Jack Kornfield was trained as a Buddhist monk and taught meditation worldwide since 1974. He has a Ph.D, in clinical psychology. He is a founder of Insight Mediation Society and of Spirit Rock Center. He has written more than 8 books by 2002.

This book, which has 3 sections (Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace), can be read in 1-2 hours, since most pages consist of short quotes. However, if you read it quickly, you’ll want to reread it more slowly to see how the ideas build up to the ending of each topic. Each ending consists of a step-by-step how-to meditate on the topic. What he has to say is very good advice. (It reminded me a lot of my books by the Dalai Lama, but they have no detailed meditation steps.) Having just finished reading book 12 by John Renard, Jack Kornfield’s book seemed to me to be more of a Confucian-type meditation (concerned more with morals, ethics and living with others) than a Buddhist meditation (generally more centered on self-enlightenment and fulfillment than on living with others). Buddha and Confucius lived at the same time, but never knew anything about each other’s teachings. However, their traditions have evolved over time so that they now have quite a significant overlap, at least in morals and ethics. This book was a great comfort to me.