A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life Paperback – June 1, 1993

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 to the technological complexity of today’s living.The Buddha spoke of one thing and one thing only: suffering and the end of suffering. Given today’s high levels of depression, suicide, drinking, smoking, drug addictions, pornography addiction, rape, murder, genocide and war, it’s safe to say that the vast majority of humans experience varying degrees of suffering and unhappiness. So the Buddha’s teachings are perhaps as relevant today as ever.Using today’s language, Jack Kornfield shares the enormous breadth and depth of this body of wisdom perhaps as best as it can be summarized in one book, and he does so in a remarkably elegant and beautiful way, the medium being the message. Indeed, it would be hard to find an author with a deeper understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. But it wasn’t always this way. As a child, he suffered at the hands of an abusive father and sought refuge and clarity in the east.He shares that the great challenges of modern society are consumerism, individual isolation and ambition. Though the first two are more obvious, the third one is perhaps less so since ours is a country that holds personal ambition in high regard. He provides deep insights like how the momentary satisfaction of buying a consumer good does not come from the acquisition but rather from the ending of wanting. He teaches that stopping the war within and stopping the war without and coming to rest in our heart is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice.His own journey of healing to a place of wholeness, peace and ease didn’t just come from thousands of hours of meditation. It was also a long and arduous process of reclaiming his emotions and healing through individual and group therapy. In the beginning, he felt satisfied that he had cultivated his mind to deal with difficulties, but in time he realized that to be truly awakened one must fully inhabit one’s animal body. This goes against our common understanding that cultivating the mind is enough.He writes about dealing with and naming difficulties, which can be the source of our awakening. He speaks of discovering selflessness and a healthy sense of self or true self. He writes about common everyday difficulties such as codependency and acting out old patterns of relating like fear and blame as well as finding a teacher to support us on our path. The book is both descriptive and prescriptive, mostly inspiring us to live the wisdom of the ancient teachings here and now.A Path With Heart could be summarized by Zen master Dogen who said, “To be enlightened is to be intimate with all things.” As it says in the Buddhist texts, “Awakening is not something newly discovered; it has always existed. There is no need to seek or follow the advice of others. Learn to listen to that voice inside yourself just here and now. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things. Do not doubt the possibilities because of the simplicity of these teachings. If you can’t find the truth right where you are, where else do you think you will find it?”Buy this book, you won’t regret it.As we know, Mark Twain advised us, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.”

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 knowledge, but since the way it presents Buddhist theory isn't systematic and often ends up dancing around the point through stories - and since it gets a bit fuzzy or inexact when explicating specific doctrine - my feeling is that it works best as an inspiring and poetic explication of a sort of activist Buddhist attitude to life. This, however, is only part of what I understand the Buddhist spirit to be: He mentions letting go of the world and of desire, but you don't get any deep understanding of what exactly this means or how it might help you. What you do get very forcefully are the parts of Buddhism that revolve around caring for others and the world.Another note of criticism for the skeptical reader could be that Kornfield frequently makes claims that appear to be paranormal. He credulously mentions things like developing the power of telekinesis or the remembrance of past lives. It is important to note however that he considers such abilities trifling when compared to the point of spiritual life: Healing and transforming the human heart. To be clear, I consider this a great book. If its sometimes inexact, and its spirit only captures part of Buddhism, the spirit of love that it does capture is captured in a way seldom seen in this world. It contains ideas that are interesting, valuable, useful, inspirational and beautiful. Everyone should read this book and benefit from it, and the fact that it is accessible to most readers makes it an even greater contribution to world literature. Kornfield has given a real gift to humanity.