A Path with Heart

Informationen zum Autor Jack Kornfield Klappentext "This important guidebook shows in detail and with 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 Hanh "Jack is helping to pave the path for American Buddhism, bringing essential basics into our crazy modern lives. And the language he uses is as simple and as lovely as our breath."-Natalie Goldberg 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. 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 experience. 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 achievement 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 every day of our lives. It is a wise and gentle guidebook for an odyssey into the soul that enables us to achieve a deeper, more satisfying life in the world. Zusammenfassung This important guidebook shows in detail and with 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 Hanh Jack is helping to pave the path for American Buddhism! bringing essential basics into our crazy modern lives. And the language he uses is as simple and as lovely as our breath.Natalie Goldberg 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. 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 profoundand sometimes humorousexperiences and gentle assistance will skillfully guide you through the obstacles and trials of spiritual and contemporary life to bring a clarity of perception an...

Autorentext

Jack Kornfield

Klappentext

"This important guidebook shows in detail and with 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 Hanh

"Jack is helping to pave the path for American Buddhism, bringing essential basics into our crazy modern lives. And the language he uses is as simple and as lovely as our breath."-Natalie Goldberg

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.

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 experience. 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 achievement 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 every day of our lives. It is a wise and gentle guidebook for an odyssey into the soul that enables us to achieve a deeper, more satisfying life in the world.

Leseprobe
1
 
DID I LOVE WELL?
 
 
Even the most exalted states and the most exceptional spiritual accomplishments are unimportant if we cannot be happy in the most basic and ordinary ways, if we cannot touch one another and the life we have been given with our hearts.
 
In undertaking a spiritual life, what matters is simple: We must make certain that our path is connected with our heart. Many other visions are offered to us in the modern spiritual marketplace. Great spiritual traditions offer stories of enlightenment, bliss, knowledge, divine ecstasy, and the highest possibilities of the human spirit. Out of the broad range of teachings available to us in the West, often we are first attracted to these glamorous and most extraordinary aspects. While the promise of attaining such states can come true, and while these states do represent the teachings, in one sense, they are also one of the advertising techniques of the spiritual trade. They are not the goal of spiritual life. In the end, spiritual life is not a process of seeking or gaining some extraordinary condition or special powers. In fact, such seeking can take us away from ourselves. If we are not careful, we can easily find the great failures of our modern society—its ambition, materialism, and individual isolation—repeated in our spiritual life.
 
In beginning a genuine spiritual journey, we have to stay much closer to home, to focus directly on what is right here in front of us, to make sure that our path is connected with our deepest love. Don Juan, in his teachings to Carlos Castaneda, put it this way:
 
Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself and yourself alone one question. Th…