Learning to look at life with four eyes and two hearts joined into one soul
Continuing his transmission of 2,000-year-old Polynesian wisdom that began with
The Pleasure Prescription,
Paul Pearsall introduces in this new book what be calls "
naupaka
love" or
aloha kakou—
love shared, profound companionship, surrendering to a relationship in all its dimensions and embracing it as a lifelong mission of discovery and mutual pleasure.
Our society tells us that individual success and self-fulfillment are the keys to happiness. This book asks, If that is true, why do so many of us—even those who are in a relationship—feel unhappy and alone? And it answers that there
is
no joy if there is no one to share it with. As a poet said long ago, "No man is an island .... "
A uniquely warm combination of oral wisdom and current research,
Partners in Pleasure
is nothing less than a re-visioning of marriage. It offers eight lessons in
mahele
(sharing)—eight pleasure prescriptions for partners, from dreaming die same dream to becoming one body. Woven throughout are partnering tests; relationship lessons from Hawai‘i's foremost
kupuna
(elders) and
kahuna
(healers or priests); and insights from Dr. Pearsall's own work and seminars.
shows couples how they can come together to face the challenges of life—conflict, sexual compatibility, child-rearing, career setbacks and getting old—and grow ever stronger together, united in heart.