Lodro Rinzler is a meditation teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage. He is founder of the Institute for Compassionate Leadership and MNDFL, a drop-in meditation studio in New York City, where he lives. He is the author of several other books including The Buddha Walks into the Office and The Buddha Walks into a Bar.
Heartbreak is a universal experience. This kind of loss is painful, crushing, and exhausting. Rinzler has designed this resource to contain a mix of traditional Buddhist wisdom, his own experiences of working with heartbreak, and the stories of others who have dealt with this depleting form of emotional devastation.
In his tradition, Rinzler states, love is innate to who we are, so we want to find practices that help us keep our heart open even when we are hurt. Meditation is a powerful tool for learning to love more deeply and cope with heartbreak. He explains four Buddhist essential Buddhist qualities: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Thinking that we can avoid heartbreak is foolish; it is "not something we get over once, like the chicken pox. It comes back, over and over again, throughout the course of our life, in a variety of forms."
The author suggests ways to cope with heartbreak including taking good care of yourself (eat well, sleep well, meditate, and exercise); not giving up on anyone; journaling when you feel like a failure; and after trying these and other practices, opening your heart and mind to trust again.
Rinzler concludes that our whole life is a training in loss and heartbreak whether we own up to that truth or not. By taking it seriously and embracing all its qualities, "heartbreak becomes not a horrific thing we have to run from, but the very path to transforming our life into one marked by love."
Rinzler, as usual, is down-to-earth and on target as he applies Buddhist wisdom to a common life experience.
