📘 Pause Book Club ~ Trying Not to Try
with Ryan Kenny 
📘 Pause Book Club ~ Trying Not to Try
with Ryan Kenny
with Ryan Kenny
FREE
ONLINE
March 8 (Sunday)
at 10:00 am
Class length
90 minutes
Offering type
Special Event/Workshop
This winter, we’ll be reading Trying Not to Try by Edward Slingerland.
⚠️⚠️ Important Content Warning: The introduction to Chapter 1 includes a philosophical parable called "Butcher Ding" from ancient Daoist teachings with a graphic description of an ox being butchered. While the story is used to illustrate "effortless action," the imagery is intense and may be upsetting to some readers. If you are sensitive to graphic imagery involving animals, you may want to skim the first few pages of Chapter 1. ⚠️⚠️
This book explores a core paradox that’s especially relevant to our January practice of non-striving: the more we pressure ourselves to feel calm, present, or “get it right,” the more tense and stuck we can become. Drawing on ancient Chinese wisdom (especially the idea of wu-wei, or effortless action) alongside modern research, Slingerland shows how real change often happens indirectly – by easing the grip of self-improvement mode and creating the conditions for clarity, spontaneity, and well-being to arise on their own.
This book is a practical, thought-provoking companion for our community as we try to wrap our heads and our whole being around what non-striving actually looks and feels like in real life – and what becomes possible when we stop forcing and start meeting each moment as it is.
We’ll take several weeks to read at our own pace, then gather online for a 90-minute discussion on Sunday, March 8 at 10am Pacific Time. Whether you read the whole book or just a few passages that speak to you, you’re warmly welcome to join us in conversation and reflection.
Hope you can join us!
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