We live in uncertain times, and to engage in the world to serve the welfare of others requires great courage and dedication. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is one whose life is dedicated to awaken in the service of others. A bodhisattva's intention of bodhicitta, the awakening mind, is rooted in compassion, love and the courage to live in a challenging world, transforming adversity into the path of awakening. In Heart Essence, Rob Preece brings a fresh enquiry into the qualities that support a bodhisattva's journey, including many of the psychological challenges encountered in the process of awakening. He draws on his years of experience both as a psychotherapist and a tantric practitioner to explore what needs to be cultivated to enhance the qualities of bodhicitta and also how we can embody these in our lives. This will be of value to those who aspire - particularly as tantric practitioners - to the life of a bodhisattva.

Heart Essence: Enhancing Qualities of the Awakening Mind, Rob Preece, Mudra Publications, Paperback, 125 pages, $14.95

Rob Preece met both the work of C.G. Jung and Buddhism while at university studying psychology. A period of travel then led him to Nepal where, in 1973, he met his teachers Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

In 1976, he helped found a Buddhist centre in the UK for his Tibetan teachers where for four years he studied intensively the foundations of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1980 he returned to India and was in retreat for much of the next five years above Dharamsala. While in India he received teachings and tantric empowerments from H.H. Dalai Lama, Song Rinpoche, Lati Rinpoche and many others. He has also received dzogchen teachings from H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, then head of the Nyingma tradition.

In 1986 Rob trained as a Jungian based psychotherapist. Today his one-to-one work focuses on spiritual mentoring, combining his experience of both Eastern and Western approaches. Since 1985 Rob has led meditation retreats in the UK, Europe and the US. His teaching work bridges the Tibetan tantric tradition and Western psychology bringing the Tibetan tradition into contemporary life. He is an experienced thangka painter and a keen gardener and lives in the UK with his wife and two sons.

CONTENTS: Heart Essence
Preface		7
Dedication		11
Introduction		13
1.	Compassion	21
2.	Love	31
3.	Joy	39
4.	Equanimity	47
5.	Courage	55
6.	Big Mind	61
7.	Surrender	69
8.	Vision of Wholeness	79
9.	Meaning	85
10.	Bodhicitta and Heart Essence	91
11.	The Bodhisattva	97
Appendix 1. A Tonglen Meditation		105
Appendix 2. An Equanimity Meditation		108
Glossary		111
Notes		115
Bibliography		117