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The Great Heart Way

How To Heal Your Life and Find Self-Fulfillment

Published by Wisdom Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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About The Book

Self-compassion. Positive social relations. An enduring sense of freedom and peace.

They're essential parts of our everyday lives, or should be. But each of us struggles with difficult emotions and mental blockages: we might lash out when we should know better, or regress in negatively familiar situations, or struggle with our confidence. These types of problematic reactions occur--and recur--when we're unkind to and negligent of our inner selves.

The Great Heart Way offers us all a way to heal inner wounds and transform our difficult emotions. Anyone can try it, and everyone should.

Using clear language and personal anecdotes, The Great Heart Way shows how to follow the Great Heart Method, an efficacious program for healing and self-fulfillment. The Method is easily incorporated into busy schedules (it can take less than 30 minutes per day), and is accessible to all, regardless of spiritual background.

The Great Heart Way gives readers the tools to safely work through uncovered emotional pain and establish a healthier, happier and well-balanced way of thinking.

About The Authors

Ilia Shinko Perez is the co-leader, along with Gerry Shishin Wick, of workshop retreats using the Great Heart Method. She lives in Lafayette, Colorado.

Gerry Shishin Wick is a dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi. He studied with both Soto and Rinzai Zen masters (as did Maezumi) and for 20 years his understanding of the koans in the Book of Equanimity was examined by Maezumi. A former professor of physics, oceanography, and, later, Buddhism, Wick is a teacher whose unique qualifications make him a particularly appealing author.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Wisdom Publications (December 15, 2006)
  • Length: 224 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780861715138

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Raves and Reviews

"The Great Heart Way is an eminently practical and optimistic approach to self-realization and personal well-being. Practitioners' anecdotes and exercises bring Wick and Perez's method to life in a way that is accessible and inviting."

– Jean Smith, author, Now! The Art of Being Truly Present

"This tender, practical, and optimistic guide to personal empowerment helps us to release fixed images of ourselves and even transform negative karma. With personal anecdotes and useful exercises, this is an accessible program for a healthier, happier, and well-balanced way of thinking."

– Mandala

"The Great Heart Way describes how liberation and healing go hand in hand through the practice of paying compassionate attention to what bubbles up from the unconscious and the wounds of our childhood. The authors offer us many illuminating examples, both ancient and modern, of a path offering inner reconciliation and peace."

– Deborah Bowman, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and founder of Naropa University's Transpersonal Counseling Psychology program

"Shishin Wick's and Shinko Perez's Great Heart Way shows that the practice to see our true nature includes our feelings, our personalities, and our humanity. This book, the generous fruit of the authors' many years of teaching and practice, is highly persuasive, deeply intelligent, and full of heart."

– Bernie Glassman, author of Infinite Circle

"An important book that adapts Zen to American culture. I highly recommend this book for all spiritual seekers."

– Anne Seisen Saunders, Abbot, Sweetwater Zen Center

"Plain-spoken and profound."

– Paul Genki Kahn, LCSW, DCSW, Zen priest, and Director, Community Care Behavioral Health

"Incisive, important, and without pretence. It is a skillful offering, adaptable by individuals as well teachers and leaders of groups."

– Pat Enkyo O'Hara, PhD, Abbot, Village Zendo

"The Great Heart Way will help people to resolve deep-seated issues that may not otherwise be accessible through traditional meditation alone."

– Joan Halifax, Roshi, Ph.D., author of The Fruitful Darkness

"I find that the Great Heart method skillfully addresses the fundamental issue of practicing with hidden emotional issues. The value of Great Heart is that it lays out a clear method with vivid and compelling evidence of how it works. I wholeheartedly endorse this book."

– Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Abbot, Zen Center of Los Angeles

"Zen meets self-help: the two authors, both Zen Buddhist teachers, present an adjunct technique to meditation that offers therapeutic benefits. Their Great Heart Way combines meditation, introspection and journaling to uncover hidden roots of psychological problems and resolve the issues. [...] The heart-mind connection the book champions is solid Buddhist teaching, and the meditation approach is convincing because it is rooted in a deep base of Eastern wisdom. The authors offer a fresh and creative application of Zen that can benefit people who are psychologically stuck."

– Publishers Weekly

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