Loading...
Loading...
0 / 10 episodes
No episodes yet
Tap + Later on any episode to add it here.
In this illuminating talk, Jack explores the heart of freedom through the lens of his friendship with Ram Dass, reflecting on how to cultivate a heart that can meet it all with loving awareness. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. This time on Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield shares: Ram Dass and the liberation of the heartThe Dharma teaching of letting goFreedom from attachment to preferencesCompassion in difficult timesThe wisdom of Buddhist teachings in modern life “There was something so liberating about Ram Dass because he wasn't attached to who he was—he was playing with it.” –Jack Kornfield This episode was first recorded on Feb 23, 2026 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Talk and Meditation About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “The great way is not difficult for those who are not attached to their preferences.” –Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this deeply grounding guided meditation, Jack Kornfield invites us to rest in mindful loving awareness and gratitude for the miracle of being alive. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. This time on Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield shares: Guided meditation on mindful loving awareness Gratitude for breath, body, heart, and mind Opening to the field of awareness beyond thoughts The healing power of compassion toward ourselves Recognizing the interconnectedness of all life“Who you are is bigger than the mind, bigger than the emotions, bigger than the changing sensations of the body. You're the field of awareness itself, consciousness that was born into this body.” –Jack Kornfield This episode was first recorded on Feb 23, 2026 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Talk and Meditation About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “In this very moment, feel the space that gratitude opens, that kindness opens.” –Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Celebrating the release of All In This Together, Jack shares stories and leads a guided meditation inviting us into the fear dispelling and protective practice of loving kindness. Jack’s new book is out now: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “Loving kindness protects us from our fears that come up. When you go into the jungle, watch the news, or whatever wild thing you do, loving kindness is a basis to tend and care for your own heart.” –Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack shares stories and leads a guided meditation on: Coming together to quiet the mind and open the heartJack shares background on his new book of stories, All InThis TogetherThe healing importance of forgiveness in a conflicted worldA Buddhist story on how loving kindness (metta) protects us from our fearsLooking at our relationship to technology in the worldThe life-changing blessings of metta practiceHolding the tainted glory of your humanity in loving kindnessThe transformative power of mettaStudent reflections on the practiceHaving compassion for our strugglesNoticing our progress on the path"Sometimes it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy." –Guillaume Apollinaire This Dharma Talk originally took place in Nov 2025 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation celebrating Jack’s All In This Together book release. Stay up to date with Jack's upcoming livestreams and events here. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “The practice is to hold the tainted glory of your humanity in loving kindness, all of it, all the difficult, beautiful, amazing, and horrifying parts we have as humans.” –Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Celebrating the release of All In This Together, Jack reflects on learning to bow to life’s mystery—and how doing so opens a path to liberation, love, and inner peace. Jack’s new book is out now: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. https://youtu.be/c9lBoai7ZTY “There’s something so mysterious about how things unfold. We live in something so huge and magnificent, but we get into small mind about how it should be, but we honestly don’t know so much.” –Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: More healing stories on love and respectSharon Salzberg’s travel advice from Chögyam Trungpa RinpocheThe stories of how both Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society came to beBowing to the mystery of how everything unfoldsThich Nhat Hanh’s wisdom from a treeHow weird, wild, and mysterious it is to be humanThe invitation to liberation this life offersHow to stay calm driving in intense trafficWorking with intention and letting others off the hookWhen people are behaving badly, letting go and focusing on your own heartDealing with existential angstThe music of humanity, of being humanWorking through anger and righteousnessHolding your complicated life in kindness and compassionBecoming a lighthouse for others“There’s something in the stories we tell. We come together for the Dharma, and it’s really the truth of love and mystery.” –Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk originally took place in Nov 2025 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation celebrating Jack’s All In This Together book release. Stay up to date with Jack's upcoming livestreams and events here. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “You can’t know the intention of someone else. There’s only one person whose intention you can really know. Guess whose that is? So, intention is really for yourself.” –Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Honoring the release of All In This Together, Jack reflects on how stories awaken compassion, heal division, and call us back to meeting one another with respect. Jack’s new book is out now!: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “We have the opportunity to reach out and mend the fabric of life... Action that actually undoes anxiety is making even the tiniest difference to others.” –Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Jack’s recent trip with Trudy to India to see His Holiness the Dalai LamaWhat the Dalai Lama said about A.I. and compassionHaving a wise relationship with A.I. and technologyVaranasi and facing the reality of death at the burning ghatsStories as a medicine for the soulThe transformative story of Ram Dass, Maharajji, and the glance of mercyBeing fully worthy of loveLearning how to connect with genuineness, kindness, and respectArchetypal and universal teachingsBuddha’s last mealIntention as the root of karmaOvercoming conflict with respect and good intention“Even making the tiniest difference to others begins to change the direction of your life and the circumstance of the world around you.” –Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk originally took place in Nov 2025 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk andGuided Meditation celebrating Jack’s All In This Together book release. Stay up to date with Jack's upcoming livestreams and events here. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “Stories are medicine.” –Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In honor of All In This Together, Jack, Anne Lamott, and Tami Simon continue their heart-opening conversation on story, tenderness, and remembering who you are Jack’s new book is out now!: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. In this episode, Jack, Anne, and Tami mindfully explore: Anne Lamott’s 12-Step cruise ship seminar wisdomHow to tell or write a heart-opening storyGetting to the emotional center of it allRemembering who you really areIlluminating our common humanityLaughter as carbonated holiness and sacred groundWhat’s between the telling and the listeningHow to trade our exhaustion for peace and restMicro-dosing love and understandingThe healing power of true romantic, soul-mate loveBeing loved just as you areStories on hopeOperating from the heart caveJack’s recent visit with His Holiness the Dalai LamaStories of conflict resolutionThis conversation originally took place in Nov 2025 for Sounds True’s celebration of Jack’s All In This Together book release. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. About Anne Lamott: Anne Lamott is the New York Times best-selling author of many books, including collections of essays, novels, and long-form non-fiction, including the classic writing manual Bird by Bird and child-rearing memoir Operating Instructions. In addition to being a novelist and nonfiction writer, Lamott is also a progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Keep up with Anne on Instagram. “Laughter is carbonated holiness, and when we’re laughing together we’re on sacred ground.” –Anne Lamott About Tami Simon: Tami Simon is the founder of Sounds True, a multimedia company that has produced over 3,000 titles and been nominated twice for the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing companies. Tami also hosts the popular Sounds True podcast, Insights at the Edge, with more than 15 million downloads. Tami has been instrumental in the creation of the Inner MBA Program: a nine-month interactive program featuring esteemed CEOs and conscious business and mindfulness leaders created by Sounds True, LinkedIn and Wisdom 2.0. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “I want to tell stories that soften your heart, make you weep or laugh, help you remember who you are, and illuminate our common humanity.” –Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack opens with reflections on the cosmic dance of life before guiding listeners into a meditation on stillness, breath, and embodied presence. Drawing on ancient imagery and gentle instruction, he invites us to take our seat in the still point of the turning world. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Jack’s new book is out now!: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World In this episode, Jack explores: The meaning of solstice as a sacred pauseTaking your seat in stillnessThe breath as a living, shared processBecoming the loving witnessFinding harmony with the rhythms of lifeThis Dharma Talk originally took place in Dec 2025 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. “You are being breathed. The earth is breathing you, and the ocean of air is dancing with your body.”–Jack Kornfield About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
As winter deepens, Jack reflects on the quiet light that does not go out—the warmth of compassion, generosity, and courage that sustains us through dark seasons. Through stories of everyday kindness and ancient wisdom, he invites us to tend the inner fire that heals and connects us. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “That's what you carry. That's who you really are. That's what was born in you, is the great heart of compassion and tenderness.” –Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack explores: Compassion as a response to fearEveryday acts of generosityTending the inner fire during dark seasonsBeginner’s mind and seeing with wonderAdding your light to a troubled and beautiful world“The heart can’t do anything but tenderness and mercy when we really listen.” –Jack Kornfield Jack’s new book is out now!: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World This Dharma Talk originally took place in Dec 2025 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “Perhaps there is only one person’s voice missing for peace to come into the world.” –Jack Kornfield, retelling a traditional teaching Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
As we fully enter the winter season, Jack reflects on the ancient meaning of solstice—the standing still—and what becomes possible when we allow ourselves to pause. In a world shaped by speed, grief, and uncertainty, he invites us into stillness as a sacred act. Jack’s new book is out now!: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World “To be able to come together and not do anything is an extraordinary thing in our culture and our time.” –Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack explores: The sacred meaning of the winter solsticeStillness as a spiritual practiceImpermanence and the uncertainty of human lifeHolding grief and beauty at the same timeBirth, death, and remembering what truly matters“Imagine this is your last day. Who would you call? What would you say? And why are you waiting?” –Jack Kornfield, reflecting on a teaching from Stephen Levine This Dharma Talk originally took place in Dec 2025 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In a moment when the world feels uncertain, Jack sits down with Anne Lamott and Tami Simon for an intimate, deeply human conversation about stories of the heart—how they soften us, unite us, and remind us of our own beauty. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Jack’s new book is out now!: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World “What makes me happy in working with people is to be able to remind them of how beautiful they are.” –Jack Kornfield. In this episode, Jack, Anne, and Tami mindfully explore: Writing tips, wild stories, and inspiration between Jack, Anne, and TamiThe power of taking ‘writers walks’Protest, aging, Jesus, Buddha, and vulnerable storiesAnne Lamott’s fan-girl letter to Jack from years agoReminding you of your own beautyJack’s story of having to bow his ego at the monasteryHow to hold a generous vision in dark timesUncovering the story of the heartRam Dass and learning to love everyoneDoing the work and prayer to become one of ‘all in this together’Living from the heart caveThis conversation originally took place in Nov 2025 for SoundsTrue’s celebration of Jack’s All In This Together book release. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. “The time is so ripe for us to look out with a new pair of glasses from the heart instead of from our fear, to go into what Ram Dass called the heart cave.” –Anne Lamott About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “Right now we need stories that ask, even though we are going through divisiveness, climate change and A.I.—what’s the story of the heart, what’s the story of human beings going through times of tremendous change and then remembering what really matters?” –Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Celebrating the release of his new book of his favorite stories, All In This Together, Jack shares wise tales on living with integrity, presence, stillness, and generosity. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Jack’s new book is out now!: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World “Whether you make art, write, tend a garden, or parent children—if you can share your dignity, generosity, understanding, integrity, vision, and make that come alive within you and others, your life becomes a blessed source of happiness.” –Jack Kornfield. In this episode Jack mindfully explores: Meaning and connectionThich Nhat Hanh’s favorite Tolstoy storyAnswering the Empress’s three life-changing questions: What is the best time to do things? Who are the best people to work with? What is the most important thing to be doing at all times?Living in the present moment and serving those around youCultivating happiness through giving our life meaningBeing a Bodhisattva and holding all life in compassionThe story of Abbott AnastasiusIntegrity and generosityWhat we teach others through our stillnessBeing a clear mirror for othersQuieting the mind, tending the heart, and remembering what mattersOpening to the vastness of life beyond the small selfYour birthright as loving awareness itself“We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather around us that they may see their own images and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps fiercer life because of our quiet.” –William Butler Yeats This Dharma Talk originally took place in April 2019 for Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “Happiness comes when we have meaning in our life.” –Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Celebrating the release of his new book of his favorite stories, All In This Together, Jack shares why ‘sometimes we need a story more than food.’ Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Jack’s new book is out now!: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World “Light the candle, make a sacred space, and talk about what it means to hold this life in compassion. And then invite people to tell the stories that they need for the healing of their own heart. That’s why ‘sometimes you need a story more than food’ (Barry Lopez)—sometimes to hear it, sometimes to tell it.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The art of awakening through stories Barry Lopez and why ‘sometimes you need a story more than food’Stories that release the weight from our souls and unburden our heartsLighting candles, making sacred space, and sharing stories togetherOvercoming the world’s conflict through the lens of storiesThe story of Terry Dobson and the compassion of Aikido The spiritual art of listening to stories—feeling the resonance and feeling into who you would beWhat can we learn from stories?Stories like storehouses—the true intelligence of a good storyRam Dass, the Dalai Lama, and inhabiting the difficulties of life with humor, honesty, and loveHow to hold conflict and that which causes suffering with compassionDelivering your special cargo, your beautiful gifts to this world “A really good story is something to mine, something to inhabit.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk originally took place in April 2019 for Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “One of the things that’s important when you listen to a story, is to feel where you are in that story. If you were in the story right now, where is the resonance, who would you be? Stories are like storehouses, they have intelligence in them that touches not just one channel, but our heart, memory, emotions, and our way of seeing and thinking.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield and Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi explore how facing suffering with love can awaken the courage to heal our world. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Jack’s new book hits shelves on 11/11: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World – Preorder your copy today! “Love is this unbelievable, inexplicable force. When there’s love it’s almost that anything is possible. It’s love that binds all things.” –Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi In this episode, Jack and Rajiv mindfully explore: Living Fully in a Time of Change: Joanna Macy’s funeral as a teaching on joy, love, and the beauty of a life well-lived.Facing Suffering with Courage: The two kinds of suffering—what we run from and what we open to with compassion.Meditation as Refuge: Expanding the heart’s window of tolerance to hold fear, grief, and love all at once.The Sweet Way of the Dharma: Remembering peace, joy, and humor even in the midst of difficulty.Smiling as Practice: Softening the heart through simple, embodied gestures of kindness.The Great Regeneration: Redefining the pandemic as a moment to reimagine our world with wisdom and care.The Interbeing of All Things: Thich Nhat Hanh’s Heart Sutra and the recognition that we already hold the solutions we seek.Love in Action: Ram Dass’s reminder to feed people, love people, and organize from the heart.Sacred Reciprocity: Healing inequality and climate change through generosity, reverence, and balance.The Middle Way in a Polarized World: Meeting conflict with understanding, presence, and possibility.Inner Climate Change: Transforming the heart to transform the earth—awakening compassion as the root of renewal. “The world is as it is—it has suffering and beauty in unbelievable measure. So the real question is: how are you going to tend your heart?” –Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk originally took place on 9/8/25 for Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. About Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi: Professor Joshi is the Founder of Bridging Ventures and former Associate Dean for Climate Action at Columbia University. He helped launch Columbia’s Climate School with President Obama, and has led groundbreaking work in global collaboration, climate technology, and regenerative entrepreneurship. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “There are two kinds of suffering. The first is the kind you run away, and that follows you everywhere. The second is the kind you’re willing to turn, face, and go through, and that becomes our gateway to liberation.” –Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield and Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi explore ‘inner climate change,’ guiding us through meditation and reflection on transforming the world by becoming the Tree of Enlightenment. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Jack’s new book hits shelves on 11/11: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World – Preorder your copy today! “As much as we want to transform the world, if we don’t change ourselves, we might not inspire those around us and perhaps change the system.” –Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi In this episode, Jack and Rajiv mindfully explore: Guided meditation: A journey into becoming the Tree of Enlightenment—rooted, steady, and open to the sky. Jack and Prof. Rajiv invite us to feel the deep stillness and sacred presence of the trees, reminding us that awakening is a natural unfolding within the web of life.Buddha and trees: The Buddha’s life was interwoven with trees—born beneath one, meditating and awakening beneath another, and passing away surrounded by their quiet grace. Trees mirror the path of the awakened heart: grounded in the Earth, reaching toward the light.Trees as ancestors: They are our elders, silent teachers who breathe life into the world. Through their patience and generosity, they remind us of what it means to listen, to endure, and to belong.Collective healing: Our awakening is not only personal—it is collective. Through love across generations, we can heal the planet and one another, planting seeds of compassion that will grow long after us.Radical compassion: To live with an open heart requires both tenderness and courage. We learn to trust, to build bridges, to speak truth, and to act for justice with mindfulness and care.System change: True transformation begins within and extends outward. Each of us has a role to play in creating a world rooted in awareness, kindness, and right action.Spiritual community: Sangha becomes the living ground for our practice—a space to learn, to stumble, to grow, and to embody a new way of being together.Rajiv’s story: After his accident, Rajiv discovered that spirituality is not apart from life—it is life. Every breath, every act, every moment becomes practice when the heart is awake.This Dharma Talk originally took place on 9/8/25 for Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. About Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi: Professor Joshi is the Founder of Bridging Ventures and former Associate Dean for Climate Action at Columbia University. He helped launch Columbia’s Climate School with President Obama, and has led groundbreaking work in global collaboration, climate technology, and regenerative entrepreneurship. “With trust, we learn to build bridges, not walls. That skill—the capability to build bridges in the most difficult of contexts—requires the depth of compassion.” –Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “The Buddha was born under a tree, grew up under the trees, practiced under trees, got enlightened under the Bodhi Tree, taught under the trees, and died beneath two sal trees that immediately came into bloom when he died. He and the trees were one.” –Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield and Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi share uplifting spiritual wisdom on how inner climate change shapes outer climate healing, the environment, and the future of humanity. Jack’s new book hits shelves on 11/11: All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World – Preorder your copy today! Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “It’s very clear that no amount of technology—no amount of internet, AI, computers, nanotechnology, space exploration, or biotechnology—will put an end to warfare, racism, or climate disruption. None of these advancements will resolve the conflicts we face in the world, because their roots lie in the human heart. Without an inner transformation, no outer transformation can truly take place.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack and Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi mindfully explore: Inner Climate Change: How transforming the heart and mind shapes the outer world.Original Innocence: Returning to the heart’s wisdom that already knows what matters most.Ritual and Higher Forces: Turning to sacred connection for strength in healing the earth.Inner and Outer Healing: Burnout reveals the truth that inner practice is as vital as outer change.Steps for Transformation: Empowering women and educating children as the greatest levers of change.Beyond Despair: Despair as a failure of imagination—regeneration and renewal are possible.Wisdom of Love: Gary Snyder’s reminder to act not from fear or guilt, but from love for the world.This Dharma Talk originally took place on 9/8/25 for Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. Stay up to date with Jack’s upcoming livestreams and events here. “We should not forget that in each moment the hope that can manifest the future is always present.” – Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi About Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi: Professor Joshi is the Founder of Bridging Ventures and former Associate Dean for Climate Action at Columbia University. He helped launch Columbia’s Climate School with President Obama, and has led groundbreaking work in global collaboration, climate technology, and regenerative entrepreneurship. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. “The invitation of inner climate change is realizing our hearts already know what truly matters. From this lens, inner climate change is inseparable from outer climate healing.” – Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield leads a guided sound journey into spacious awareness—exploring meditation, mantra, and the freedom beyond duality. Dive into Jack’s recently unearthed lost tapes from a vintage Yucca Valley retreat in 1990! Take the The Sacred Journey Home: Timeless Teachings on Freedom and Love Just Where You Are with Jack Kornfield “When we touch spaciousness, we discover that in letting go there arises a natural compassion, the great heart of a Buddha. In this, we find that the true place of peace is one of trust—an open, spacious heart in the very midst of our life.” — Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The Spacious Heart: A guided sound journey into awareness, transcending duality, and opening to the vastness of mind and heart.Beyond Duality: Discovering consciousness as boundless as the sky, where there is no inside or outside, only open spaciousness.Weather of the Heart: Seeing moods, joys, and sorrows as passing like colors in water or changes in the weather.Enlightenment as Non-Perfection: The Third Zen Patriarch’s teaching that freedom is found in letting go of anxiety about imperfection.Meeting Life with Spaciousness: Guided practice for opening to difficult emotions and situations with equanimity and compassion.Mantra and Sound: Exploring Om Mani Padme Hum, the jewel and the lotus, and the seed mantra Ah as gateways to the heart.This Dharma Talk from 7/12/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. “Your mind is not limited to your head, but rather your awareness, consciousness, expands beyond your head to be open like the sky, space without boundaries.” – Jack KornfieldAbout Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “To me, the most amazing line in all of Zen literature is this astonishing line from the Third Zen Patriarch: To be enlightened is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring spaciousness as the ground of awakening, Jack Kornfield shows how peace, impermanence, and love are all born from the open heart. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “Meditation centers, temples, ashrams, and spiritual communities are in one fundamental way, places of peace, reminders of the peace and harmony possible for us in our lives.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The Spacious Heart: The peace and pleasure found in meditation centers, temples, and ashrams, and how spaciousness becomes a refuge in our lives.Shifting Identity: The flexibility of consciousness and how opening beyond the body and self allows us to release ill-will and rest in freedom.Impermanence and Real Love: Stories from India and the Dalai Lama on happiness, letting go into love, and the humor of the “Bang Bang Bang Theory.”Beyond Self-Improvement: Spiritual practice not as fixing or perfecting ourselves, but as resting in our true nature, like the Buddha under the bodhi tree.The Seed of Equilibrium: Spaciousness as the core of awakening—learning balance in the dance of life, loving others without needing to change them, and finding coolness in nirvana.“It’s possible to shift. Consciousness is really flexible and fabulous, it can create, expand, and touch anything. When our identity opens to something greater or more timeless, when we see the fleetingness and impermanence of this body that we cling to and realize this is not who we are, then something else becomes possible.” – Jack Kornfield Dive into Jack’s recently unearthed lost tapes from a vintage Yucca Valley retreat in 1990! Take The Sacred Journey Home: Timeless Teachings on Freedom and Love Just Where You Are with Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 7/12/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack shares a whimsical story on light and dark, birth and death, forgiveness and mercy, passion and sincerity, impermanence and immorality, and finding your inner light. In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Light and Darkness: Stories and teachings on finding the inner light, becoming a lamp in the darkness, and awakening through difficulty.Life, Death, and Initiation: Nachiketa’s dialogue with Lord Yama, initiation and coming of age, and the mystery of immortality and the deathless.Sincerity and Blessing: Zen teachings on proving sincerity, the boons that come with it, and the light of forgiveness and mercy.The Fire of Life: Prana, chi, and kundalini as a passion for truth; the roar of the lion and living from what we most deeply value.The Open Heart: Not casting anyone out, transforming wounds into light, and resting in the question “Who am I?”If you enjoy Jack’s storytelling, dive into Transform Your Life Through Jack Kornfield’s Most Powerful Stories – a 10-hour storytelling wisdom journey! “When we touch our true nature and discover that we can rest in love in the middle of all things, we become a lamp, we become a light. It is not far away, it is nearer than near.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 6/21/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield explores the nature of mind, offering playful practices and profound perspectives to uncover our true home of freedom, compassion, and ease. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Join the Year of Awakening with Jack Kornfield for a monthly group livestream Q&A hang with Jack, along with weekly modules and prompts to keep your life focused on awakening! “If we don’t know the nature of mind and the ways of mind, our life is like a boat without a rudder, and we get pulled here there by all the thoughts, images, stories, feelings, and unfinished business that arise during the day” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The purpose of meditation and BuddhismLearning the true nature of mindAn assortment of micro guided meditation practicesExperiencing Buddha’s ‘sure heart’s release”Uncovering natural happiness and freedom of heartHow we create our world with our mindDiscovering what creates suffering and what creates happinessThe mirror-like quality of meditationStanislav Grof and LSDThe playfulness and creative capacity of mindThe Buddhist creation mythCounting/noting our thoughtsBecoming aware of awarenessAjahn Chah’s meditation instructions Finding the place of natural mind and restCultivating inner listening The gradual and sudden dimensions of illuminationUntangling the unfinished business of our lives Touching the world in kindness and compassionMeeting ourselves and this world in kindness and humblenessBearing witness to the sorrows of the world while resting in the heart of the BuddhaOpening to the great mysteryBecoming The One Who KnowsThe Timeless Buddha as the ground of all being, our true home“Buddha didn’t give an answer to the great mystery, he taught us how to rest in our heart in the midst of that mystery, to find our true home, that awakened state.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 5/3/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “There is something sudden in any moment, discovering that what we sought all along was here.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this inspiring poetry-infused talk, Jack weaves Rumi’s wisdom on the camel, lion, and child of the spirit into a journey from devotion, to courage, to wonder—inviting us to awaken the Buddha’s Lion’s Roar within and remember the inner royalty of the heart. Join the Year of Awakening with Jack Kornfield for a monthly group livestream Q&A hang with Jack, along with weekly modules and prompts to keep your life focused on awakening! “Poetry and the sense of beauty that art awakens is to move from a small sense of our problems and difficulties to some greater perspective of the heart.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Rumi’s wisdom on The Camel, The Lion, and the Child of the SpiritHealing our wounds, grief, and sorrowsWaking ourselves up from our tranceTouching our rage, fears, and longings with kindness and respectPoetry of compassion, mystery, tenderness, and awakeningLetting yourself love what you loveTenderness and seeing with the eyes of the Divine Mother and the great heart of compassionLiving a life of wakefulnessRumi, bravery, and becoming a lionAwakening the Buddha’s Lion’s Roar withinUncovering your inner-royaltyBeginner’s mind and becoming a “child of the spirit”Finding wonder and amazement in lifeThe mystery of sleep, dreams, and consciousnessLetting go of pity and reclaiming wonder in the presentThe power of prayer and blessing“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk for a hundred miles on your knees through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” – Mary Oliver This Dharma Talk from 4/15/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “To see with the eyes of a Buddha, to receive the world with the great heart of compassion, means living in the mystery of this present moment again and again.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring poetry, beauty, and art, Jack helps his dear listeners appreciate the harmonious dichotomy of all life experiences. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Join the Year of Awakening with Jack Kornfield for a monthly group livestream Q&A hang with Jack, along with weekly modules and prompts to keep your life focused on awakening! “Poetry and beauty are not a denial of the sorrows of the world, but a grace somehow that holds and understands them—the irony and the mixture of love and terror that make up life.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: How art, beauty, music and poetry uplift the world to the sacredRumi’s poem, Tending Two ShopsLetting go of fear, opening into freedomPoetry not as a denial of life’s struggles, but as a gracious way throughBeing at home with oneselfPoetry from Siddhartha Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rumi, and moreTelling the truth, becoming nobody, and walking the pathMeditation and working with our ‘inner mob’ of voicesRelating to the ‘zoo’ of our lives with meditationThe three dimensions of Rumi’s spiritual poetrySaying ‘yes’ to this too, even to what’s difficultWalking this life and path in humbleness“Sometimes the greatest political act is to turn on Mozart and turn off the news, or to walk by the ocean or in the hills during sunset, or to read a poem—to sense a possibility in the midst of all the 10,000 joys and sorrows of finding some peace or balance in this heart that can then be brought to the world around us.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 4/15/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “The source of much of the suffering in the world is the loss of attention, beauty, and connection with one another.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this rich and often humorous talk from the 1990s, Jack explores the art of letting go as the gateway to freedom, inviting us into the coolness of nirvana, and the wholeness found only here and now. Join the Year of Awakening with Jack Kornfield for a monthly group livestream Q&A hang with Jack, along with weekly modules and prompts to keep your life focused on awakening! “This freedom is not far away, the freedom of the heart is here, and it’s inviting. Nirvana is inviting.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The end of exile as a return to the present momentPure awareness and the cycles of lifeWhere is freedom found?Letting go vs. letting beThe dignity of just being an earthwormNirvana as a public health measureThe coolness of nirvana and release from graspingHow ‘periodic nirvana’ keeps us aliveRam Dass, Stephen Levine, surrender, and choosing your spiritBodhicitta as the heart of emptiness and compassionDon Juan’s “controlled folly” and Zen paradoxFinding wholeness in grief, struggle, and beautyEach moment as a chance for struggle or freedomThe goal of practice as keeping our beginner’s mindThis very moment as the only place of freedom“If we allow ourselves to stay in the reality of the present, not only does there come a reclaiming of this life, but we also discover this emptiness or spaciousness that holds it all. No matter how painful, beautiful, exalted, or difficult—it arises and moves in its cycle back into wholeness.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on desert retreat in the 1990s was originally published on DharmaSeed. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “Just let go, let go, let go. I did nothing but this in my practice for years. Every time I tried to understand or figure things out, I’d say, ‘Let go, let go,’ until that desire would fade away. … Just be an earthworm who knows only two words, ‘Let go, let go…’” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this tender and illuminating talk, Jack shares a Zen love story and a path of mindful presence that brings us home—from the stories of the mind to the truth of the heart. Through embodied awareness, we discover that the end of exile begins with loving what is here now. Join the Year of Awakening with Jack Kornfield for a monthly group livestream Q&A hang with Jack, along with weekly modules and prompts to keep your life focused on awakening! Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “The end of exile is when we see all the stories of what should be, and what is, and what will be, passing through the mind, and we rest in some place of peace in the heart.” – Jack Kornfield This week on Heart Wisdom, Jack heartfully ponders: Freedom and the spiritual pathThe Dharma’s ‘one taste’ of freedom The Sure Heart’s ReleasePresent, past, future, and Being Here NowLife’s often dreamlike qualityThe evanescent present moment Noticing the dreamlike quality of lifeAn enlightening Zen love storyUncovering your true selfOvercoming exile with softness of heartMindfulness as the end of exileEmbodied awakening and finding liberation within the body and mindAccepting and including all parts of ourselvesMindfulness and reuniting with your body and feelingsCultivating “mindfulness of mind” and forgiving its storiesWatching the mind, resting in the heartStories and poems on the end of exile in our livesFinding true kindness through accepting sorrow“The past disappears, the future isn’t here yet—all there is is this evanescent present moment that’s here for a moment and then changes.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded during a desert retreat on 04/05/1993 was originally published on DharmaSeed. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “The real koan is: who is your true self?” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
From gender equity to joyful adaptation, Jack recounts how the Dalai Lama challenged teachers to reshape Buddhism for a modern world in need of heart. This Dharma Talk recorded on 03/29/93 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. “Somebody said the Dalai Lama’s mind is like a diamond, and whichever facet, whichever direction he turns it to, it comes with clarity and beauty. Everything that he did had a sense of graciousness and beauty about it.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack holds a thought-provoking talk on: Counseling, ethics codes, and teacher-training for a new eraSectarianism vs. the shared heart of awakeningA dramatic call for gender equity: nuns, councils & training funded “on the spot”Sylvia Wetzel’s meditative reflection: What if the Dalai Lama had always been a woman?Humor & honesty: “rebirth control” and other Dalai Lama one-linersEngaged Buddhism: arms sales, poverty, over-population, climateDrafting a pan-Buddhist code of conduct; yearly councils of eldersSpirit Rock as a living experiment in consensus leadershipThe invitation: awaken the Buddha-heart in every man, woman & child“There is no price worth paying to hide what is wrong—tell the truth.” – H.H. the Dalai Lama About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “Use your heart to awaken that spirit of the Buddha in every being you meet—that’s all that really matters.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack shares stories and insights from a rare gathering with the Dalai Lama on what really makes a teacher, and how compassion—not titles—spreads the Dharma. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. This time on Heart Wisdom, Jack thoughtfully explores these themes & topics: Spring renewal at Spirit Rock & the wider Buddhist boom1,000 U.S. meditation centers — a movement far bigger than any one sanghaThe Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra on gathering “in harmony and concord”The Dalai Lama: compassion over conversion; students over titlesWhat really authorizes a teacher? (Hint: their students’ freedom)“Spy on your teachers” — trusting slowly & wiselyThe scent-test of liberation: recognizing authentic peace“Bodhisattva off-duty?” — practice everywhere, even with late-night TV temptationsSpiritual life as engagement with, not escape from, difficultyInterdependence: why true emptiness embraces every creatureSpeaking out against spiritual misconduct & retraumatizationThe wounded student, the wounded teacher — bringing psychology into DharmaThis Dharma Talk recorded on 03/29/93 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. “The Dalai Lama said, ‘Nirvana has a wonderful scent—like flowers.’ You can tell it when you're around someone connected with nirvana. You can tell it around places where there’s that fragrance of peace, well-being, and liberation.” – Jack Kornfield “Deep down, what matters is only the spirit of compassion—only what benefits beings in every form, in every realm on this earth. Don’t think about how to spread Buddhism. It doesn’t matter if there are even one or two more Buddhists. The only thing that matters is the well-being of each person and the well-being of the earth that we live on.” – Jack Kornfield quoting H.H. the Dalai Lama Photo via Wikimedia Commons About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “Only the benefit you bring to others proves the depth of your own practice.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What if the blueprint for a more beautiful world is already within you? Jack explores how trust, joy, and imagination awaken transformation—from the inside out. Join the Year of Awakening with Jack Kornfield for monthly livestream Q&A hangs with Jack, and weekly lessons and reflections to keep your year focused on awakening. Use code AWAKEN50 for 50% off entry. “In the chrysalis, as the caterpillar imagines itself into the butterfly, there’s a message: trust that transformation is possible. Not only is it possible—but from the heart, you can help shape it. You can make a difference.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: What brings us joy in this life?Trust, morals, justice, and taking the long viewEnlightenment and cultivating a trusting heartThe imaginal cells of the butterflyHow your voice, joy, imagination, and trust can truly make a differenceStories on trust, love, and making a differenceMindful presence and the Awakened Heart Sangha/Satsang, community, and helping each otherImagining a beautiful new world togetherFeeling yourself as a playful child of the spiritSpelunking the great mystery of life and the universeAdding your make-weight of hope to the worldAllen Ginsberg’s poem HowlBringing our joy, love, tenderness and compassion to the worldThe big questions: how to hold suffering, and those causing sufferingThe power of protest, standing up, letting go of fear, and embracing the strength of joyQuestions and Responses on how to navigate modern times skillfully and joyfully with trust, balance, love, gratitude, equanimity, and compassion“Trust that you make a difference, and that each one of us makes a difference.” – Jack Kornfield This episode was recorded on 04/07/2025 for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. “We’re in this together, we can awaken together, and we can support our hearts, minds, and the beautiful world that we can be—it’s in us as part of our imaginal cells.” – Jack Kornfield About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack invites us to walk the path of joy—no matter the circumstances—showing how living joyfully and tenderly is a courageous, radical, and transformative act. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Join the Year of Awakening with Jack Kornfield for monthly livestream Q&A hangs with Jack, and weekly lessons and reflections to keep your year focused on awakening. Use code AWAKEN50 for 50% off entry. “What I’ve seen in visiting refugee camps is that they don’t want you to come in feeling depressed—they have enough of that themselves. They’re not looking for people who are frightened, worried, or downhearted. What they long for is someone who can bring a sense of uplift, possibility, and joy.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Living joyfully with a positive attitudeJoy as a necessary quality of enlightenmentHow can we have joy in times of chaos, disruption, and suffering?Joy as a true service to others and the worldUplifting others through our joy and positivityWavy Gravy and the Transformative Power of JoyHow suffering is not the end of the story; it’s the beginning of the Four Noble TruthsBringing joy, beauty, and humor to our protesting, activism, and standing up for what mattersBeing hopeful despite the outside circumstances, and emphasizing compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindnessThe joy and playfulness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond TutuHow we can bless and heal each other with our joyLiving in joy, love, health and peace even amidst hate, affliction, and troublesExperiencing the sweet joy of living in the wayThe radical joyful presence of Ajahn Chah and Maha GhosanandaRisking delightJack’s rapturous experience of meditative blissLearning to step out of the battle and embrace lifeThich Nhat Hanh and the practice of smilingBecoming a make-weight of joy, tipping the scales to hopeUnshakeable integrity, generosity, gratitude, and tendernessTuning in with nature, relationships, and the mysteryFather Gregory Boyle and the possibility of transformation and renewalThis episode was recorded on 04/07/2025 for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation. “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” – Wendell Berry “Live in joy and love even among those who hate. Live in joy and health even among the afflicted. Live in joy and peace even among the troubled. Look within, be still, free from fears and attachments. Know the sweet joy of living in the way.” – The Dhammapada About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sharing deep spiritual secrets of love and attachment, Jack transforms our unhealthy attachments into Wise Relationships through vulnerability, inner joy, and shared humanity. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “The secret is, the opposite of attachment is not detachment, but love. Because true love does not seek to possess or control, it doesn’t separate or fear what is there. True love is the ability to be present without grasping. From this place, love offers its blessings.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Transforming unhealthy clingings into Wise AttachmentNot getting stuck in our ideas and views The global price of collective addiction and attachmentMoving past our attachment to our sense of separatenessThe big spiritual question—who are we really?His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and keeping a healthy curiosity around deathLowering our defenses and helping others lower their defenses around usParenting with trust and connection rather than clinging and controlThe good side of attachment—connection, well-being, mirroringTransforming low-self-esteem and the body of fear into self-confidence and opennessUsing spiritual practice to open to a love that includes our full humanityFinding the true possibilities that the spiritual path offersResting in our being—how not to seek and chase, and how not to run away and hideTouching our incompleteness, our brokenness, with compassionExpanding our heart and connecting with our shared humanityUncovering within us our inner knowing, The One Who KnowsHow to be true to yourself, and make a light of yourselfMeditation as an invitation into vulnerabilityMoving from unhealthy attachment into Wise RelationshipHow Being Here Now, our capacity to be present, transforms our lifeNirvana as the absence of struggle with the world as it asPlease help support Jack's daughter Caroline's Oasis Legal Services in their mission to help persecuted LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers gain citizenship and safety in the U.S. “We want to be loved, we want to be held, and it’s so hard to be vulnerable. Meditation is an invitation to that vulnerability, the rawness and openness of the heart. Not because it’s good for us, but because it moves us back to the truth that we are held. If we can sit and open, we’ll discover that this universe that has given birth to us really does hold us.” – Jack Kornfield This episode recorded on 03/08/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. “Nirvana, which is the absence of suffering, doesn’t mean that the world goes away. Nirvana is the absence of struggle with the world as it is.” – Jack Kornfield About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring the ancient Zen teaching of the Great Way, Jack guides us toward freedom from attachment, clarity beyond preferences, and the liberating joy of letting go. “The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When attachment and hatred are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction; however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinion for or against anything.” – Third Zen Ancestor In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Finding freedom from attachment by learning to let goCan we meditate society’s problems away?What does it mean to seek wisdom, compassion, freedom?The Third Patriarch of ZenFinding the Great Way and seeing the truthMoving past our opinions and preferencesHow our desires blind us and manufacture our realitySuffering, impermanence, grasping, and not relying on realityThe path to liberation from our grasping and fearsThe joy of letting go of our attachments and relaxing into what isTraining ourselves to have an obedient mind of the BuddhaIs there appropriate or wise attachment?Clarifying the full spectrum of attachmentHow to get out addiction and the Realm of the Hungry GhostsDealing with attachment to our isolation, our separatenessCommitment as a healthy devoted attachment Seeking a Wise Relationship to ourselves, others, and the worldThe slippery slope of pleasure, into desire, into habit, into needWise attachment vs unwise attachmentThe full spectrum of attachment and love“Go where you wish—cave, monastery, India, Tibet, do what you like—your mind goes with you, that’s the problem.” – Jack Kornfield This episode recorded on 03/08/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community members, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “Often we think attachment is only to other people and things, but often what we are attached to is our own isolation, our own separateness.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack and Ocean continue their deep conversation, exploring how to create positive change in the world without losing our spiritual center and loving essence. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “Neither meditation nor activism has to be a grim duty. These are invitations to open the heart and be present for everything. In activism you stand up because you care and you love, and then you bring your best to it.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack and Ocean mindfully explore: Activism and creating positive change in the worldHow to save the world without losing yourselfActing beautifully without attachment to the fruitsHow not not to let the immense suffering of the world get to usWes Nisker, Gary Snyder, and saving the world because you love itActing in this world with peace, love, courage, and nobilityHonoring our emotions, grief, and fears, but not letting them control usBecoming what you want the world to beHis Holiness the Dalai Lama and meeting our lives with honesty and joyFighting for freedom and justice, but having fun doing itMaking activism fun, joyful, and beautifulEmphasizing the positives acts in the worldLife changing wisdom from the BuddhaHolding it all in the great heart of compassionAdding your voice, love, energy, and compassionIf your grief is big, hold it from something biggerThis episode was originally recorded for the Food Revolution Network in November of 2024. Discover Your Buddha Nature with Jack Kornfield, an online journey for reclaiming our dignity, compassion, and generosity, beginning June 2. “It says in the Bhagavad Gita, the essence is to act beautifully without attachment to the fruits of the actions. What it means is, you don’t get to determine how it turns out, but you do get to plant your seeds of goodness. And as Thoreau says, ‘Convince me you have a seed there, and I’m prepared to expect miracles.’ You get to plant the seeds, and eventually, in their own time, they bear fruit. That’s not your job. Your job is to make a beautiful garden, to plant beautiful things, and to tend them.” – Jack Kornfield About Ocean Robbins: Ocean Robbins is an American entrepreneur and author, best known for his role as the co-founder of Food Revolution Network, Inc. This California-based company is dedicated to advocating for a whole foods, plant-based diet. Check out Ocean’s book, 31-Day Food Revolution, to learn more about healing the body and transforming the world. You can keep up with Ocean on his website, HERE. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community members, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “If we don’t look, if we don’t acknowledge the children who are hungry, if we don’t acknowledge not just Ukraine and Gaza, but Sudan, and the Congo, and Myanmar, and the Rohingas—if we turn our gaze away in denial, we can’t make a difference. Our heart has to be big enough and our dignity strong enough that we’re willing to see it. And then some of us are called to do that work in the way that we can.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack is interviewed by Ocean Robbins to explore the big spiritual questions—why there is suffering, how to navigate duality, making the ordinary holy, and cultivating a loving witness. Discover Your Buddha Nature with Jack Kornfield, an online journey for reclaiming our dignity, compassion, and generosity, beginning June 2. “It’s important to not use spiritual practice to set up an ideal or judge yourself. Sometimes you need to shut down, and then you open again. So the spiritual path is really about being with both the calm ocean and the storm.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack and Ocean mindfully explore: What first got Jack into mindfulness and meditationLife as beautiful, and an ocean of tearsSuffering, Buddhism, and the end of sufferingWhy is there suffering in the world?Navigating the reality of duality—form and emptiness, life and deathThe recycling nature of the universeHow to make the ordinary holyMeeting our lives with presenceA simple way to explain “The Witness”The magic of consciousnessA calming and deep guided meditation Holding fear and grief in compassionNot getting caught in reactions and angerActing the nobility of heart and your original dignity This episode was originally recorded for the Food Revolution Network in November of 2024. “Life is extraordinarily beautiful, and it’s an ocean of tears. You can’t have birth without death, you can’t have light without dark, you can’t have beginnings without endings. We live in a universe constructed of opposites. That’s just the game of form, of duality. You can’t have form without the emptiness from which it comes.” – Jack Kornfield About Ocean Robbins: Ocean Robbins is an American entrepreneur and author, best known for his role as the co-founder of Food Revolution Network, Inc. This California-based company is dedicated to advocating for a whole foods, plant-based diet. Check out Ocean’s book, 31-Day Food Revolution, to learn more about healing the body and transforming the world. You can keep up with Ocean on his website, HERE. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community members, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “We live in a universe that’s recycling itself—the ultimate recycling of birth and death, form and rebirth. For us as human beings, the question is not why or how. The Buddha didn’t actually answer those questions. He said those are questions that don’t tend to have understanding. He said, what I’m interested in is how to navigate the universe as it is, in a way that brings love, well-being, and freedom to all who want to awaken to this.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this guided breath meditation, Jack Kornfield invites listeners into a space of ease, trust, and ardent gratitude for our bodies, hearts, and minds. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Learn to cultivate dignity, compassion, and generosity in Discovering Your Buddha Nature with Jack Kornfield, an online journey beginning June 2. This week on Heart Wisdom, Jack leads listeners through: The true purpose of meditation and returning from the outer world to our inner selves Softening the body and releasing any physical and emotional tensionGrounding ourselves as we sense the weight of our body being fully supported by the earth Receiving whatever thoughts and emotions arise during meditation with compassion and opennessNoticing how the body breathes itself, relaxing into each breath, and inviting a sense of ease and trust Feeling the rise and fall of our bellies with each inhale and exhaleBowing inwardly to our life-sustaining breath and thanking it for keeping us aliveExpanding the field of mindful loving awareness to the entire body, heart, and mind Finding the parts of our body that are storing buried difficulties Considering the energy of the mind and how occupied it is most of the timeWelcoming a sense of peace and presence with a quieter mind and a tender heart Resting in ‘the awareness that notices’ and de-identifying with the breath and body"This is your life breath. It breathes you together with all living things. It breathes you with everyone in the room, the ocean of air in the trees. As if to make an inward bow, you can say thank you to your breath for keeping you alive so steadily." – Jack Kornfield This meditation was originally recorded for the InsightLA Sunday livestream on April 20, 2025. “Notice that you are not your breath and body. You are not your feelings and thoughts. But, who you are is the awareness that has been kindly witnessing. You are the loving awareness itself.” – Jack Kornfield About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. "The goal of meditation is not to get to somewhere else, to get from here to there, but to come from there to here. To be present, awake, kind, alive." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this time of global uncertainty, Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman call us to rise with fierce compassion and become Bodhisattvas of the Great Turning. Join Jack's Free New Course, Stand Up For Compassion: A Free Course and Resource for Navigating Uncertain Times. “You become the imaginal cells in these times. Things fall apart, but in you is the understanding that compassion is big enough to hold all of this, that the heart is big enough to hold all this, that the Dharma is big enough to shine through empires, changes, crisis, and beauty. That’s what we have—the Bodhisattva can carry on liberating beings from suffering, however long it takes.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack and Trudy mindfully explore: How you can pick all the flowers, but you can’t stop the springNavigating fear politics and the cultural media machineLetting go of fear, blame, shame, and ending systemic divisionUsing this time of “The Great Turning” as an opportunity to create a more loving worldAjahn Chah and living the truth of uncertaintyHow to face the big problems of the world with even bigger loveMeeting the world through the Bodhisattva VowsHow loving people and feeding people connects with enlightenmentThe path and practices of loving awareness and compassionInclining the heart towards kindness and generosityHow caterpillars change to butterflies through Imaginal CellsThe world-changing power of true communityLearning how to respond mindfully to any trigger or circumstanceBecoming a make-weight of hope to tip the scales of humanity to love and balanceThe spiritual wisdom of Passover and EasterLetting go of tension and flowing into relaxationThe Pagan Goddess of DawnCommunity as the antidote for lonelinessCrying, letting the tears come, and seeing what happensHow to interact with people who are highly anxious or avoidantSaying hello to the people around you “Tears feel endless, bottomless, when they don’t have a chance to fall. When they get to fall, they fall and fall, but they stop because tears too are impermanent, they cannot fall forever. It’s really like this with all the intense emotions we are afraid will flood and drown us in some way.” – Trudy Goodman "What we're experiencing, Joanna Macy calls, The Great Turning. It's the breakdown of the exploitive late-stage capitalist model where we get as much as we can, and the harbinger of the possibility of interdependence. When it breaks down, that turning says, ‘We will use this time to turn this world into something better, to care for one another. The possibility starts with us." – Jack Kornfield This episode was originally recorded for the InsightLA Sunday livestream on April 20, 2025. Photo via Wirestock About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring how to let go of victim consciousness and awaken inner resilience, Jack shares how to rest in awareness and live from the trusting heart. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. Join Jack's New Free Course, Stand Up For Compassion: A Free Course and Resource for Navigating Uncertain Times. In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores: Liberation, resilience, and the Trusting HeartThe physical nature of time within the infinite nature of awarenessChange, aging, and the weirdness of looking in the mirrorMeditation and working with the drama that arisesRemembering who we truly are, no matter how lost we getMoving past victim consciousness, shame, and blameDropping our negative stories and starting to live with nobilityHow we are so much more than our sufferingHow to stop being loyal to our stories about ourselves and the worldNavigating these "latter day degenerate times with cherry blossoms everywhere”The goal of practice as keeping our beginners mindLetting go of fear and opening to adventureNot confusing no-self with low-self esteem"No self, no problem"The strength, aliveness, and fullness of true emptinessThe Dharma of a zoo in a hurricaneThe Trusting Heart as natural as the Tao, as resilient as water, and as forgiving as the earthThe resiliency, compassion, and intuition of the WitnessRecognizing how good you're actually doing"When we become still, when we're not trying to be something, when we're in the moments of the trusting heart—what's left is not imitation or artificial, it is as natural as the Tao, as resilient and flexible as water, and as forgiving as the earth." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk was recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and originally published on DharmaSeed. “Is this who you really are—the victim, the abandoned one, the lonely one? Is that really who you are? If you speak it out loud, 'I'm the victim,' it gets embarrassing because something in there can't say it very long. Over time we've become really loyal to this story, but actually, something in us knows that it's not the whole game. There comes tremendous freedom when we begin to experience this." – Jack Kornfield About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. "There is a resiliency in us as human beings which becomes trustworthy when we let go of the small sense of self and become the spacious, open, witness to all things." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Who are we really? Jack Kornfield peels back the veil on our identity roles to uncover the deeper truth that we really are. Join Jack's New Free Course, Stand Up For Compassion: A Free Course and Resource for Navigating Uncertain Times. In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores: Opening to a new vast, gracious, and spacious perspective on lifeStepping out of your ordinary habits and roles to see something in a new wayHow to navigate the reality that death is stalking usMeditation as a practice of letting things goThe spirituality of the nature of change and the present momentRam Dass and the mystery of identity, change, and awarenessSeeing past our roles to the deeper reality of who we areLooking into the mystery of: Who I Am?Touching the secret beauty you were born withJack's experience communicating with Koko the GorillaSeeing past the illusion of separateness and the small selfMeditation as a sacred space of non-consumptionRemembering and healing through listening and letting goSeeing the entire arc of life with the eyes of the DivineOvercoming the forces of greed, hatred, and fearUntangling the places that cause suffering and confusionOpening to the birthright of your freedomLiving the pattern of mystery that is this lifeRecognizing the total interconnection of all of life"Part of what makes meditation so extraordinary is that to simply sit and not try to make anything happen, or get anywhere, or do something—is to step out of our identity and our roles in the small sense of self." