The Illuminated Heart

by Jock McKeen and Bennet Wong. Ben and Jock’s latest book The Illuminated Heart: Perspectives on East-West Psychology and Thought is available now from The Haven. Here Ben and Jock reflect on writing the book they describe as a “culmination of our investigations and adventures.”

This book was conceived at the urging of our Chinese colleagues when we were presenting our extended seminars in Beijing in 2006. We have been steadily at work on this book ever since. We have been very invigorated by the opportunity to review our life and work together, and to discuss many ideas and concepts that have been central to our careers. We have looked at, discussed, mused about, pondered, argued, wondered, imagined, and struggled to put into words … what we have been doing together for the past four decades or more. We have been visited by memories of so many colleagues, many of them now deceased, and felt the solidity of our connections with them, and the influence that our relationships with them have had on us and our work. They appear in the book, sometimes named, and at other times in the flow of the words.

As we have done this, we have been reviewing our life and philosophy, and our perspective on the world and its people in this 21st century. This project thus has been deeply personal, and profoundly satisfying. We have clarified for ourselves what we actually think about so many topics, and we have a fuller appreciation of the integration of disparate topics from numerous disciplines.

The memories of past friends and experiences have been rich. And our appreciation of each other has been intensified by the hours of discussions we have had to get this book to print.

We are gratified to see that our basic perspective has not changed throughout our time together; we have always held relationships and human connection to be of paramount importance, and this shows itself to us as we re-read what we have created. We have learned a lot; and our long-held perspective is more deeply rooted through our re-examination.

We feel confirmed, fulfilled, at rest, and deeply, deeply satisfied with this culmination of our investigations and adventures.

The Illuminated Heart: Perspectives on East-West Psychology and Thought
Softback, 448 pages, $26.95 + HST and shipping