A Lamp in the Darkness: Illuminating the Path Through Difficult Times

When the path ahead is dark, how can we keep from stumbling? How do we make our way with courage and dignity? “Inside each of us is an eternal light that I call ‘the One Who Knows,’ writes Jack Kornfield. “Awakening to this wisdom can help us fin dour way through pain and suffering with grace and tenderness.”  For anyone seeking answer during a trying time, he offers A Lamp in the Darkness, a book-and-CD program filled with spiritual and psychological insights, hope-giving stories, and guided meditations for skillfully navigating life’s inevitable storms.

The practices in this book are not positive thinking, quick fixes, or simplistic self-help strategies.  They are powerful tools for doing “the work of the soul” to access our inner knowing and to embrace the fullness of our life experience.  With regularly practice these teachings and meditations enable you to transform your difficulties into a guiding light for the journey ahead.  Join Jack Kornfeld as your trusted guide as you explore:

• Shared Compassion—a guided practice for planting the seeds of compassion and opening the heart to all that life brings
• The Earth Is My Witness—a meditation to establish firm footing in the midst of darkness, centered by a steady witnessing presence
• The Practice of Forgiveness—what Jack calls “the only medicine that can release us from the past and allow us to truly begin anew.”
• The Temple of Healing—a guided visualization to meet our own inner healer
• Equanimity and Peace—a meditation for maintaining balance and acceptance regardless of the situation

Just as it is certain that each life will include suffering, explains Kornfield, it is also true that in every moment there is the possibility of transcending your difficulties to discover the heart’s eternal freedom.  With A Lamp in the Darkness, he offers you a beacon for yourself and others until joy returns again.
 
Table of Contents
Foreward by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Introduction:  An Invitation to Awaken

1. The Wisdom of Our Difficulties
2. The Earth is My Witness
3. Shared Compassion
4. Awakening the Buddha of Wisdom in Difficulties
5. The Practice of Forgiveness
6. The Temple of Healing
7. The Zen of an Aching Heart
8. Equanimity and Peace
9. Your Highest Intention
10. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness and the Healing Journey

Afterword:  The Return of Joy
 
Excerpt
If you’re reading these words, you’ve probably hit hard times.  Perhaps you’ve lost a loved one, or maybe you’ve lost your job, or received a difficult diagnosis, or someone close to you has.  Maybe you’re divorcing or you’re in bankruptcy or you’ve been injured, or your life is falling apart in any number of ways.  Maybe daily life itself has become too much for you…or not enough.  But even in the best of times there’s plenty to worry about: seemingly endless wars and violence, racism, our accelerating environmental destruction.   In difficult times, personally or collectively, we often begin to wonder not only how we can get through this difficult patch; we begin to question existence itself.