You have within you unlimited capacities for love, for joy, for communion with life, and for unshakable freedom—and here is how to awaken them. In The Wise Heart, one of the leading spiritual teachers of our time offers the most accessible and illuminating guide to Buddhism’s transformational psychology ever published in the West.

Trained as a monk in Thailand, Burma, and India, Jack Kornfield experienced at first hand the life-changing power of Buddhist teachings: the emphasis on the nobility and sacredness of the human spirit, the fine-grained analysis of emotion and thought, the precise techniques for healing, training, and transforming the mind and heart. In contrast to the medical orientation of most Western psychology and psychiatry, here is a vision of radiant human dignity, and a practical path for realizing it in our own lives.

The Wise Heart is the fruit of a life’s work that includes such classics as A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. Filled with stories from Kornfield’s Buddhist psychotherapy practice and portraits of remarkable teachers, it also includes a moving account of his own recovery from a violence-filled childhood. For meditators and mental health professionals, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, The Wise Heart offers an extraordinary journey from the roots of consciousness to the highest expression of human possibility.

"Author, psychologist and pioneering Buddhist teacher Kornfield writes his best book yet (and his previous ones were pretty good). His newest uses the same sweet narrative voice, provides convincing and illustrative anecdotes and stories, and reaches into world traditions and literature as well as contemporary scientific research. This book offers a systematic and well-organized view of Buddhist psychology, complete with occasional diagrams. Concepts and practices are placed in a framework that explains and connects them. It's all done with an eye toward application; most chapters end with exercises. Kornfield has been practicing Buddhism for close to 40 years, a lasting discipline that has produced this masterful book and a seasoned view of life that acknowledges a lot of oopses. As a mediator and psychologist, he has also witnessed some serious angst, including his own, and draws on it for illustrative power. Not everything here is new, least of all the title, but then the Buddha isn't either. The best is left for last: joy you can seek for yourself and others. Just keep your meditative seat, and this book by your bed. Kornfield comes across as the therapist you wish you'd had." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“Through clear teaching and wonderful storytelling, Jack Kornfield inspires us to realize and embody the love, presence and freedom that is our very essence.”Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance

“The Wise Heart offers more than remedies—it points the way to a life of flourishing.”Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence

"This masterpiece of a dedicated life’s work unveils the principles of an ancient ‘science of mind’ that are woven seamlessly into a wondrous map of the human heart—one that is astonishingly consistent with the discoveries of modern neuroscience.”—Daniel Siegel, M.D., author of The Developing Mind and The Mindful Brain

"Warm, funny, moving, and tremendously inspiring, The Wise Heart brings Buddhist psychology to life. Reading it is, in itself, a transformational experience.” —Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Thoughts without a Thinker and Psychotherapy without the Self

“Jack Kornfield harvests a lifetime of experiences to create a masterful, clear, and moving picture of the human mind and heart, a picture whose hopeful healing power I find astounding.”Norman Fischer, former abbot, San Francisco Zen Center; author of Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Your Spiritual Journey

Jack Kornfield was trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India and has taught around the world since 1974. He also holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society and of the Spirit Rock Center. He lives in northern California with his wife and daughter. His previous books include A Path with Heart, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom (with Joseph Goldstein), and Teachings of the Buddha.