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Loading... A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life (edition 1993)by Jack Kornfield (Author)
Work InformationA Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life by Jack Kornfield
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Perhaps the most important book yet written on meditation, the process of inner transformation, and the integration of spiritual practice into our American way of life, A Path with Heart brings alive one by one the challenges of spiritual living in the modern world. Written by a teacher, psychologist, and meditation master of international renown, this warm, inspiring, and expert book touches on a wide range of essential issues including many rarely addressed in spiritual books. From compassion, addiction, and psychological and emotional healing, to dealing with problems involving relationships and sexuality, to the creation of a Zen-like simplicity and balance in all facets of life, it speaks to the concerns of many modern spiritual seekers, both those beginning on the path and those with years of experience. - from the publisher 'This improtant gidebook shows in detail and tith great humor and insight the way to practice the Buddha's universal teachings here in the West. Jack Kornfield is a wonderful storyteller and a great teacher.'-Thich Nhat Nanh Perhaps the most improtant book yet written on meditation, the process of inner transformation, thd the integration of spiritual practice into our American way of life, A Path with Heart brings alive one by one the challenges of spiritual living in the modern world. Written by a teacher, psychologist, and meditation master of international renown, this warm, inspriting, and expert book touches on a wide range of essential issues including many rarely addressed in spiritual books. From compassion , addiction, and psychological and emotional healing, to dealing with problems involving relationships and sexuality, to the creation of a Zen-like simplicity and balance in all facets of life, it speaks to the concerns of many modern spiritual seekers, both those beginning on the path and those with years of experience. A Path with Heart is filled with practical techniques, guided meditations, stories, koans, and other gems of wisdom that can help ease your journey through the world. The author's own profound-and sometimes humorous-experiences and gentle assistance will skillfully guide you through the obstacles and trials of spiritual and contemporary life to bring a clarity of perception and a sense of the sacred into your everyday experiences. Reading this book will touch your heart and remind you of the promises inherent in meditation and in a life of the spirit: the blossoming of inner peace, wholeness, and understanding, and the achevement of a happiness that is not dependent on external conditions. Sure to be a classic, A Path with Heart shows us how we can bring our spirituality to flower everyday of our lives. It is a wise and gentle guidebook for an odyssey into the soul that enables us to achieve a deeper, more satisfyying life in the world. 'Jack is helping to pave the path for American Buddhism, bringng essential basic's into our crazy modern lives. And the language he uses is as simple and as lovely as our breath.'-Natalie Goldberg Contents Acknowledgments Part I A path with heart: The fundamentals A beginning Chapter 1 Did I love well? A meditation on loving-kindness Chapter 2 Stoppoing the war A meditation on stopping the war within Chapter 3 Take the one seat A meditation on taking the one seat Chapter 4 Necessary healing Healing the body Healing the heart Healing the mind Healing through emptiness Developing a healing attention A meditative visit to the healing temple Chapter 5 Training the puppy: Mindfulness of breathing Establishing a daily meditation Walking meditation Part II Promises and perils Chapter 6 Trning straw into gold Meditation: Reflection on difficulty Meditation: Seeing all beings as enlightened Chapter 7 Naming the demons How to begin naming Meditation on making the demons part of the path Meditaton on the impulses that move our life Chapter 8 Difficult problems and insistent visitors Expand the field of attention A full awareness of the feelings Discover what is asking for acceptance Open through the center Five more skillful means Chapter 9 The spiritual roller-coaster: Kundalini and other side effects Attitudes toward altered states Some ocommon altered states Skillful means of working with the energetic and emotional openings Meditation: Reflecting on your attidude toward altered states Chapter 10 Expanding and dissolving the self: Dark night and rebirth Buddhist maps of absorption and insight states The entry to expanded consciousness: Access concentration States of absorption The realms of existence Dissolving the self The dark night The realm of awakenings Meditation on death and rebirth Chapter 11 Searching for the Buddha: A lamp unto ourselves Meditation: Becoming simple and transparent Part III Widening our circle Chapter 12 Accepting the cycles of spiritual life Leaving retreat: Practice with transition Meditation: Reflecting on the cycles of yor spiritual life Chapter 13 No boundaries to the sacred The near enemies Meditation on compartments and wholeness Chapter 14 No self or true self? The nature of selflessness Misconceptions about selflessness From no self to true self The unique expression of true self Meditation: Who am I? Chapter 15 Generosity, codependence, and fearless compassion Meditation: Transforming sorrow into compassion Chapter 16 You can't do it alone: Finding and working with a teacher Chapter 17 Psychotherapy and meditation Chapter 18 The emperor's new clothes: Problems with teachers Naming the difficulties Why problems occur Transference and projection How to work with teacher-community problems The place of forgiveness Leaving a community Meditation: Reflecting on the shadow of your form of practice Chapter 19 Karma: The heart is our garden Meditation on forgiveness Chapter 20 Expanding our circle: An undivided heart Daily life as meditation Moving into the world Conscious conduct: The five precepts Reverence for life Meditation on service Undertakng the five recepts: Nonharming as a gift to the world Part IV Spiritual maturity Chapter 21 Spiritual maturity Chapter 22 The great song Our individual song within the great song A hundred thousands forms of awakening Meditation on equanimity Chapter 23 Englihtenment is intimacy with all things Appendix Insight meditation teachers code of ethics A treasury of books (bibliography) Glossary Unusual book that is open to Hinduism from the Buddhist point of view. Talks candidly about the harmful things that can happen to anyone seeking a spiritual path with a guide who is unscrupulous. Kornfield speaks about many naivete traits that doom a person to be destroyed by their manipulative "teacher". Not so valuable about the spiritual depths that one can enter and learn from as distinct from Catholicism's various mystical traditions. This book focuses more on what we Catholics call meditation techniques for the lower levels of prayer. Mystical knowledge of God is not the goal for Buddhism nor this book. For Catholicism, this is the whole direction of spiritual effort and energy. This book and the author focus on detaching from emotional states that can mar decisions and life directions. Understanding these tendencies that are individual to each of us is something valuable [in this book], including to all interested Roman Catholics. no reviews | add a review
Jack Kornfield's A Path with Heart has been acclaimed as the most significant book yet about American Buddhism-a definitive guide to the practice of traditional mindfulness in America today. On this audio edition, Kornfield teaches the key principles of Buddhism's cherished vipassana (insight) tradition, and puts them into direct service, with the unique needs of the contemporary seeker in mind. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)294.3444Religion Other religions Religions of Indic origin Buddhism Buddhism - practice Religious experience, life, practice Religious life and practiceLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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