Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #129384 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 264 pages

Synopsis
Throughout our lives we long to love ourselves more deeply and find a greater sense of connection with others. Our fear of intimacy - both with others and with ourselves - creates feelings of pain and longing. But these feelings can also awaken in us the desire for freedom and the willingness to take up the spiritual path. In this inspiring book, the author shows how the Buddhist path can help us discover the radiant, joyful heart within each one of us. The Buddha described the nature of such a spiritual path as "the liberation of the heart, which is love." Drawing on simple Buddhist teachings, wisdom stories from various traditions, guided meditation practices, and her own experiences, the author shows how each one of us can cultivate love, compassion, joy, and equanimity - the four "heavenly abodes" of traditional Buddhism.

Customer Reviews

Amazingly eye opening
This is one of the few books I would actually read over and over. It's incredibly down-to-earth and is full of great quotes you keep in mind all day long. It invites you to think about your perception of yourself and others in a very different light. There is so much common sense in the buddhist way of relating to each other, but we don't often use our common sense.

Crisp, fresh, uncompromising
This may be personal to me, but I tend to fear that books on this topic will be a bit drippy, nebulously positive feelgood items. Happily, Sharon Salzberg is a true teacher in the Theravadan tradition and helps me move towards lovingkindness as i think it was meant. As she presents it, lovingkindness is clarity about the flaws in the world, ourselves, other people. Lovingkindness is a compassionate non-denial of what things are like. Oddly, lovingkindness turns out to be the antidote to fear. It opens us up to the world, rather than trying to drape existence in pink positive soft-focus light. Open, loving, fearless, accurate, non-narrow, non-petty; we've got a lot to thank the Buddha for, and this is a truly wonderful exposition by Sharon Salzberg. She provides great stories, deep understanding and, critically, the kind of precise, technical meditation tips that are the blessing of the Theravadan tradition. There are a lot of solid, traditional metta practices straight from the canon summarised in here. A book that I will be mining for years.

A fantastic book, with practical meditations on compassion
I first came across this book in a monastery in Thailand, it can truly be life changing. It has practical meditations that help you learn forgiveness for yourself and others as well as greater compassion. I would recommend this book to anyone and frequently do :-)