Big Mind Big Heart: Finding Your Way

by Dennis Genpo Merzel

Big Mind, Big Heart Presents a pathway to self-discovery and personal liberation. This book presents readers of various backgrounds with benefits, including access to their innate wisdom, compassion and equanimity; openness of mind and ability to shift perspectives; and greater presence and empowerment. Full description

Genres: Spirituality, Buddhism, Nonfiction, Zen, Self Help, Psychology, Meditation

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Brian Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There is a transcendent awareness, a Big Mind, a Big Heart, present and readily accessible to each and every one of us. When we realize it, we see it is the source of true peace, happiness, satisfaction, courage and joy. And yet, we don’t know how to access it, we don’t know how to bring it into our awareness. We don’t know how to manifest it or embody it.

For the past thirty-six years, I have been searching for a way to assist people to access this awareness. In June 1999, after much study and difficulty, I finally found a simple, effective way which I have been exploring and refining since then. I call it the Big Mind/Big Heart process, or simply, Big Mind.”

“Do we need the self? Yes, absolutely. Do we need to be identified with it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Absolutely not. Because when we’re identified with the self, as the self, we live in fear, we live in anxiety, we live in stress, we live in suffering. When we’re able to identify with that which has no boundaries, with Big Mind—it’s a name, you could call it many things, universal consciousness or whatever—when we’re no longer identified with the self, fear doesn’t come up. When we identify with that which is ungraspable, that which is unnameable, then there is absolutely no fear. We live in fearlessness.”

~ Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel from Big Mind · Big Heart

Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel. Also known as Genpo Roshi.

I was first introduced to him and his incredible Big Mind process during a week-long event produced by the Integral Institute in Boulder, Colorado a few years ago. It was stunning how easily and quickly Genpo was able to bring us through his process to get a glimpse of the higher thresholds of consciousness known as Big Mind.

In this book, he playfully and brilliantly articulates his wisdom while presenting the Big Mind process—a process that integrates Zen Buddhism with Voice Dialogue.

Here are a handful of my favorite Big Ideas:

1. Right View - And some blind doods.
2. A Maserati - Stuck in first gear.
3. Dukkha - & Sukkha.
4. The Temple - Without walls.
5. A Dysfunctional Co. - The perfect metaphor.

Here’s to imagining (and consciously playing our role in creating!) a beautiful world “where everybody was free, happy and joyful, where everybody came from a place of generosity and giving freely without any strings attached.”

Here's my video review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43IDr...

And click here to find 250+ more of my reviews:
http://bit.ly/BrianReviews

Brian

[Alan Maugherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to attend s big mind workshop Snd havd used an adapted form with some of my counseling clients. This book is a helpful introduction to the process but is not a well executed description of what one experiences by actually hoing through the process. This process really requires a facilitator to truly grasp the depth it provides snd it's ability to tsp into depths of consciousness within us all.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been making efforts to get into Integrated Family Systems therapy in my personal journey with my therapist lately, and the clear names of and for the voices that exist inside of me are very helpfully delineated in this book. I appreciate the straight forward idea of asking permission to access and address sone of the parts within oneself through mediation and outside of it as a key into a reflective and open space of being that this book suggests as possible and practicable. Looking forward to practicing the flexibility of perspective that this book offers.

[Eugene Pustoshkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Процесс «Большой Ум — Большое Сердце» раскрывается тем больше и глубже, чем больше набираешься опыта в работе с различными психологическими измерениями, в особенности субличностями или аспектами психики. Этот процесс представляет собой сравнительно простую технологию по активизации и интеграции различных голосов в диалоге. Стратегий подобной интеграции может быть множество (их много как и в самом процессе, так и вообще в психологической практике).

Генпо Роси, держатель двух линий передачи дзен — буддийской традиции, в своих продвинутых формах наиболее заточенной под чистое созерцание, — модифицировал подход «диалога голосов», созданный Хэлом и Сидрой Стоун. Генпо адаптировал его для включения не только личностных, или эгоических, голосов, но и голосов надличностных, или надэгоических.

