Customer Reviews

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Beautifully written, clear and comprehensive guide to the ethics of Buddhism complete with personal experiences and the words of great masters, past and present.

I would advise prospective purchasers to look at the reviews for the Bantam publications: ISBN 0553378295 (Paperback) & 0553102907 (Hardcover)

The reviews for this book praise the book's written contents, and I would agree with most of what has been said.

I would, however, like to provide a review of the book's quality (of this Rider publication): this publication [ISBN 0712606580] has a far lower quality binding than that of Bantam's publication [0553378295 & 0553102907].

The spine of this publication creases easily while opening the pages, making it look like a well worn book, even if one tries to handle the book carefully.

This will make the Rider book have a far lower resale value.

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.

I wrote a review of this book in April of 2001. Here it is January 2002 and I'm writing a second review for this book.

I haven't re-read or revisited it, but it's wisdom stays with me. I'm concerned with my thinning hair, have troubled relations with friends, am pulled into politics at work. My apartment is a mess, my finances aren't in much better shape, I don't go out as much as I would like, I'm not making art as much as I would like. I get angry, tired, frustrated, upset, bored, all within the course of a day.

There's a book out there "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A book that changes lives." I read it despite it's silly name and silly cover. It didn't do much to change my life.

Then there's "After the Ectacy the Laundry." Has it changed my life? No, it hasn't either.

I can almost see you, the reader of this review saying "It didn't change your life? And you're still giving it 5 stars?" and in that, I see myself a just a year ago.

Our society makes too much of escaping the every day: The Laundry, the chores, work, commuting, cooking, cleaning, strained relationships with parents, family, and friends, guilt, anger, frustration, fear, and worry. We seek to escape these things into the magical world of unlimited money and advanced spirituality.

Advertising is based almost entirely on this aspect of our lives. "Buy my product and your life will change" each commercial seems to say. Buy a book by Dan Millman to become a Peaceful Warrior. Buy a sneaker by Nike and escape into a world of physical perfection and love of challenge. Buy some real estate (or a book on buying real estate by Robert Kiyosaki) and become financially independant. Everyone, every single one of us wants to escape.

The book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn states that the hippies of the 60s were trying to escape, but they couldn't because they couldn't identify the bars of the prison. So then what are the bars of the prison?

I have a phrase that I like to use lately. "Salvation tends to be in the opposite direction of where you're looking." Most people get angry when I say that to them. What do I mean by that? What is the opposite direction of the one they're looking in?

I had a friend named Liza who was very into the spiritual journey. She wanted to escape this world. She thought LSD "showed you the other side, but never let you through" and read books by Carlos Casteneda. She believed that there was an escape, but it required a shift too subtle to grasp.

I agree, the shift is too subtle for most people to grasp. Most seekers never find it because it lies in the opposite direction of seeking. What is the opposite of seeking? Being present. Seeking splits you in two, and that split makes you vulnerable to many, many things. Seeking means that half of you is looking for something. I can almost see it, a neurotic half of you running around the attic of your brain trying to find something you misplaced that, if found, will make you whole again.

Being present, ah, now that's entirely different.

Will being present end anxiety? I doubt it. Will being present pay for your new Jetta? No. Then what does being present do for you?

My girlfriend is seeing a therapist. I barely talk to someone who was at one point my closest friend. I no longer call things "mistakes" I call it "being human." We are all human. The belief that you are somehow flawed is wrong because it implies that there is an "opposite of flawed" that you can be. You are not flawed, you are human.

Many of our problems stem from thinking we are different from other people and that other people are different from us. My girlfriend sees a therapist because she believes she is different from other people, that she is flawed. My ex-best friend and I rarely talk because we each believe the other is different, somehow selfish or manipulative.

After the Ecstacy the Laundry does something no other book I've read has done. It's turned my spiritual journey on it's head. I look now at other spiritual seekers and think "The integration that you seek can only be found if you stop seeking. It is the proverbial goal that prevents you from understanding the journey."

Jack Kornfield's book is amazingly human. It makes no promises and offers no illusions. It says "this oatmeal is oatmeal. your thinning hairline is a thinning hairline. your friday night is your friday night. your job is your job. the politics at your job are politics at your job. your insecurities are your insecurities. your worries are your worries. your ego is your ego."

I wonder, sometimes, where Liza is now. The last time I saw her she told me she was living in a neighborhood that's very trendy right now. She was dressed in the latest underground style. I didn't get a chance to talk to her about her journey, or my own.

There's a phrase that captures the truth of spiritual enlightenment presented in this book. "What is the difference between a Buddhist and a non Buddhist? The non-Buddhist think's there's a difference."

What is the difference between an enlightened person and a non-enlightened person? The non-enlightened person think's that there's an "enlightenment."

Something that anyone who has even had a glimpse of ecstasy will enjoy. Details the spiritual path and the responsibilities that entail.

Even though I admire jack's skill as a vipassana teacher, He seems to becoming progressivly warm and fuzzy. His writing style is grating and over sweet and he doesn't seem to have an ounce of critical thought to contribute. This book just seem to continue his slide from vipassana teacher into wayne dyer style new age teacher. I can't recommed this book, But I did like the tape set "The inner art of meditation."

I loved this book. I have read many books on philosophy, religion, and spirituality, but this one stands out as one of my all time favorites. I too have been blessed with many moments of grace and insight throughout my life, but was unsure if these epiphanies were getting me "anywhere", as I sometimes tended to grumble about the laundry. It was wonderful to know that others, even those who are highly regarded spiritual teachers, also grumble about their laundry (and maybe wonder about the missing socks?). I have dropped the unrealistic expectations of enlightenment for its own sake, and continue as before, slowly applying the knowledge and insight that I am gaining to all aspects of my life. Jack Kornfield's anecdotes and poems made me laugh and cry with the joy and pain of the human condition. Make this book part of your library!

The typical spiritual-illumination story ends with enlightenment. But Buddhist teacher and clinical psychologist Jack Kornfield goes beyond, asking the question we're dying to have answered: And then, what? Kornfield's is a voice you can trust - humble, wise, and deeply mature. In this, his fourth book, he explores what leads us to the spiritual life, how enlightenment is attained, and what lies beyond. Through the use of story, he repeatedly brings us to a place of openness and non-judgement, a place where life is inherently workable and enlightenment possible for all. This is a self-help, wise-living, equanimity-finding book, a work that will benefit Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. It's a source book, a treasury of quotes and anecdotes by people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and times - the narratives and words of sages, saints, and ordinary folks. The work's combination of readability, leisurely pace, and stories invite the reader to pause and reflect -- just as well, for its wisdom can't be grasped in a single, or even a second, reading. A book you'll want to dip into again and again.

This book helped me deal with the conflict that attempting to follow a spiritual path had always engendered in me. I, too, have had experiences of spiritual manifestations, lived in a state of peace and love, then become frustrated when I couldn't maintain it in my work, my relationships, and my entire outlook. This book helped me to deal with that, and to remember the sacred nature of my life a thousand times better than any of the more sophist-esque works from those who really don't seem to empathize with this struggle.

Jack Kornfield is down to earth, he is unpretentious, he is humble, and these are traits rare in today's culture of demigogues and snake-oil salesmen. This work must be read to be appreciated. It has myriad insights from great mystics and more munmdane practictioners. Kornfield includes an eclectic and open treatment of many traditions--Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc. In so doing, the words it teaches are applicable to any person who tries to follow a more meaningful path amidst the clutter and cacaphony of our modern lives.

I very highly recommend this work. It will not change your life, but it will remind you how to live it more consciously.

Mr. Kornfield's extensive experiences in buddhist meditation and his wide contact with other meditative traditions gave him an unique insight into the core of spiritual life. His explanations of non-Buddhist experiences and writings, however, appeared to be rather subjective. He might have tried too hard to interprete them in a way that supported his theme.

Also, his assertion that the experiences of insight do not fundamentally change one's personality somewhat belittles the benefits of meditative efforts.

This is a fine book for general reading.

For someone who is serious about meditation and the spritual path, Ayya Khema's books, particularly "Who is my self", provide more practical, in-depth information.