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk was recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and originally published on DharmaSeed. “Meditation offers us a sacred space of non-consumption. There's nothing to do, no grade, no accomplishment, nothing you have to become. It is the sacred space to listen and remember, and touch the freedom of heart or spirit that is possible in any circumstance." – Jack Kornfield About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a years worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring how to stay buoyant and balanced on life's great ocean of change, Jack sets our spiritual compass for letting go into what is. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self. Join Jack's New Free Course, Stand Up For Compassion: A Free Course and Resource for Navigating Uncertain Times. "What we're asked to do here is a very deep thing, which isn't to change ourselves, but to give ourselves to our life, to practice with continuity and care, bowing, opening. It's really like being in labor, if you've ever had a child or been there for childbirth, it's a birth of your life, a birth of yourself, over and over, letting go to what is." – Jack Kornfield In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores: The Tibetan story of Avalokitesvara, Green Tara, and White TaraThe spiritual wisdom of a duck resting on the oceanFloating softly on life's constant ocean of changeExperiencing ourselves as an always flowing river of lifeBowing to the truth of impermanenceSelflessness, emptiness, and opennessSeeing through the dreamlike mirage of 'who you think you are'Letting go into the ever-changing process of lifeHonoring the truth of what's here and nowSuffering, opening your heart, and connecting to all beingsAwakening the great heart of compassionRam Dass and the gift of serviceMeeting death with curiosity, play, and wisdomRebirthing ourselves over and over againGiving ourselves over sincerely to our life, letting go into what isAwakening the great wisdom and heart of the Buddha in every circumstanceHow surrender leads directly to freedomThis Dharma Talk recorded on 1/3/93 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. “The more we pay attention, the more we sense ourselves as a river of life." – Jack Kornfield Interested in learning more on this topic? Check out our most recent Here and Now episode for Ram Dass’ perspective on the ocean of change. About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a years worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack invites us to stop fighting what is and begin bowing to it—awakening the timeless wisdom and compassionate heart of a Buddha, right here and now, in the midst of our joys, sorrows, and the suffering of the world. This Dharma Talk recorded on 1/3/93 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. This week on Heart Wisdom, Jack gives perspectives on: Evaluating our spiritual practiceJoanna Macy and healing the environmentThe rollercoaster ride of meditationAwakening right here and right nowThe transformative power of bowing to it allThe Buddhas of all the universesSuffering and the truth of Nirvana, timeless delightFacing the reality of the human realm—joy and sorrow, birth and deathLooking at the difficulties facing the planet today—war, famine, racism, greed, environmental concernsStop fighting what is true; the end of denialBowing to suffering, attachment, and changeInsight—seeing things just as they are"We awaken the wisdom and the great, compassionate heart of a Buddha right where we are. Where else could it be?" – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Leading a guided meditation helping us witness the play of our human existence from the loving awareness that we truly are, Jack invites us to uncover true freedom as our birthright. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self. In this episode, Jack delves into: The true purpose of meditation and spiritual practiceComing fully into the reality of the present momentBecoming mindful loving awareness itselfWitness the play of our human experienceUncovering true freedom as your innate birthrightExperiencing the present moment as loving awarenessResponding to the world with mindful loving courage“Come into this present moment with mindful loving awareness, notice the play of our human experience, and discover we can take our seat with a compassionate and gracious heart with a freedom that is your birthright.” – Jack Kornfield This recording is from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Monday Night Talk and Meditation on 3/3/25. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode was recorded on 3/03/25 as a part of Spirit Rock’s Monday Night Dharma Talk Series “You are the imaginal cells. You are the ones who are called to hold the vision of a wise society where people respect each other, where we care for the vulnerable, where we understand the universal teaching, ‘Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed.’ This is you.'” – Jack Kornfield In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores: Staying centered amidst life’s struggles Stopping blame and “right and wrongNavigating Late-Stage Capitalism in the 21st CenturyThe Great Turning as an opportunity to reset our lives as human beingsThe Great Turning as a birth process—messy, painful, dangerous, and beautifulRemembering your fearlessness amidst politics and news media Becoming “imaginal cells” of the butterflyTrusting the constant renewal of life and nature Black Elk, Gary Snyder, and the power of loving the earthMeditation and sitting with heartbreakDissolving guilt, fear, and doomscrollingCarrying your light with nobility, respect, and dignityTrusting the big picture, the vast cosmic viewRemembering who you are and living from itThe possibility of a new underground railroadRecognizing that we are the imaginal cells of the worldLearn the Dynamic Art of Interactive Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield in this online masterclass beginning April 7! “Here we are, 21st century, late-stage capitalism, which has gotten to the place where there’s further extremes of rich and poor for exploitation. We’re at the time what Joanna Macy calls the Great Turning—the great opportunity really for us to reset our lives as human beings.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack reveals how awakening your Soul Force—your inner strength, wisdom, and compassion—allows you to heal the world by offering your unique gift with courage and love. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores: Uncovering your unique gift and bringing it to the world Simple reflections of love amidst the reality of death How the sword is always beaten by the spirit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's "Soul Force" The power of facing our fear of death Becoming a Spiritual Warrior of compassion Cultivating the confidence to face any challenge Speaking up for what matters to your heart The cause of evil and how to stop it at it's root The cause of abuse and how to stop it at it's root Learning how to respond to the suffering of the world Discovering freedom in yourself and the world around Cultivating the ability to face ourselves, our pains and sorrows Facing the truth of birth and death The revolutionary act of connecting with nature Connecting with the truth of the world Bearing witness and finding your heart's unique response Entering the world with freedom and love How each and every action counts A charming and funny Q&A section Chanting the mantra, "Ah""Each of us has our own unique gift to bring when it's the right time. It can't be an imitation. You can't do it like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, or whoever you might admire—it has to be your way." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 12/7/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on Dharmaseed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring the spiritual paradox of individual and universal responsibility, Jack helps us find balance between meditation and service in our daily lives. This Dharma Talk from 12/7/1992 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on Dharmaseed. In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores: The paradox of individual and universal responsibility What's the better spiritual practice—meditation or service? What exactly is individual, and what is the universe? Joanna Macy's painful yet healing trip to Chernobyl Becoming stewards of each other, the earth, and the future Distinguishing between freedom and it's near enemies Near enemies as fostering separation; freedom as interdependence How to respond to suffering authentically and helpfully Creating change blossoming from the human heart The radical act of "doing nothing and facing yourself" Dealing with the homelessness problem, warfare, environmental destruction Balancing "Don't just do something, sit there," and "Don't just sit there, there isn't time." Choosing between inner practice and outward service Following a true path with heart in this lifetime Vimala Thakar, Ajahn Chah, and Maha Ghosananda as beacons of peace The power of helping feed the hungry Navigating the up and down, inner and outer, cycles of spiritual life"Every act counts. Each one of us has the power to affect the world." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Fostering the mind-body-heart connection, Jack shares how the healing breath reawakens the body and reconnects us with life. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores: Using breath to live wisely and simply in this complex human existenceGood spiritual community as an island of peace and sanitySeeing past negative fear politics and news mediaA Charm to Use Against the Language of PoliticsThe Buddha on mindfulness of your life breathNoting the subtle nuances of the breath in meditation"Buddha in the palm of your hand" techniqueTraining the restless puppy of the mindUsing breath to reconnect body, heart, and mindShort and simple guided breath practicesWhat the Cross and the Circle representDirecting your breath to feel and open emotional wounds and dis-easeReawakening your body, and reconnecting with life, through breathing"Most of the destruction that modern society has caused in the world is the result of the mind being disconnected from the heart and the body." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk originally taking place on 11/2/1992 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Standing up for compassion in this powerful new Dharma Talk, Jack offers a steady spiritual rudder for navigating turbulent politics with the heart of a Bodhisattva. Learn the Dynamic Art of Interactive Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield in this online masterclass beginning April 7! “It’s a time to get quiet and remember that you’re here for a beautiful purpose, oh Bodhisattvas. What better thing to do with your life?” – Jack Kornfield In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores: Navigating this world's maelstrom of change from a deep spiritual rudderReturning from his trip to Asia; landing in Los Angeles on fireSamsara and the nature of uncertaintyCreating a wise society based on mutual careTrading our personal and cultural anxiety for imagination and hopeAlison Luterman's heart-opening poem, Praise the Broken Promise of AmericaUsing the Dharma to move past Liberal versus ConservativeHow to help the vulnerable in the worldRemembering your best values as things changeGrounding yourself, steadying your heart, and remaining hopefulBringing peace to this world, developing metta, and supporting what's goodTaking the long view, living with integrity, virtue, and imaginationJoining together with your community to stand up for compassionBeing hopeful and helpful through difficult timesLiving like a Bodhisattva—offering support, compassion, loving kindness “Take the long view—your intention, heart, and mind in all the cycles of birth and death. That deep intention of wisdom creates what’s possible for a wise society. It becomes a rudder through difficult times.” – Jack Kornfield “When a society treats its members with respect, cares for the weak and vulnerable among them and tends the natural world around… it can be expected to prosper and not decline.” – Mahāparinibbāna Sutta This Dharma Talk was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Talk and Meditation on 2/10/25. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“A powerful way of practicing metta is to invite in the feeling of love without specific words or images. You become a beacon of kindness. Then whatever arises as you sit—thoughts, people, images, concerns—will be held in that kindness.” – Jack Kornfield This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. This week on Heart Wisdom, Jack offers listeners instruction on: Metta and invoking the spirit of love within ourselves Holding all that arises during meditation with kindness Letting our body have a sense of care and well being Allowing ourselves to soften, relax, and rest easily Feeling completely supported by the earth below us Opening our hearts and minds via the metta sutta of loving-kindness Suffusing the whole world with unobstructed, sublime love“The ideal as you practice is to find your own way, to find what most naturally resonates with yourself as a gateway to open the heart.” – Jack Kornfield This episode was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation Livestream for Feb 2025. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this engaging Q&A session, Jack and Trudy explore romance, impermanence, attachment, diffusing anger, manifesting your dreams using mindfulness, and more! Learn How to Thrive in Love: Buddhist Secrets to Transform Your Relationships with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman – join now! In Part 2 of this episode, Jack and Trudy dive into Q&A on: Finding appreciation and wisdom in things “falling apart”Accepting change, aging, impermanenceEntering the naked unknown of the wilderness, natureThe wisdom of swimming with dolphins in the oceanSending metta (loving kindness) to the world and those in positions of powerHow to tend our romantic relationships and partnerships with mindfulness and careDiffusing anger and learning how to communicate lovinglyConnecting from a place of vulnerability and presenceMoving past warfare, racism, violence, and blameLearning how to communicate across differencesNoting the difference between your intention and it’s impact on othersManifesting your dreams using mindfulness“Attachment” in Buddhism vs Western PsychologyWorking through trauma in a safe and mindful wayThis talk originally aired on the Voices of Esalen Podcast: The Voices of Esalen Podcast showcases in-depth interviews with the dynamic teachers and thinkers who are part of Esalen Institute. Hosted by Sam Stern, a former Esalen student and current staff member, the podcasts have featured engaging conversations with authors Cheryl Strayed and Michael Pollan, innovators Stan Grof and Dr. Mark Hyman, teachers Byron Katie, Mark Coleman and Jean Houston, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, and many more. Learn more at Esalen.org/story/podcasts About Trudy Goodman: Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com This episode is brought to you by Dharma Moon. Join Buddhist teachers David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman for a free online event on Tuesday, March 4th at 6pm ET. Together, they'll explore the power of lineage, tradition, and the evolution of mindfulness practices. They’ll also discuss Dharma Moon’s renowned mindfulness meditation teacher training program. Visit dharmamoon.com/lineage for more info and to reserve your spot for the free online event with David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman! About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a years worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings. “It’s important to love what we love; it’s only a problem when we need to let go.” – Trudy Goodman See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman join forces in an exploration of Buddha’s eternal wisdom: ‘hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed.’ This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “We start to sense that who we are is not just limited by the events of the world, but that we’re connected to something vast, mysterious, and greater.” – Jack Kornfield In Part 1 of this episode, Jack and Trudy mindfully explore: Loving Awareness and mindful responseSeeing the world with the eyes of a BuddhaOpening to that world with the heart of a BuddhaHow the art of meditation is actually the art of loveThe story of Maha Ghosananda, the Gandhi of CambodiaBuddha’s eternal wisdom: Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healedFacing climate change, racism, warfare, refugees, injustice, and traumaDealing with our cultural anxiety, and saving ourselves from despairBecoming the calm person on the boat who can show the way for allBecoming a Bodhisattva, setting the compass of your heart for compassionStanding up for what matters, and tending the world with beautyShifting our practice from unconsciousness to loving awarenessSuffusing mindfulness practice with tenderness and compassionHow we are all the same size when facing the vulnerability of our mortalityThe Heart Sutra mantra: Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi SvahaFinding wisdom and comfort in “falling apart” “Spiritually, we are all the same size, because we all are facing the vulnerability of our mortality.” – Trudy Goodman “In community, in family, in our lives, in joy and sorrow, in birth and death—we’re, given the responsibility to hold ourselves in a web of love.” – Jack Kornfield Learn How to Thrive in Love: Buddhist Secrets to Transform Your Relationships with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman beginning Feb 17 – join anytime! About Trudy Goodman: Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about about Trudy's flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com This talk originally aired on the Voices of Esalen Podcast: The Voices of Esalen Podcast showcases in-depth interviews with the dynamic teachers and thinkers who are part of Esalen Institute. Hosted by Sam Stern, a former Esalen student and current staff member, the podcasts have featured engaging conversations with authors Cheryl Strayed and Michael Pollan, innovators Stan Grof and Dr. Mark Hyman, teachers Byron Katie, Mark Coleman and Jean Houston, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, and many more. Learn more at Esalen.org/story/podcasts About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as. a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses and programs diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation, Relationships, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Learn about these and Jack's flowing stream of Dharma offerings at JackKornfield.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Love is in the air, as Jack explores the nature of desire, relationships, and spiritual passion—offering wisdom on stabilizing the heart, navigating distractions, and awakening to the timeless and sacred. Learn How to Thrive in Love: Buddhist Secrets to Transform Your Relationships with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman beginning Feb 17 – join anytime! “If you know what it’s like to really fall in love with someone, then you can begin to sense what it means to bring the full presence of attention to your life.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The Buddha on mindfulness and awarenessStabilizing the heart, mind, and body in the presentOvercoming distractions and difficult moodsBeing aware of desires arising and passingChanda – spiritual passion, the desire for awakeningThe connection between power, insecurity, and fearHow to stop feeding the hungry heart in unskillful waysThe difference between desire and loveRelationship, marriage, and staying in loveA moving love story from Thich Nhat HanhReclaiming our humanity and animal natureReawakening mystery, gratitude, aweTouching that which is timeless and sacredAvalokitesvara, the Buddha of infinite compassionSri Nisargadatta Maharaj and living your fullnessNoticing what tempts you away during meditation “What direction do our personal desires take us? It’s good to study them. As my teacher Ajahn Chah said, ‘It may be a very fast car, but you ought to look at what road you’re going down and which way it’s headed.'” – Jack Kornfield “Perhaps what we most deeply desire is immensely simple—to reclaim our humanity, our animal nature that Jung talked about, the wondrous senses, the sense of the spirit of awe, the remembering, the reawakening of that sense of gratitude and mystery for life.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on 9/28/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Rekindling the ancient art of listening, Jack shares how we can transform our lives through nourishing inner stillness and simplifying the mind. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “The Divine waits for us to taste the food and not just read the menu.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Reclaiming the ancient Art of ListeningMeditating like the Buddha in natureHow your breath reflects your lifeMeditation, attention, and overcoming restlessnessThe ways we keep ourselves busyHow to trust your human instinctsReclaiming an intimacy with your sensesNoticing when we’re listening and when we’re notHonoring others through your attentionCultivating the humility of ‘Don’t Know Mind’The mystery of life, death, love, consciousnessNourishing inner stillness and simplifying your mindLetting go into the unfolding present momentThe rather bizarre situation of having a human bodyOur connection to nature, earth, the elements, and all of beingFinding the meditative space of no going forward, backward, or standing still “To meditate is to remember, reclaim, reawaken the ancient art of listening.” – Jack Kornfield “When the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree on his night of enlightenment, it wasn’t to do, get, or make something, but to listen inwardly with all of his senses to the nature of this world that we are born into for a time.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on 9/21/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this defining talk, Jack shed's light on his adventurous journey to Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, and how upon returning home, he had to learn to embody a heart of authenticity. Transform your 2025 with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online program on mindfulness, love, community, and connection. Join in anytime. “Being with Ajahn Chah was being with a person who rested in their Buddha Nature, their own true nature. He was just himself. He was really at peace with himself. You could feel it from the energy of his presence, rooted like a great tree in the earth.