A nationally known couples therapist reveals the single root cause of all relationship problems—and offers revolutionary advice on what to do about it While most of us have moments of loving freely and openly, it is often hard to sustain this where it matters most—in our intimate relationships. If love is so great and powerful, why are human relationships so challenging and difficult? If love is the source of happiness and joy, why is it so hard to open to it fully and let it govern our lives? In this book, John Welwood addresses these questions and shows us how to overcome the most fundamental obstacle that keeps us from experiencing love's full flowering in our lives.Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships begins by showing how all our relational problems arise out of a universal ‘wound of the heart’ that affects not only our personal relationships but the quality of life in our world as a whole. This core wound shows up as a pervasive mood of unlove—a deep sense that we are not intrinsically lovable just as we are. It shuts down our capacity to trust, so that even though we may hunger for love, we have difficulty opening to it and letting it circulate freely through us. This book takes the reader on a powerful journey of healing and transformation that involves learning to embrace these imperfections—within ourselves and within our relationships—as trail-markers along the path to great love. It sets forth a process for releasing deep-seated grievances we hold against others for not loving us better and against ourselves for not being better loved. And it shows how our longing to be loved can magnetize the great love that will free us from looking to others to find ourselves.Written with penetrating realism and a fresh, lyrical style that honors the subtlety and richness of our relationship to love itself, this revolutionary book offers profound and practical guidance for healing our lives as well as our embattled world.

A guide to understanding the relationship between Western psychology and the contemplative sprituality of the East—and how one’s spiritual journey can be enriched by both How can we connect the spiritual realizations of Buddhism with the psychological insights of the West? In Toward a Psychology of Awakening John Welwood addresses this question with comprehensiveness and depth, building on his innovative psychospiritual approach to health, healing, and spirituality. He covers the following topics: • What can the spiritual methodologies of the East teach us about psychological health?• What issues arise when the recognition of our larger nature challenges our very conception of individual self ?• What new directions become possible when psychological work is undertaken in a spiritual context?• How does Western psychological understanding affect our approach to spirituality? Welwood's psychology of awakening brings together three major dimensions of human existence: personal, interpersonal, and suprapersonal in one overall framework of understanding and practice.

The author of Journey of the Heart teaches couples how to use their relationships to explore and realize their inner selves, leading to deeper, more meaningful lives, and offers solutions to relationship problems. Reprint. $25,000 ad/promo.

Can a meditative practice assist and promote the healing relationship between psychotherapist and patient? The notable contributors to this practical book draw on a wide range of Eastern and Western disciplines—psychoanalysis, Gestalt, Aikido, and various Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist contemplative traditions—to show that it can. What they propose is a meeting between the Western psychotherapeutic approach—grounded in working with the personal problems and the need to carve out a strong awareness of self—and Eastern tradition, which emphasizes a larger kind of awareness and equanimity as a continuously available source of clarity and health for those who know how to find it. They show that joining psychotherapy with meditation can mutually awaken the hearts of both therapist and client, sparking them both to open more fully. Jacob Needleman, Erich Fromm, Robin Skynner, Ram Dass, Karl Sperber, Roger Walsh, Chögyam Trungpa, and Thomas Hora are among the contributors.

While most of us have moments of loving freely and openly, it is often hard to sustain this where it matters most—in our intimate relationships. Why if love is so great and powerful are human relationships so challenging and difficult? If love is the source of happiness and joy, why is it so hard to open to it fully and let it govern our lives? In this book, John Welwood addresses these questions and shows us how to overcome the most fundamental obstacle that keeps us from experiencing love''s full flowering in our lives.Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships begins by showing how all our relational problems arise out of a universal, core wounding around love that affects not only our personal relationships but the quality of life in our world as a whole. This wounding shows up as a pervasive mood of unlove—a deep sense that we are not intrinsically lovable just as we are. And this shuts down our capacity to trust, so that even though we may hunger for love, we have difficulty opening to it and letting it circulate freely through us.This book takes the reader on a powerful journey of healing and transformation that involves learning to embrace our humanness and appreciate the imperfections of our relationships as trail-markers along the path to great love. It sets forth a process for releasing deep-seated grievances we hold against others for not loving us better and against ourselves for not being better loved. And it shows how our longing to be loved can magnetize the great love that will free us from looking to others to find ourselves.Written with penetrating realism and a fresh, lyrical style that honors the subtlety and richness of our relationship to love itself, this revolutionary book offers profound and practical guidance for healing our lives as well as our embattled world.

How can we connect the spiritual realizations of Buddhism with the psychological insights of the West? In Toward a Psychology of Awakening John Welwood addresses this question with comprehensiveness and depth. Along the way he shows how meditative awareness can help us develop more dynamic and vital relationships and how psychotherapy can help us embody spiritual realization more fully in everyday life. Welwood''s psychology of awakening brings together the three major dimensions of human experience: personal, interpersonal, and suprapersonal, in one overall framework of understanding and practice.

