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We are the sum of our experiences, and some of us have had more experiences than others! Jun Po Dennis Kelly’s is one such soul. A difficult upbringing and an interesting set of counter-culture career choices provide much of the context for the first half of the book. Throughout all of this, however, is his quest to reconnect with a mystical experience (my words) that he had as a child. I particularly enjoyed the second half of the book -- so much so that I changed my rating from 3 to 4 stars -- where Jun Po travels to India twice, becomes involved with Zen Buddhism, and eventually becomes a abbot and lineage holder of a Rinzai Zen tradition. There are entertaining stories of meeting eccentric spiritual leaders, and several profound recollections of transcendent experiences by Jun Po. The end of the book talks about the development of his Mondo Zen Hollow Bones order as a way to accelerate awakening.

This book provides a survey of compassion through the lenses of Daoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam while offering twelve concrete and challenging steps to ground us in the spiritual practice of compassion. These steps are anchored in the Buddha's meditation on the four immeasurable minds of love, and each step either builds upon this meditation or offers complimentary exercises to strengthen your practice.

Compassion is a skill that we need to practice in order to achieve fitness in its usage. Without this fitness, when passions are inflamed and we are experiencing feelings of aggravation, frustration, or hatred, then we will find it impossible to respond from compassion and instead follow the primal urgings of our habits and instincts.

I particularly enjoyed the use of stories from all of the above traditions as well as Greek myth and Socrates' method of dialog to illustrate various points and to show a unified respect for this thread that runs through us all.