One of the many gifts of my 2001-8 “time out” has been the opportunity to return to the voracious reading habit I had when I was young. I kept track of my “time out” reading first of all by writing down the titles of every book read. Then I began to write brief comments on each one – sometimes only a line or two. Then in August 2005 a friend gave me a beautiful blank notebook and I began scrawling more lengthy reviews in pencil.
Some of them as you will discover are pretty sketchy. But even that should be enough to convey the essence of what I enjoyed or appreciated about the book, and give you some idea of whether you would like to read it yourself.
Here I’d like to mention my writer friend Paul F Newman, whose articles and cartoons I hope to feature from time to time on the site. He is a prodigious and lengthy personal book review writer, and the inspiration for my much more sketchy but nevertheless consistent efforts comes partly from reading his – and thinking “I should do that!” Thanks Paul !
To find out when more reviews are due to appear on the site, check out the MENU page . Meanwhile, here is a recently published review to enjoy. I returned to this spiritual journey classic over and over again in my long sojourn in the Underworld of loss of energy and extreme fragility. It never failed to offer me comfort, strength of spirit, hope and inspiration.
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
How the heart grows wise on the spiritual path
by Jack Kornfield
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….their arms around each other’s shoulders, smiling….”
In his first best-selling book on meditation “A Path with Heart”, American Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield describes the powerful impact of his first sight of two massive sixty-foot tall statues of the Buddha and Jesus on a small island of the Mekong Delta. “After the Ecstasy, the Laundry” is its worthy and equally inspiring successor.
Kornfield has a deep well of experience to draw from: a Buddhist monk in the late Sixties in Thailand, he has since lived with and taught with monks, mystics, students and teachers from many religious traditions in different parts of the world. He also holds a PhD in clinical psychology and practises as a psychotherapist and meditation teacher.
The book is a moving and fascinating account of how the contemporary spiritual journey unfolds, with all the difficulties those choosing such a path must face, whatever the depth of their faith, its religious context, or their position in the world.
He accounts for the universality of spiritual longing very simply: “There is a part of each of us that knows eternity as surely as we know our own name. It may be forgotten or covered over, but it is there….there is a pull to wholeness, to being fully alive….as surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home”…and (quoting the poet Rumi) “Grapes want to turn to wine”.
He makes it clear that there is no separate territory labelled “spiritual” to which the devout may escape; spirituality is doing the dishes and dealing with difficult relatives, as well as moments of winter sunlight illuminating the beauty of a cathedral’s stained glass windows, evoking joy in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Following the spiritual path means making slow peace with the tedious reliability of human imperfection, as we move through the Great Round of living and dying with its inevitable sorrows – and capricious joys.
Many quotations, illustrating the profoundly personal and moving facets of a wide range of journeys from diverse traditions including Christianity, reveal the author’s deep respect for all paths to the Source.
The case material truly makes this book live, letting us see that however unique our particular route may be, the spiritual journey has core stages common to all seekers of all faiths. In our own strivings, he shows us, we are not alone. It is so heartening and illuminating to read of different seekers’ experiences of the ecstatic: when grace calls forth that sudden falling into radiance, that recognition of indivisibility from Being, or God, or Ultimate Reality, or Emptiness (or the quantum vacuum, if like me you’ve been reading way too many cosmology books of late!).
But there is always the return to The Laundry, that inevitable and often painful coming down to the ordinary, sometimes grubby and unsatisfactory basics of everyday life.
Importantly, he also points out that for many, ecstasy never comes in a dramatic manner, but as a slow, steady deepening of compassion, wisdom and an increasingly peaceful heart – that which is the eventual fruit of sincere and dedicated spiritual practice.
Kornfield writes beautifully, in an honest, open-hearted, humorous and well-earthed way. His book radiates integrity and is obviously rooted in his own long and at times hard struggle to find the spiritual ground of his own being. Just the right degree of personal disclosure makes clear his lack of illusion that being a priest, or a teacher, or a healer of whatever sort, is any kind of vaccination from the pitfalls of the human condition.
Jack Kornfield comes across as a reflective, wise and humble man. Let’s hope that the worldwide success of his books has not changed that! “After the Ecstasy, the Laundry” is a treasure, a wonderful companion along the road.
( book published by Rider, 2000. pp 314. UK £11.99. )
(review published in Magnificat magazine UK, Issue 9 Spring 2006 : theme – Unity and Diversity)
700 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2008 Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
**************************************************************************
Note: all reviews from September 2008 onwards are filed HERE – as well as being listed below :
**********************************************************************
‘The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos’ by Brian Swimme September 2008
A brief appreciation of the novels of Joanna Trollope October 2008
‘The Spiral Staircase’ by Karen Armstrong November 2008
‘Writers! Are you now, or have you ever been, distracted?’ - an introduction to a brilliant writer on the art of writing, Natalie Goldberg November 2008
2009
An appreciation of the New Scientist magazine January 2009
Review of Mslexia writer’s diary 2009 February 2009
‘Where Did I Leave My Glasses?’ by Martha Weinman Lear May 2009
Bite-sized Book Reviews (5) D Abram, P Lively, P J Palmer, E Laszlo, J Bakewell October 2009
A book for Advent: “Things Seen and Unseen” by Nora Gallagher December 2009
A review of your own book is the next thing, but perhaps not by you!! It’s fantastic, at long last, a hard copy and in the hand, I keep looking at it to make sure it’s real. Well done all of us X
Better very late than never!! Thanks Pam x