Смысл практики в том, что — хотя, с одной стороны, необходимы длительная тренировка и развитие, чтобы сознание оказывалось способно стабильно поддерживать доступ к надконцептуальным размерностям опыта, — всё же, с другой стороны, речь идёт именно об открытии доступа к «вратам без врат», или тому, что не рождается путём усилий, а уже присутствует как некая априорная реальность — сущность и природа сознания как такового.

Мощь и потенциал этой практики зависят во многом от самого практикующего или ведущего, ведь даже самый простой инструмент (а этот процесс по своим задумке и исполнению весьма прост) в руках искусного практикующего может превратиться в способ практически художественного преображения сознавания. Хэл и Сидра Стоун в предисловии к книге говорят о том, что диалог голосов как метод «представляет собой индивидуальную процедуру, в которой тренированный ведущий-фасилитатор помогает клиенту удерживать и исследовать энергию различных субличностей клиента». Таким же образом можно использовать и «Большой Ум — Большое Сердце» — как процедуру, разворачивающуюся не по заранее предписанному сценарию, а как спонтанно проявляющееся представление всех голосов, развивающееся в живом и гибком диалоге.

Стало быть, в конечном счёте, можно согласиться с Кеном Уилбером: если интерпретировать процесс Большого Ума с интегральной точки зрения, он действительно открывает широкие перспективы для обновления наших подходов к медитативно-созерцательному развитию. После предыдущего прочтения я написал отзыв, в котором выразил скепсис в отношении идеи революционности подхода, но сейчас, когда я перечитал книгу несколько лет спустя, с иным настроем и опираясь на иной опыт, кажется, мне удалось уловить, что имел в виду Уилбер, так что моё сопротивление его воодушевлению касательно метода всецело исчезло.

[Rochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subject of the book Big Mind-Big Heart : Finding Your Way by Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel, is Merzel's conviction that everyone can experience transcendence or awakening without the traditionally required years of sitting, once they are able to recognize that they are essentially the unity they seek.

"The aim of the Big Mind Process is to combine "Eastern, Buddhist insights with Western psychoanalytical ideas," and according to Merzel: It allows a person to step out of their ego and have a universal mind or mystical experience, to attain what is commonly called enlightenment, self realization, Christ mind, or Buddha mind." Wikipedia.

The basis of his decision to teach this methodology based on Voice Dialogue, a Jungian therapeutic technique, which he developed and adapted to Zen practice with the assistance of Hal and Sidra Stone, Jungian psychotherapists, is kensho-- or the spontaneous awakening experience Merzel had while on a trip to the Mojave Desert, and the years of subsequent searching to understand it which Merzel discusses in the opening chapters.

He employs the method as the body of the text so that the reader can conceptualize what he is attempting to demonstrate. However, a DVD accompanies the book. Merzel recommends that a person who desires the fullest experience should find a workshop and work with an experienced Facilitator.

Merzel is confident that the reader will be able to understand and apply the method as he or she reads Merzel's book, and experience for themselves a glimpse of the intimate and infinite no-self that is one's true nature. That is his intent, and he is insistent upon the fact that long hours of sitting are not necessary for anyone to have this experience. However, in the closing chapter, Going Forward, Merzel states that if you do Big Mind and don't practice sitting, it may be difficult to integrate your experience into your life. He gives a clear guide to just sitting which is helpful.

The consistent cultivation of an abiding in the non-dual, transcendent requires receptivity for which sitting is a prerequisite. My Zen teacher recently wrote: " We cannot imagine our way to peace. Standing within our ignorance, we cannot see beyond our confusion. But, it can be done. Buddha’s life is a manifestation of transcending the three poisons. But, I must do my personal “homework” of clearing my poisons from my life. This is the essential, first responsibility."

For some, Merzel's methodology, may be a good tool to have while doing just that.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I'm a big fan of the Big Mind process. This book is a good introduction to it, and also serves as a training manual for the practice of Big Mind, which uses voice dialogue to speak to transcendent voices within the self and to make the transcendent as accessible as possible. If you're looking for exercises to add to your spiritual practice, this could be a good place to look.

