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in less than 15 mins. I read Big Mind - Big Heart. The concept of seeking and non seeking mind is so profound it will leave you stunned as you emerge into a new state of awareness of self. What a great read. A CD comes with the book which explains the amazing technique employed by Genpo Merzel. and of the universe. I had the pleasure of interviewing the author on The Universal Learning Series Radio Show and I was amazed at the wisdom of this great teacher.
I also do personal growth coaching and read just about everything I can get my hands on in this genre. I also think that Hal and Sidra Stone did a MUCH better job of articulating the underlying principles of the psychological framework for this method of meditation. I wish I could say I share his enthusiasm, but after reading the book more than once, practicing the techniques and comparing it to other material I have to say this isn't anything particularly new, innovative or magical.My guess is that this work made an excellent live workshop that didn't translate well to a written text. I think this would also be helpful to other prospective readers. This would provide an even broader perspective on the application of these types of techniques to a modern context.With respect to background, I have an M.A. I am also an admirer of Ken Wilber, but I came away scratching my head after reading his introduction and experiencing the book for myself.I would be interested in hearing others comments on my review after reading the book.
While this is a value-add, it is misleading to call the included meditation guided. In other words, this book could have been much shorter and at the same time harder hitting.Something I like about the book is that it comes with a CD. Approximately, five percent of the content of this meditation is guided. It includes a few simple and largely unnecessary questions. I noticed there is a long list of glowing reviews for this book and Ken Wilber wrote probably wrote the most glowing endorsement I've seen from him for any book. However, I think it is not comparable to Turning the Mind Into an Ally, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation or other materials available by Pema Chodron, Jack Kornfield and others.If you want a deeper coverage of the same ground with more direction, I would consider purchasing Embracing Your Inner Critic: Turning Self-Criticism into a Creative Asset along with one of the meditation books I mentioned above. For a more specifically Zen perspective, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shambhala Library) and any of the very fine books by Cheri Huber would give you much more.If you are specifically interested in a Ken Wilber Integral Psychology perspective, I would also consider No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth and A Brief History of Everything.
in Integral Psychology, have been meditating for 30 years and have given workshops in the S.F. Bay Area. The short demonstration section of talking someone through an experience of Big Mind didn't impress me either. I found Merzel's treatment to be repetitive, verbose and not much of a value add. While I have mixed feelings about writing a more critical review than most other people, I feel it was necessary to present a balanced and accurate picture.
However, the background music and sound is quite pleasant and relaxing. It seemed staged and didn't add anything of value that one couldn't get from the text.With all of this said, the book does offer some basic meditation advice, I believe the author is sincere and it is a good value for the dollar given the inclusion of the CD. My suspicion is that the workshop is great and the halo effect extended to the book. If you look on my listmania lists and profile, you can also find many other helpful resources in this genre.
or approach can be done alone or with a partner. Listening first to the CD then getting about half way through the book, the message fulfilled its purpose. I should have known that with a foreward by Ken Wilber, this book had to be an essential read. BIG MIND-BIG HEART resonates deep in wisdom and points to infinite possibilities ahead. Genpo directly points to the OPENING through his dialogue which makes the SHIFT easily accessable to anyone. With his gentle but direct style of writing, this books simple (technique). Also, you can view Dennis Genpo Merzels interview on Conscious.TV via internet under the nondual programming. Buy this book.
The whole idea of Big Mind is working through the various voices oneself, having to think about what the different voices mean and why they are important. After reading it, you are actually somewhat more prepared to do Big Mind on someone else than yourself. What happens is that the answerer, by being asked these certain questions within this particular and specific framework, ultimately end up answering in certain inevitable ways which ultimately leads to a satori-like expereince because the answerer feels shocked that they, as Roshi posits in the book, always had the answers "within them" the whole time. Therefore, this book is more like a facilitator's guide than a personal self-help manual. 2) I think that the book may even be harmful to someone wanting to engage personally in the Big Mind Process.
I think that it has theraputic possibilities which may be very useful to someone who is working from an Eastern philosophical tradition -- as it can help with emotional and/or mental issues outside of spiritual practice which might not have normally been helped easily by meditation alone, but BMP can also focus and direct spiritual practice by leading one through a series of thought experiements where life and spiritual thoughts are dialectically integrated into a nondual union. #1) Although the book is, I would say, an ok introduction to the Big Mind Process (it is only ok because it utilizes the sort of soft, fuzzy language authors sometimes use when they want to walk fine lines and either not offend anyone or appeal to everyone), the issue here is that someone reading this book cannot implement the Big Mind Process individually in their own home by themselves -- in order for the Big Mind Process to work, one needs a facilitator. The reason why the book may hurt someone wishing to have a satori-like experience resulting from a Big Mind session is that it seems to me that it would work best if you didn't know how it worked. I am actually rather impressed by the Big Mind Big Heart Process. Then I'd say, "Look, it was inside you the whole time."However, as a Buddhist, I agree that a Big Mind Big Heart framework is correct, or, at the very least, helpful, in that it posits love and inter-being as central; but, the importance of framing and leading by the facilitators is certainly downplayed in the book for more mystical mish mashy type language about how all the answers are already inside, etc. A third of the book describes the different voices and gives examples of the types of things they may say.
