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After The Ecstasy, The Laundry
 
 

After The Ecstasy, The Laundry [Kindle Edition]

Jack Kornfield
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Jack Kornfield, one of America's most beloved teachers of meditation, assures us that enlightenment does occur on the spiritual path but warns that it is not the end of the road. Bringing his thoughts to a personal level, Kornfield looks up many of the notable spiritual teachers of our times (Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Sufi, etc.) and presents extended quotations of their trials and epiphanies. These anecdotes are woven together with fables and ruminations from Kornfield's own decades-long experience as a practitioner and teacher, creating an image of the spiritual life as challenging, multidimensional, rewarding, and, yes, mundane. In the old days in China, Zen monks were encouraged to travel for instruction under a variety of masters. Here, Kornfield introduces us to today's masters, but off their podiums, as equals. Genuine experiences of awakening, despair, fault, serious transgression, and simple childlike joy all appear as bridges on the way to the divine. After the Ecstasy, the Laundry is not just another inspirational bestseller, it is a lasting record of concrete insights forged from the fires of dedicated practice. --Brian Bruya

Book Description

A major new book from the author of A PATH WITH HEART,

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 477 KB
  • Print Length: 338 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0712606580
  • Publisher: Ebury Digital (26 Dec 2008)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B0031RDUUG
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #27,862 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Did you hear the joke about the keen Zen student?

As we all visit the Laundrette of life at some time, some of us will hang around reading the magazines. There is more wisdom in this book than all the Laundrette magazines put together. And there is humour.

I was impressed when I read "A Path with Heart" the last book written by Jack Kornfield. It would, I thought be difficult to surpass this achievement.

So here is a book that has even more clarity. There are wise stories from Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism. In between teachers give personal accounts of their spiritual journey and when the author describes his own life stories I was fascinated by his experience.

He writes about a spirituality grounded in the body, intimately connected with feelings and engaged in the world.

This is a book you can read quickly and return to often. It is moving and challenging in places. And there is humour.

It will become a classic.

So what are you waiting for?

Oh I almost forget.... So there was this eager zen student who arrives at the temple and says "I want to join the Community and work to attain enlightenment. How long will it take me?" "Ten years" replies the master. "Well how about if I really work hard and double my efforts?" "Twenty years". "Hey just a moment that's not fair! Why did you double it?" "In your case," says the master "I'm afraid it will be thirty years."

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I love this book. It sits by my bed and I often dip into it and it always helps me to get myself into perspective. Some Buddhist texts are a bit hard for me to get my western head around but Jack has done the digesting for me and it makes perfect,resonant sense the way he puts it. Simple messages come through to me like - this is all there is but isn't it good? He describes the progress of the spiritual journey -its many ups and downs, the fabulous revelations and awakenings, the doldrums when you feel you are not getting anywhere and perhaps it's all crap anyway..... It's all a part of Life. The bells and whistles are great but they are not the point of the exercise. I am who I am and will continue to be,even if I am a slightly more enlightened me than I was last week. Thanks Jack for this heart warming ,beautifully crafted and profound book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Poor binding
The reviews for this book praise the book's written contents, and I would agree with most of what has been said. Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. V. Short
After The Ecstacy, Then The Laundry
This is for all those that thought they had 'lost the path' or had had to put 'spirituality' on the back burner while they paid the mortgage and fed the grandchildren.. Read more
Published 5 months ago by spangled drongo
Broad and considered view
I loved this book. I bought it having just attended a 5 day Zen meditation retreat and having had an amazing and enlightening experience when there - in terms of 're-entry' this... Read more
Published 15 months ago by kimblacklion
A book that helps to rid illusions in sprititual practice
Jack Kornfield is a truly advanced commentator when it comes to spiritual practice. It is very skilfully pointed out that there is no permanent state of enlightenment, no... Read more
Published 21 months ago by G. Ma
A Wonderful and Comforting book
This book is great for those of us who are hard on ourselves. Kornfield repeatedly shows the difficulties that all of us face on the path to acceptance. Read more
Published on 8 April 2010 by T.L.C.
Excellent read
Jack Kornfield is one of the great teachers on mindfulness, insight meditation and beautifully conveys the essence of the Buddha's teachings. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2010 by Peter Strong
After the Ecstacy, The Laundry
For those who follow a spiritual practice, this is unbelievably valuable. This tells what happens after enlightenment, which is not often discussed. Read more
Published on 9 Nov 2009 by Dale N. Le Fevre
....'the stormy journey of the soul' needs companion books like...
How's this for an image of unity and diversity ? "While helicopter gunships flew by and (the Vietnam) war raged around them, Buddha and Jesus stood there like brothers.... Read more
Published on 2 July 2009 by Anne Whitaker
a collection of questions
is what this book leaves me with. I was lent it by a friend and when I saw that it was written with copious examples of stories from different spiritual traditions I did not think... Read more
Published on 26 Jun 2001
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What became clear is that spiritual practice is only what youre doing now. Anything else is a fantasy. &quote;
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My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes . . . most of which never happened. &quote;
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Gaining enlightenment is an accident. Spiritual practice simply makes us accident-prone. &quote;
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