we ve all heard and most of us can agree that a single point of attention greatly improves the chances of mastering any task. Sterner, who deliberately set out to determine the mechanics leading to mastery, provides some insight into how we can go about breaking the habit of distraction by changing and broadening our perspective. In keeping with the idea of simplicity and focus, the author admits that there are not many ideas in this book. Happily it doesn t take many ideas to uncover a workable truth, and anecdotes from Sterner s own life seem to confirm that he has pinpointed a finely workable idea. One of the most interesting sections of the book deals with his conscious decision to work as slowly as possible on a day when he felt fractured and rushed. Preparing pianos for performances is a job that, to most of us, seems unbearably tedious. Sterner s determination to create even more tedium and delay is, he admits, counter-intuitive; yet by denying haste, he finds that he is able to accomplish his work better and in even less time than usual. Sterner s voice is sincere, his advice grounded in believable and valuable experience. In The Practicing Mind, he shows us how to incorporate mindfulness in ways we all can emulate. He suggests exercises to aid in the process of practice, and demonstrates the joy of discipline. Thomas Sterner is a man who finds lessons in real life, an ordinary master of life, the amiable guru next door from whom we can borrow butter or wisdom, as we choose. --Deborah Adams, reviewer for Bookpleasures --Deborah Adams, Reviewer for Bookpleasures

In a society of immediate gratification, Thomas M. Sterner's book THE PRACTICING MIND almost parodies itself. Designed to be a primer for slowing down, becoming more aware of the present moment, and increasing self-discipline and focus, Sterner's brilliance shines through in the brevity of this complex book's pages. Less than a hundred pages long, this tiny but intense book delivers enough information to contemplate and apply for a lifetime. THE PRACTICING MIND enables those of us immersed in the Western world's constant motion and hubbub to slow down, check within, and grow. The nine chapters detail in depth the steps to mastering any skill or achieving any goal. Sterner clearly explains, through the use of colorful, vivid examples, how mastery comes from practice through repetition - whether we're talking about learning a new habit, achieving a professional goal, or improving one's golf game. Each chapter begs to be mulled over, internalized, and applied. The principles sometimes overlap, enabling the reader to make deeper connections and realizations as they progress. In a gentle and encouraging manner, Sterner not only illuminates the "how's" - the process - he also enables the reader to see that not only are growth and change possible, but "with deliberate and repeated effort, progress is inevitable." This book is already a favorite of mine, highlighted and scribbled in, and slowly, patiently, I'm witnessing the result of reading this material in my daily life. This book is a must-read for anybody who is tired of today's widely accepted non-stop frenetic pace, for anybody sick of feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and out of balance, or for anybody who wouldn't even know where to find the roses, much less bother to take the time to stop and smell them. --Tammy Cook, Reviewer for Roundtable Reviews --Tammy Cook, Reviewer for Roundtable Reviews

About the Author
Thomas M. Sterner spent over 25 years as a concert piano technician and rebuilder. Preparing instruments for the finest world class concert pianists and symphony musicians enabled him to witness first-hand the level of art afforded to those with a disciplined mind. His career also provided a strong impetus toward inner awareness, dovetailing with his spiritual search for the truth and inner peace. The solitary and monotonous nature of his work afforded him the time and opportunity to assimilate all that he has learned over the years, to infuse this knowledge into his work and daily life, and to continue to develop his practicing mind. An accomplished musician himself, Mr. Sterner lives in Delaware, happily engaged in composing music, writing inspirational, self-help books and publishing audio books through his company, Mountain Sage Publishing.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Everything in life worth achieving requires practice. In fact, life itself is nothing more than one long practice session, an endless effort of refining our motions. When the proper mechanics of practicing are understood, the task of learning something new becomes a stress-free experience of joy and calmness, a process which settles all areas in your life and promotes proper perspective on all of life's difficulties.