For anyone seeking answers during a time of trial or confusion, Kornfield offers "A Lamp in the Darkness," a new book and CD program filled with spiritual and psychological insights, hope-giving stories, and special guided meditations to skillfully navigate life's inevitable storms.
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For anyone seeking answers during a time of trial or confusion, Kornfield offers "A Lamp in the Darkness," a new book and CD program filled with spiritual and psychological insights, hope-giving stories, and special guided meditations to skillfully navigate life's inevitable storms.
Read Less
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There are many books offering a variety of religious perspectives on dealing with the inevitable tragedies and disappointments of life, such as death, illness, divorce, loss of a loved one, loss of a job or means of support and more. Jack Kornfield's upcoming book, "A Lamp in the Darkness: Illuminating the Path Through Difficult Times" (2011) offers a path through difficulties based upon Buddhist teachings and a program of directed meditation. Kornfield (b. 1945) is one of the leading United States teachers of meditation. Kornfield holds a PhD in clinical psychology and is the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He has written extensively about Buddhism and meditation.
I received this book while in the middle of reading a difficult and lengthy new study by Johnathan Israel of the history of Enlightenment in the 17th Century. The philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza is one of Israel's heroes and one of my own. "Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights, 1750-1790". I had to consider the seeming contrast between the two books: Israel's in praise of the development of secularization and Kornfield's religious, Buddhist treatment of human suffering. One of the virtues of Kornfield's account is that, while unmistakably Buddhist in orientation, there is little in the book that cound not be read with benefit and without conflict by followers of a different religion or by secular individuals. Most of this book cuts across religious lines or across distinctions between secular and religious approaches to life. Even the French Encyclopediastes that Israel discusses may have approved!
Kornfield's short book consists of ten short chapters together with an accompanying CD of about 80 minutes that includes six guided meditations. A guided meditation is one in which the leader speaks and provides direction to the people meditating as opposed to the meditators simply sitting in silence. The meditations here are between 8 and 16 minutes in length, spoken by Kornfield himself, and offer clear, insightful direction. The meditations cover the first eight chapters of the book, with the topics titled, "The Earth is my Witness", "Shared Compassion", "Buddha in Difficulties", "The Practice of Forgiveness", "The Temple of Healing", and "Equanimity and Peace." The words of each meditation also are presented in the text of the book. In the early chapters, Kornfield offers introductory remarks, followed by the text of the meditation, and a conclusion.
Kornfield's approach, and I think the Buddhist approach, finds the way to responding to adversity in oneself. Through reflection and compassion, each individual may find that the "Lamp in the Darkness" is oneself, at one's best and truest. The introspective, personal focus, I think, allows meditation practice to coexist with religious or secular beliefs. Meditation, for Kornfield, offers a path for awakening the self, realizing the beauties and frailties of life, and developing compassion for oneself and for others. Each chapter and accompanying meditation offer its own way towards understanding and move from particular qualities to the more general underlying quality of peace and equanimity.
I approached the book by reading each chapter and then pausing to hear the related meditation on the CD. Then I read through the book without the CD and listened to the CD through without the book. These were appropriate ways to approach the book on a first reading and for purposes of a short review. Readers will likely want to work through the book slowly and to return to one or another of the guided meditations several times.
Kornfield writes simply and well, and the book includes many allusions to famous figures and writers together with stories that illminate the themes. The final two chapters in the book on "Your Highest Intention" and on "The Four Foundations of Mindfulness and the Healing Journey" are essay-length and underlie the guided meditations offered in earlier chapters. In the last chapter, Kornfield quotes extensively from a Yale surgeon's account of his experience with the Dalai Lama's personal Tibetan physician, Dr Yeshe Dhonden. The American surgeon's story illuminates an approach to healing that is often overlooked. Among many other things, Kornfield also ties his account of understanding adversity with the great English poet William Blake. Kornfield quotes the following passage from Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" on the understanding of the nature and interrelated character of the emotions:
"It is right it should be so
Man was made for joy and woe
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine
A clothing for the soul divine
And under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine."
Kornfield points out that for Blake, as for the teachings Kornfield offers, "joy and sorrow are woven together; you can't have one without the other. You can't have birth without death, or pleasure without pain, or hot without cold, nor light without dark. Our feelings and emotions of joy and sorrow are ever-changing, like a river." (p. 82)
I am a member of a long-standing Buddhist study group in which the participants take turns facilitating discussions of different aspects of Buddhist practice in everyday life. I was at a loss at what to present for my turn until I received and read this book. I plan on presenting Kornfield's guided meditation CD from the book to the group in the near future.
I am grateful that this book was made available to readers and reviewers through the Amazon Vine Program.
Robin Friedman
Gwen D
Nov 22, 2012
ILLUMINATION
Jack Kornfield is the clearest teacher of peace and meditation currently on the planet. His wisdom is exceeded only by his ability to communicate in the simplest yet deepest language. And that language itself is outstripped only by his spiritual generosity.
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