[Paul H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of it is really good and the author seems to communicate the nature of Big Mind very clearly which is a rare talent.
I found the talking to parts idea a bit facile. A bit like NLP 30 years ago. Great at first especially if presented by someone charasmatic. Then it fades away?
The fact that it didn't stop the author cheating on his wife and misusing his power by having sex with some students would seem to support Ken Wilbers view of Wake up Clean up.
This book helps with Waking up but presumably lacks something with regards to Clean Up and Grow Up.

[Aynur Aslanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like an allegory of fruits by Fuzuli. It is so interesting to listen to our feelings to talk. Also duality, non-duality, true self, all this concepts helps us to formalize our thinking process.

[Koray Tinmaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This opened my heart alot wider than I thought possible

[Ulla Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Det giver rigtig meget mening i praksis
- og for mig læner det sig op af en eksternaliserende tænkning i narrativ terapi.
Men for mig virker det knap så anvendeligt i bog-form!!

[Paul Finch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ken Wilber, whom I greatly respect, stated: "the Big Mind process founded by Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel is arguably the most important and original discovery in the last two centuries of Huddhism. It is an astonishingly original, profound, and effective path for waking up, or seeing one's True Nature." With this endorsement, I ordered the book, which also includes a CD with a live process and meditation instructions, and read it quickly, eager to fin this powerful new historical Buddhist discovery. My first discovery, reading the testimonies in the front of the book from several rabbis, a Mormon Bishop, an Air Force Academy prof, Buddhist writers,psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and CEOs of companies, meditators, etc. that this was a method in the integral spirit that could be used by people of very different religious/spiritual perspectives... which was good news. The actual process, which is used in the Integral literature, actually is the application of Hal and Sidra's Voice Dialogue method I had found about 25 years ago, a lay version of the hypnotic Ego State Therapy developed by John Watkins and used in some high profile serial killer cases, often confused with Multiple Personality Disorder in those days. It, and other hypnotic, dissociative techniques went out of fashion later on due to malpractice suits again therapists who were basically creating "multiples" and false memories, etc.. resulting in witch hunts against elderly parents whom these therapies identified as child sexual abusers, etc.. So now to see it used in a way to help people own their Non-Dual Nature, their enlightenment, was kind of nice. I came up with some similiar methods natural with clients myself back in the 1980s and saw them overcome great difficulties and feel better. Anyway, so I liked the book, the CD, the thinking... and if it is the best thing in Buddhism in a long time, that is cool too... since I like what I know of Buddhism, and of the enlightenment tradition. And as a Ken Wilber fan, and member of Integral Institute since its inception a few years back, this is just a great thing on so many levels for me. Very cool.

[deleted d · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very known messages, I don't believe this book brings much new to the table. The book power of now is more interesting than this one imo.
Dennis talks about being dynamic, fluid, and not getting stuck on one point of view or our ego.

big mind big heart
Try not to identify with your ego
Don't identify with your perspective in any situation, i.e. arguing
Listen to your inner voices
be grateful

[jacqs · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third of the book is devoted to saying how effective the technique is. I found that repetitive and wanted him to get on with it. The actual dialogue is useful as it claims to be for expanding your self-awareness and breaking out of dichotomies and limiting paradigms. It's like "Yes, and everything else too."

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've heard about the Big Mind workshops where the author facilitates you into a state of Buddha like enlightenment so I was intrigued. I think this process is probably more easily understood in person or by DVD, but there is a CD included in which I was able to glimpse what it's all about. The book is good for a conceptual understanding but if you're going after the experience, not so much.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first two sections of this book, but found the remainder hard going. In fairness, it's not really meant to be read outright, but used as a guide in practicing the methods explained in the beginning. The problem is that as a guide it's far too exacting and specific, and doesn't half go on.

It's an interesting idea, but not what I was looking for.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about Big Mind, Big Heart but this book comes with a CD and when I heard Genpo's voice I couldn't put the book down...strange experience but I really loved this book and it works amazingly well with the Holosyn program.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

if it's like the transcendent voice dialogue dvd methodology entitled the same It's just too great

[Francine Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not like at all, it was hard to swallow. Just couldnt get into asking my mind to talk to someone in my mind.

[John Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Genpo does a wonderful job helping people see beyond their own self-limiting beliefs and doubts.

[Matthew Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction. For a more thorough read on the subject read Ken Wilbur's No Boundary.