Wise Heart,The:

448 pages

Experience the Transformational Power of Buddhism’s Psychology of the Heart with Bestselling Author Jack Kornfield

You have within you unlimited capacities for extraordinary love, for joy, for communion with life, and for unshakable freedom—and here is how to awaken them. In The Wise Heart, celebrated author and psychologist Jack Kornfield offers the most accessible, comprehensive, and illuminating guide to Buddhist psychology ever published in the West.

The Wise Heart is the fruit of a life’s work that includes such classics as A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. Filled with stories from Kornfield’s Buddhist psychotherapy practice and portraits of remarkable teachers, it also includes a moving account of his own recovery from a violence-filled childhood.  For meditators and mental health professionals, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, here is a vision of radiant human dignity, a journey to the highest expression of human possibility—and a practical path for realizing it in our own lives.

    (from the Introduction - in PDF format)

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1
Part I Who Are You Really?
    1 Nobility: Our Original Goodness 11
    2 Holding the World in Kindness: A Psychology of Compassion 22
    3 Who Looks in the Mirror? The Nature of Consciousness 35
    4 The Colorings of Consciousness 48
    5 The Mysterious Illusion of Self 61
    6 From the Universal to the Personal: A Psychology of Paradox 79
Part II Mindfulness: The Great Medicine
    7 The Liberating Power of Mindfulness 95
    8 This Precious Human Body 110
    9 The River of Feelings 124
  10 The Storytelling Mind 137
  11 The Ancient Unconscious 150
Part III Transforming The Roots Of Suffering
  12 Buddhist Personality Types 167
  13 The Transformation of Desire into Abundance 184
  14 Beyond Hatred to a Non-Contentious Heart 205
  15 From Delusion to Wisdom: Awakening from the Dream 222
Part IV Finding Freedom
  16 Suffering and Letting Go 241
  17 The Compass of the Heart: Intention and Karma 257
  18 Sacred Vision: Imagination, Ritual, and Refuge 274
  19 Behaviorism with Heart: Buddhist Cognitive Training 293
  20 Concentration and the Mystical Dimensions of Mind 308
Part V Embodying The Wise Heart
  21 A Psychology of Virtue, Redemption, and Forgiveness 331
  22 The Bodhisattva: Tending the World 352
  23 The Wisdom of the Middle Way 367
  24 The Awakened Heart 382
Related Readings 403
Permissions 409
Acknowledgments 411
Index 413

About the author:
Jack Kornfield, Ph.D. is a meditation teacher, author, and psychotherapist. After returning in 1972 from Asia, where he lived as a Buddhist monk for five years, Jack Kornfield cofounded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and obtained a doctorate in clinical psychology. His books include A Path with Heart; Seeking the Heart of Wisdom (with Joseph Goldstein); and Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart (with Christina Feldman). Dr. Kornfield currently lives with his wife and daughter near California's Spirit Rock Center, where he is a guiding teacher.

Customer Reviews:

Derived from a unique synthesis of personal anecdotes and the esoteric insights of Buddhist psychology, Jack Kornfield tactfully articulates the
often-inaccessible knowledge of eastern monasticism in a manner that relates to the turmoil faced by individuals in the secular world. By Infusing
warm humor with practical insights The Wise Heart serves as a guide to cultivating a mind of equanimity and love amongst an often ill-compassionate
society. Furthermore, by virtue of the text avoiding philosophical speculations and dogma, individuals of any faith tradition are able to benefit from
this highly transformative text. I would recommend it to anyone who strives to alleviate the suffering that is caused experiencing negative states of
mind!