The Heart of Zen: Enlightenment, Emotional Maturity, and What It Really Takes for Spiritual Liberation

by Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi, Keith Martin-Smith

A Zen teacher shares his unique take on enlightenment, emotional maturity, and the integration required to take one's seat in true liberation

While we are more and more familiar with popular ideas of enlightenment and spiritual awakening, life still comes at us full force, and hope can turn to frustration as the gulf between our spiritual belief and our everyday life seems to loom ever larger. Through spirited Q&A sessions with Zen master Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi, The Heart of Zen takes a gradual, step-by-step approach to what has become a vexing problem in spiritual circles.

What is missing is integration. If awakening truly transforms every part of the life of a person, where are we getting stuck? How can negative emotions like anger, shame, envy, and jealousy continue to arise? How do our relative egos relate to the Zen teaching of Emptiness, and what does this mean for our intimate relationships, our emotional bodies, our views of the world and its problems?

The Heart of Zen represents the next generation of spiritual books because it addresses awakening and spiritual life within the context of creating lasting change through the integration of spiritual insight into the flow and flux of everyday life. Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi explains how well trained meditation students may learn to be nonreactive to emotions, but they seldom learn how to transform their negative emotions (and the ego that holds them) as part of a more deeply integrated, lived spirituality. Part discussion and part experimental guide, The Heart of Zen book describes precisely what this means in great detail and with exercises for the reader to follow.

Genres: Spirituality, Buddhism, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Zen

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2014

Reviews

[Conrad Zero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jun Po has taken Zen Buddhism (the rinzai version) and translated it into a new form for a more western audience. The Heart of Zen is structured as a series of live conversations between Jun Po and one of his students Keith Martin-Smith. The transcribed conversations make for a surprisingly smooth read through what could be heavy philosophy for some. Keith does an excellent job of defining terms and keeping the conversation from wandering too far, and the occasional recap/summary of knowledge.

Overall structure of the conversation leads you through the basics of ego, the nature of suffering and the Zen solution of enlightenment. Finally, you are introduced to Jun Po's revised edition "Mondo" (meaning conversation) Zen. In fact, the book gives enough detail that you could start practicing Mondo Zen meditations on your own, right away. Although, you may only get so far on your own, and you may need to look for a Rōshi to help you progress. (Check out mondozen.org)

The Heart of Zen is a good book on Zen Buddhism, and also really good at explaining the problems it has relating to a 1500 year younger Western audience. I'm glad someone realized this and chose to do something about it. I can't speak to his actual practice, as I haven't tried it myself. Yet. But, on paper it sounds compelling.

The author made several references to "Millo" but it's actually spelled Mello. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony... If you enjoyed The Heart of Zen, your homework is to track down de Mello's book Awareness. Good stuff, that ties in nicely to the message here.

[Cian Kenshin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book! I love the conversation style writing, and Jun Po seems like a very wise insightful, playful person. This book solidified a lot of concepts that were fuzzy for me, even having read many other books on Buddhism and mediation. The Mondo Zen style of practice and insight is explained in a lot of detail here, though the topics aren't exclusively constrained there. This is for anyone who wants a deep dive into themselves, and their relationship with the rest of reality.

[Rolf Gouderjaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fundamental how I view life…beautiful book. Must read!

[Gerardo B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Da en el clavo.

[Matt Kansy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a westerner that studies and practices zen, to date, this is it! Jun Po's insight and teachings are the clearest that I have experienced. In the beginning of the book the authors do a nice job of explaining the difficulties that westerners have with traditional zen teachings and practice. To this also add the fact that there are also "modernizing" of this practice that makes complete sense. I hope others get as much out of these teachings as I have.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this 3.5 stars if I could. I like the conversational style. But I wouldn't say that I learned a lot from reading this book. I also wouldn't say that it is an "introductory" book. There are still some pretty deep teachings!

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being aware of emotional reactivity and conditioning can change your life and this book helps align your thoughts, words and actions.