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The Heroic Heart: Awakening Unbound Compassion
A guidebook to making life meaningful by cultivating compassion, embracing adversity, and training the mind—from one of the foremost living Buddhist nuns.
Freeing ourselves from our habitual emotional patterns starts with taming the mind. Why is this so important? Because a wild mind tends to hurt rather than heal. Taming the mind helps us uncover our true nature and connect with those around us from a grounded place of self-awareness. Through caring for others you can walk the Buddhist path of bodhisattvas, becoming a spiritual hero of compassion.
Based on the classic fourteenth-century mind training text of Tibetan Buddhism called the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva , this guidebook shares pithy advice on how to act as bodhisattvas in our everyday lives, enabling us to possess compassion in an authentic way. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, an exemplary spiritual teacher who spent over a dozen years meditating in the Himalayas and one of the first Buddhist nuns to be ordained in the West, shares her reflections on this famous teaching and how to live a life of mindfulness and selflessness.
Freeing ourselves from our habitual emotional patterns starts with taming the mind. Why is this so important? Because a wild mind tends to hurt rather than heal. Taming the mind helps us uncover our true nature and connect with those around us from a grounded place of self-awareness. Through caring for others you can walk the Buddhist path of bodhisattvas, becoming a spiritual hero of compassion.
Based on the classic fourteenth-century mind training text of Tibetan Buddhism called the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva , this guidebook shares pithy advice on how to act as bodhisattvas in our everyday lives, enabling us to possess compassion in an authentic way. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, an exemplary spiritual teacher who spent over a dozen years meditating in the Himalayas and one of the first Buddhist nuns to be ordained in the West, shares her reflections on this famous teaching and how to live a life of mindfulness and selflessness.
232 pages, Paperback
Published August 16, 2022
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196 people want to read
About the author
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
12 books96 followersJetsunma Tenzin Palmo (born 1943) is a bhikṣuṇī in the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. She is an author, teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India. She is best known for being one of the very few Western yoginis trained in the East, having spent twelve years living in a remote cave in the Himalayas, three of those years in strict meditation retreat.
Vicki Mackenzie, who wrote Cave in the Snow about her, relates that what inspired the writing of the book was reading Tenzin Palmo's statement to a Buddhist magazine that "I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form - no matter how many lifetimes it takes".
Vicki Mackenzie, who wrote Cave in the Snow about her, relates that what inspired the writing of the book was reading Tenzin Palmo's statement to a Buddhist magazine that "I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form - no matter how many lifetimes it takes".
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 14, 2025
In The Heroic Heart, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo draws upon her remarkable life experience as one of the first Western women to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun and her decades of deep contemplative practice to explore the transformative power of compassion. The book stands as both a philosophical treatise and a practical guide, weaving together Buddhist wisdom with contemporary challenges.
The author brings unique credibility to this work, having spent 12 years in solitary retreat in a Himalayan cave, an experience that infuses her writing with both profound insight and grounded authenticity. This background allows her to bridge Eastern and Western perspectives in a way that makes ancient Buddhist teachings accessible without diluting their essence.
At its core, the book challenges our conventional understanding of compassion. Rather than presenting it as merely a gentle or passive quality, Palmo reframes compassion as a powerful, dynamic force that requires courage and wisdom to cultivate fully. She explains how this heroic heart differs from ordinary emotional responses or simple sympathy, describing it instead as a skilled and intentional way of engaging with suffering – both our own and others'.
The book is particularly strong in its exploration of what blocks genuine compassion. Palmo skillfully dissects how our ego-centered habits, fear of emotional engagement, and misunderstandings about the nature of compassion can create barriers to its full expression. She addresses common concerns about compassion fatigue and burnout, offering Buddhist perspectives on how unlimited compassion is actually energizing rather than depleting when properly understood.
One of the book's most valuable contributions is its detailed examination of the relationship between wisdom and compassion. Palmo explains how these qualities must develop in tandem, with wisdom providing the discernment that guides compassionate action, while compassion gives wisdom its warm, engaged quality. This interdependence is illustrated through practical examples and contemplative exercises that readers can integrate into their daily lives.
The author includes numerous meditation practices and exercises designed to cultivate what Buddhism calls bodhichitta – the awakened heart-mind that spontaneously responds to suffering with wisdom and care. These practices range from simple mindfulness exercises to more advanced visualizations and contemplations. What sets these instructions apart is Palmo's ability to anticipate and address the challenges Western practitioners might encounter, offering modifications and encouragement based on her extensive teaching experience.
The book doesn't shy away from difficult questions about compassion in our contemporary world. Palmo addresses how to maintain an open heart in the face of global crises, political division, and environmental destruction. She offers practical guidance for engaging with these challenges without becoming overwhelmed or discouraged, drawing on Buddhist teachings about the nature of mind and reality to provide a broader perspective on suffering and our response to it.
