Product Description

A major new work by the author of the classic A Path with Heart. Here, one of the leading spiritual teachers of our time offers a radical, positive approach to living in today's world

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4737 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-15
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Synopsis
For over 2000 years, Buddhist psychology has offered invaluable insights into the nature of the heart and mind, and transformed the way many people around the world handle life's challenges. But the ancient texts on which these remarkable teachings are based can be difficult to penetrate for modern seekers. Now, drawing on his experience as a monk trained in Thailand, Burma and India, as well as his expert psychology practice, Jack Kornfield provides an accessible, definitive guide for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.This important new work is in the tradition of his classic works "A Path with Heart" and "After the Ecstasy, the Laundry", offering practical tools to coping with modern life and dealing with emotions such as fear, anger and shame. Kornfield also shares the illuminating stories of his students and fellow practitioners, as well as his own journey towards enlightenment, including his recovery from a violence-filled childhood. Here is a rare treasure that will give readers greater access to the secret beauty within - and without.

About the Author
Jack Kornfield was trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India and has taught meditation worldwide since 1974. He was one of the key teachers to introduce Theravada Buddhist practice to the West, concentrating on bringing alive the great Eastern spiritual teachings for Western students. Jack also holds a PhD in clinical psychology. He is founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society and the Spirit Rock Center and lives with his wife and daughter in northern California.

Excerpted from The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West by Jack Kornfield. Copyright © 2008. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
In a large temple north of Thailand's ancient capital, Sukotai, there once stood an enormous and ancient clay Buddha. Though not the most handsome or refined work of Thai Buddhist art, it had been cared for over a period of five hundred years and become revered for its sheer longevity. Violent storms, changes of government, and invading armies had come and gone, but the Buddha endured. At one point, however, the monks who tended the temple noticed that the statue had begun to crack and would soon be in need of repair and repainting. After a stretch of particularly hot, dry weather, one of the cracks became so wide that a curious monk took his flashlight and peered inside. What shone back at him was a flash of brilliant gold! Inside this plain old statue, the temple residents discovered one of the largest and most luminous gold images of Buddha ever created in Southeast Asia. Now uncovered, the golden Buddha draws throngs of devoted pilgrims from all over Thailand.

The monks believe that this shining work of art had been covered in plaster and clay to protect it during times of conflict and unrest. In much the same way, each of us has encountered threatening situations that lead us to cover our innate nobility. Just as the people of Sukotai had forgotten about the golden Buddha, we too have forgotten our essential nature. Much of the time we operate from the protective layer.The primary aim of Buddhist psychology is to help us see beneath this armoring and bring out our original goodness, called our Buddha nature.

This is a first principle of Buddhist psychology:

1 See the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.

Robert Johnson, the noted Jungian analyst, acknowledges how
difficult it is for many of us to believe in our goodness.We more easily take our worst fears and thoughts to be who we are, the unacknowledged traits called our "shadow" by Jung. "Curiously," writes Johnson, "people resist the noble aspects of their shadow more strenuously than they hide the dark sides. . . . It is more disrupting to find that you have a profound nobility of character than to find out you are a bum."

Our belief in a limited and impoverished identity is such a
strong habit that without it we are afraid we wouldn't know how to be. If we fully acknowledged our dignity, it could lead to radical life changes. It could ask something huge of us. And yet some part of us knows that the frightened and damaged self is not who we are. Each of us needs to find our way to be whole and free.