The World Exists to Set Us Free - by Larry Rosenberg & Madeline Drexler (Paperback)

About the Book

"This collection of teachings by the beloved Insight Meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg offers clear, down-to-earth guidance on learning how to live a life informed by Buddhism-through questioning, reflective observation, and self-understanding"--

Book Synopsis

Down-to-earth wisdom on how to live a life of authenticity and spiritual integrity, from one of the West's most respected teachers of vipassana meditation.

How does dharma wisdom show up in our lives every day? This collection of teachings by the beloved Insight Meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg offers clear, down-to-earth guidance on learning how to live a life informed by Buddhism--through questioning, reflective observation, and self-understanding. Rosenberg is known for presenting the essence of the Buddhism in a way that is unvarnished, utterly accessible, and that resonates with a wide audience. Here he unpacks--with his signature engaging and iconoclastic style--such topics as meditation, silence, use of the breath, self-knowing, working with strong emotions, intimacy, illness and grief, among others.

There are few teachers who so epitomize the idea of "spiritual friend" in the way that Larry Rosenberg does. His teachings give a clear sense that dharma is very much a part of everyday life. This book is also informed by what Rosenberg considers his deeper and more immediate understanding of dharma that has come in recent years--a period marked in his own life by illness and disability--and in the life of the planet by a deadly pandemic, war, an existential climate crisis, and pervasive technological distraction.

An introductory essay, written by journalist and author Madeline Drexler, serves as a spiritual biography of Rosenberg, presenting his reflections on more than half a century of dedicated dharma practice and instruction. This essay illuminates what, for Rosenberg, were profound turning points and moments of realization--his long apprenticeships with foundational figures in twentieth-century Buddhism, including Ajahn Chah, Thich Nhat Hanh, Seung Sahn, and Ajahn Buddhadasa, as well as Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Review Quotes

"This book is in a class by itself. It exudes honesty, compassion, and humor as it proffers the possibility of deep and embodied commonsense wisdom right here and right now. It is also a precious opportunity to be--at least metaphorically--in class with a truly great dharma teacher, investigating the most important question: What is this wild and precious life really about? Larry provides a supremely friendly and disarmingly honest glide path into the universe of mindfulness as both a formal meditation practice and a Way of being. He is speaking straight to you, the reader, out of his own lifelong search for an honest, unromanticized truth about what matters in life and the possibility of waking up into its unadorned fullness. Dive in and be carried along by his inimitable and disarming sense of humor and his intuitive resonance with your own aspiration to live the life that is actually and uniquely yours to live. His easygoing and humorous teaching style brings you face-to-face with your own experience, doubts, confusion, romantic spiritual aspirations--everything--and reflects it all back to you as if you were right there together in the very same room--which of course, in the deepest of ways, you are."
--Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are

"With characteristic warmth, humor, and a grounded sense of immediacy, in The World Exists to Set Us Free, Larry Rosenberg distills decades of deep dharma practice into teachings that are as profound as they are accessible. Whether he's illuminating the subtleties of mindfulness or sharing stories from his own path, Rosenberg's clarity and compassion shine through, offering guidance that speaks directly to the heart, reminding us that freedom is possible."
--Joseph Goldstein, author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

"In this profound collection, beloved meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg offers wisdom that feels like a conversation with a trusted friend. Drawing from over fifty years of Buddhist practice, Rosenberg illuminates how dharma naturally weaves through our everyday challenges and joys. With his trademark humor and directness, he strips away pretense to reveal Buddhism's practical heart--not as an exotic philosophy but as a clear path to living with authenticity in our complex, troubled world. A treasure for both beginners and seasoned practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of meditation's transformative potential."
--devon hase, author of How Not to Be a Hot Mess

About the Author

​​​LARRY ROSENBERG is the founder and guiding teacher of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a former guiding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society, in Barre, Massachusetts. He is the author of three books, Breath by Breath, Living in the Light of Death, and Three Steps to Awakening. MADELINE DREXLER is an award-winning Boston-based journalist and author who has studied with Larry Rosenberg since 2000. For ten years she served as editor of Harvard Public Health Magazine. Drexler's work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Tricycle, Undark, The Nation, The American Prospect, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Saveur, Nieman Reports, and many other publications.