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: His mystical journey to learn with Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah,Needing to work his way down the chakras to fully live this human lifeSudden awakening versus gradual change on the spiritual pathRamana Maharshi and liberation through facing one’s own deathHow to live in your soul and dance your unique danceWhat it’s like hanging out with monks covered in wild beesAjahn Chah’s tree-like quality of roundedness, freedom, and opennessMatching our thoughts and actions with our valuesHis first time experience rapture in meditationThe transformative aspects of therapy, bodywork, marriage, familyRam Dass and the healing quality of presenceNavigating differences in our romantic relationshipsLearning to acknowledge the pain and loss beneath our angerOpening to life’s lessons of compassion, wisdom, and wakefulnessThe gift of spiritual community and sharing our authenticityEmbodying the timeless eternal truth of mindfulness, intimacy, and wakefulness “To love another person just as they are is the only kind of love that makes any sense.” – Jack Kornfield “There’s an intimacy and a presence that is true about mindfulness: it’s either now or never.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on 9/14/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack helps us heal conflicts, release defensiveness, and cultivate the harmony of wise relationships through the art of reconciliation, deep listening, and truth. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “When we read about western civilization, it is in our history books as predominantly a history of conflict—who fought whom, who took over what kingdom, country, or land from someone else and conquered and triumphed. That conflict is still with us in very obvious ways, whether it is in Los Angeles, or Yugoslavia, or Somalia, Ethiopia, or Cambodia. And so, when we look at human civilization with such a long history of conflict, the question comes, can we learn another way to live as humans?” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Buddhist teachings on community, conflict, and living harmoniouslyIf modern civilization is actually all that civilizedAristotle on humanity’s weapons of wisdom and virtueThe historical evolution of human consciousness and compassionTypes of slavery, overt and hidden: physical, economic, political, clandestineThe spirituality of truly celebrating life in this present momentWise Relationship, living harmoniously, listening in a way that honors everyoneCreating a ‘wise culture’ built on honesty and integrityHow to truly apologize, forgive, reconcile, and renewWise mechanisms for diffusing conflictHow to stop being defensive and start listeningReconciling conflicts in monasteries and spiritual communitiesHow the ‘art of listening’ begins with the ‘art of letting go’Learning to cooperate in courage, fearlessness, and honoringNavigating life from our ‘unarmed truth’ and ‘Soul Force’ “To be able to enter into a process of reconciliation in one’s family, community or body-politic, is to be able to learn to let go of our views, our ideas, how it should be, what we want, what we fear—which is underneath all of those things. It’s a shift of our identity from this small sense of self that we carry often with us, to something that’s greater—the common good, the good of the earth, that which is beautiful and noble no matter what happens in the world around us—to some greater identity of our being.” – Jack Kornfield “We all want that kind of respect—if you give nothing else to your lover, spouse, children, parents or colleagues, but just that quality of listening with respect—there’s this tremendous sweetness that comes, people love you for it. – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on 7/27/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Opening the doorway to transformation, Jack and Dr. Hübl explore spiritual discernment, identity, “central casting,” overcoming nervous system triggers, reframing trauma, and more. Transform your 2025 with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online program beginning Jan 2025, but join anytime. The ‘wisdom of insecurity’ is to learn that it’s okay to feel insecure—that it’s part of our human law—and to love anyway.” – Jack Kornfield In Part 2 of this episode originally airing for Dr. Hübl’s ‘Spiritual Healing Journey Summit,’ Jack and Thomas mindfully explore: Spiritual community, idealism, disillusionment, and healing spiritual injuryJack’s experience “pressure testing” his teacher Ajahn ChahTrading our “blind faith” for “spiritual discernment”Living in joy with a free heart amidst it allRam Dass, identity, and “central casting”Seeing past our identities/roles to our Divine Nature while still fully honoring themReframing “trauma” with Buddha’s lens of sufferingHealing the nervous system and it’s triggersExpanding our loving kindness to encompass all beingsWalking through the doorway of transformation and dissolving the cosmos into loveHow to deal with our trauma and learn to live with sufferingReaching out and healing the part of the world we can touchThe Bodhisattva vow as fostering the awakening of the heartOpening to the “wisdom of insecurity” “Spiritual practice is to remember your true divine nature, and also your social security number, your particular role which ‘central casting’ has placed you in at this time.” – Jack Kornfield "Disillusionment is part of the spiritual path, baby. It is! You have to see with the eyes of the Buddha to see the truth of suffering and greed and hatred, and also see that it's not the end of the story, that that's not who you are." – Jack Kornfield About Thomas Hübl, PhD: Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator who works within the complexity of systems and cultural change, integrating the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. Since the early 2000s, he has led large-scale events and courses on the healing of collective trauma. He is the author of Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World and Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. He has served as an advisor and guest faculty for universities and organizations, as a coach for CEOs and organizational leaders, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. For more info, books, podcast, and upcoming offerings, please visit thomashuebl.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack and Thomas explore how ritual serves as a powerful language for opening the heart and living joyfully through life’s challenges. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. "Ritual and symbol become a gateway back to the heart to our deep connection. When we have that in spiritual life, things open up in a different way." – Jack Kornfield In Part 1 of this episode originally airing for Dr. Hübl’s ‘Spiritual Healing Journey Summit,’ Jack and Thomas mindfully explore: How to live joyfully through difficult timesFinding the wonder of “everyday grace”Reducing suffering through spiritual practiceWestern Psychology and Eastern SpiritualityInterconnection and opening to the great web of beingRelational mindfulness and communal mindfulnessRitual as a language and gateway to the heartHow to talk with nature and speak for the treesThe transformation of having true mentors and guidesService, activism, and navigating burnoutPaying attention and listening to each other and nature "The nuclear waste of what you've been through can burn in some way that it becomes the fuel for energy and light. It gets transformed in the reactor of the heart and you have a power now." – Jack Kornfield “No amount of nanotechnology, A.I., space technology, or biotechnology is going to save us. Because the source of hatred, war, racism, conflict, exploitation, and climate disruption is in the human heart. That’s where it starts and where it grows from. Therefore, the outer developments which are becoming really remarkable have to be matched by the inner developments of humanity.” – Jack Kornfield About Thomas Hübl, PhD: Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator who works within the complexity of systems and cultural change, integrating the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. Since the early 2000s, he has led large-scale events and courses on the healing of collective trauma. He is the author of Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World and Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. He has served as an advisor and guest faculty for universities and organizations, as a coach for CEOs and organizational leaders, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. For more info, books, podcast, and upcoming offerings, please visit thomashuebl.com Transform your 2025 with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online program beginning Jan 2025! Join at bit.ly/Awakening2025 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Shining a lamp in the darkness, Jack offers a heartwarming holiday story, guided meditation, angelic chant, and powerful intention setting ceremony for the New Year and beyond. Transform your 2025 with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online program beginning Jan 2025! “May your holidays and the turning of the seasons bring new light, great love, wisdom, and understanding into your life, to all your touch, and across this beautiful blue-green globe.” – Jack Kornfield In part 2 of this special holiday series, Jack merrily shares: A heartwarming Christmas Dharma story to relax the mindLearning the true and boundless joy of making others happyA powerful “Just Like Me” two-person guided meditation practiceTransforming the world through seeing the beauty of those around usSetting the compass of your heart for our highest good and intentionCreating your own New Year’s vow, and becoming a lamp in the darkness for those in needA special blessing-cord ceremony—an intention setting ritual for the turning of the seasons, the New Year, and the returning of the lightThe angelic, holy, chanting of the of the mantra, “Namoh” “How do we respond to this world? You sit and you sweep the garden. You have the capacity as a human being incarnating in this life—with your measure of suffering and the beauty you have—to respond in extraordinary ways.” – Jack Kornfield “I did a blessing cord ceremony 40 years ago together with Lama Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and somebody raised their hand and said to him, ‘What exactly do these protect you from?’ And he said, ‘Why yourself, of course,’ which is a main protection that human beings need.” – Jack Kornfield This episode was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation Livestream on 12/14/15. Learn more about Spirit Rock’s offerings. Join Jack’s next event. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this cozy holiday special, Jack sheds seasonal tidings on how to rediscover the secret beauty within you and share your special gifts with the world. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “What you most deeply long for is who you are, is coming back to your own heart, to your own beauty, your own wellbeing that you were born with, to that secret beauty.” – Jack Kornfield In part 1 of this special holiday video series, Jack merrily explores: The spiritual meaning of the Winter Solstice, the turning of the seasons, and the holidaysHow Jack’s teacher Ajahn Chah reacted when a Christmas Tree was put up in the MonasteryReconnecting with the great mystery of the world and with each otherHow to deal with your family with compassion, equanimity, and peaceSeeing the secret beauty behind the eyes of everyone you meetMoving past the body of fear, the small sense of selfThe paradox of spiritual practice: you’re perfect and there’s room for improvementRediscovering the love and secret beauty within youCultivating dignity, presence, generosity, clarity, integrity, meaning, compassion, trustBringing the mind and body together in the presentLoving awareness and entering the wisdom streamManifesting love and understanding into this worldA Hawaiian story on how to bring your special giftRam Dass, Mother Teresa, service, and allowing yourself to be taken care ofMoving past fear politics and becoming a force of connection and love “To meditate, more than anything, is an invitation to remember, to quiet ourselves, to touch back in to this truth, this reality beyond the busyness, fears, and confusion we have because we’re human.” – Jack Kornfield “Meditation and spiritual practice is not meant to be a grim duty, it’s meant to be a rediscovery of the love and secret beauty that’s within you.” – Jack Kornfield This episode was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation Livestream on 12/14/15. Learn more about Spirit Rock’s offerings at SpiritRock.org. Join Jack’s next livestream at JackKornfield.com/events Transform your year with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: An Intimate Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online journey! Sign up at bit.ly/Awakening2025 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring how compassionate speech and mindful listening can transform our lives, Jack shares how we can navigate culture’s web of lies by using the energy of Wise Speech to truly awaken. Transform your 2025 with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: An Intimate Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online course beginning Jan 2025! “[Wise Speech] is really about compassion—it’s being aware of the power of speech, and using it to express what is conscious and what brings freedom.” – Jack Kornfield Exploring the third step of the Eightfold Path, Jack mindfully shares on: Wise Speech / Right Speech as a factor of awakeningCompassion, non-harming, and embodying Buddha NatureRam Dass’s “Hopi-Hippie Be-In” and what it means to ‘speak the truth’Navigating culture’s and advertising’s web of liesSpeaking from your deepest truth and knowingBuddha and using the energy of speech to awakenWhat it means to truly listen to another human beingCompassionate communication and listeningDiscerning your intention and motivation when talking to peopleSpeaking like a Buddha and treasuring our speechThe simple pleasure of talking and communicationUsing your words for justice, truth, love, and wisdomLetting go of pride and needing to be rightA “Wise Speech” guided meditationChanting the seed syllable “Ah” “The key to listening and speaking wisely is the intention—our intention to learn, to discover, to hear something that we haven’t understood.” – Jack Kornfield “The possibility, if we are to live an awakened life, is to foster that speech that comes from our deeper knowing.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded in 1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Offering decompression from post-election intensity, Jack shares a guided meditation helping us maintain a mindful loving presence amidst it all. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “The seasons turn, elections come and go, whole nations and civilization arise for a time and pass. You are the witness to consciousness, the loving awareness that sees the mystery of arising and passing, and holds it all with love.” – Jack Kornfield In this fresh episode, Jack leads a guided meditation on: Decompressing from the intensity of the electionTaking your noble seat amidst life’s Eight Worldly Winds and play of oppositesFeeling a stable and centered presence wherever you areResting in a quiet, open, mindful loving awarenessFeeling a true sense of loving kindness right hereBecoming consciousness itself, vast, timeless, spaciousWitnessing the arising and passing of all, and holding it all in love “With loving kindness, notice the energy of the mind—the stream of thoughts and plans, ideas, worries, imaginings, analysis, understandings, stories, images—a river of thoughts, feelings, images, and words. You can hold it all in loving kindness and say, ‘Thank you for all that work, I’m okay just now, you can relax.'” – Jack Kornfield This episode was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation Livestream on 11/11/24. Learn more about Spirit Rock’s offerings at SpiritRock.org. Join Jack’s next livestream at JackKornfield.com/events See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Reflecting on the election, Jack explores how we can most mindfully and lovingly dance with impermanence, suffering, and ‘the great turning’ of the world. This episode was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation Livestream on 11/11/24. Learn more about Spirit Rock’s offerings here. Join Jack’s next livestream event here. “It’s not about an election one way or the other, they come and go. There’s such huge other forces happening right now—climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion energy—huge possibilities and huge problems. As T.S. Elliot says, ‘In my end is my beginning.’ Everything that turns offers a new openness and beginning for something else.” – Jack Kornfield In this fresh episode, Jack mindfully explores: Navigating the election and politics in a changing worldReturning to the basics of Buddhism and living a wise spiritual lifeQuieting the mind, tending the heart, listening to the cries, and seeing with the eyes of wisdomWhat Ajahn Chah’s wisdom for the election results would beOpening to change, honoring impermanence, facing sufferingAnnica – the wisdom of uncertaintyNavigating the “Great Turning” of the worldShifting from exploitive and consumer consciousness to one of interdependence and mutual careFacing our suffering, warfare, racism, aging, death, loss, and changeThe Zen view of the “dew drop” worldHow annica, dukka, anatta connect with nirvana and unshakeable freedomTo end the illusion of separationPolitics as a form of ritualized warfareStanding up like Arjuna in the Bhagavad GitaHuman history as also containing compassion, courage, and sweetnessFinding refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and SanghaLiving from unconditional love and a freedom from fearThe transformative power of communityOur inexorable connection to all the great Saints, Gods, and to the Great Mystery “You get to choose your spirit. No matter what.” – Jack Kornfield "We know that we're not separate. You know it especially when you're on the mountaintop looking down after some amazing hike, or listening to a piece of music that transports you beyond the small sense of self. You know it when you make love, or take psychedelics, or have some profound meditation, or dance until you disappear. We all know it." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Helping us reflect on our daily habits and feelings, Jack shares how Right Attitude, Wise Aspiration, and Mindful Thought allow us to uncover the sweet joy of living in The Way. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “With Wise Attitude we begin to discover the power of kindness, the joy in not grasping, the delight in generosity, the ease in letting go, and the immediacy of freedom and liberation that is here in every moment.” – Jack Kornfield Exploring the second step of the Eightfold Path, Jack mindfully shares on: Right Attitude, Wise Thought, the second step on the Eightfold PathSeeing directly the true power of mind and heartOvercoming habitual patterns of thought, action, and attitudeThe Buddha on nobility, integrity, and the heartOvercoming greed, hatred, and delusionKnowing the sweet joy of living in The WayWise Aspiration and the path of the BodhisattvaReflecting on our attitude around deathRumi, Stephen Levine, Martin Luther King Jr, Suzuki Roshi, and Alan WattsTaking what life gives us as “grist for the mill” of awakeningExamining spiritual teachings in our own life (what works, what doesn’t?)Trading ‘protection and defensiveness’ for ‘openness and curiosity’Accepting each moment as an unrepeatable miracleBeginner’s Mind and Don’t Know MindOpenness, respect, and compassion “It is knowing what is true that brings ourselves freedom. We don’t get free by making ourselves free.” – Jack Kornfield “It is only through mercy, through the kindness of compassion, that reconciliation happens, that what’s locked in suffering begins to grow and breathe new life.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded in 1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Intersecting the Buddha’s ‘Wise Understanding’ with Alan Watt’s ‘Wisdom of Insecurity,’ Jack illuminates the path of discovering lasting happiness. For an even deeper dive down the Eightfold Path, sign up for Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield, an online course designed to guide you through the wisdom, compassion, and freedom of Buddha’s teachings. Learn more and sign up here. “Spiritual life is not about possessing or finding security, but rather it’s discovering what Alan Watts called, ‘the wisdom of insecurity,’ the capacity for freedom and compassion of heart, no matter what the circumstances. Right Understanding is a willingness to dedicate ourself to awakening, no matter how conditions change.” – Jack Kornfield Exploring the first step of the Eightfold Path, Jack mindfully shares on: The Buddha, Enlightenment, the Eightfold Path, and Four Noble TruthsHow to live a wise, mindful, happy, and loving lifeThe Middle Path as the pathway to freedomWise Understanding, the first step on the Eightfold PathSuffering, it’s causes, and how to alleviate itWhere happiness actually comes fromWorking with clinging, grasping, aging, aversion, fearImpermanence, change, and the wisdom of insecuritySpiritual Direction and the journey of the soulThe seed of awakening your Buddha NatureUnderstanding the Law of KarmaFinding nirvana through our current circumstancesHaving compassion for what puts us to sleepTending your heart to tend the whole world “Buddha saw that the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering is not so much in life itself, but in the way that we relate to life.” – Jack Kornfield “Right understanding tells us that we can dedicate our life to something beautiful.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded in 1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Discover how to shift from trauma to loving awareness through mindfulness, conscious healing, and compassionate activism with Jack Kornfield and Thomas Hübl, PhD. