A self-help book for those who want to heal themselves from pain and suffering using Buddhist meditation.

In 2000, incapacitating headaches nearly destroyed Richard Ellis's career. He suffered from the pain and, even more, from his outrage over the pain. His experiences with all but one of the doctors he consulted were disastrous. Their only response to the pain was to prescribe pills, which changed his personality and drained all his intellectual and emotional energy. One wise doctor recommended meditation.

Buddhist teachings and daily meditation empowered Richard to heal the suffering caused by both his physical and emotional pain. The pain, once his brutal enemy, became his best teacher, inviting him to let go of the suffering and the image of himself as a victim. "As I have learned," explains Richard, "so can you also learn to reexamine your experiences with suffering and pain and eventually to embrace your life with equanimity, gratitude and joy."

Blinding Pain, Simple Truth: Changing Your Life Through Buddhist Meditation, Richard Ellis, Rainbow Books, Paperback, 239 pages, $16.95

Richard S. Ellis is a professor of mathematics and an adjunct professor of Judaic studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has published and taught courses in mathematics, literature, and Bible studies, and has extensive experience with Buddhist meditation.