Jack Kornfield's A Path with Heart: A Guide to Navigating the Challenges and Rewards of Spiritual Life

BJBLUNTZZ: Book was what I wanted worth money

Canada on Jul 16, 2023

Parker: I can't say enough about A Path With Heart. Few other singular sources have had so potent an impact on how I understand and relate to myself in the world. This book gave tangible context to many aspects of Being that I'd been struggling to integrate into real-life living.
I like to keep a spare copy around to give out whenever fancy strikes. After fiveish years of rereads, my copy is too marked-up with lil inspirations to lend out. Read it!

United States on Jun 10, 2023

Sheldon Nicholson: I've bought this for all of my most important friends, its a book you can come back to 100 times and still get something valuable out of it.

Hint: check out the audiobook version narrated by Jack Cornfield if you ever have trouble sleeping, guarantee you can't get through 10 minutes of that without falling asleep

Canada on Aug 06, 2022

Rasmus Nilsson: This book revolves around advice written for the student of Buddhism who has an active practice of meditation, and is most useful for beginners to Buddhism who have already heard or read the basics and either already have or are interested in getting into meditation. It would however be deceptive to say that the book is a meditation manual; rather, it is a book of general Buddhist wisdom, useful to anyone interested in living a life of wholeness, compassion and peace - whether atheist or spiritual practicioner. It explains some of the basic Buddhist views on how life is to be lived, why, and how all of this connects to transforming oneself into a happier, more functioning individual, and connects to meditation mostly in that it assumes meditation to be part of that practice of transformation.

The book is however not a book of clear explication of basic Buddhist doctrine, which is why I recommend it mainly either for people who already have a basic idea of the rudiments of Buddhism, or for people who are interested in absorbing some wisdom of life without really caring so much about the specifics of what Buddhism says. It works well as a source of wisdom without prior...

United States on Feb 03, 2021

Ryan Delaney: If the number of times someone has read or listened to an audio book is any indication, then A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield must be one of my favorite books. I’ve listened to it dozens of times over the past thirteen years, and I still find myself learning something new with every listen.

For those who don't know him, Jack Kornfield is a meditation teacher and psychologist who is one of the founders of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin county. He spent several years studying as a monk in Asia, has a PhD in psychology, and as of the writing of this book, had been practicing and studying meditation and Buddhism for over twenty five years.

Though grounded in Buddhist psychology, the principles of spiritual practice the book touches upon are universal. At its core, the book speaks to the possibility of living a genuine spiritual practice in our every day lives. That is to say, to discover an enduring well-being and happiness here and now.

You may be wondering how is it possible to reconcile the ancient teachings of the Buddha with the ways of our modern life. After all, the relative simplicity of life twenty five hundred years ago is in stark contrast...

United States on Apr 19, 2018

Jenny Shaw: Jack Kornfield is a great believer in lineage and tradition. He thinks that all spiritual paths are of equal value as long as they are established traditions. He would like us to believe that what he is telling us is part of an ancient tradition. That's not true though.
The practices outlined in his books seem to be an amalgam between two Buddhist traditions, neither of which are ancient. His understanding of vipassana seems to come from one of the two Burmese traditions, that of Mahasi Sayadaw (the other Burmese tradition, that of U Ba Khin, seems to be ignored completely). Neither Mahasi nor U Ba Khin taught the use of the jhanas. So where did his teachings on the jhanas come from? We can only assume they came from the Thai forest tradition. We know that he spent time both in Burma and Thailand.
So the spiritual practices he promotes seem to be a combination of Mahasi style vipassana together with Thai jhana traditions. This seems to me as good a practice as any other, but why doesn't Kornfield spell out where his ideas come from? Probably because he wants us to think that this is some ancient tradition going back to the time of the Buddha. It's what the Buddha taught,...

United Kingdom on Nov 24, 2016

deli alman: ...das ist eine Situation, die wohl jeder kennt, der sich über Jahre einer Praxis widmet. Nicht wenige springen ganz ab. Für die aber, die dabei bleiben wollen und eine Phase der Desorientiertheit erleben, ist dieses Buch eine große Hilfe. Jack Kornfield ist tief in den Buddhismus eingetaucht. Sein Weg, die ihn schon in den Siebzigern in Mönchsrobe nach Asien führte, nahm eine drastische Wendung, als er in die Zivilisation Amerikas zurückkehrte. Er beschreibt im Vorwort die absurde Situation, wie er in der Robe auf der Suche nach seiner Schwägerin in einen Schönheitssalon ging -- das Aufeinandertreffen des Kahlgeschorenen im Safrangewand mit Damen in Bademänteln mit Creme-Masken und Gurkenscheiben im Gesicht. Alle Situationen im Leben können komisch sein, alle sind aber auch Ausdruck unserer eigenen Wahrnehmung. Die Umfelder seines Weges sind auch Stufen der Bewusstwerdung. Dieser führt ihn in der Folge über die Beziehungen auf den Weg des Herzens. Ohne sich selber zu schonen, beschreibt er seine Defizite, lässt den Leser sich selber verzeihen, bevor er sich selbst erkannt hat, bietet ihm praktische Hilfen und geistige Übungen an, die auf diesem Weg nützlich sein...

Germany on Dec 03, 2012

tim: Jack Kornfield is a wise man who has trained as a buddhist monk in Thailand in early adult life and then went on to train as a psychologist in USA. He has expertise in both ways of seeing the world, east and west,newtonian and quantum consciousness. He collaborates widely with Stan Grof and is an expert in non ordinary states of consciousness. These qualities are obvious in this beautifully written book. Spare concise prose. No nonsense buddhist thought. He spells out the pitfalls of new age muddled thinking. He's clear about the importance of developing ego function before transcending ego. He gives a clear account of side effects, spiritual emergencies and the vicissitudes of the path. He gives an encouraging and relaxed account of the attempts to calm the chattering mind. Above all his heart illuminates his intellect. This is an excellent book - the best I've come across by a westerner. Up there with the the tibetan book of living and dying.

United Kingdom on Feb 06, 2007