Thanissara - Listening to the heart : a contemplative journey to engaged Buddhism

Listening to the Heart takes us on a liberating journey. Kittisaro and Thanissara inspire us with their personal stories of struggle and insight and share their deeply lived understanding of the Buddhas teaching. A beautiful book.

JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN , author of Mindfulness

Genuine and insightful, Listening to the Heart is both a memoir and a clear guide to authentic practice. Kittisaro and Thanissara unfold the layers of their experience to share their understanding, from deep inner processes to vital social and relational aspects of living a good life.

SHARON SALZBERG , author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

This is a wonderful and profound book, deeply researched, written with illuminated elegance; it challenges us all both to deepen our sacred practice and to act for compassion in the world.

ANDREW HARVEY , founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism and author of The Hope

This book is luminous in clarity and depth. Let these teachings turn you toward the jewel of your own awakening heart.

TARA BRACH , PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

From Oxford to Thailand to South Africa, from monastery to frontline work in the crying heart of Zulu country, Thanissara and Kittisaro share their amazing journey. Written with honesty, courage, and deep wisdom, Listening to the Heart shows how to free the mind and open the heart. Even more, the deep caring and love that permeate the pages inspire the reader to want to make a difference in the worldand the book provides the map to do it. Highly recommended.

JAMES BARAZ , cofounder of Spirit Rock Insight Meditation Center and coauthor of Awakening Joy

Thanissara and Kittisaro are the embodiment of Buddhist wisdom. Their teachings are clear, simple, elegant, and profound. They have a way of cutting through jargon and reaching the truth without resorting to dogma. We are blessed to have two such teachers among us.

SATISH KUMAR , editor in chief of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine

Im not sure there is anyone who can strip away our naive illusions about the spiritual life as deftly and elegantly as Thanissara and Kittisaro. As we witness their sacred pilgrimage unfolding, we are awakened to the timeless noble truths of our precious human condition and set free.

SHARDA ROGELL , guiding teacher at Spirit Rock Insight Meditation Center and author of Pressing Out Pure Honey

Listening to the Heart is three books in one. It is a guide to deep understanding of Buddhist dharma, an explanation of psychological growth, and a love story. It is a joy to read and filled with profound wisdom.

PHILLIP MOFFITT , author of Emotional Chaos to Clarity and Dancing With Life

Copyright 2014 by Kittisaro and Thanissara, (H. R. and L. M. Weinberg). All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by
North Atlantic Books.
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Cover photo iStockphoto.com/Shrekton
Cover and book design by Mary Ann Casler

Listening to the Heart: A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism iis sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kittisaro, author.
Listening to the heart : a contemplative journey to engaged Buddhism / Kittisaro and Thanissara.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-58394-840-8
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-58394-839-2
1. Spiritual lifeBuddhism. 2. MeditationBuddhism. I. Thanissara, 1956 II. Title.
BQ5660.K58 2014
294.3444--dc23 2014021828

v3.1

To our parents,
for the precious gift of life

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

Zen master Dogen

T his book invites you to join us on a contemplative journey. Although it feels like were going somewhere, in the paradoxical path of awakening were learning to be more fully here, now. Though it sounds simple, this is not so easy to do. Lost in the dream of getting to the place we think we need to be, we generate all sorts of problems for ourselves and others. The poignant irony of our endless seeking is that what we are looking for is already here within the heart. When we stop, even for a moment, we taste peace. This is the taste of the Dharma.

The intention of this book is to share the paradoxical journey of being present. Sharing connects us with the mystery of life. Imagine sitting with a group of friends around a log fire under a night sky where a burst of stars shine like diamonds. As stories flow, the quality of listening deepens. Listening to the spoken words emerging from the silence connects us to the heart. The heart fathoms and meaning is found. Contemplation is the art of deep listening; it enables discovery.

Since 1992 we have lived, practiced, and taught the Dharma together. The layout of this book alternates our different voices, one chapter after another, in which we explore the awakening process as it threads through our lives. Similar to the Buddha and his teaching style, we return to core themes repeatedly, in order to deepen their meaning.

Through these pages, reflections, and stories, we meet as writer and reader. The deeper invitation of this book, however, is to stay with that inner quietness that listens, reflects, discerns, and distills insight. This contemplative process, what Ajahn Chah called reading the book of the heart, is the way of peace, the road home. The words are simply an invitation to listen into the heart. As we listen, we hear the stillness and silence of the unmoving.

We also hear the world. These are uncertain times. So many structures and certainties are breaking apart. At any time a tsunami, hurricane, or earthquake can devastate, or the financial institutions of an entire country can collapse. Change is happening at such an immense pace, its hard to have any idea of where we are headed. Our experience of time and distance is ever-shrinking as the Internet moves us into warp speed. Every day a flood of information makes out there more obviously right here. As the consequences of actions rebound ever more quickly, its as if there is no distance between thought and what it materializes. Everything is immediate. We live in increasingly virtual realities, and at the same time are confronted with the likelihood of no sustainable Earth for future generations. For many species, it is already too late.

Life has always been intensely challenging on planet Earth, but its hard to imagine another time when the stakes were so high. We may feel anguished by whats happening, but whats happening is happening. None of this is outside the Dharma. The intensity of our times is pushing, squeezing, and pummeling us. The image that comes to mind is of a birth canal. It is as if we are being born into a different way of understanding everything. We are being called to be midwives of consciousness as it evolves out of a dualistic perspective.