The Heroic Heart: Awakening Unbound Compassion

by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Overview

A guidebook to making life meaningful by cultivating compassion, embracing adversity, and training the mind—from one of the foremost living Buddhist nuns.

Freeing ourselves from our habitual emotional patterns starts with taming the mind. Why is this so important? Because a wild mind tends to hurt rather than heal. Taming the mind helps us uncover our true nature and connect with those around us from a grounded place of self-awareness. Through caring for others you can walk the Buddhist path of bodhisattvas, becoming a spiritual hero of compassion.

Based on the classic fourteenth-century mind training text of Tibetan Buddhism called the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, this guidebook shares pithy advice on how to act as bodhisattvas in our everyday lives, enabling us to possess compassion in an authentic way. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, an exemplary spiritual teacher who spent over a dozen years meditating in the Himalayas and one of the first Buddhist nuns to be ordained in the West, shares her reflections on this famous teaching and how to live a life of mindfulness and selflessness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645470557
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	08/16/2022
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	262,644
Product dimensions:	5.63(w) x 8.48(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

JETSUNMA TENZIN PALMO was raised in London and became a Buddhist while still in her teens. At the age of twenty she traveled to India, becoming one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Buddhist nun. The international bestseller Cave in the Snow chronicles her twelve years of seclusion in a remote cave. Deeply concerned with the plight of Buddhist nuns, she established Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India. In 2008 His Holiness the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa, head of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage, gave her the rare title of Jetsunma (Venerable Master).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Making Life Meaningful 11

2 Abandon Attachment and Aversion 19

3 Benefiting from Solitude 26

4 Remembering Impermanence 31

5 Valuing Good Friends 34

6 Relying on Spiritual Teachers 37

7 Going for Refuge 44

8 Valuing Virtue 52

9 Recognizing the Truth of Things 58

10 Valuing Others 62

11 Practicing Kindness and Compassion 70

12 Embracing Adversity 78

13 Bringing Suffering onto the Path 85

14 Not Retaliating When We Are Harmed 88

15 Respecting Even Our Enemies 94

16 Showing Kindness When We Are Wronged 97

17 Respecting Those Who Disrespect Us 102

18 Being Compassionate When Things Are Difficult 110

19 Recognizing What Is Truly Valuable 113

20 Giving Peace a Chance 118

21 Dropping Greed 127

22 Embracing the Nondual 133

23 Recognizing the Illusion 148

24 Letting Go of the Illusion 156

25 Practicing Generosity 167

26 Practicing Discipline 171

27 Practicing Patience 175

28 Practicing Diligence 177

29 Practicing Concentration 182

30 Practicing Wisdom 186

31 Examining Oneself 189

32 Abandoning Criticizing Others 192

33 Not Profiting from Dharma 194

34 Giving Up Harsh Speech 197

35 Cutting Negative Emotions 199

36 Being Mindful 202

37 Dedicating on Behalf of Others 208

Notes 213

Suggested Further Reading 217

About the Author 219

Editorial Reviews

04/25/2022

This sterling study by Palmo (Into the Heart of Life) looks at what the 14th-century Buddhist text The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva has to say about living as a Buddhist today. She unpacks each of the 37 verses on changing one’s attitude and “the habitual ways that we respond to situations that happen to us” so as to live free of “delusion and ignorance.” For example, Palmo suggests the verse, “To abandon my native land is the practice of a bodhisattva,” encourages readers to question habits and thought patterns that might be stalling them on the path to enlightenment. The author says of the 12th verse—which concerns dedicating one’s “body” and “possessions” to someone who “seizes all my wealth”—that readers should embrace adversity because it’s the repayment of karmic debt and tests whether one has really let go of one’s anger and material concerns. Palmo’s compassionate voice and lucid explanations are a winning combination, though readers with some background in Buddhism will get the most out of it. The perceptive interpretations provide plenty of food for thought. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

The tradition of mind training, or lojong as it is known in Tibet, focuses on real-world experience and is filled with practical strategies to help us live with awareness, compassion, and wisdom. For centuries, these pithy teachings have provided inspiration and guidance to countless meditators. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo has done a great service by sharing these teachings. Her deep practice, coupled with her understanding of the challenges we face in the modern world, has brought these teachings to life. This book will be of great interest to anyone who is sincerely interested in training and transforming their mind.”—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, author of Turning Confusion into Clarity

“Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is a very inspiring yogini and has devoted herself for many decades to accomplishing the Dharma and benefiting beings. I am delighted she is offering these teachings on mind training, such a fundamentally important topic. Mind-training teachings are underappreciated in the modern world but crucial for spiritual development. At some point, we have to roll up our sleeves and actually work to tame our egos, our habit patterns of self-centeredness, and narrow mindedness. One of the most treasured texts on mind training is The Thirty-Seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva, beloved by all lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. This is an important text, and I sincerely hope the meaning of its teachings benefits and inspires many beings to deepen their spiritual practice.”—Tsoknyi Rinpoche, author of Open Heart, Open Mind

“I have known Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo since we were fellow nuns in the Indian Himalayas in the early 1970s, and I know how important these teachings have been for her. The Heroic Heart offers core Mahayana teachings that have been at the center of her own practice and teachings for many years. These are instructions to open our hearts to compassion, including stories and anecdotes that provide further enrichment. What a deep and practical resource The Heroic Heart is! This is a timeless book you will want to have with you always.”—Lama Tsultrim Allione, author of Feeding Your Demons

“[Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s] compassionate voice and lucid explanations are a winning combination.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher