Review
"Extraordinarily good....A saving grace." --
--Ashley Montagu, author of TouchingAfter reading Welwood's book, you come away refreshed because
Journey of the Heart is a handbook on life. --
Peninsula Times Tribune, February 10, 1991As our spiritual growth brings new awareness to our lives, it also brings up deeper questions, not the least of which concerns our love relationships. John Welwood explores intimate relationships in depth, with insight and eye-opening wisdom. This is no dry treatise of 'shoulds' and 'oughts'-- it's an 'Aha!' experience every step of the way. --
Body Mind Spirit, June, 1991John Welwood has created a truly classic text for those seeking a deeply fulfilling relationship. With extraordinary insight and consummate writing skill, he charts a pioneering course in Journey of the Heart. Fortunately, this unique book does not provide the traditional easy answers or quick fixes; it gives instead superb suggestions for joining in the most powerful and spiritual union possible.
Journey of the Heart may be the best book ever written about relationships-- a must read for spiritual seekers. --
Personal Pathways, Winter, 1993What a delight to read this thoughtful, inspiring, ambitious book... This book is a gem...[It] is highly utilitarian, intellectually satisfying and inspiring. It can help us get through the day and glimpse the sacred. --
Common Boundary, January, 1991Where can we go to find serious and informed reflection on the turbulent and confused waters beneath our search for intimacy, our deep human need for a life companion, a soul-mate, a lover? I have found such a place, in the pages of John Welwood's new book, Journey of the Heart. Alongside so much simplistic nonsense written about relationships, this book stands out as a poetically-written, wisdom-filled guide to a deeper understanding of the desires and directions of the human heart. How rare and satisfying it is to find such a book, which takes seriously the reader's desire for truth and light in the perplexing area of intimate relationships. --
Pilgrimage, September, 1990
From the Back Cover
PRAISE FOR JOURNEY OF THE HEART
This is an extraordinarily good book, because it goes to the heart of the matter of human relationships. In a world in which so many live in crowded solitude, and are afraid of intimacy or have difficulty understanding it, John Welwood's
Journey of the Heart comes as a saving grace. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't greatly benefit from experiencing it, for it is a rare, enriching, and exhilarating experience. (Ashley Montagu, author of Touching).
Journey of the Heart is a profound and wonderful book. It is a spiritual text on intimate relationship that is grounded in real life, and an inspiration for anyone who believes that a committed relationship can be a process through which two individuals grow." (Jean Shinoda Bolen, author of Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman), I am impressed with John Welwood's thinking about critical issues in relationships and his attempt to ground relationship issues in a larger, transpersonal framework. I agree with his view that difficulties provide us with opportunities to grow, to expand our sense of self, and to connect with others in deeper ways. I enjoyed and appreciated that he sees relationships in the larger context of reality and attempts to ground the ordinary in the transcendent realm. What makes this book helpful is that he offers practical processes which can be used to help persons in conflicted relationships... He offers a conceptual and practical pathway from the ordinary experience of everyday conflicts and issues to spiritual evolution. I heartily endorse his efforts. (Harville Hendrix, author of Getting the Love You Want).
A fabulous book, a deep and profound and caring book, from the Heart, and about the Heart. Required reading for anybody interested in true relationship. Highly recommended! (Ken Wilber, author of A Brief History of Everything).
John Welwood's Journey of the Heart is a very timely and helpful book that shows how both women and men benefit from relations based on partnership rather than domination. (Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade).
This book teaches one how to take up an inner position from which one can begin to work on one's most intractable feelings in relation to another person-- so that they become a path of self-development for both individuals. (Eugene Gendlin, author of Focusing).
INSIDE FLAP: Journey of the Heart offers a new approach to intimate relationships-- as a path, an unfolding process of personal and spiritual discovery whose challenges awaken our deepest strengths and resources.
As men and women find that they can no longer rely on old roles and formulas to get along, intimate relationship calls for a new kind of honesty and awareness, a willingness to let go of old patterns and cultivate new powers and sensitivities.
Journey of the Heart shows how we can meet this challenge by learning to use whatever difficulties we are facing in relationships as opportunities to expand our sense of who we are and deepen our capacity to connect with others. By inviting us to bring together life's basic polarities-- male and female, individuality and commitment, love and fear-- relationships teach us to move gracefully with life's mystery and unpredictability. When we appreciate our relationships in this way-- as teachers-- they become both a personal path that refines and transforms us as individuals and a sacred one as well, allowing us to tap into the larger powers of life.
Journey of the Heart takes a sweeping and penetrating look at the most challenging areas of relationship-- passion, vulnerability, need, commitment, disillusion and heartbreak, conflict and communication, male/female differences, sexuality, and marriage-- to show how the greatest difficulties also provide the greatest opportunities for growth, new awareness, and a deeper connection with ourselves, with others, and with life itself.