I will take this opportunity to voice a few criticisms I have of the book but before I do so I need to make clear that these criticisms are not of the Big Mind Process but of "the book." I have not had the opportunity to be personally taken through the Big Mind Process and would certainly enjoy the chance were it made available. This means that, having read this book, you will have to find someone who can take you through the process which probably means going to a Big Mind retreat. The Big Mind Process seems to be potentially useful on a couple of levels: a) it can lead someone to a satori-like experience of "awakening" and/or paradigm flipping similar to that which is often described in books about students using koans, and b) it may have theraputic value in that it allows users to explore and give voice to certain elements of their psyche which they may have been repressing and/or failing to give voice to (this might be a very useful process for couples wanting to improve their communication, for instance), but all within a Zen Buddhist framework. I could say, for instance, I want to talk to Big Hate and, having posited that it is the most important element of the psyche, have the answerer tell me that hatred of all mankind is the central core of our being. It's the same thing as with koans. At least certain elements of the Big Mind Process may be hurt. If you read koans and then are given the "answers" regarding what they mean right away, they are thus diffused. Why.
Just one person cannot play both roles of the facilitator and answerer at the same time. By telling the answerer that Big Chaos and Big Hate were the two most important elements in the hierarchy, I could then, just through a series of leading question, get people to tell me why chaos and hate are central, vital, and ultimately determining. If you read the whole book and then went in for a professional Big Mind Process session, I'd imagine that it would be hard to not have your answers colored by the examples given in the book. However, if you are just interested in the theraputic advantages of using the Big Mind Process, reading this book probably will not hurt at all. If you want to really study koans, you need to meditate on them.
However, the answers weren't really inside them the whole time, the answerer was just lead in such a way to answer certain questions inevitably. That is, unless what you really want to do is be a facilitator and try and perform Big Mind on your friends. Many of the reviews here seem to be of the Process itself but I am reviewing the book. I think that, like going to a magic show, it would be best to know less rather than more. They might influence your answers. It is useful to know what some of the different possible voices are which you may use in a session. It seems to me that it may indeed be valuable for a number of reasons. If you doubt this just ask yourself, "Do all roads lead to Big Mind." What if I did the same process but, instead of positing that Big Mind and Big Heart as the two biggest and most important elements within the hierarchy of voices, I posited there was, instead, Big Chaos and Big Hate.
I was under the vague assumption when I bought the book that it would be possible to perform the Big Mind Process by one's self in the privacy of one's own home, but, even if it is possible, this book does not explain how this could be done and, frankly, doing solo Big Mind just does not seem possible. I also think that the Zen Buddhist way of framing the hierarchy of voices is useful because of its stress on non-dual thinking. I believe that the satori-like experience which someone being taken through the process may experience is the result of being asked, by a facilitator, a series of "leading questions," which, framed in a very specific way (in this case, a Zen Buddhist framework), ultimately lead to certain inevitable answers. It is really a matter of framing certain questions in certain ways so that certain answers are inevitable. This way you can perhaps give voice to certain elements of your mind which had not been directly addressed before. The problem with the book is that 1) you cannot perform Big Mind on yourself (and, if you can, the book does not say how, but it seems to me that the BMP would work best facilitated by someone else), and 2) it might give away too much for those hoping to have a sort of conversion experience (satori) which probably would be more likely to happen to those who know the least about the BMP and how it works.
Try this: after defending the life of desires -- anathema to so much of traditional Buddhist practice -- as essential for human survival, Dualistic Mind, as heartily voiced no-holds-barred by Genpo Roshi, says that people who think they're non-dual and have transcended something are "dangerous.Not only deluded, they're harmful. That gift is so original and audacious, it's almost incomprehensible.Thus, in the Foreword, Ken Wilber states in boldface type, "the Big Mind process founded by Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel is arguably the most important and original discovery in the last two centuries of Buddhism." Already a classic upon publication, "Big Mind, Big Heart" is destined to speak to human beings for generations, perhaps centuries to come. Ready for some heresy, blasphemy, apostasy. Genpo Roshi's "Big Mind, Big Heart" combines wild daring, light-touch humor, venerable pointing out of rare truths, raw voicing of parts of us that could care less about those truths, courageous embrace of all conditions as, no matter what, not other than ultimate nirvana, and a breaking open of numinous secrets for all to come and partake. If you let it touch you even a little, this book can confer a greater sanity and dignity upon all your days and nights than you have ever known before. For a Dharma successor bearing the mantle of so many austere Zen sages over multiple centuries, this book and the process it presents are an act of immense generosity to a bewildered, pained human species.
In that way it's an ultimate tantric text, in the larger sense of the word, meaning that it weaves what appear to be mutually exclusive opposites into a unity greater than both.
They're scary because if they can't see things dualistically, how do they distinguish between what's right and wrong, what's good and bad, what's healthy for themselves and for others, for their children and the world.
Let it reveal to you your own true Mind, Big and little.
The first time I picked up the book I opened it right to the page where, in this 21st century Socratic dialogue, "Facilitator" invites "Dualistic Mind" to speak.
It's also a harbinger, an early portent of the new, humane, grounded spirituality and awakeness that are emerging in many other experimental gatherings as well.
They're a menace."This from one of the most revered Zen Buddhist lineage holders and masters of non-dual transcendence of our age.Genpo goes on to round out this voice with that of Non-Dual Mind and then, dialectically, with that of the True Self, beyond both Dual and Non-Dual.
The whole book proceeds similarly.
Let it awaken your authentic Heart-Self, dual, non-dual, and beyond.
What more can we ask of a book.
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