Allow Joy into our Hearts: Chan Practice in Uncertain Times

A Book by Rebecca Li

When faced with uncertainty that seems unbearable do you panic? Do you worry? Do you put things off? These are some of the all too human responses Rebecca Li discusses in her book Allow Joy into Our Hearts: Chan Practice in Uncertain Times. This delightful book is a series of essays written from recordings of talks Rebecca gave to her Zoom Chan Group in New Jersey at the start of the Covid 19 Pandemic. Whilst the book focuses on problems arising for people during the pandemic, these are universal problems faced by everyone who has an unexpected and difficult change of circumstance. Rebecca encourages us all to allow joy into our hearts – it can be there for everyone, rich or poor, healthy or unwell, young or old. Whoever or whatever you are, joy is discoverable.

The chapter headings give an idea of the content. Allow Joy… Opening… Unconditional Kindness… Practicing… Using Chan… Learning… Letting Go… Restoring Meaning… Living Fully. Each section is full of wise words written in an easy, chatty style as if Rebecca is talking to you. The pandemic defines the period in which this book was written but the word “pandemic” could easily be swapped for climate change, war, conflict, illness, heart break or any of the challenges of uncertainty and change facing us in the 21st century. Rebecca shows us how we can look at and be with our painful and difficult feelings – our suffering. In being with and accepting these feelings without denying them we can learn to open our hearts to other people, to empathise and to find resilience. We can cultivate clear awareness and compassion despite, or perhaps because of, changing and uncertain events.

The Buddha showed us how to be fully human by embracing everything clearly and with kindness. This is Rebecca’s meaning of Chan Practice.

Rebecca is a Dharma heir of Simon Child. Her other two teachers were Chan Masters Sheng Yen and John Crook. She has published this book through her Chan Dharma Community and Winterhead Publishing. John Crook, the founding Teacher of the Western Chan Fellowship, lived and died at Winterhead Hill Farm, his home on the English Mendip Hills. The book is available from all good bookshops and also from Amazon.