A Heart Full of Peace Hardcover – October 28, 2007

"This small book conveys with clarity and concision some of the spiritual teachings and practices we urgently need to help balance the materialism of our age--compassion, love, kindness, a skillful mind, and a peaceful heart." (from the foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama)

"This small book reveals the need to combine faith with practice, freedom with responsibility, and action with contemplation...Grounded in the basic trainings of body, speech, and mind, this little text is illuminated by the kind of humor and personal insights that inspire even seasoned practitioners, while pithy practice guidelines keep the journey on track." (Eastern Horizon)

"In this short but substantive volume, Joseph Goldstein, who lectures and leads retreats around the world, presents his thoughts on the practice of compassion, love, kindness, restraint, a skillful mind, and a peaceful heart as an antidote to the materialism of our age." (Spirituality and Practice)

"In this new book, one can 'hear' Joseph Goldstein's characteristic voice--down-to-earth, good-humored, keenly interested in the play of mind." (Inquiring Mind)

"The absence of peace, says vipassana (insight) meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein, is why our minds and our world can spin out of control. Peace, he says in this very readable book, is the foundation for healing. Without it, he says, we cannot be of real help to others. Goldstein's writing, the poetry, haiku and passages by other teachers--the Dalai Lama, St. Francis of Assisi, Thich Nhat Hanh and others--are a fertile ground to inspire peace and gauge progress." (Arkansas Democrat Gazette)

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts, where he continues as one of the resident guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students, he established the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and, later, The Forest Refuge. A seminal figure in the emergence of Buddhism in the West, Joseph is the author of numerous books including One Dharma. He lives in Barre, Massachusetts.

Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He frequently describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. Born in northeastern Tibet in 1935, he was as a toddler recognized as the incarnation of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and brought to Tibet's capital, Lhasa. In 1950, Mao Zedong's Communist forces made their first incursions into eastern Tibet, shortly after which the young Dalai Lama assumed the political leadership of his country. He passed his scholastic examinations with honors at the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa in 1959, the same year Chinese forces occupied the city, forcing His Holiness to escape to India. There he set up the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, working to secure the welfare of the more than 100,000 Tibetan exiles and prevent the destruction of Tibetan culture. In his capacity as a spiritual and political leader, he has traveled to more than sixty-two countries on six continents and met with presidents, popes, and leading scientists to foster dialogue and create a better world. In recognition of his tireless work for the nonviolent liberation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. In 2012, he relinquished political authority in his exile government and turned it over to democratically elected representatives.

His Holiness frequently states that his life is guided by three major commitments: the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of interreligious harmony, and securing the welfare of the Tibetan people, focusing on the survival of their identity, culture, and religion. As a superior scholar trained in the classical texts of the Nalanda tradition of Indian Buddhism, he is able to distill the central tenets of Buddhist philosophy in clear and inspiring language, his gift for pedagogy imbued with his infectious joy. Connecting scientists with Buddhist scholars, he helps unite contemplative and modern modes of investigation, bringing ancient tools and insights to bear on the acute problems facing the contemporary world. His efforts to foster dialogue among leaders of the world's faiths envision a future where people of different beliefs can share the planet in harmony. Wisdom Publications is proud to be the premier publisher of the Dalai Lama's more serious and in-depth works.