Thanks, CoachAtlus, for starting this sub.

I've been reading this book for a few weeks. I picked it up after leaving a difficult 10-day silent meditation retreat in January, after which I had trouble reintegrating or taking pleasure in things I used to enjoy. I think I had a lot of questions about what the path of meditation will bring in the long run. How do stream-enterers and realized beings operate in the world? Will realization make me unrecognizable to my partner and family? Funny problems to have -- why don't you get realized and then ponder these things?

But I've been loving this book for that very reason. The lamas or nuns or teachers Kornfield quotes in the book all live in human bodies and encounter human difficulties. They still have needs and families and love affairs and problems with work; and they ponder the same questions: How can I be in the world? It's gone a long way towards dispelling fears I had of turning into some kind of living ghost, with no desires, ideas, or preferences -- very enlightened and very isolated and lonely.

Recently, I've been reading Seeing That Frees, and there's another teacher, Rob Burbea, who points out that knowing emptiness doesn't make us into a complete void; we can skillfully bring our understanding to lives rich with happiness, compassion, joy, and fun.

So I pose the question: Why are you reading this book? Did it change your view or approach at all? And has anyone else here at one point labored under some idea that spiritual life is necessarily dry and affectless?

Trying to keep this place alive, since I started it, while doing all the other laundry. :)

I've been reading Kornfield's book, after which this space was named. Actually had never read it before, but felt like I had to. :)

It's great. I'm about 1/3 of the way in. If anybody wants to join me and then have a brief discussion in this thread, shoot! I'll be posting my thoughts as I go, or as I finish over the next several weeks.

I shared this on-going experiment in a conversation on /r/streamentry. I figured it may be particularly relevant in this subreddit.

I'm exploring is minimizing planning and worrying/papanca. I'm attempting to sustain the absence of doubt and therefore not planning and worrying, and then seeing if my aggregates continue to act skillfully without those thoughts. From my limited experiments, things somehow still happen to go smoothly without the suffering induced by planning and worrying. Of course this is something that I've only ascertained in short time periods and the planning still happens periodically. The quality of thought, however, is different than the proliferation of thought/papanca type worrying. It's more intentional. Maybe the ability to be sensitive when a situation requires more thought is what informs the cadence of directed thought.

Curious to hear your thoughts!

Tossing this up as a space to speak about what you're working on. Will keep it up through the end of the month. Tell us how the laundry is going. How are you serving your awakened understanding, however you may define that.

For the record, I'm fully aware of the Field of Dreams vibes we've got going here. But thinking maybe somebody will join at some point, so I'll do a less speaking into the wind--not that there's anything wrong with that. :)

11 days straight and counting since I last yelled at the kids (or at all for that matter). New record since I started tracking it last December. :)