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Summary: Affirmation of the value of daily spiritual practice
Review: The book could be summed up as, "After the Ecstasy IS the Laundry." It affirms the value of daily prayer and meditation that leads to the desire to serve others. Kornfield is a Buddhist bridge-builder who acknowledges the connections all faiths share to the Divine.
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Summary: i swear kornfield is reading my mind . . . . .
Review: this book has been my guiding star for months now, as i try to sort through a major spiritual shift in my life, and what to do with it now.seems like whenever i'm really puzzling over a question, i open the book, and there it is, exactly what's been on my mind -- as though the author's following me around, peering into my head. it's uncanny!! using anecdotal experiences of people of many faiths, in many countries, kornfield shows us how difficult it can be to apply our spiritual learning to our daily lives, whether we live at home with an ailing parent, or in community in a religious setting. then he helps us to bridge that gap, to apply our ecstasy to our mundane existence, our work, our family relationships. his stories are brief, concise, humorous, and always enlightening. he does not blather on and on. he has great compassion for all our human foibles, and isn't afraid to share a few of his own. i strongly recommend this book to ANYONE who has a spiritual life, in any faith. you'll love it!!
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Summary: After the Ecstasy the Laundry
Review: This is a book primarily about the experience of persons who have traveled the spiritual adventure. They are presented as very human and not like gods at all. This gives hope and encouragement to the rest of us who often after a weekend seminar or month long retreat on returning to the frustrations of the "real" world pause to wonder whether or not the time spent silently studying, listening,visualizing or meditating really produced any meaningful change. I found the book did not put mystics, spiritual masters and the like on a pedestal, rather it showed us that these people have similar reactions to the day to day events of everyday life like the rest of us with perhaps more understanding and tolerance. The many quotations and poetry from esteemed persons such as Rumi,Ryokan and others are worth the price of the book itself. Although dealing with a very serious topic Kornfield weaves a sense of humor throughout the book and gives us a sense of what it is like to seriously undertake a spiritual journey. Go and buy this book.
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Summary: "The end of all our exploring...."
Review: Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time" T.S. Eliot These simple words by Eliot, quoted in Kornfield's book, are reflective of the wholistic yet simple messages in this wonderful book. Once we find what we are looking for, if we ever do, what happens then? Who does the laundry? Great quotes and messages from those well along "the journey."
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Summary: What happens after awakening?
Review: Zen stories and Buddhist tales all seem to end with someone becoming enlightened. What happens after that? You never find out. You get the impression that they live in bliss and happiness forever after, and yet you know somehow that can't be true. Jack Kornfield interviewed a lot of people who have awakened, most of them highly accomplished teachers and abbots and lamas, most of them born and raised in the West (but trained in the East), and you get to hear them tell you what life is like after enlightenment. I thought an enlightened person never got angry or afraid or sad. I didn't even realize I held such perfectionistic misconceptions until I noticed this book shattering them. After the Ecstasy is generously sprinkled with the actual words, sometimes half a page or a page long, of people who have been meditating 15, 30, even 40 years. You'll find out what brought them to the meditative path to begin with, and what they've learned along the way. It's fascinating. There are lots of good anecdotes in this book; interesting and illuminating anecdotes (most of them are true stories). In many Buddhist and Zen books, you read the same stories again and again in different books, but here you find fresh stories, some ancient, some modern, and all very good. Jack Kornfield is first and foremost a meditation teacher, so woven throughout the book is plenty of good coaching. The meditative path is difficult, and good teaching is vital. I'm the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, so I've specialized in knowing the difference between teachings that help and those that are merely interesting. In After the Ecstasy, you'll find interesting reading material AND coaching that will truly help you in your practice.
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