Product Description

“Enlightenment does exist,” internationally renowned author and meditation master Jack Kornfield assures us. “Unbounded freedom and joy, oneness with the divine ... these experiences are more common than you know, and not far away.”

But even after achieving such realization — after the ecstasy — we are faced with the day-to-day task of translating that freedom into our imperfect lives. We are faced with the laundry.

Drawing on the experiences and insights of leaders and practitioners within the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Sufi traditions, this book offers a uniquely intimate and honest understanding of how the modern spiritual journey unfolds — and how we can prepare our hearts for awakening.

Through moving personal stories and traditional tales, we learn how the enlightened heart navigates the real world of family relationships, emotional pain, earning a living, sickness, loss, and death.

Filled with “the laughter of the wise,” alive with compassion, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry is a gift to anyone who is seeking peace, wholeness, and inner happiness. It is sure to take its place next to A Path with Heart as a spiritual classic for our time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22088 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-02
• Released on: 2001-10-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com
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

From Publishers Weekly
What to do after one has achieved enlightenmentAor a flash of it? How do the problems of everyday life look different? Which, if any, go away? And what is it like to have lived for decades under a spiritual discipline? Kornfield (A Path with Heart, Teachings of the Buddha, etc.) devotes his latest volume of advice and meditation to such questions. Kornfield has been a teacher in the Theravada Buddhist tradition since the mid-1970s; he also holds a degree in clinical psychology. His methods and counsels here reflect Buddhist teachings, but he also tries hard to be ecumenical: Kornfield interviewed lamas, Buddhist elders and Zen teachers, but also Sufi masters, rabbis and Catholic nuns and monks. Anecdotes and quotations draw on Hindu mythology, medieval Christian theologians, Native American visionary traditions and even decidedly secular modern writers (e.g., Albert Camus and Sharon Olds). Bits of interviews alternate with Kornfield's own interpretations and with anecdotes and lessons drawn from sacred Scripture, anthropology and current events. A chapter about circumstantial hardships jumps from postwar Japan to America's overcrowded prisons; a noteworthy chapter on self-esteem and self-abasement vaults from William Blake to The Tassajara Bread Book. Kornfield wants to help readers attain "a welcoming spirit, to greet all that life presents to us with a wise, respectful and kindly heart." Some may find Kornfield's words vague, or self-evident: "Spiritual life involves a maturing of understanding, a continual unfolding, wherever we are." Even unsympathetic browsers, though, might enjoy the compressed life stories of the many interviewees. And the audience Kornfield envisions may well want and use his admittedly general counsel that "no matter how isolated or embattled our lives, we need one another as family, we need each other's hearts and songs to help one another find the way." That's hardly news, but isn't it the truth? (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Kornfield, a founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society, is one of the seminal figures in the introduction and development of Theravada Buddhist practice in the West. At first glance, this book may appear indistinguishable from the flood of recent titles offering a Buddhist perspective on the integration of daily life with spiritual practice. What sets it apart, however, is Kornfield's clear and engaging style and his ability to be uncompromising in presenting a perspective on all aspects of the spiritual path. Few books in recent memory, for example, deal practically with the rather unspectacular but necessary nature of day-to-day practice following an experience of spiritual opening. Also, Kornfield, who draws on interviews with nearly 100 practitioners and teachers from a wide variety of Eastern and Western traditions, is unusually successful at presenting a consistent picture of the unity of the spiritual endeavor. This is particularly welcome, as practice in the West can often seem confusing and fragmented. Clearly aimed at readers with some experience of spiritual practice, this makes a nice companion to Kornfield's previous A Path with Heart (LJ 6/93). Recommended for all collections.DMark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll., NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A serious book on a neglected question
A serious book on a neglected question: how do spiritual seekers go on with their everyday lives after having a transcendent mystic experience? Unlike what you might think, they don't exist in a higher, enlightened state from that moment on.

Instead, they have to sink back onto the mundane level and struggle along with their spiritual practice amidst the demands of the outside world - often with no more than a memory of their mystical experience and faith to guide them. Many doubt their experience and feel depressed that they remain relatively unchanged.

I guess Sophy Burnham covered this, too, in Ecstatic Journey. But it's covered more thoroughly and expansively in this book that features many italicized first-person anecdotes from many, many spiritual seekers from Buddhist (mainly) but also Christian and Sufi traditions. It's clearly and gracefully written and conveys a lot of information.

Pushes the generalizations too far
Let me first say I am a big fan of Jack Kornfield and often recommend his other books and CDs to friends, but I found 'After the Ecstasy..' a little disappointing.

On one level the book reads like a fairly typical account of how someone's world-view changes they grow older. There are less absolutes, more pragmatism and less idealism. We see the similarities across many things (in this case different religions and spiritual paths). On the face of it there is nothing wrong with that, it's almost by definition a more 'mature' view, but i felt like Jack's message has been watered down to the point where his notion of 'enlightenment' is so pluralistic, it encapsulates almost everything - and therefore nothing.

The author interviewed many people of different religions when writing this book and the book described a lot of similarities between them. To me it went almost as far as to imply that all the religions are in their most important aspects equivalent, in the sense that you can mix quotes from Buddha, Jesus, Sufi poets etc in the same chapter because their basic message is the same, prayer and meditation are both means to the same end and so forth. As someone who came from Christian background to Buddhism this viewpoint does not seem very accurate to me, but is typical of 'new age' spirituality that I find a bit of a turn off. It's nice to emphasize similarities, but I am not really sure that what constitutes enlightenment for a Buddhist really has much in common with what a Christian (or say a Muslim) aspires to.

To me it felt like Jack has moved from being a voice of a particular brand of American Buddhism into more of a New age style teacher, where the world's religions are a smorgousboard of ideas to pick and choose your own eclectic beliefs from.

That said, of course there are a lot of interesting and amusing stories in the book, and i'm sure most people will get something out of it, but for me it lacked the focus and clarity of Jack's other books.

After the guru trip
Excellent comments on coming down from the guru trip. Particularly helpful for anyone disillusioned with a guru. Well written, good stories and insights. An easy read.