Big Mind Big Heart: Finding Your Way [With CD]

This book sets out in clear and elegant prose, a deeply wise and compassionate pathway. Free from the spiritual jargon and superior tone that can be so damn tedious and holier-than-thou in a great deal of spiritual writing, the book teases out steps along a pathway on which we can begin to own, embody, and awaken our dualistic and non-dualistic selves. The process, which elegantly and powerfully synthesises Zen practice with western psychotherapy, encourages us to experience the self not as `I' but as `It.' And as we begin to loosen up and let go off our sense of the `ego-self,' we can also start the process of letting go of attachment to our non-dualistic self as well. Having identified key aspects of our Small Self and Big Self, Genpo's Big Mind process goes beyond both to include and transcend them in an act of deep integration. By integrating what is `Human' in us, and what is `Being' in us, we may at last begin to glimpse what it really means to be a `Human Being.' This is a book that makes the mystery of enlightenment accessible and available to all. And not just in a personal context, but in a professional and corporate context too. This is enlightenment for the market place - illumination for everyday life. For those stuck in ego, read this book. For those stuck in enlightenment, read this book. It offers a pathway not only of deep liberation but of liberating laughter at our own ridiculous delusions too.

This great handy book is so simple to follow. The path into your hearth/mind is opened up wide and clear infront of your eyes. All you need to do is to take the first step to follow the basic instructions and keep on going one step after the other. Then for sure it will lead you to a glimpse into the real nature of your soul, as it did me several times. I have been practicing meditation for 20 years and I have found this book revealing and cutting straight to the heart. The basic techniques used by the Zen Master Genpo Merzel are Voice Dialogue and Meditation both of which are effortlessly explained in an easily understandable manner even for the very basic beginner. A great and wonderful read challenging in its direct and vivid simplicity.

Western culture teaches us to focus on the good. This can offer merit. When we see the good in ourselves and others, we can create feelings of well-being. Yet, always lurking in the shadows are darker sides of our human nature. Seeing our shadow sides can create feelings of guilt and shame - a sense that we're not o.k. So we run and hide from them. When our shadows are particularly scary or deeply embedded, we may not even see them. When we repress the darker aspects of our nature, we carry a weight that limits our growth. Our shadows still emerge, but in covert ways that can damage our self and others. Conversely, allowing ourselves to embrace all aspects of our true nature can be immensely liberating. For it is only by bringing all aspects of ourselves into consciousnesss that we can truly awaken. In Big Mind, Big Heart, Genpo Roshi offers us a wonderful gift. By knitting together the ancient wisdom of Zen with the more recent wisdom of Western psychology, he has created a technology accessible to anyone ready to face the challenges of inner work. As a Research Director for one of the world's largest professional services firms, I find Genpo's work to be among the most important I have encountered across a wide terrain of material on learning and growth. I find it incredibly useful as I continue to develop my own self-awareness. I believe his work carries tremendous possibility for organizations, too - particularly in the domain of leadership development, where a shift in consciousness is of dire need. We are at an inflection point in society and organizations where "how" we learn is every bit as important as "what" we learn. By seeing our dualistic nature (on the longer path of non-dualism) we can release our clinging to conditioned patterns, limiting ideas, and damaging behaviors - and open to new ways of being, multiple perspectives, and wise action. Thank you, Genpo, for offering us your wise and compassionate guidance for that journey.

It's been awhile since I read a "spiritual" book but I remember the drill. Ancient platitudes about life and morality, blah, blah, blah. It's all very nice but kind of boring. Boy was this a surprise! Through a very interesting and entertaining process, I learned a ton about who I am both psychologically and spiritually, and it didn't make me want to run around in a monks robe and shave my head. This zen stuff is actually quite down to earth in a very profound and personal way. If this is what zen masters are teaching, I wish I would have checked it out along time ago. Big Mind - Big Heart: Finding Your Way

This is my first on-line book review ever. I don't normally take the time, but this particular book is so important that it needs to be shared. It would appear at first to be a self help book, which it also is, but that is only a part of the import here. Through this Big Mind process one gains insight first into aspects of the small self and, ultimately, to perspectives that not only transcend the small self but include it - imagine that! To be exposed to different perspectives or "both sides of the coin", but able to operate from that place that transcends and includes both is life changing. The application to the individual is obvious but I believe in actuality goes far beyond the individual. This process can be used by multidisciplinary practitioners to enhance their specialties into more integral models of practice. Master teacher Dennis Genpo Merzel unfolds the process in such an enjoyable, accessible way that I do not think many will fail to see the creative applications that live in this process. Absorb the creative process in this book from the Master himself and apply it to your life, your relationships, your career and, most importantly, the world.