Kokoro cover art

Kokoro

Japanese Wisdom for a Life Well Lived

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Kokoro

By: Beth Kempton
Narrated by: Beth Kempton
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 kokoro [n.] intelligent heart, feeling mind

One year. Two devastating losses. Three sacred Japanese mountains. A major life transition, a heart full of grief and a revelation that changes everything.

Join Japanologist Beth Kempton on a pilgrimage through rural Japan in search of answers to some of life's biggest questions: How do we find calm in the chaos and beauty in the darkness? How do we let go of the past and stop worrying about the future? What can an awareness of impermanence teach us about living well?

Together you will journey to the deep north of Japan, hike ancient forests, watch the moon rise over mountains of myth and encounter a host of wise teachers along the way - Noh actors, chefs, taxi drivers, coffee shop owners, poets, philosophers and the spirits that inhabit the land. You will contemplate the true nature of time at one of the world's strictest Zen temples and nothing will be quite the same again.

This book is an invitation to cultivate stillness and contentment in an ever-changing, uncertain world. It all begins with the kokoro, a profound Japanese term which represents the intelligent heart, the feeling mind and the embodied spirit of every human being.

To explore the kokoro is to explore the very essence of what it means to be human in this tough yet devastatingly beautiful world. When you learn to live guided by the light in your kokoro, everything changes, and anything is possible.©2024 Beth Kempton (P)2024 Hachette Audio UK Consciousness & Thought Grief & Loss Personal Development Personal Success Philosophy Self-Esteem Spirituality Meditation

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Freedom Seeker cover art
The High 5 Habit cover art
Lucky cover art
Living Planet cover art
The Year of Less cover art
Weathering cover art
Gentle cover art
A Better Second Half cover art
Survival Skills for Freelancers: Tried and Tested Tips to Help You Ace Self-Employment Without Burnout cover art
Burnt Out cover art
Money cover art
We Are in This Together cover art
Wild Fell cover art
Women and Girls on the Autism Spectrum (Second Edition) cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I absolutely love this book (I listened to it twice) I felt as if Beth was speaking directly too me! The stories resonated so much with my lifes journey. It got me thinking and it inspired me to want to live more. It inspired me to think more deeply and to let go of the many things no longer serving my life! Thank you, Beth

Profound wisdom

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful, poignant and uplifting. Your experience with this book, like in life, will be what you make it - let it make you.

Blissful, with some resonating parallels.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listen to Beth read this book is a meditation in itself. It offers insightful questions with Japanese wisdom to sooth an aching heart. It was serendipity that this book arrived when I most needed it. A beautiful timely book for the world today.

A gift

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Kokoro touched my soul, the vulnerability of the writing is tender and so relatable, listening to Beth narrate her book made it even more special. So much wisdom that we can bring into a better way of living in our fast paced world and what is truly important.

Wholeheartedly, heartfelt, new way of being

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A beautiful piece of writing, written and narrated by Beth Kempton. She has a lovely calming voice, and tells her story with love and emotion.After the loss of her friend and her mother, she searches for the true meaning of Kokoro, ‘a Life well Lived’, in three spiritual mountains in Japan.

I truly adored listening to this book, and will live my life fully, by listening to my heart voice, everyday that follows.

Listen to your heart voice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You’ve transported me back to Japan and made me even more grateful for a wonderful visit to a mesmerising country with remarkable people. Thank you.

Utterly compelling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beth has a beautiful way of writing in a way that soothes you. This book takes you on a deep, emotional journey of reflection and gratitude for life and those you love. A beautifully written and inspiring book, which nutures your soul and holds your hand as you navigate through those more turbulent times of sorrow, loss and grief. I'd recommend Kokoro to everyone, it's a life lesson.

An emotional and thought provoking read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I didn’t want my journey to end, as I had started listening to this in the car.
A calm and thoughtful look at grief and life. Soul searching that will resonate with many.

One to have in your library

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully written and delivered, Komodo is one of those rare and priceless insights to life which I can’t wait to finish so I can start listening to it all over again! I thought Wani Sabi was superb, this is a whole new level. Thank you Beth, for reminding me that life is indeed what we make it and with Kokoro now present in mine, I will truly try to live its width, not just its length.

Thank you

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have known of Beth ever since taking one of her earliest courses. Have read all of her books and been consistently inspired by the life she has carved out for herself and her teachings.

Hence, when she told us her new book was on the horizon I pre-ordered and excitedly waited for publication day.

What I could never have anticipated was what a stunning and moving book this would be.

I knew a little of the grief that she had recently experienced and expected that she would have handled it with love, empathy and personal strength. But I am utterly bowled over.

I have never heard such an open hearted, honest and moving description of the emotions we experience following deep loss. Nor, an understanding of how often such a loss can cause us to dig deep, examine the life we are living and make fundamental changes.

Beth brought me to tears, many times in this profound book and having listened to it twice already, I recognise that maybe the lessons of bereavement never end.

I loved the focus of Kokoro and have spent the last two days considering this aspect of my own life. So much to think about.

Thank you Beth, for sharing your last 16 months, for the deeply honest descriptions of the emotional turmoil you experienced during that time, for letting us glimpse the loving way in which you supported your Mother during the final weeks of her life and how you are now living through the transition that follows.



Stunning !!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews