“

The genius of Tulku Urgyen was that he could point out the nature of mind with precision and matter-of-factness of teaching a person how to thread a needle and could get an ordinary meditator like me to recognize that consciousness is intrinsically free of self ... I came to Tulku Urgyen yearning for the experience of self-transcendence, and in a few minutes he showed me I had no self to transcend ... Tulku Urgyen simply handed me the ability to cut through the illusion of the self directly, even in ordinary states of consciousness.  This instruction was, without question, the most important thing I have ever been explicitly taught by another human being.  It has given me a way to escape the usual tides of psychological suffering - fear, anger, shame - in an instant.

” - Sam Harris

The aim of "Zest: the Book Project" is to provide a growing self-help workbook covering key areas relevant for health & wellbeing.  My hope is that this format will make the information easily available both for other health professionals and for all of us who want to live healthier, happier, more fulfilling lives.

The first phase of the Project involves providing links under each chapter heading to material that has already been published on this website.  The second phase (which overlaps a bit with the first) is the writing of new material for each chapter.  

As a health professional, I'm a bit unusual in having trained both as a medical doctor and as a psychotherapist.  My interests are broad, ranging from physical health & lifestyle, through ways of preventing & treating psychological disorders, to a fascination with the health benefits of relationships, and an awareness of emerging work on meditation & positive psychology.  Besides being a clinician with over 40 years of experience, I also read a great deal of research.

As I'm also working full time seeing clients & teaching, writing this book needs to fit in around the edges of what time is available.  My rough guess is that the Project will take about four years, with completion aimed for late 2021.  We'll see!