Suffering Is Optional: Three Keys to Freedom and Joy centers around three basic aspects of Zen practice: pay attention believe nothing and don t take anything personally. As ending suffering requires that one sees how suffering happens the book urges readers to be willing to be quiet and pay attention to the process of suffering in effort to see each moment as an opportunity to step beyond illusion into freedom. It also argues that examining beliefs abandoning them and returning attention to the present is essential to ending suffering as is living in the awareness that nothing in the universe is personal. Author: Cheri Huber Publisher: Keep It Simple Books Published: 03/01/2002 Pages: 240 Binding Type: Paperback Weight: 0.67lbs Size: 8.60h x 5.54w x 0.63d ISBN: 9780963625588 About the Author Cheri Huber is the author of 19 books including There Is Nothing Wrong with You When You re Falling Dive and Time-Out for Parents. She founded the Mountain View Zen Center in Mountain View California and the Zen Monastery Practice Center in Murphys California and teaches in both communities. She travels widely and often leading workshops and retreats around the United States and abroad most recently in Costa Rica and Italy. She founded Living Compassion in 2003 a nonprofit group comprised of There Is Nothing Wrong with You Retreats (based on the book); Global Community for Peace: The Assisi Peace Project; The Africa Vulnerable Children Project; and Open Air Talk Radio her weekly call-in radio show originating from Stanford University. She lives in Murphys California.