Awake Mind, Open Heart: The Power of Courage and Dignity in Everyday Life [Paperback]

Cynthia Kneen (Author), David Schneider (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 2002

Twenty-five years ago renowned Tibetan Buddhist meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche introduced teachings of the Shambhala warrior tradition—teachings that show how we could live as enlightened citizens and help create an advanced society based on fearlessness and non-aggression. Now Awake Mind, Open Heart makes these teachings accessible to the widest possible audience. Author Cynthia Kneen, who has conducted Shambhala Training workshops for more than twenty years, shows us how to develop personal power through direct, genuine experience and how to cultivate natural bravery, authenticity, and gentleness. Directed especially to readers new to Shambhala Buddhism, she also teaches how to develop genuine dignity by connecting to the strength and wisdom of the world as it is, and how to transform fear into fearlessness. This is an invaluable introduction to these ancient Tibetan teachings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shambhala is both a legendary, quasi-mythical kingdom loosely akin to Shangri-la, and also a system of teachings on "how to manifest dignity and human power in everyday life." Kneen, a teacher of meditation programs, asserts that Shambhala has existed through the centuries as a kind of gnostic, secret knowledge within elite Buddhist circles. Shambhala does not, however, emphasize traditional Buddhist tenets such as impermanence, interconnectedness or even the teachings of the historical Buddha himself. As Kneen outlines in the first several chapters, Shambhala instead revolves around recognizing and trusting the basic goodness of the world and of oneself. This process is aided by meditation, and Kneen provides some practical tips on how to meditate. Next, she describes how daunting obstacles, both internal and external, can be faced with a warrior spirit by rousing a special inner vitality called "windhorse," which leads to intense personal power and dignity regardless of outside circumstances. This, in turn, allows one to open up to the world and to begin building a better society. Kneen provides many personal examples of her own experiences with Shambhala, and these are often amusing and memorable. The writing, however, is frequently longwinded, and later chapters tend toward a vague assertion of spiritual principles rather than the specificity that makes the earlier chapters focused and accessible. This is an informative introduction to Shambhala, though many readers will find it falls short of the author's stated goal of allowing them to make a personal connection with Shambhala's teachings.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"I could feel how many hearts and minds will be awakened to service by this gracious and wise gift." -- Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World and Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

"This is a wise and eloquent work. Since reading Awake Mind, Open Heart, my practice has clearly deepened." -- Douglas Cooper, M.D. author of Doctors are Dangerous

"Under Kneen’s tutelage, every event in life becomes an opportunity to discover one’s genuine, human dignity." -- Lloyd Sargeant, executive vice president of Full Spectrum Lending, Countrywide, Inc.

"[This book] reveals a well articulated understanding of the newly emerging Shambhala teachings as taught by the late Trungpa Rinpoche." -- Tsultrim Allione, author of Women of Wisdom and founder of Tara Mandala

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (December 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569245517
• ISBN-13: 978-1569245514
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #503,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cultivating wisdom in today's world, May 12, 2003

By 

Andrew Joseph (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Awake Mind, Open Heart: The Power of Courage and Dignity in Everyday Life (Paperback)

When I was growing up, I never heard anyone talk about wisdom. Knowledge and skills were held to be within our reach, but "wisdom" was something for philosophers, not ordinary people like us. Cynthia Kneen's book is a wisdom book. It is a treasure chest of ideas and stories that demonstrate how each of us can work toward realizing our hearts' most cherished visions in everyday life. Its basic structure is to introduce, in a logically coherent way, a system of teachings known as Shambhala Buddhism. In this regard, you could say it is an intellectual text, one demanding of the reader both concentration and reflection. At the same time, the book contains such poignant and varied anecdotes as to touch even the most skeptical heart. It also relates its teachings to the lives of spiritual warriors readers are already likely to be familiar with, such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and Rosa Parks. On an NPR radio show, Kneen once heard a new immigrant to the US say, "My dream is to have my family live in a peaceful situation, educate my children, contribute to my community and larger society, and help reduce the destructive forces in the world." Whereas my own family have been citizens for four generations, this is my dream, too. Kneen's book reminds me that the resources for realizing this dream exist within ourselves and the diverse world we share. It encourages me to stay true to the yearnings of my youth, confident that I have countless allies who have never given up on human goodness.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lightening Strikes!, March 29, 2003

By 

Perry Brissette - See all my reviews

This review is from: Awake Mind, Open Heart: The Power of Courage and Dignity in Everyday Life (Paperback)

This book is for anyone who has ever had the sense that their life might be a path of continual unfolding to the profoundity of being alive, awake, right here, just as we are... Not only has Cynthia Kneen written a classic book on the teachings of Shambhala and a masterful tribute to her main teacher, Ven. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, but she reveals how her own life has been a true example of a commitment to the practice of meditation and warriorship. She shows us the ground, path and fruition of the way toward bravery, a continual willingness to be stay open, no matter what life throws at us. She shows how this simple path of bravery can be ordinary, mundane, day-to-day. Yet sometimes it can manifest with surprise, power, and magic, like lightening striking all around you! This is arguably the greatest book on the Shambhala teachings since Jeremy Hayward's Sacred World. It goes to the heart of Shambhala Buddhism.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Balance, January 25, 2003

By 

douglas cooper (Kailua, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Awake Mind, Open Heart: The Power of Courage and Dignity in Everyday Life (Paperback)

In her book Awake Mind, Open Heart, Ms. Kneen wonderfully sets forth the image of the Shambhala warrior, Buddhist yet imbued with that pro-active spirit that distinguishes itself from (the admittedly sterotypic image) of the the monk in the cave or even the layperson going about their daily Buddhist business.
Ms. Kneen's writing posseses the intellectual clarity found in academic treatises with the sense of ecstasy and compassion found in art and poetry.The discussion of mindfullness-awareness in particular, a concept that continues to confuse and lose me, is the best I've read...