"Meditation and spiritual practice have been called death in life. We die to the hope that our life is taking us somewhere. We let go and ... open to a new life, a shared life." Writer and meditation teacher Tracy Cochran learned to let go and open to new life many decades ago, when a near-death experience turned into a pivotal turning point. While being mugged by three men on a deserted street, her heart opened to "a kind of feeling that cannot be created or destroyed by anyone, only received," she wrote. "Behind the abandoned tenements, behind my attackers, behind all the appearances in this world, there was a gorgeous luminosity." Tracy is the editorial director of Parabola, an acclaimed quarterly magazine that draws on the world's cultural and wisdom traditions. In her recently released book Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself , Tracy shares stories and practices for taking refuge in moments of presence even in the midst of difficult challenges.