Throughout the work, Palmo's writing style remains clear and direct, avoiding both overly technical Buddhist terminology and New Age platitudes. She has a gift for making complex philosophical concepts accessible through everyday examples and analogies, while maintaining the depth and sophistication of the traditional teachings.
The book's structure builds progressively, starting with fundamental concepts and moving toward more advanced practices and insights. This architectural approach helps readers develop a solid foundation before engaging with more challenging aspects of the practice. Each chapter includes contemplative exercises and reflection questions that help integrate the teachings into lived experience.
If the book has any limitations, it might be that some readers could find its uncompromising presentation of Buddhist views challenging to reconcile with other spiritual or philosophical perspectives. Additionally, while Palmo does address practical applications, some readers might wish for even more concrete guidance on applying these teachings in specific challenging situations.
The conclusion brings together the various threads of the book, emphasizing that the development of universal compassion is not just a personal spiritual practice but a crucial response to the challenges facing our world. Palmo makes a compelling case that cultivating the heroic heart is both an individual journey of transformation and a vital contribution to collective well-being.
This book stands as an important contribution to both Buddhist literature and the broader discourse on compassion in contemporary society. It offers a rare combination of traditional wisdom and practical applicability, supported by the author's extraordinary depth of experience and clear communication style. For readers seeking to develop a more profound and stable capacity for compassion, The Heroic Heart provides both inspiration and practical guidance for the journey.
The author brings unique credibility to this work, having spent 12 years in solitary retreat in a Himalayan cave, an experience that infuses her writing with both profound insight and grounded authenticity. This background allows her to bridge Eastern and Western perspectives in a way that makes ancient Buddhist teachings accessible without diluting their essence.
At its core, the book challenges our conventional understanding of compassion. Rather than presenting it as merely a gentle or passive quality, Palmo reframes compassion as a powerful, dynamic force that requires courage and wisdom to cultivate fully. She explains how this heroic heart differs from ordinary emotional responses or simple sympathy, describing it instead as a skilled and intentional way of engaging with suffering – both our own and others'.
The book is particularly strong in its exploration of what blocks genuine compassion. Palmo skillfully dissects how our ego-centered habits, fear of emotional engagement, and misunderstandings about the nature of compassion can create barriers to its full expression. She addresses common concerns about compassion fatigue and burnout, offering Buddhist perspectives on how unlimited compassion is actually energizing rather than depleting when properly understood.
One of the book's most valuable contributions is its detailed examination of the relationship between wisdom and compassion. Palmo explains how these qualities must develop in tandem, with wisdom providing the discernment that guides compassionate action, while compassion gives wisdom its warm, engaged quality. This interdependence is illustrated through practical examples and contemplative exercises that readers can integrate into their daily lives.
The author includes numerous meditation practices and exercises designed to cultivate what Buddhism calls bodhichitta – the awakened heart-mind that spontaneously responds to suffering with wisdom and care. These practices range from simple mindfulness exercises to more advanced visualizations and contemplations. What sets these instructions apart is Palmo's ability to anticipate and address the challenges Western practitioners might encounter, offering modifications and encouragement based on her extensive teaching experience.
The book doesn't shy away from difficult questions about compassion in our contemporary world. Palmo addresses how to maintain an open heart in the face of global crises, political division, and environmental destruction. She offers practical guidance for engaging with these challenges without becoming overwhelmed or discouraged, drawing on Buddhist teachings about the nature of mind and reality to provide a broader perspective on suffering and our response to it.
Throughout the work, Palmo's writing style remains clear and direct, avoiding both overly technical Buddhist terminology and New Age platitudes. She has a gift for making complex philosophical concepts accessible through everyday examples and analogies, while maintaining the depth and sophistication of the traditional teachings.
The book's structure builds progressively, starting with fundamental concepts and moving toward more advanced practices and insights. This architectural approach helps readers develop a solid foundation before engaging with more challenging aspects of the practice. Each chapter includes contemplative exercises and reflection questions that help integrate the teachings into lived experience.
If the book has any limitations, it might be that some readers could find its uncompromising presentation of Buddhist views challenging to reconcile with other spiritual or philosophical perspectives. Additionally, while Palmo does address practical applications, some readers might wish for even more concrete guidance on applying these teachings in specific challenging situations.
The conclusion brings together the various threads of the book, emphasizing that the development of universal compassion is not just a personal spiritual practice but a crucial response to the challenges facing our world. Palmo makes a compelling case that cultivating the heroic heart is both an individual journey of transformation and a vital contribution to collective well-being.
This book stands as an important contribution to both Buddhist literature and the broader discourse on compassion in contemporary society. It offers a rare combination of traditional wisdom and practical applicability, supported by the author's extraordinary depth of experience and clear communication style. For readers seeking to develop a more profound and stable capacity for compassion, The Heroic Heart provides both inspiration and practical guidance for the journey.
July 11, 2025
This a book we’ll never finish if sincere about living the precepts
July 19, 2024
Hermoso detenimiento para pensar-se, y elegir nuevas formas.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews