Ten Seconds to Peace Review

 "I don’t have time for anything, or so I often convince myself- perhaps out of a ridiculous drive to procrastinate or otherwise simply avoid doing anything that may present opportunity to up-end the apple cart. I’m not original in this- many (most?) of us are quite good at putting off doing what’s good or best for us. Why change? Who has time? Besides, isn’t it just easier to keep trudging along with the old patterns of our own status quo?

When I first saw the title, Ten Seconds to Peace: An Everyday Approach to Mindful Living, I didn’t give much thought to the idea of mindful living (what was that, anyway?) –but: ten seconds and peace? I was all for it. I certainly had ten seconds, and any suggestion it might bring me ten seconds of peace was intriguing enough. Clearly, I wasn’t quite prepared for the treasures that I would discover within this unassuming volume.

Each page unfolds a clear and steady path with each line and verse, all carefully chosen and meticulously placed with the skillful precision that only a well-seasoned teacher could master- and Beach is just that: with 40 years of Buddhist experience under his belt, this initiate of Qigong (he became the first Western initiate in 1986) presents each of the meditations found within Ten Seconds with a (seeming) simplicity and utter clarity that only someone so well learned could accomplish. In so doing, he reaches through to both Buddhists and non-Buddhists (such as me, at the time I had initially read the book) alike, and throws wide open the gate to true and deep comprehension and (most) importantly, peace.

Beach’s meditations are succinct and many are easy enough to memorize- others, are a bit more challenging in that regard (but short enough to commit them to a quick note). Ten seconds is all it takes to read any of the pieces, perhaps, but their effect is far more lasting…especially, if we are mindful to revisit those words throughout our day. Mindful- and that’s the secret of it all. These verses aren’t something gleaned from some New Age utopia…they are practical guides drawn from ageless wisdoms that point us toward a mindful awareness, and mindful living. We take a necessary moment to read the words, contemplate and internalize- a bit of a re-set in the “normal” course of our over-regimented lives, and move forward with a honed awareness that allows us to live each moment more fully, without so much mental clutter and distraction (this is especially true through re-visiting the meditations and continued application).

We can have peace in our daily, hectic lives. It takes just a bit of effort on our part- there’s no need to pore over extraneous texts or complicated studies. In Ten Seconds to Peace, Jeffery Beach points the way to what is unexpectedly quite easy to attain."