Customer Reviews

The Beginner's Guide to Forgiveness: How to Free Your Heart and Awaken Compassion

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Up front, I admit I love almost everything Jack Kornfield recorded. But this CD is very important for our modern world. "Forgiveness" is not going to be a hot topic or best seller, I suppose. Most people are more focused on punishing the people they're angry at. Yet Kornfield tells stories on the CD that touch my heart in powerful ways. I repeated a few for my friend, who's not into Buddhism or meditation, and he was so moved that he had to stop for a few minutes to think about how different the world would be if we had "temples of forgiveness" as Kornfield says. Kornfield includes a meditation on forgiveness and a meditation on lovingkindness (metta). I practice both daily, and my heart has opened more as a result.

I listen to CDs while commuting. It is really neat to be stuck in a traffic jam while listening to Jack Kornfield. It still does not make being stuck in traffic fun, but it makes anxiety feel silly.

Forgiveness is a tough subject, especially true forgiveness of one's own deeds is difficult. And true forgiveness (in contrast to fabricating excuses) lies at the core of this teaching. One sentence I have really enjoyed said (approximately): "To practice forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past."

Jack Kornfield is easy to listen to, he tells us stories that point clearly to the heart. To your heart and the heart of the matter. I highly recommend this audio CD. Other Jack Kornfield favorites of mine are "The Roots of Buddhist Psychology" and "Buddhism for Beginners."

This audiobook is wonderfully titled THE beginner's GUIDE TO FORGIVENESS, since we are, after all, all beginners in the realm of forgiveness.

Etymologically, forgiveness means "to give first" and Kornfield's forgiveness training is all about giving, whether to our enemies, our friends and relatives, or ourselves.

Some of Kornfield's forgiveness stories are so poignant that they caused me to weep. Some are unbelievable, or would be, but for the fact that, after having lived long enough, nothing is unbelievable.

And nothing is unforgivable.

This is an important life's lesson, and, as the spoken word, THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FORGIVENESS has a far more powerful sense of immediacy than would it as the printed word.

This is my third Jack Kornfield audio. Others I have heard are very well done and helpful (Path with Heart, After the Ecstasy...). This is no exception. I appreciate this program is shorter than some of the others. Lots of well-told, wonderful stories on forgiveness.

Easy to listen too. Wisdom that everyone should review from time to time. More about forgiving others, than about forgiving oneself. But the application is in there. I found it enjoyable and something I could share with other people. As a christian I think he makes forgiveness more clear than I have heard in many a sermon.