book, A path with heart

A path with heart (A guide through the perils and promises of spiritual life)

by Jack Kornfield, 1993

The author is an American Buddist. He wrote this book to share his 10 years’ experience, how he struggled back to America after he practices Zen in Asia.

The book may have some good points. But they are too sparse in the book. And his experience is too personal that is probably not applied to general readers. So it is not very operational.

He had a good education such as Ivy league. He found some of the peers are successful but not happy so he tried to find a way out. To me, this is just a too rush conclusion. I think there are many different factors that drive a human for a living. It is his own responsibility to value each factor and choose a life that he wants to live. It will be also boring if everyone lives like a monk. After all, a single person has many roles to play in his daily and whole life.

Another interesting question comes to my mind is, what kind of life experience will help you enrich your spiritual life?

1. live in the mountain, rural area, knew very little about modern technology, scientific advancement, and trending lifestyle.
2. live in a busy city like New York or Shanghai, you are trying very hard to keep pace with the latest stuff. You know many details of the expensive brand of cars/handbags/watches/clothes/skin care and more. However, you manage to squeeze a little bit of time to unclutter your mind, by practicing Zen.

For me, I don’t refuse to live a modern life. But I am keeping an awareness of what I really want. I don’t need an expensive car or latest iPhone. But I still want to make sure I can afford high-quality education and some paid opportunity to open my mind.

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