Today’s Recommendation: The Path of Insight Meditation

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom:
The Path of Insight Meditation
by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield
★★★★ 1/2

In Seeking the Heart of Wisdom Goldstein and Kornfield present the central teachings and practices of insight meditation in a clear and personal language. The path of insight meditation is a journey of understanding our bodies, our minds, and our lives, of seeing clearly the true nature of experience. The authors guide the reader in developing the openness and compassion that are at the heart of this spiritual practice. For those already treading the path, as well as those just starting out, this book will be a welcome companion along the way.

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Today’s Recommendation: From Mindfulness to Insight

From Mindfulness to Insight:
Meditations to Release Your Habitual Thinking
and Activate Your Inherent Wisdom
by Rob Nairn
★★★★★

Building on mindfulness and self-compassion practices, this step-by-step guide to secular insight meditation shows the way to freedom from deeply rooted thought patterns.

Discover joy within yourself and heartfelt connection with others by releasing the habitual thought patterns that cause suffering and alienation. Drawing on Buddhist wisdom as well as the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, this book provides you with the tools needed to recognize the habits of thinking that fuel anger, desire, jealousy, and pride. Building on mindfulness and self-compassion practice, it offers a step-by-step series of guided meditations that create the conditions for liberating insight and wisdom to naturally arise. Thousands of people in the last decade have benefited from practicing the exercises in this book, which were developed and taught as part of the curriculum at the Mindfulness Association, an organization founded to deliver training in mindfulness, compassion, and insight.

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Today’s Recommendation: The Sun My Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Sun My Heart:
Reflections on Mindfulness,
Concentration, and Insight
by Thich Nhat Hanh
★★★★★

The Sun My Heart is one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s most beloved books. It was written as a sequel to Miracle of Mindfulness and contains the journey, on the path of everyday practice, from mindfulness to insight in an informational, conversational manner. Using the objects and events of everyday life in his hermitage in Plum Village—the gradual settling of the pulp in a glass of apple juice or the wind blowing into the room and scattering papers about—Thich Nhat Hanh draws from Buddhist psychology, epistemology, and the world of contemporary literature and science to guide the reader along the path of clarity and understanding.

This book can be read straight through, but is also designed to be opened randomly and experienced chapter by chapter, paragraph by paragraph. Thich Nhat Hanh suggests in the Introduction that The Sun My Heart "prefers to be a friend rather than a book. You can take it with you on the bus or subway as you do your coat or your scarf. It can give you small moments of joy at any time.

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Today’s Recommendation: Bodhipaksa’s Living as a River

Living as a River
by Bodhipaksa
★★★★★

"To face reality is to embrace change; to resist change is to suffer. This is the liberating insight that unfolds with Living as a River. A masterful investigation of the nature of self, this eloquent blend of current science and time-honored spiritual insight is meant to free us from the fear of impermanence in a world defined by change.”

“An interesting, lively, and genuinely illuminating teaching of dharma.” — Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

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Daily Insight: Joseph Goldstein: The Paradox of Suffering

“The wonderful paradox about the truth of suffering is that the more we open to it and understand it, the lighter and freer our mind becomes. Our mind becomes more spacious, more open, and happier as we move past our avoidance and denial to see what is true. We become less driven by compulsive desires and addictions, because we see clearly the nature of things as they are.”

― Joseph Goldstein,
Insight Meditation:
A Psychology of Freedom

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Daily Insight: Thich Nhat Hanh: A Real Love Letter

“A real love letter is made of insight, understanding, and compassion. Otherwise it's not a love letter. A true love letter can produce a transformation in the other person, and therefore in the world. But before it produces a transformation in the other person, it has to produce a transformation within us. Some letters may take the whole of our lifetime to write.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh, Your True Home:
The Everyday Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh:
365 days of practical, powerful teachings from
the beloved Zen teacher

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Words of Wisdom for Dec. 28, 2019: Joseph Goldstein: The Paradox of Suffering

“The wonderful paradox about the truth of suffering is that the more we open to it and understand it, the lighter and freer our mind becomes. Our mind becomes more spacious, more open, and happier as we move past our avoidance and denial to see what is true. We become less driven by compulsive desires and addictions, because we see clearly the nature of things as they are.”

― Joseph Goldstein,
Insight Meditation:
A Psychology of Freedom

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Words of Wisdom for Nov. 15, 2019: Joseph Goldstein Insight Meditation

“Imagine holding on to a hot burning coal. You would not fear letting go of it. In fact, once you noticed that you were holding on, you would probably drop it quickly. But we often do not recognize how we hold on to suffering. It seems to hold on to us. This is our practice: becoming aware of how suffering arises in our mind and of how we become identified with it, and learning to let it go. We learn through simple and direct observation, seeing the process over and over again until we understand.”

― Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation:
A Psychology of Freedom

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