Discover practical tools and insight for integrating spiritual practice into your daily routine, with guidance from 35 well-known authors and artists. This inspiring book, edited by John Welwood, reveals how the simple practice of mindfulness can be a magical and transformative part of anyone’s daily life. Meditation and spiritual practice are often perceived as separate from everyday life, demanding time and effort beyond our usual routines. Ordinary Magic of Meditation demonstrates the opposite of this misconception. Featuring thirty-five wide-ranging essays written by well-known spiritual teachers, therapists, and creative artists, this extensive collection shows:How learning to focus awareness can bring a new richness to ordinary activities;How mindfulness can heighten creative pursuits such as painting, journal writing, or playing music;How contemplative awareness enhances both physical and psychological well-being;And how meditation can contribute to better relationships with family, community, and the world at large.Learn to see the world with new eyes, as leading figures like Pema Chödrön, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Jack Kornfield share their secrets for embracing the magic of the mundane.

Die Schönheit und Großartigkeit der Liebe ist grenzenlos. Wie kommt es aber, dass es uns in Liebesbeziehungen meist nicht gelingt, dieses unermessliche Potential voll auszuschöpfen? Sensibel und poetisch schildert John Welwood den Grund unseres Scheiterns: Die meisten Menschen leiden unter einer tiefsitzenden emotionalen Verletzung, die all unsere Beziehungen sabotiert.Viele von uns können nicht wirklich glauben, dass sie, so wie sie sind, liebenswert sind.John Welwood hilft den Lesern, diese "Wunde des Herzens" zu verstehen und zu sehen, wie sie unsere Beziehungen formt. Dabei geht es keineswegs nur um die Beziehung zu unserem Lebenspartner, sondern auch um unser Verhältnis zu Familienmitgliedern, Freunden und Bekannten. Vollkommene Liebe zeigt uns, wie wir unser verwundetes Herz heilen können - um so unsere Innenwelt und damit auch die kriegerische Außenwelt in in heilsame Bahnen zu lenken.In diesem Sinne kann jede Beziehung zu einem mächtigen spirituellen Lehrmeister werden und uns helfen, verborgene innere Quellen zu erschließen und mechanisch gelebte Beziehungen in echte Seelenverwandtschaften zu transformieren.

A nationally known couples therapist reveals the single root cause of all relationship problems—and offers revolutionary advice on what to do about it While most of us have moments of loving freely and openly, it is often hard to sustain this where it matters most—in our intimate relationships. If love is so great and powerful, why are human relationships so challenging and difficult? If love is the source of happiness and joy, why is it so hard to open to it fully and let it govern our lives? In this book, John Welwood addresses these questions and shows us how to overcome the most fundamental obstacle that keeps us from experiencing love's full flowering in our lives.Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships begins by showing how all our relational problems arise out of a universal ‘wound of the heart’ that affects not only our personal relationships but the quality of life in our world as a whole. This core wound shows up as a pervasive mood of unlove—a deep sense that we are not intrinsically lovable just as we are. It shuts down our capacity to trust, so that even though we may hunger for love, we have difficulty opening to it and letting it circulate freely through us. This book takes the reader on a powerful journey of healing and transformation that involves learning to embrace these imperfections—within ourselves and within our relationships—as trail-markers along the path to great love. It sets forth a process for releasing deep-seated grievances we hold against others for not loving us better and against ourselves for not being better loved. And it shows how our longing to be loved can magnetize the great love that will free us from looking to others to find ourselves.Written with penetrating realism and a fresh, lyrical style that honors the subtlety and richness of our relationship to love itself, this revolutionary book offers profound and practical guidance for healing our lives as well as our embattled world.

A guide to understanding the relationship between Western psychology and the contemplative sprituality of the East—and how one’s spiritual journey can be enriched by both How can we connect the spiritual realizations of Buddhism with the psychological insights of the West? In Toward a Psychology of Awakening John Welwood addresses this question with comprehensiveness and depth, building on his innovative psychospiritual approach to health, healing, and spirituality. He covers the following topics: • What can the spiritual methodologies of the East teach us about psychological health?• What issues arise when the recognition of our larger nature challenges our very conception of individual self ?• What new directions become possible when psychological work is undertaken in a spiritual context?• How does Western psychological understanding affect our approach to spirituality? Welwood's psychology of awakening brings together three major dimensions of human existence: personal, interpersonal, and suprapersonal in one overall framework of understanding and practice.

The author of Journey of the Heart teaches couples how to use their relationships to explore and realize their inner selves, leading to deeper, more meaningful lives, and offers solutions to relationship problems. Reprint. $25,000 ad/promo.

