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A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life by Jack Kornfield
soldieroftheheart's review
A lot of guided meditations, which I was not interested in, and really in depth technical information about various types of meditation, which I also was not interested in. Floofy in nature, cotton candy imagery, difficult to read. I read about half of the book because I thought it might improve, but it did not.
christopher_dilts's review
5.0
This was an excellent book and a breath of fresh air. I was surprised to find out this was published so long ago. I listened to the audible version of this book and even the simply placid intonation of the reader was relaxing and soul quenching.
While it does not really introduce any novel concepts for me as far as well being and meditation, it did patiently reinforce my own foundation. My only qualm is connecting physical and mental wellness with the idea of spirituality, but thankfully the definition of this term is primarily patience, compassion, thankfulness, understanding and generosity.
This book is a must-read for anyone looking to create a reliable foundation for building meditation and self reflection into their own life.
While it does not really introduce any novel concepts for me as far as well being and meditation, it did patiently reinforce my own foundation. My only qualm is connecting physical and mental wellness with the idea of spirituality, but thankfully the definition of this term is primarily patience, compassion, thankfulness, understanding and generosity.
This book is a must-read for anyone looking to create a reliable foundation for building meditation and self reflection into their own life.
jameshaus's review
4.0
There are a lot of nice things written in this book about buddhism and how to use. However, the biggest utility was it gave me some things about buddhism and other mid-eastern religions to dislike and reject.
darbyart's review
I am going to read this slowly as I want to savor it and remember.
alexgsmith's review against another edition
“I wish I’d found this earlier” was a frequent thought while reading this, though ‘earlier’ I probably wouldn’t have. Since the book is intended as a guide in the development of a spiritual life that feels appropriate; how much you identify with and benefit from will depend on you.
The chapters cover a lot of ground, from establishing a practice, working with difficulties and cycles, altered states, the importance of and relationship with psychotherapy, living your practice, different ideas within traditions. Most chapters end with meditation exercises, which are useful complements to the text. The ideas are grounded in Buddhism broadly, but many different traditions and a range of other spiritual and religious sources are represented. The book is dense, but only in the sense that you’ll want to stop and reflect on pretty much every page, if not paragraph - the friendly, kind tone of the writing makes it very accessible, and really helps convey the sort of perennialist ‘heart’ in everything.
The chapter on dealing with problems with teachers suggests we can “take what’s good” and leave the rest, which is a useful mindset to apply to the book itself - not everything worked for me, but much did. One day, I’m sure I’ll return to this teacher and leave with new things.
The chapters cover a lot of ground, from establishing a practice, working with difficulties and cycles, altered states, the importance of and relationship with psychotherapy, living your practice, different ideas within traditions. Most chapters end with meditation exercises, which are useful complements to the text. The ideas are grounded in Buddhism broadly, but many different traditions and a range of other spiritual and religious sources are represented. The book is dense, but only in the sense that you’ll want to stop and reflect on pretty much every page, if not paragraph - the friendly, kind tone of the writing makes it very accessible, and really helps convey the sort of perennialist ‘heart’ in everything.
The chapter on dealing with problems with teachers suggests we can “take what’s good” and leave the rest, which is a useful mindset to apply to the book itself - not everything worked for me, but much did. One day, I’m sure I’ll return to this teacher and leave with new things.
When we consider loving well and living fully, we can see the ways our attachments and fears have limited us, and we can see the many opportunities for our hearts to open. Have we let ourselves love the people around us, our family, our community, the earth upon which we live? And, did we also learn to let go? Did we learn to live through the changes of life with grace, wisdom, and compassion? Have we learned to forgive and live from the spirit of the heart instead of the spirit of judgement?