After the Ecstacy, the Laundry

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

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Excellent and practical - Rated
I strongly recommend this book. Although at times the book becomes a 'generic' book about spirituality, for the most part it shows the ways in which life for spiritual leaders and the experienced is *never* 'perfect.' In essence it tells us that we are not failures for continuing to suffer, and for being fools on occasion. It also shows ways of trying to bring spirituality into our everyday life, which is where so many of us seem to fall down.

Again, I recommend this book, and good luck to all who are striving for a better life.

What happens after awakening? - Rated
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.

Wisdom and encouragement with gentle humour - Rated
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.

a collection of questions - Rated
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 it would or could help me. But when I put the book down the issues raised there continued to resonate in me and motivate my thoughts. From a little story of a female rabbi's relationship to her own body to that of the anger of a Korean spiritual leader when one of his senior followers is seduced and dumped the issues are thought and emotion provoking. I would never have anticipated the effect of this on first picking up and handling this book. During reading I visited events in my past which I never thought pertinent. For example, like others in Jack's book, I have never really appreciated how important my own body is to my spiritual progress. Through suggestions and stories, from this quarter and that, questions begin to suggest themselves which set you thinking. Thank you Jack Kornfield for writing this book.

Humour and Wisdom in the Laundrette - Rated
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."