Can a meditative practice assist and promote the healing relationship between psychotherapist and patient? The notable contributors to this practical book draw on a wide range of Eastern and Western disciplines—psychoanalysis, Gestalt, Aikido, and various Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist contemplative traditions—to show that it can. What they propose is a meeting between the Western psychotherapeutic approach—grounded in working with the personal problems and the need to carve out a strong awareness of self—and Eastern tradition, which emphasizes a larger kind of awareness and equanimity as a continuously available source of clarity and health for those who know how to find it. They show that joining psychotherapy with meditation can mutually awaken the hearts of both therapist and client, sparking them both to open more fully. Jacob Needleman, Erich Fromm, Robin Skynner, Ram Dass, Karl Sperber, Roger Walsh, Chögyam Trungpa, and Thomas Hora are among the contributors.

While most of us have moments of loving freely and openly, it is often hard to sustain this where it matters most—in our intimate relationships. Why if love is so great and powerful are human relationships so challenging and difficult? If love is the source of happiness and joy, why is it so hard to open to it fully and let it govern our lives? In this book, John Welwood addresses these questions and shows us how to overcome the most fundamental obstacle that keeps us from experiencing love''s full flowering in our lives.Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships begins by showing how all our relational problems arise out of a universal, core wounding around love that affects not only our personal relationships but the quality of life in our world as a whole. This wounding shows up as a pervasive mood of unlove—a deep sense that we are not intrinsically lovable just as we are. And this shuts down our capacity to trust, so that even though we may hunger for love, we have difficulty opening to it and letting it circulate freely through us.This book takes the reader on a powerful journey of healing and transformation that involves learning to embrace our humanness and appreciate the imperfections of our relationships as trail-markers along the path to great love. It sets forth a process for releasing deep-seated grievances we hold against others for not loving us better and against ourselves for not being better loved. And it shows how our longing to be loved can magnetize the great love that will free us from looking to others to find ourselves.Written with penetrating realism and a fresh, lyrical style that honors the subtlety and richness of our relationship to love itself, this revolutionary book offers profound and practical guidance for healing our lives as well as our embattled world.

How can we connect the spiritual realizations of Buddhism with the psychological insights of the West? In Toward a Psychology of Awakening John Welwood addresses this question with comprehensiveness and depth. Along the way he shows how meditative awareness can help us develop more dynamic and vital relationships and how psychotherapy can help us embody spiritual realization more fully in everyday life. Welwood''s psychology of awakening brings together the three major dimensions of human experience: personal, interpersonal, and suprapersonal, in one overall framework of understanding and practice.

Discover practical tools and insight for integrating spiritual practice into your daily routine, with guidance from 35 well-known authors and artists. This inspiring book, edited by John Welwood, reveals how the simple practice of mindfulness can be a magical and transformative part of anyone’s daily life. Meditation and spiritual practice are often perceived as separate from everyday life, demanding time and effort beyond our usual routines. Ordinary Magic of Meditation demonstrates the opposite of this misconception. Featuring thirty-five wide-ranging essays written by well-known spiritual teachers, therapists, and creative artists, this extensive collection shows:How learning to focus awareness can bring a new richness to ordinary activities;How mindfulness can heighten creative pursuits such as painting, journal writing, or playing music;How contemplative awareness enhances both physical and psychological well-being;And how meditation can contribute to better relationships with family, community, and the world at large.Learn to see the world with new eyes, as leading figures like Pema Chödrön, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Jack Kornfield share their secrets for embracing the magic of the mundane.

Die Schönheit und Großartigkeit der Liebe ist grenzenlos. Wie kommt es aber, dass es uns in Liebesbeziehungen meist nicht gelingt, dieses unermessliche Potential voll auszuschöpfen? Sensibel und poetisch schildert John Welwood den Grund unseres Scheiterns: Die meisten Menschen leiden unter einer tiefsitzenden emotionalen Verletzung, die all unsere Beziehungen sabotiert.Viele von uns können nicht wirklich glauben, dass sie, so wie sie sind, liebenswert sind.John Welwood hilft den Lesern, diese "Wunde des Herzens" zu verstehen und zu sehen, wie sie unsere Beziehungen formt. Dabei geht es keineswegs nur um die Beziehung zu unserem Lebenspartner, sondern auch um unser Verhältnis zu Familienmitgliedern, Freunden und Bekannten. Vollkommene Liebe zeigt uns, wie wir unser verwundetes Herz heilen können - um so unsere Innenwelt und damit auch die kriegerische Außenwelt in in heilsame Bahnen zu lenken.In diesem Sinne kann jede Beziehung zu einem mächtigen spirituellen Lehrmeister werden und uns helfen, verborgene innere Quellen zu erschließen und mechanisch gelebte Beziehungen in echte Seelenverwandtschaften zu transformieren.