I’m always on the lookout for new Buddhism books that offer practical guidance for improving my life. Jack Kornfield’s writings have been especially helpful in this regard. One of his anthologies even inspired my article on overcoming grief.
I first discovered Teachings of the Buddha a few years ago while researching Buddhist culture and rituals. Its carefully curated collection of stories left a lasting impression on my beginner’s mind.
That’s why I want to share five best Jack Kornfield books on Buddhism. These works offer invaluable advice for both newcomers and seasoned practitioners alike.
1. The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology
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You have within you unlimited capacities for extraordinary love, for joy, for communion with life, and for unshakable freedom—and here is how to awaken them.
In The Wise Heart, celebrated author and psychologist Jack Kornfield offers the most accessible, comprehensive, and illuminating guide to Buddhist psychology ever published in the West.
Here is a vision of radiant human dignity, a journey to the highest expression of human possibility—and a practical path for realizing it in our own lives.
2. The Buddha Is Still Teaching: Contemporary Buddhist Wisdom
When the Buddha set in motion the wheel of Dharma, he knew that the teaching he gave was inexhaustible—that every future generation would find its own skillful ways to convey it to the hearts and minds of those ready to hear.
The Buddha Is Still Teaching is testimony to the fulfillment of that promise today. The selections it contains, from today’s most highly regarded contemporary Buddhist teachers, bring the Dharma eloquently to life for us in our own time, place, and culture.
They demonstrate that two and a half millennia have done nothing to diminish the freshness of the Buddhist teachings, or their universal applicability to our lives.
Contributors include: Ajahn Chah, Charlotte Joko Beck, Sylvia Boorstein, Tara Brach, Pema Chödrön, the Dalai Lama, Ram Dass, Mark Epstein, Norman Fischer, Natalie Goldberg, Joseph Goldstein, Dilgo Khyentse, Jack Kornfield, Noah Levine, Stephen Levine, Sakyong Mipham, Sharon Salzberg, Suzuki Roshi, Robert Thurman, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Tulku Thondup.
3. Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are
If you want to find inner peace and wisdom, you don’t need to move to an ashram or monastery.
Your life, just as it is, is the perfect place to be. Here Jack Kornfield, one of America’s most respected Buddhist teachers, shares this and other key lessons gleaned from more than forty years of committed study and practice. Topics include:
• How to cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity
• Conscious parenting
• Spirituality and sexuality
• The way of forgiveness
• Committing ourselves to healing the suffering in the worldBringing Home the Dharma includes simple meditation practices for awakening our buddha nature—our wise and understanding heart—amid the ups and downs of our ordinary daily lives.
4. Teachings of the Buddha
This treasury of essential Buddhist writings draws from the most popular Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese sources.
Among the selections are some of the earliest recorded sayings of the Buddha on the practice of freedom, passages from later Indian scriptures on the perfection of wisdom, verses from Tibetan masters on the enlightened mind, and songs in praise of meditation by Zen teachers.
Teachings of the Buddha also includes traditional instruction on how to practice sitting meditation, cultivate calm awareness, and live with compassion.
Jack Kornfield, one of the most respected American Buddhist teachers, has compiled these teachings to impart the essence and inspiration of Buddhism to readers of all spiritual traditions.
5. Buddhism for Beginners: A Complete Course on the Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings
At the heart of all Buddhist wisdom lies one astonishing truth: a way out of suffering and into a more deeply fulfilling life is not a myth, but a reality available to you the moment you open your eyes through the power of skillful inquiry.
For generations, this fact has been proven again and again by those who have learned and tested for themselves what the Buddha taught. Now, with Buddhism for Beginners, celebrated teacher and author Jack Kornfield invites you to experience for yourself the gifts of this vast spiritual tradition.
Created specifically to address the questions and needs of first-time students, this full-length retreat on audio offers an ideal way to learn Buddhism’s essential principles and insights. Join this gifted speaker, as he guides you through:
Buddhism’s cornerstone teachings, including the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path to inner freedom, the meaning and varieties of karma, the Ten Perfections for opening the heart, the inner tools of samadhi and prajna (concentration and insight), the Four Great Immeasurables, the Buddha’s last great teaching, and many other topics.
Now, with Jack Kornfield’s Buddhism for Beginners, you will find the tools and teachings you need to begin this great inner adventure of self-discovery and freedom.
Complement this list of best Jack Kornfield books on Buddhism with five best books on Buddhism for beginners.
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About the books’ author: Jack Kornfield is an American meditation teacher and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He trained as a Buddhist monk under several renowned teachers in Asia, including Ajahn Chah and Mahasi Sayadaw. Kornfield holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and is regarded as one of the pivotal figures in introducing mindfulness practice to the West. He’s the editor of Teachings of the Buddha and author of After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.
I’m a freelance writer and mindfulness advocate behind this blog. I started my meditation practice in 2014, and in 2017 I launched this website to share what I learn with others. Here are the three things you can do here:
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