Tea and Cake with Demons: A Buddhist Guide to Feeling Worthy

by Adreanna Limbach

Overview

In Tea and Cake with Demons, Adreanna Limbach brings secular Buddhist teachings to a new generation by addressing one of the most pressing concerns we all face—authentic self-worth. "Our ambition, goal-setting, self-helping, and even our spiritual practices are often driven by the underlying sense that we just aren’t enough," writes Limbach. "But what if we could accept ourselves just as we are? Open our hearts and invite our demons to tea?"
These demons, Limbach teaches, manifest for many of us as a chronic sense of "not-enoughness," inherited through cultural stories that send us conflicting messages: we’re supposed to feel happy and confident, but we’re also never quite worthy of those feelings. Using the Four Noble Truths as a guide, Limbach shares meditation practices, personal anecdotes, and traditional Buddhist tales that help us learn to befriend ourselves—even the more unsavory bits—so we can realize our full potential. A popular mindfulness teacher and emerging voice in modern Buddhism, Limbach brings a playful, fresh, and at times joyfully irreverent tone to walking the Eightfold Path.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683641223
Publisher:	Sounds True, Incorporated
Publication date:	07/09/2019
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	542,719
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Adreanna Limbach
Adreanna Limbach is a personal coach and a lead meditation instructor at MNDFL, NYC’s premier drop-in meditation studio. Her teachings have been featured in the New York Times, Women’s Health, and Refinery29. She lives in New York City. For more, visit adreannalimbach.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword Susan Piver ix

Introduction 1

Part 1 Waking Up to Worthiness

Chapter 1 Acorns Know How to Oak 9

Chapter 2 Meeting Our Demons 19

Chapter 3 Basic Botany 27

Chapter 4 Touching the Earth 33

Chapter 5 How to Hold Your Seat 39

Part 2 The Four Noble Truths

Chapter 6 Restless Everything Syndrome 49

The First Noble Truth

Chapter 7 Welcome to the Charnel Grounds 61

The Second Noble Truth

Chapter 8 Pure Potential and the Cessation of Suffering 81

The Third Noble Truth

Chapter 9 Surrendering the Plan, Walking the Path 91

The Fourth Noble Truth

Part 3 The Eightfold Path

Chapter 10 What's the Story, Morning Glory? 99

Beneficial View

Chapter 11 Motivation Made Lucid 113

Beneficial Intention

Chapter 12 Mind Meets World 119

Beneficial Communication

Chapter 13 Karma Made Me Do It 135

Beneficial Action

Chapter 14 Work, Money, Purpose 143

Beneficial Livelihood

Chapter 15 Accounting for Our Energy 153

Beneficial Effort

Chapter 16 The Spice That Flavors All Dishes 163

Beneficial Mindfidness

Chapter 17 Insight through Repetition 173

Beneficial Concentration

Conclusion 183

Acknowledgments 187

Notes 189

About the Author 195

Editorial Reviews

05/27/2019

Limbach, a meditation instructor, introduces Buddhism through a discussion of the negative effects of self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness in her engaging debut. She opens with a parable about the Buddha welcoming a fierce demon to sit down for tea, unlike local monks who made desperate plans to fight or flee from the demon. From this story, she extracts the lesson that each person has the potential for enlightenment and encourages readers to recognize the often harmful, reactive ways one copes with personal demons, namely habitual emotions and states of mind that cause pain. Limbach then lays out an unembellished explanation of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. With a keen eye and lucid prose, Limbach offers up novel understandings of key Buddhist concepts—such as her association of the raw human pain of the charnel grounds with social media, and her call to see past the idea of karma as a universal ledger that tallies each decision so as to better understand the damaging default patterns that can emerge from constantly counting one’s “good” actions. Each chapter ends with a brief exercise, and some include detailed guidance for meditation practices. Readers unfamiliar with Buddhist concepts or those looking for fresh interpretations will find this guide a welcome entry point. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Limbach, a meditation instructor, introduces Buddhism through a discussion of the negative effects of self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness in her engaging debut. . . With a keen eye and lucid prose, Limbach offers up novel understandings of key Buddhist concepts. . . Readers unfamiliar with Buddhist concepts or those looking for fresh interpretations will find this guide a welcome entry point.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher