3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Alexandra's Book Club, September 30, 2008
This review is from: After the Ecstacy, the Laundry (Paperback)
A wonderful client of mine reminded me in a recent session that I had recommended this book to him twice! Like the books I've previously reviewed for our online book club, this one is so full of wisdom I could re-read it every week and still learn from it. I am always looking for books that offer a practical focus for healing and ways to face day-to-day challenges through the lens of, hopefully, grace.
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, is by Jack Kornfield, author, meditation master, and co-founder of Spirit Rock, a meditation retreat in Marin County, California. This book is about how the modern spiritual journey unfolds. Most, if not all of you, aren't able to spend a few years sorting things out in silence on a mountaintop. The challenges of work and family, emotional pain, and our own imperfections require most of us to stick around and make a spiritual life around "real" life. In the introduction Kornfield asks, "What happens when the Zen master returns home to spouse and children? When the Christian mystic goes shopping?"
This book, through traditional tales and individual stories, shows ways to translate the excitement of discovering your spiritual path with making peace with the necessary "laundry" of our lives. "All spiritual life is preparation for transition, from one state to another, from one circumstance to another. The ability to make wise transitions is the ability to keep a beginner's mind. Change is not the enemy."
Yes, the book has a Buddhist orientation, but it also draws upon Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Sufi traditions. It's about our hearts, and how we can prepare them for a deeper experience of love and awakening. It's about truth, and the power of truth to heal and to make sense out of some of our hardest lessons. It's about acceptance of ourselves as we are. Yes, that!
So, I invite you to take this opportunity to read this funny and wise book and maybe even be willing to air that dirty laundry, openly and without judgment.
Alex
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you, Jack Kornfield, August 20, 2007
This review is from: After the Ecstacy, the Laundry (Paperback)
A year ago my son and I were in a terrible accident, and my son was hospitalized in Intensive Care for a month. I have spent the last 10 months in counseling and having very emotional ups and downs dealing with the aftermath. This book came highly recommended and I couldn't put it down. What a change it has made in my life! I have learned how to live my life with mindfulness and how to deal with the past and how better to cope with the pains that memories can bring. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs some guidence in finding their inner peace!
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Doing the Laundry, July 25, 2006
This review is from: After the Ecstacy, the Laundry (Paperback)
This book helped me so much. After having made progress in not allowing the daily difficulties of life to get me down, I found out that one event still had the effort to undo it all. This book explains how the spiritual path is not linear and that it is okay to have cycles. Spiritual growth is a process. I needed to hear it is okay not to be perfect and that even Christ had to do the laundry.
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