Book Review: The Wise Heart
The Wise Heart, A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology, Jack Kornfield's latest work, is well worth a read, even if you have very little interest in the particularities of Buddhist Psychology. The book combines many lessons learned during the forty odd years he has been a practicing Buddhist with twenty-six principles of Buddhist Psychology that he has studied and help refine over those years. The result is a very practical map into a world that is both extraordinarily complex and profoundly simple.Kornfield teaches at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, and the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, Massachusetts. Those experiences gave him an enormous amount of anecdotal material to make these principles very clear and available to the average reader, while also making striking parallels to traditional western methodologies.
Interwoven throughout the book are stories from his own family life that are carefully crafted to add to our understanding of this discipline. At no time did I have the sense that I was reading an Oprahesque tell all - even though these personal stories spoke of some very difficult times in his life.
Also, Kornfield brings a number of his clients into the conversation. Normally I tend to skip over "case studies" in such books. They are usually much too long with more context than I want and less relevance than I need. In this book it is different. The "cases" are really brief, tightly focused vignettes that capture the essence of the principle being discussed. I was left with powerful personal sketches that continue to stay with me, and are very helpful in keeping the more abstract principles grounded.
The author does not shy away from difficult, and sometimes arcane, notions within the Buddhist psychological systems. There are the healthy and unhealthy states of desire, the eight levels of the jhana states "that open the door to illumination". Not to mention the "alchemy of transformation". Woven through entire book, though, is how mindfulness, compassion and lovingkindness are some of the essential tools we bring into any transformative relationship that might lead to an end to suffering.
Finally, at the end of each chapter Kornfield gives very clear practice instructions to activate these principles into everyday life. No doubt these are the same practices he suggests to his meditation students during retreats.
The eastern psychology systems - in tandem with many centuries of consciousness studies, ethical systems, and spiritual practices - are in many ways far more advanced than our western perspectives on the nature and function of emotions and thought processes. This is especially true when looking at human beings through lenses other than those provided by the DSM.
As an advanced practitioner in both eastern and western psychological traditions, Kornfield has added important new ways to approach many psychological questions, such as how we construct and make meaning of our world, the interplay of thinking and feeling, individual and social identity, reality and self as social constructs, and so forth. Questions that are at the forefront of many conversations that members of our community have every day.