This small book of a mere 51 pages presents us with directions for life and for love simply, directly and powerfully. This talk was given by Joseph Goldstein as one of the Wit Lectures at Harvard Divinity School. It rings with clarity on how to live the spiritual life and why. Do we want a life of value? with purpose and vision? Otherwise we are only reacting to circumstances and then life is over. He distinguishes between falling in love—mixed with desire, attachment and limitations—and living in love, that radiant quality that begets loving kindness, generosity and universal caring—all of which are unconditional, seek no reward or self-benefit, and are never harmful. The founder of the Insight Meditation Society writes about the delusory word “happiness” which entails compassion, surviving brutality, handling anger and hatred, suffering and fear, denial and addiction. Unlike many other longer treatises that inspire but leave us at the mercy of our temperamental human weakness, mischievous or inconsistent, this tiny volume answers the question “How.”

The author guarantees that we will live lives of love, not harming others, in the presence of the Sacred through clear seeing, concentration and a short but daily commitment to practice inwardly. In this way we begin lives of attentive joy and freedom from dilemmas of the self to the illuminated eternal journey. Goldstein intersperses his helpful teachings with stories from the Eastern monastic tradition. His succinct teachings in this little volume will be helpful for monastics East and West. How small but how valuable is this pearl of wisdom!