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “Who you are is so much more than your trauma, you are consciousness itself.” – Jack Kornfield In Part 2 of this episode originally airing for The Collective Trauma Summit in 2021, Jack and Thomas mindfully explore: Developing the skills to heal our traumaJack’s time with meditation master, Maha GhosanandaThe powerful connection between activism and spiritualityAvoiding burnout, finding balanceTransforming from skeptical to mysticalNavigating the traumas in the Middle EastDigesting our traumasWaking up from auto-pilotExpanding your window of toleranceHow to face racism, war, economic disparity, the environment, etcMindfulness, consciousness, and loving awareness “The whole notion that spiritual practice doesn’t have anything to do with activism is a fiction.” – Jack Kornfield “Every breath you take is the breath of the starlings and the breath of the earthworms and the soil. We’re all inter-breathing it together. That’s how it works, that’s what life is.” – Jack Kornfield About Thomas Hübl, PhD: Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator who works within the complexity of systems and cultural change, integrating the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. Since the early 2000s, he has led large-scale events and courses on the healing of collective trauma. He is the author of Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World and Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. He has served as an advisor and guest faculty for universities and organizations, as a coach for CEOs and organizational leaders, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. For more info, books, podcast, and upcoming offerings, please visit thomashuebl.com Open the Heart of Forgiveness with Jack Kornfield: A Journey of Redemption, Reconciliation and Renewal. Learn more and sign up! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield and Thomas Hübl, PhD explore the dimensions of trauma, individual and collective healing, and the transformative power of community. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “Almost every great spiritual tradition knows that we can’t do it alone. Because part of the revelation is that the whole notion of separateness is a constructed fiction—that we are one another’s bond, we are one another’s glory, that we are life itself—and that sense of separation dissolves in mystical ways, in the deepest most profound therapeutic ways.” – Jack Kornfield In Part 1 of this episode originally airing for The Collective Trauma Summit in 2021, Jack and Thomas mindfully explore: The essence of trauma, how it gets locked in our body, and how to finally release itThe merging point of Eastern Spirituality and Western PsychologyThe way intimate relationships help bring up exactly what we need to work onHow our trauma work can lead to spiritual healingThe various dimensions of healing traumaDeep and moving stories of alchemizing traumaCreating a safe container for our healing and collective healingHow interdependence in a group naturally leads to healingThe importance of community (satsang, sangha)How Stan Grof’s holotropic breathwork is a psychedelic experienceGrounding and integrating our our practice into mindful loving awarenessAn ancient Buddhist parable on merging the physical world with the spiritual Open the Heart of Forgiveness with Jack Kornfield: A Journey of Redemption, Reconciliation and Renewal beginning Oct 21. Learn more and sign up! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack guides us in creating a sacred container for spiritual practice—a space where, like a garden, our inner life can be nurtured, allowing us to transform life’s challenges into paths of awakening and growth. Open the Heart of Forgiveness with Jack Kornfield: A Journey of Redemption, Reconciliation and Renewal beginning Oct 21. Learn more and sign up! “Much of our spiritual life, to mature, needs a sacred container for transformation. It needs this container that is greater than our small self—the body of fear and the mind of desire—something that honors a larger spirit, a larger truth.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Creating a free and protected space, a sacred container for your practice How the very difficulties in our lives are what actually awakens us Using our hardships as a crucible for uncovering our own goodness Rumi’s flavorful and delicious “vegetable fable” Learning how to stay centered on your cushion The mirror-like quality of meditation practice Meeting our practice with commitment, constancy, patience Honoring the cycles of nature and the universe Feeling our feelings to heal our grief Learning the value of staying with things, even through difficulty Choosing the Dharma over the body of fear and mind of desire Nurturing the sacred garden within yourself The power of prayer and feeling blessed “In a way, sitting is nothing more than looking in the mirror. You sit and face whatever arises.” – Jack Kornfield “It almost doesn’t matter what we pick, who our partner is, or what we choose to do, as long as it’s reasonably wholesome. What matters is how much we can give to it, of our sincerity, of our earnestness, of our heart.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on 8/1/1991 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Guiding us through the ever-changing cycles of life, Jack uncovers the profound truth of our interconnectedness as boundless and unique expressions of the Dharma. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “We see that there isn’t one way to practice or to live, but many cycles, seasons, and expressions of Dharma and truth.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Natural wisdom of the rainforest ecosystemDiscovering the truth of our inexorable interconnectionSeeing clearly the reality of change and impermanenceInterconnectedness within the flowing stream of interbeingSpiritual maturity and recognizing the patterns and cycles of lifeThe many unique expressions of Dharma, spirituality, and truth in this worldWisdom from Buddha, Dipa Ma, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, HH the Dalai Lama, S.N. Goenka, and Tibetan cave-dwelling yogisBringing your compassion to the environment, politics, social action, homelessness, education, etcMeditation as a radical act: facing head-on the forces of greed, prejudice, hatred, and delusionFinding your unique dharma and way to help the worldLife and spirituality as a process of death and rebirth over and over againUncovering a deep ‘joy for no reason’How the “light and love” in meditation is actually literalUntangling the knots of our attachments to live in inner freedomA poem dedicated to the struggles in the Middle EastDiscovering your capacity to awaken, and your unique gift “It’s not about perfection of oneself or the world, but it’s learning to live in a simple way and touch one moment after another with wisdom, understanding, compassion, and presence.” – Jack Kornfield “Wisdom is a state of our being in our heart. And to live in that way takes humility, a surrender or commitment, a trusting heart, a going into the unknown.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 1/3/1991 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. Open the Heart of Forgiveness with Jack Kornfield: A Journey of Redemption, Reconciliation and Renewal beginning Oct 21. Learn more and sign up! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Speaking to progressing on the spiritual path, Jack explores enlightenment as true intimacy, and shares how: where we’re going is actually here. “Where we’re going is here, and what we’re after doesn’t exist in time.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Our idealistic/romantic notions of the spiritual pathConsciousness, impermanence, and working with human emotionsWisdom stories of Ajahn Chah, Jack’s accomplished Thai meditation teacherMaharishi Mahesh Yogi and the legend of building a Spiritual Amusement ParkProgress and patience along the spiritual pathEnlightenment as intimacy with all thingsA guided meditation practice reflecting on life, death, and good deedsTransforming the the world with one small act of kindness at a timeHonoring our own beauty and goodnessHow compassion is characterized by true intimacyRecognizing and coming to our spiritual maturityLiving like a Bodhisattva, and what it really means to ‘save all beings’Alchemizing extreme suffering, trauma, and grief into compassion, forgiveness, and service “Enlightenment is to be intimate with what’s here.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 1/3/1991 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. For more teachings, full courses, articles, and guided meditations, head to JackKornfield.com or sign up for Jack's email teachings at JackKornfield.com/newsletter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack unfolds the radical wisdom and healing teachings of the great Buddhist sage Atīśa on living this dreamlike life as gesture of love. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “If life is like a dream, make it a beautiful one.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Radical wisdom from the 7 Verses of Atīśa – one of the greatest Buddhist sagesA moving story about the deep transformative power encased within committing an act of truthThe nature of timeless awareness and the witnessExchanging “spiritual trading cards” with Ram DassHumor, listening, stillness, and spiritual perspectiveNot being swayed by outer circumstanceLearning what really matters in this lifeLiving with an honest and compassionate heartEmptiness and considering all phenomenon to be dreamsNot brooding over the faults of othersNoticing our inner waterfall of thoughts, feelings, sensationsBecoming medicine for others and the worldLooking through the eyes of mercyBeing grateful to everyone and everythingAlways relying on joyful and peaceful mind and heartDon’t expect a standing ovation for your spiritual work or service to the world “Who you are is what matters most—and who you are is awareness having this amazing life journey.” – Jack Kornfield “Let your life be a gesture of love.” – Jack Kornfield This episode was originally recorded on 11/20/23 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. To join Jack's next livestream, head to JackKornfield.com/events See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this fresh guided meditation, Jack invites you to rest your mind and heart to uncover the authentic happiness encased within true peace. This Dharma Talk originally took place for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation on 11/23/2024. To join his next livestream, please check out Jack’s events calendar. “There is no greater happiness than peace.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack leads a guided meditation on:Peace as the highest happinessFinding ease, stability, stillness, and presenceReceiving whatever arises with kindness and compassionInviting thoughts and emotions to quietResting in mindful loving awarenessUncovering a peaceful mind and full heart “Feel how the earth you are sitting on supports you completely in its steadiness.” – Jack Kornfield Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path. Register for free today: The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Listening to the song of the present moment, Jack uncovers how to dance with life’s dynamic rhythms along the harmonizing path to inner-freedom. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “The rhythm of your breath is no different than the rhythm of the stars.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The art of listening to the song of life, birth and deathWhy it can be so tough to actually “Be Here Now” like Ram DassHow love connects to the present momentAlan Watts, music, dance, and harmonizing to the universeFeeling the rhythms of your breath and bodyLearning to dance to life’s dynamic musicStaying open and avoiding spiritual bypassLooking at our body and life clearly and directlyThe power of attention, noting, and spaciousness for diffusing our judgements and emotionsBuddha’s discovery of the Middle Way, and why he stopped fighting himselfDealing with the unfinished business of grief, loss, loneliness, woundsHow to handle worries or fantasies that keep looping over and overChögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the tenderness and fearlessness of an Awakened HeartWhy Buddha focused on humans as ‘five processes,’ rather than personalitiesLetting go of our rigid sense of self and diving into the fluidity of lifeNon-grasping and how even enlightenment is a problemDiscovering the true path to liberationDeath, dying, and a reading from the Tibetan Book of the Dead “To listen is to be awake in the present without moving away from or running away from what’s actually here.” – Jack Kornfield “The only place to actually love another person, or a tree, or a living creature, or the earth itself, is when we’re here in the present.” – Jack Kornfield Discover your great joy and love in Jack’s life-changing new online journey – The Awakened Heart: Discovering Great Joy and Love – Dive in here and now at JackKornfield.com This Dharma talk originally recorded in 1991 was originally published on DharmaSeed. Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path. Register for free today: The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Revealing how to calm the mind through meditation, Jack shares wisdom on self-acceptance, trust, and healing the unfinished business of the heart. Discover your great joy and love in Jack’s life-changing new online journey – The Awakened Heart: Discovering Great Joy and Love – Sign up by Sept 9 to take part in two live Q&A’s with Jack. “Don’t live in the mind, rest in the heart and let the mind come and go as it will. This is discovering your Buddha Nature.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Working with the ‘unfinished business of the heart’ – grief, sorrows, longing, wounds, lossHonoring life’s ‘ocean of tears’ with love and kind attentionCultivating the courage to allow your heart to be brokenChögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the tender heart of a warriorSelf-acceptance, allowing yourself to feel, and reawakening a trust in yourselfHealing the mind by seeing clearly and not taking it so seriouslyResting the in heart and letting the mind come and goDiscovering Your Buddha Nature, your fundamental ground of beingThe technique of seeing the world as enlightened, and the path as yoursThe healing encased within understanding emptiness, selflessness, and letting goMeditation as a truly courageous act “The problem with the mind mostly is that we take it seriously.” – Jack Kornfield “Healing of the mind is when we can hold in our hearts all that arises, and sense a rest and a goodness, a wholeness in us.” – Jack Kornfield Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path. Register for free today: The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET This episode recorded in 1991 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring healing through meditation, Jack shares on kundalini, addiction, suffering, and the transformation of having an ‘in body experience.’ This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “You have heard of ‘out of the body experiences,’ but what we’re after is something more unusual and important, an ‘in the body experience.'” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates: Finding strength, wakefulness, and compassion amidst it allThe Coconut Monk and the Jesus-Buddha connectionFinding compassion and joy despite suffering and warHealing—what it is, how it arises, and how we can connect with itListening and respect as the ground for healingFinding and living a path with heartMindfulness, breath, attention, noting, and the BuddhaMeditation and having an ‘in-body experience’Kundalini and opening the energy bodyLearning to handle both pleasure and painBuddha and finding the Middle WayThe healing of reconnecting with our senses and world around usWhat addictions really mean in an addicted societyFacing our suffering as the gateway to the precious mystery of lifeReading children’s direct messages to God “There’s a healing that comes just in reconnecting with the senses and the world around us.” – Jack Kornfield “As we begin to practice together, we can sense that meditation and spiritual work is to bring a heartfelt awareness to our life, and out of this there comes an awakening or opening, which we call healing.” – Jack Kornfield Discover your great joy and love in Jack’s life-changing new online journey – The Awakened Heart: Discovering Great Joy and Love – Sign up by Sept 9 to take part in two live Q&A's with Jack. This episode recorded in late December 1991 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Deeply unveiling the Buddha’s transformative miracle of awakening, Jack provides a comprehensive guide to finding freedom in everyday life. Discover your great joy and love in Jack's life-changing new online journey beginning Sept 9 – 'The Awakened Heart: Discovering Your Great Joy and Love' “We’re asked to discover in this dance the possibility of awakening in the midst of our life, to turn what we do into something sacred.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: What happened to the Buddha when he sat under the Bodhi TreeWhat Buddha’s enlightenment means for the worldBodh Gaya and the possibility of awakening through natureBuddha’s path as a yogi, and how he dealt with his spiritual powersBuddha's miracle of awakening and educationReflections and questions from the Buddha for how you are livingKeeping freshness and “beginner’s mind” in your practiceParenting, schooling, and the different styles of educationFinding freedom in the difficulties and direct circumstances of your lifeThe real possibility of awakening in the midst of lifeThe Ten Paramitas, Buddhism’s Ten PerfectionsWhat walking meditation is actually aboutWhy Thich Nhat Hanh does everything slowly and mindfullyPatience, listening, and presenceSpiritual life as the education of awakeningListening deeply for the Tao, Dharma, truth “Spiritual life kindles in us an interest, an attention, a passion to awaken.” – Jack Kornfield “Meditation is the art of doing what we do and bringing our senses, our heart, our whole being to that.” – Jack Kornfield This episode recorded on 10/01/1990 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this fresh Dharma Talk, Jack reveals how listening from the heart can empower you to transform yourself and the world. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “Difficult times call on our best spirit.” – Jack Kornfield In this fresh episode, Jack mindfully explores: Navigating life skillfully through difficult timesHow we can change ourselves and the world through true listeningThe two dimensions of mindfulness: Sati (mindful presence) and Sampajanna (mindful response)How deep listening leads to compassionate responseUsing our difficulties as doorways of opportunity to help us awakenReflecting on how we respond to the troubles of the worldThe art of listening and how it brings us into the present momentHow taking a “sacred pause” leads to more possibilitiesThe childlike playfulness and joy between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond TutuJack tells a transformational and moving story of Dr. Yeshi Dhonden, the miraculous Tibetan physician.How all the problems and conflicts of the world are symptoms, and the solution is in the human heartActivism, service, and helping with an open heartListening deeply to sense the universal truths of realityThe powerful prayer of Black Elk, the mystical Lakota medicine manListening inwardly, tending the heart, and honing your intuition “The very difficulties you have are the place that truly awakens the heart.” – Jack Kornfield “Quiet the mind, take time, tend the heart, listen inwardly, listen to one another, listen to the earth—and you will know what to do.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk originally took place for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation on 4/15/24. To join his next livestream, please check out Jack’s events calendar. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this special episode originally airing on television’s Thinking Allowed series, Jeffrey Mishlove interviews Jack Kornfield about meditation, mindfulness, and self-acceptance. Want fresh Jack teachings delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Jack’s newsletter for weekly free content from JackKornfield.com – guided meditations, Dharma Talks, articles, and more! JackKornfield.com/newsletter “The purpose of meditation is to make people happy.” – Jack Kornfield In this special television episode, Jeffrey Mishlove interviews Jack about: How western psychology and science fits together with eastern spirituality and meditationWhether Jack preferred getting his Ph.D. or his time at the Buddhist monasteryThe three aspects of Buddhist practice: generosity, ethics/virtue, training of heart/mindHow what we practice, positive or negative, grows in our lifeSpiritual bypass and mediation as an escapeVipassana meditation and seeing clearlyOvercoming the “near enemies” in BuddhismEquanimity, balance, centering, and fearlessnessMeditation in action and engaging mindfully with the worldFacing our fears and confronting ourselves in meditation practiceSelf-acceptance and learning to care for oneselfNot being so afraid of what’s painfulUncovering the basic mechanics of meditationReleasing tensions, unskillful concepts, and our limited sense of selfPsychic abilities and intuitionAwareness and moving past our thoughtsUsing meditation to relate deeper to your inner life “Meditative awareness has a healing quality to it.” – Jeffrey Mishlove “One of the tenets of Buddhism is that the heart, body, and mind can all be trained. That is, if you practice something, it will gradually grow in your life.” – Jack Kornfield About Jeffrey Mishlove: Jeffrey Mishlove, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, an accomplished radio and television interviewer, and one of the most erudite and articulate personalities on television. Jeffrey holds the only doctoral diploma in parapsychology to be awarded by an accredited American university. Learn more about Dr. Mishlove and his ongoing offerings and interviews at newthinkingallowed.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Unraveling the mystery of who you truly are, Jack reveals mindfulness as the gateway to liberation within the ever-changing river of life. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “Mindfulness, in the Buddhist tradition, is said to be the gateway to liberation, the gateway to that which is eternal, to the timeless or the deathless.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Mindfulness as the gateway to liberationThe Buddha’s Eightfold Path and the Middle WaySacred attention, receptivity, and sensitivityThe prayer of Mad Bear, a magical Iroquois medicine manOvercoming worry in the present momentRumi’s transformational poem, The Guest HouseAwareness of breath, body, mind states, feelings, dharma, and the laws of natureUsing mindfulness as a vehicle to discover who we really areEternity, time, timelessness, change, and becoming deathlessWhat it was like when Thich Nhat Hanh visited Spirit RockEntering the “river of life,” humanity’s collective pains, joys, etcDealing with attachment, aversion, grief, and sufferingWorking spiritually with our dreamsStepping out of the bureaucracy of ego, thought, and mindThe freedom of identifying with “the witness”Liberation as both practical and radical “Reality comes out of nothing, exists according to certain patterns, and then disappears. To know this frees us. To not know it, we are bound. This recognition brings us face to face with the mystery.” – Jack Kornfield “To become mindful is to become free, to have the capacity to step out of the rat race, the speed, the complexity and be who we are, be true to our hearts. There comes a great balance and ease with that. In any moment, we stop the war, we stop the conflict, we come back to be as the Buddha sits, as the Buddha walks, as the Buddha speaks, where we are, just present and alive.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on 3/1/1992 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring how to direct energy in a wise way, Jack shares how embracing Sacred Effort nourishes joy, ease, beauty, equanimity, mindfulness, and loving kindness in your life. Want fresh Jack teachings delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Jack’s newsletter at JackKornfield.com/newsletter for weekly free content – guided meditations, Dharma Talks, articles, and more! "Right Effort, or Wise Energy, most fundamentally is the effort to pay attention, the effort to be present, awake, and see what is true in front of us. Out of all the kinds of efforts we can make, the most fundamental wise effort in spiritual life is to be where we are and see it clearly, to be conscious, or mindful." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Directing the energy of your life to be awake, aware, and presentSeeing the Eightfold Path as a lotus or mandalaCarlos Castaneda, impeccability, and becoming a spiritual warriorHow to wake yourself up from sleepwalking through your lifeHaving a full heart, deep attention, and clear seeingThe two levels of spiritual friends and spiritual practiceUsing suffering to develop a wise heartRemembering death and impermanenceWhat Jack taught his daughter about deathBowing to our difficult emotions and moving onDisentangling ourselves from greed, fear, and obsessionNourishing equanimity, ease, joy, beauty, and loving kindnessTending each moment as if you were planting a seedBalance and the Buddha stringing the luteRamana Maharshi and the wisdom of letting goMaking your life and activity an expression of the Tao "The teaching of Right Effort or Wise Effort is a reminder of our nobility. It is a reminder of the human inspiration of spirit not just to get through our lives, but to honor it, to respect it, to be present for it, to delight in it." – Jack Kornfield "Unclench the heart, steady yourself, and be present for things as they are, and then your activity becomes an expression of your awakening, it becomes a vehicle for the Tao." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on 3/1/1992 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Revealing how to smoothly navigate the cycles of spiritual life in openness, stillness, and intimacy, Jack explores the transformative beauty of living the Dharma. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “There are different cycles. They are natural for us. We breathe in and out. Our heart opens and closes. Your heart isn’t supposed to stay open all the time, even flowers close at night. So don’t get some idea you’re supposed to be some certain state or some certain way. It’s more about flexibility, listening, and honoring what cycle you are in in your life.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Navigating the cycles of spiritual lifeSpiritual practice as a voyage, a journeyOpenness and the necessity of letting goWhat we can learn from the change of seasonsCultivating the courage to live a spiritual lifeRumi’s poem of the wisdom of the bird in the trapThe peace of rejecting nothing whatsoeverHow Jack had to work his way down the chakras instead of upEmbodying and experiencing your feelingsStillness, simplicity, intimacy and reconnecting with the earthA perspective-shifting Buddhist meditation on death and good deedsOvercoming self-judgement and unworthinessNon-attachment and commitment in relationshipsA tantric master’s wisdom on overcoming burnoutThe Dalai Lama’s surprising advice to Jack “When you look back over your life, what really matters is, ‘How well have I loved?’ And that love is never done in generalities. It’s always done in a moment with a tree, or a spider, or a person that you meet, or a person close to you.” – Jack Kornfield “In some way in life, that’s all that people around us want if you look—people mostly just want to be listened to and acknowledged.” – Jack Kornfield For free teachings and meditations from Jack delivered to your inbox weekly, along with new courses, upcoming events, and more, sign up for Jack's newsletter at JackKornfield.com/newsletter This Dharma Talk recorded on 7/14/1990 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield delves into the simplicity of goodness and virtue in a talk spanning Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Amma-ji, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Napoleon, and Rumi. Want fresh Jack teachings delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Jack’s newsletter for weekly free content from JackKornfield.com – guided meditations, Dharma Talks, articles, and more. “I believe within us, within the human heart and human consciousness, is an innate love of honesty and a joy in virtue, straightforwardness, and the simplicity of goodness.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Buddhism, virtue, and the Five PreceptsAhimsa – the blessing of non-harmingThe chilling note Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche wrote when he escaped TibetTaking a fearless moral inventoryHonesty and the simplicity of goodnessWhat Buddha learned in his past livesDr. Martin Luther King Jr. and standing up for truthAdi-Sila – spontaneous or innate virtue, the shining of the just heartThe Tibetan Buddhist perspective on reincarnationJack’s meeting with “hugging saint,” Amma-ji, archetype of the Divine MotherFinding your Buddha Nature, Tao, and DharmaRumi’s brilliant poem about ducksInterdependence and connectednessDeep philosophical questions and contemplations from JackNapoleon, the sword, and the spirit “Meditation or spiritual life asks us to look at our actions and pay attention to how we actually live.” – Jack Kornfield “We’re all in it together, we’re all connected, we all support one another.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk recorded on 6/1/1990 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Teaching a nature retreat amidst softly chirping birds and cooling rain, Jack, Pema Chödrön, and Ajahn Sumedho illuminate joyful insights of monastic life. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. "Mostly what draws people to monastic life in the healthiest and best sense is its joy." – Jack Kornfield In this special outdoor retreat, Jack, Pema Chödrön, and Ajahn Sumedho explore: Chanting the powerful seed syllable mantra, "Ah"Joys and misconceptions of monastic life in modern timesWhy someone would take vows and become a monk or nuKabir's poetry, being human, and walking the spiritual pathSexuality and celibacy in spiritual communitiesRelating to both ultimate and relative realityDealing with the body in physically taxing situationsWorking with injustice, inequality, and hierarchy within monasteries and spiritual institutionsThe nature of change and how our present creates our futureOpen-heartedness and open-mindednessLiving the Dharma every second of our existenceLetting our issues be our teachersA surprise Q&A appearance from Heart Wisdom family, Brother David Steindl-Rast, along with Ajahn Sundara, and Sister Columba "Quite clearly the future is the result of how we work with our minds now. To the degree that we open our hearts and minds to the present moment, that creates our future." – Pema Chödrön "I like to reflect that the Buddha only taught two things: suffering and the end of suffering." – Ajahn Sumedho About Pema Chödrön: Pema Chödrön is a Buddhist teacher in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa. She served as the director of Karma Dzong, in Boulder, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche asked her to work towards the establishment of a monastery for western monks and nuns. Check out her new book, How We Live Is How We Die, and learn more at PemaChodronFoundation.org About Ajahn Sumedho: Ajahn Sumedho is a prominent teacher in the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravāda Buddhism. He was ordained in 1967, trained under Ajahn Chah, and has been instrumental in helping bring Buddha's teachings to the West. Learn more about Ajahn Sumedho in Teachings of a Buddhist Monk, including a forward by Jack. This Dharma Talk recorded on 5/26/1990 on the land which would become Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack and trauma expert, Peter A Levine, PhD, map the path to healing through imagination, curiosity, somatic experiencing, and loving awareness. Want fresh Jack teachings delivered to your inbox? Join Jack's newsletter for weekly free content from JackKornfield.com – guided meditations, Dharma Talks, articles, and more! Sign up at JackKornfield.com/newsletter “Healing has to be coming together through the minute particulars in the body and in the story that’s actually our experience and not some idea about it.” – Jack Kornfield In this fresh conversation, Jack and Dr. Levine dive into: Mapping trauma and the path to healing sufferingA relaxing Jack “Just Here: Guided Meditation” on loving awarenessHow An Autobiography of Trauma led to Peter’s powerful healing journeyWorking with the astrological and Jungian archetype of Chiron, the Wounded HealerSomatic Experiencing and the roots of healing trauma in the bodyThe transformative aspects of meeting trauma with loving kindness and persistenceCuriosity as a necessary factor of enlightenmentHow the gift of Jack’s childhood trauma led him to discover BuddhismImagination and Peter’s mystical meet-ups with Albert EinsteinMiracles, intuition, and psychic premonition/knowingWhat Jack shared with his scientific-materialist atheist father on his deathbedOur inseparable connection and recognition that it’s always “us” in this web of life “The whole notion that we are separate is a fabrication. We are in a field of consciousness.” – Jack Kornfield About Peter A Levine, PhD: Dr. Peter A. Levine has worked in the field of stress and trauma for over 40 years, is the developer of the Somatic Experiencing method, and founder of the Ergos Institute of Somatic Education. To connect more with Peter’s teachings, pick up a copy of his illuminating book, An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey, and sign up for his upcoming classes and programs at SomaticExperiencing.com This conversation was originally filmed on 5/24/24 by the Ergos Institute of Somatic Experiencing as a community health somatic support benefit for MathMoms in Cape Town, South Africa. Learn more about this compassionate initiative here at mathmoms.co.za See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Harmonizing to the 'music of the spheres' & sharing gardening tips from Buddha, a blissful Jack unveils the possibility of sudden awakening. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. "You don't want to wait until you float out of your body when you die and look back and say, 'Wow, that was an amazing incarnation, wasn't it?' You actually want to have it now." – Jack Kornfield In this fresh video episode, Jack blissfully illuminates: The wisdom of the Music of the SpheresEnergies of the 2024 Solar EclipseAlan Watts on why 'life is like music'The enlightening present momentHarmonizing life's opposites like the TaoDancing with life's changing rhythmsTo be married to amazement and mysteryThe beautiful revelation of sudden awakeningBeing at the still point of the turning worldSudden realization, gradual practice, and ZenReleasing from the body of fearBuddha's gardening wisdomThe fruits of inner well-being "That's what meditation does, it makes space. We step out of the thrall of our plans, thoughts, reactions, how it should be, what's happened, and what should happen; and out of the fears and the confusion, sadness, excitement, and all those things; and we become the space of loving awareness that says, 'Yes.' It's an act of love." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk originally took place 3/25/24 for Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. Sign up for Jack's next one at JackKornfield.com/events See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Revealing how to disentangle your illusions and let go of old identities, Jack paves the way to the mystical present moment. Join Jack online Sat June 22 for The Awakened Heart: Mindfulness and Compassion Practices for Living a Wise and Free Life – a special live daylong retreat exploring lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and peace. Register here. “Part of the joy of selflessness is that as we become selfless much greater forces of what life is move through us.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Disentangling your illusionsOpening to the paradox of self and no-selfThe yogic practice of asking, “Who am I?”This mystical present momentHow the entire universe is inside your mindExperiencing selflessnessWhy you can’t just ‘no-self’ it awayMoving past your inner-critic, shame, and unworthinessListening to, accepting, and loving the shadowThe strength of being grounded on EarthWorking with meaninglessnessLetting go of old identitiesLove as the work of a lifetime “You can’t just ‘no-self’ it away.” – Jack Kornfield “All that you need to do is to keep coming back to the present and what needs to open in you will. You can really trust that.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk estimated to be recorded on 4/23/1990 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring life as a flowing, dynamic process, Jack shares the jewel of Buddha's awakening by unraveling the paradox of self and no-self. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. "Each of those sets of words, 'self,' and 'no-self,' are concepts or ideas or words that we use in a very crude approximation of pointing to some mystery of this process of life that's neither self nor no-self." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates: Unraveling the paradox of self and no-selfThe Jewel of the Buddha's AwakeningAnattā (selflessness) and how it connects with respectTales of a Magic MonasteryLiving in the reality of expansion and contractionWhy Ajahn Chah shared 'self' and 'no self' both aren't trueThe word "happy/sad" in JapaneseOpening to our life as a flowing, moving processBecoming aware of selflessnessInterdependence, interconnection, codependent arisingLearning to respect ourself and nourish beneficial qualitiesDeveloping yourself while also "losing yourself"Discovering your True SelfThe importance of integrating our spiritual practice into our livesLearning to live in your body and love well "To be really present is to connect with the mystery." – Jack Kornfield "You develop yourself as you lose yourself." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk estimated to be recorded on 4/23/1990 was originally published on DharmaSeed. Learn the Dynamic Art of Interactive Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield in an online masterclass! To take part in the two live online Q&A sessions, register by June 9 at bit.ly/InteractiveCohort See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sharing the blueprint for how to unlock true abundance, Jack reveals the secrets of letting go of greed, embracing generosity, and appreciating simplicity in life. Learn the Dynamic Art of Interactive Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield in an online masterclass cohort this June! Join the journey. "Abundance isn't about how much you have, but how much you appreciate. – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: How to let go of our greed and live in true abundanceThe Buddhist notion of "dana" – generosity, service, open-hearted caringGreed as a strategy of impoverishment, rejection, and incompletenessTransforming our 'endless wanting' into a beneficial awakened dance with the worldExpressing the Tao, the harmony of the universe, through our beingThe Dharmic alchemy of the Bodhisattva Meditation, listening, and finding out what we truly want in this lifeWhere Suzuki Roshi meets Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.How abundance of the spirit connects with simplicity rather than thingsA personal story of Jack taking his unique Bodhisattva Vows in the Rocky Mountains while teaching at Chögyam Trungpa's Naropa UniversityTaking your strong, grounded, noble seat that can handle it allHow being there for others is abundance in their lifeThe generosity and delight of authentically giving – things, space, silence, listening, attention, commitment, honesty, smiles, blessingsRam Dass and Maharajji's lesson of "feed people, love people."Is "selfless service" actually selfless? "Abundance of the spirit doesn't mean things; it means discovering a kind of simplicity of our life where we're abundant in any circumstance." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk estimated to be recorded on 3/1/1990 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Unveiling how to grow your heart as big as the sky, Jack shares the spiritual antidote for aversion, negativity, and fear. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. "Let your heart be as big as your whole experience, like the sky." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Overcoming aversion by "bringing it into your heart" rather than your rational mindTouching into emotions, fears, and judgements with compassion instead of aversionUsing techniques like "noting/naming" for moving past intense feelingsLoving your negatives states as you would love your own childSeeing clearly the karma, value, and consequence of your personal patternsWho would you be if you dropped your opinions, views, identity?Growing your heart to the size of the skyPracticing the 'art of letting go'Learning to live in the reality 'the Now'Why Buddha had a better time than mostPainting as a doorway to spiritual experienceTransmuting difficulties by dropping our resistance to themHow to hold healthy views without being attached to them "In this space of Now, it's not necessary to have fear. In this place of Now, we can rest." – Jack Kornfield "If we want to create peace, or if we want to live free from greed, hatred and delusion, the place to start is in ourselves." – Jack Kornfield Learn the Dynamic Art of Interactive Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield in an online masterclass cohort starting this June. This Dharma Talk originally recorded on 1/1/1989 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Illustrating how to free yourself from fear and opinion, Jack reveals how to overcome suffering by cultivating a pure heart. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. "The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there." – Robert M. Pirsig In this episode, Jack skillfully illuminates: Skillful ways to free yourself from stuck views and opinionsRam Dass's teaching advice to JackBalancing life's sufferings with life's joysZen wisdom on how to drop your viewsAccepting what you see and rejecting what you thinkOvercoming suffering by living with a pure heartBuddha's 'Fire Sermon' teachingsThe way attachment connects to fear, and how to get to the rootHow views and opinions keep you separate, ego-focused, and defensiveWorking with racism and fear by imbibing wakefulness and mindfulnessOvercoming opinions and and views by the method of noting/naming This Dharma Talk originally recorded on 1/1/1989 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. Learn the Dynamic Art of Interactive Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield in an online masterclass cohort starting this June! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Uncovering how to find joy and freedom in any situation, Jack shares the roadmap for discovering peace within yourself. Learn the Dynamic Art of Interactive Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield in this online masterclass cohort starting this June! Learn more and register at bit.ly/InteractiveCohort This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “Peace is the cessation of your struggle, it’s putting down the burden and letting things be as they actually are.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Learning to be at peace with yourself and the worldHow to meditate when it feels like you can’t meditateThe way emptiness connects with compassionReconciling where peace meets strugglePeace as an internal state you can bring with youBeing Here Now, opening to life fully, and becoming intimate with all thingsHow we can find joy, liberation, and freedom in any situationDharma stories of the Buddha as well as the Bodhisattva VimalakīrtiComing to terms with the First Noble Truth of suffering, disappointment, and changeThe transformative power of meeting life exactly as it isWhat we can learn from both a “Duck Meditation,” “Goose Poem,” and a Tibetan PrayerLove and it’s connection with courage “We can’t come to rest because we’re at war with what’s actually here.” – Jack Kornfield “To enter into the unknown is really to enter into the moment.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk originally recorded on 12/01/1989 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack and the ‘Grandfather of Gratitude,’ Brother David Steindl-Rast, delve into sacred reflections on death, where Buddha meets Jesus, the power of compassion, the positive side of grief, and beyond. Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of free offerings by signing up for his email newsletter teachings at JackKornfield.com/newsletter “The process of grieving that breaks this little heart, which closes itself in itself, opens us to the heart that we all share, the one heart that we all have in common.” – Brother David Steindl-Rast In this sacred dialogue, Jack, Brother David, and Frank Ostaseski reflect on: How Christianity and Buddhism fit together spirituallyThe compassionate smile of Buddha meeting the sacred heart of Jesus ChristThe positive side of grief: opening to the collective heartDeath and grace in both traditionsDeconditioning from a difficult motherHarnessing the power of your common senseA funny story about the Pope, and how to awaken to who we already areJack’s journey to the Temple of the Coconut MonkHow to handle pain like a Burmese MasterHow to forgive yourself and overcome remorseDiffusing suicidal tendencies by cultivating self-compassionGuided meditations and sacred chants from Jack and Brother David “In a meditative way, one of the big pieces of being able to love, or touch, or open, or live, is really the work of forgiveness, grace, and receiving yourself in all of your complexity and loving.” – Jack Kornfield “Compassion, loving kindness, and understanding are our true nature, our true state.” – Jack Kornfield This conversation recorded on 6/30/1988 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Fantastic Fungi's visionary director, Louie Schwartzberg, joins Jack to explore the profound connection between psychedelics and mindfulness. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self. “You can’t separate psychedelics from life.” – Jack Kornfield In this fresh conversation, Jack and Louie spelunk the depths of: The connection between psychedelics and spiritualityPsychedelics as a gateway to wonder, curiosity, and the sacredHow tripping on psychedelics informed Louie’s filmmakingAlbert Einstein and psychedelics as the intersection between art and scienceThe universe and life as a constant transformation of light energyBuddha’s “Flower Sermon” and Zen Master Suzuki Roshi’s “Beginner’s Mind”Jack “exchanging maps” with famous LSD researcher, Stanislav GrofStudies showing the combination of psilocybin mushrooms and Louie’s time-lapse nature imagery as a powerful therapeutic tool for helping addiction and PTSDThe importance of “set and setting,” community, and integrationHow psychedelics actually fit into the Buddhist preceptsHonoring biology and the feminine aspects of natureThe gifts of sacred attention and loving awarenessFinding beauty wherever you are, and how Louie’s films heal by sharing patterns of nature for the soul to connect with This conversation was originally recorded on 3/29/24 by Banyan Together – an online mindfulness community started by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. To join the community and learn more, visit BanyanTogether.com “A lot of the work I do is to make the invisible visible. And that’s the perfect description of what a psychedelic journey is like, making the invisible visible.” – Louie Schwartzberg “We live in a culture that’s almost defined by the absence of the sacred. And so we feel this yearning, this intuitive wish to connect—whether it’s going high in the mountains, or making love, or taking psychedelics, or meditating.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Inviting in calm, strength, and steadiness, Jack leads a guided meditation into the heart of mindful loving awareness. This guided meditation was originally recorded on 2/19/2024 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. Register to join Jack's next livestream at JackKornfield.com/events "Feel the weight of your body, gravity, and how the earth completely supports you when you let go into your seat. You're met by the strength and steadiness of the earth itself. You can rest on her. – Jack Kornfield In this fresh episode, Jack leads a guided meditation for: Inviting in a sense of ease and calmRelaxing into mindful loving awarenessFinding a steady, grounded, rooted postureKeeping a natural, soft, and flowing breathQuieting the mind and watching experience unfoldNoticing the arising and passing away of all phenomenaAllowing yourself into rest, trust, and relaxation Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practices to Cultivate a Wise Heart See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring the great mystery of life and existence, Jack shares enlightening insights on the playful nature of wisdom. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to recieve 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "The beautiful thing is, wisdom is gracious." – Jack Kornfield Fresh from an adventure in Costa Rica, Jack offers wisdom on: Spelunking the great mystery of life Wisdom as inherently gracious and playful Balancing compassion with emptiness How to speak with suffering people Joanna Macy and the "Great Turning" of human civilization Ram Dass, Ajahn Chah, and Stephen Levine "Central Casting" and the human experience How Jack and his colleagues handle their own aging "It's all empty and it all matters." – Jack Kornfield "Meditation is not about gaining or attaining something, it's about seeing the world with the heart of wisdom." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk was originally recorded on 2/19/2024 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. Register to join Jack's next livestream at JackKornfield.com/events Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey starting April 15, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practices to Cultivate a Wise Heart See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Offering compassion for our human flaws, Jack relays how to stop being so loyal to our suffering, and helps uncover the heart of the Buddha living within each of us. Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practice to Cultivate a Wise Heart In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Living the Divine Abodes to uncover the heart of the Buddha within yourselfHow to live in loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity/peaceRam Dass, the Chicken and Rice Man, and selfless serviceHow the circle of compassion is not complete until it includes self-compassionViktor Frankl and the boundless freedom of the human spiritDavid Roche and The Church of 80% SincerityMoving beyond looks and into the reality of unconditional loveTurning off the news and doing something enjoyableHow to stop being so loyal to your sufferingThis Dharma Talk from 12/10/2007 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. “You can search the tenfold universe as the Buddha and not find a single person more worthy of love and care than the one seated right here in your own body.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Shining light on the Divine Abodes, Jack shares how we can navigate the world from the goodness of our hearts. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to recieve 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Luminous, says the Buddha, is this heart and mind." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The Divine Abodes (Brahmaviharas) as qualities of the Awakened HeartNavigating the world from the goodness of our heartsLoving kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity/peaceWhat is possible for us as human beingsDiscovering who we really are and what really mattersStories of Jack's Buddhist teacher, Maha GhosanandaThe spirituality of neuroscience's "Mirror Neurons."Sharon Salzberg, Metta practice, and the power of attentionRam dass, and the heart as the doorway to love Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practices to cultivate a Wise Heart "What we give our attention, that place will flower and blossom. So if we give our attention to love, it grows." – Jack Kornfield "Loving Kindness is like the rain that falls on all things, the just and the unjust, equally without discrimination. That love, when it grows within our heart, has a quality of nurturance, moisture, opening ,sweetness and constancy to it. It's an expression of the heart that's unencumbered by fear." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 12/10/2007 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack shares miracle stories and personal lessons from Dipa Ma – the luminous, compassionate and unshakeable spiritual master. Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield. The live version begins March 18! Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3T7Aafp "You had a sense from this very sweet, mild-mannered old lady of a kind of unshakable inner strength, an incredible sense of stillness and strength in her being." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack lovingly reflects on: His times with the great yogi and spiritual master, Dipa Ma Barua Miracle stories and spiritual lessons of Dipa Ma How the suffering in Dipa Ma's life drew her to Buddhism and meditation Dipa Ma's siddhis (spiritual/psychic powers) and compassionate shining heart A life-changing story of Jack being blessed by Dipa Ma Her grandmotherly loving kindness Dipa Ma's favorite spiritual questions "Dipa Ma's teaching was to always keep people in your heart, to give of your love to the people, and the earth and the world around." – Jack Kornfield "Of all of the possibilities that one can do with the heart and mind, Dipa Ma was a great master of them." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 11/01/1989 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Talking Kabir, breakups, LSD, and Ram Dass, Jack shares how we can unfurl from the suffering of our expectations in order to live the mystery. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Awareness has this quality of allowing change or openness to take place, because you're not trying to make it a certain way... you're observing it." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: - Kabir and waking up in this very life - Grief, breakups, disappointment, and letting go - How expectation creates suffering - Meditation and "manufacturing the light" - Expectations, battling reality, and opening to the mystery - How the mind measures, but the heart loves - What Ram Dass told Jack about dealing with the death of his father - Moving past the content of mind, and truly experiencing life - The essence of Buddha's practice of mindfulness - Labeling/noting feelings as a way to release them - Albert Hoffman and LSD - Relationships and how to make commitment without expectation Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield. The live version begins March 18! Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3T7Aafp "Now, what's interesting to discover in meditation, is as you pay attention inside, it's the mind which measures, the mind with thought. The heart doesn't measure, the heart doesn't have that capacity, actually." – Jack Kornfield "This is an amazing thing—bodies, and life, and cars, and planets hanging in space, and big balls of fire that we name stars and no one knows where they come from...beetles, insects, and strange things. What is this? So we sit and make ourselves a little bit quiet in order to turn the heart and the mind together to face directly this reality, this changing reality of birth and death, of change of life." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 10/10/1988 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Going back to the basics, Jack explores how we can skillfully navigate our dynamic mood states by experiencing them as clouds of the mind. Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield beginning March 18! "Moods are actually kind of mysterious and quite impersonal. They're like the weather. It's been kind of cool this year, then we get our rainstorms, and the sun comes in between, and the wind comes and dies down, and we don't have any control over it whatsoever. It just comes. It's due to certain conditions." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack compassionately illuminates: Experiencing moods as clouds or weather—arising and passing naturally from impersonal sets of conditions The six flavors of experience in Buddhism Finding the middle ground between acting on feelings and suppressing them The "vipassana romance" and understanding the "siren call" of desire Diffusing desire with humor, mindfulness, and noting Moving past attachment and aversion by leaning into them Techniques for overcoming doubt Letting go and becoming more happy and more live "The optimist wakes up and says, 'Good morning, God!' And the pessimist wakes up and says, 'Good God! Morning...' It's the same experience, but the mood somehow changes it." – Jack Kornfield "One sits and practices, and let's these experiences come and fill us. We bow to them, name them, soften in the heart and say, 'Okay, show me your stuff, give me the whole thing.' And you know what happens after a while? If you make this spaciousness in the heart and that still point, at some point it ends. Because everything does. You say, 'Wow that was a big storm of desire, wasn't it?' And there you are, and there's this sense of freedom that comes that that's not who we are most fundamentally." – Jack Kornfield The Dharma Talk from 4/1/1988 at was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Illuminating the subtle but crucial difference between codependence and compassion, Jack outlines how to set boundaries and live from our unique truth. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Codependence means being an accomplice, a kind of complicity with someone who's acting in a self-destructive way, being dependent on their behavior, or supporting it somehow for your own security." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack sheds mindful light on: The subtle but crucial difference between compassion and codependenceTrying to fix it or save someone instead of allowing them to taste the fruits of their karmasFeeling locked into supporting someone's destructive behaviorThe lack of feeling secure leading to needing to over-controlNeeding to fix someone else's problems because we can't live with it in ourselfHow we are all accomplices to a codependent societyMother Teresa and seeking to love the world instead of trying to fix itThe necessity of balancing compassion practice with equanimity practiceThe spiritual importance of disharmony and the value of sufferingBoundaries and the ability to say "no"Ownership, possessiveness, and the trouble with believing our rolesThe Bhagavad Gita and acting from our hearts without attachment to the fruit of the actionLiving our our unique truth amidst the mystery Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield beginning March 18! "We are all heirs to our own karma, we have created our own lives. We can love and assist others, but in the end, no one can create a life for someone else, no one can change another person's fate. We are the ones that create what will happen for us." – Jack Kornfield "Can we seek to love the world instead of trying to fix it? It is possible to be in a codependent relationship with the ills of the society, so we have to start looking within ourselves. What does it mean to do good? Mother Teresa taught in her work in Calcutta in the death and dying centers, 'We're not social workers. Our work is not to take people off the streets and clothes them and feed them. The government could do that. Our work is to bring to the people that we touch the spirit and the love of God that has touched us. The rest of it is just the vehicle to communicate that spirit.' It's a very different way of approaching solving a problem.'" – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 9/1/1989 at was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sharing spiritual wisdom on meditation, abundance, intimacy, and the astral body, Jack helps us cultivate the courage to recognize truth. Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield beginning March 18! "In one important sense, meditation is an exercise in truth, an exercise in opening to what is true, to what is here in front of in the most direct and obvious ways." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack compassionately illuminates: Meditation as an exercise in truth Jesus and the Buddha following their deepest inner truths Dharma and direct seeing from the heart Buddhism's three characteristics of life: impermanence, suffering, selflessness Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's view on the rebirth of our bad habits The difference between our physical 'fear body' we inhabit during the day, versus our expansive 'astral body' we expand into at night Mindfulness, spaciousness, and Buddha Nature Abundance and intimacy in spirituality The 16th Karmapa as the Dharma King A beautiful (and funny) story of an end-of-life guided meditation "Somebody asked Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the Tibetan Lama, 'If there's no self, what is it that is reborn in Buddhism?' He smiled and said, 'I hate to tell you this, but what's reborn is your bad habits.'" – Jack Kornfield "To note what's present is the first task. The second task is to see or sense what happens to it. These are both important. So, sadness comes and you note, 'Ah, here's the feeling of sadness.' And then you name it for a while, you stay with it and see what it does, 'Sad...sad...sad.' Maybe you name it five to ten times and it disappears. Then itching comes and you name, 'Itching...itching...' You don't just name it and hurry back to your breath. You name it and see what it does, 'Itching...itching.' Then, it spreads and your whole face is tingling, 'Tinging...tingling... I'm gonna die if I don't scratch this... Dying...dying...' Then if you stay with it, dying passes, tingling passes, itching passes. If you let yourself stay with things, naming them as long as they are there and seeing them happen, they show their true nature—which is to arise, change, and pass." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 7/11/1990 at was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Illuminating the deepening levels of spiritual practice, Jack explores how to let life breathe while setting your heart on gold. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom “What we’re doing in practice is feeling the actuality of how life is pulsing, moving, flowing and swirling, fast and slow, rhythmically, within our own body, within our own direct experience.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: How to let life breathe while setting your heart on goldThe importance of balancing our concentration, effort, and equanimityHow the quality of presence can help the gold of the heart and mind shineRiding the body’s rhythm of breath as our main focus of attention and restTo feel of how life is pulsing, moving, and flowing through our experienceWorking with our loneliness, suffering, grief, fear, and longingsAwakening into the present moment to see past the body of fearHow recognizing spaciousness and impermanence helps us overcome our difficultiesThe power of trust, letting go, and letting life breathe “People sometimes feel like it’s not worth it to practice. In the beginning it seems like you’re here 2% of the time, but if you continue and look honestly, you might be here 4% of the time. In one way, that’s discouraging statistically that you’re off 96%, but in another way it says you are now here alive and present twice as much as you were two days ago.” – Jack Kornfield “The insight into the true path comes when we discover that we’re not trying to hold onto a single thing, not a perception, not a pleasant experience, not the calm of meditation—those are all parts of the waves of experience that rise and pass in space. The idea isn’t to hold your breath when you get something good to see how long it can stay, that doesn’t work very well. The idea is to let all of life breath. As we do, we let go moment by moment, more fully. We learn to trust, like the goldsmith, blowing on it, sprinkling water, softening, cooling, and a lot of time just giving presence so it’s beauty can start to show.” – Jack Kornfield This episode from 10/09/1983 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. Want to learn how to follow the Buddha's path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack's new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield beginning March 18! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Wrapping the world in the heart of loving kindness, Jack offers a meditation to help us into presence, relaxation, & loving awareness. Jack originally shared this guided meditation for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. If you would like to join Jack online for his next livestream, register here. "Living in loving kindness opens the doorway to happiness and joy." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack leads a guided meditation to help us: Enter into presence, relaxation, kindness, and loving awarenessWrap the world and our experiences in the heart of loving kindnessLearn what it feels like to truly wish well for others and yourselfUse the power of our imagination to visualize and experience transformative blessingsGradually and incrementally extend our metta to encapsulate all sentient beingsOffer our hearts and direct our loving kindness to those suffering throughout the worldTake the "advanced class" by extending our metta to those causing sufferingListen to our intuition and allow our heart to direct itselfLive in happiness and joy, and bring loving kindness to all we touch "Extend the feeling of loving kindness across the world, to those in difficulty, the families the children who are fleeing danger in so many places—Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, Palestine, Israel—across the world. You picture them—the families the children—and send rays of love, metta, and strength, 'May you be safe and protected, may you find ease and graciousness, may you be held in loving kindness, and in whatever ways you can, may you be happy.'" – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this brand new Dharma Talk, Jack sings a redemption song inviting us to lay down our suffering and anger so we can open to the heart of compassion. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "These teachings of redemption point to the wondrous possibility that the conflicts that plague the world can be transformed by the nobility of heart." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully shares: Real tear-jerking stories of redemption of the human heart If there is a possibility of return from all the conflicts in the world today Contemplating who we push out of our hearts The value of offering compassion and loving kindness Not letting the suffering of the world poison our hearts and turn us against whole groups of people How without compassion and wisdom, we project it out on "them" How Buddhist teachings of impermanence lead to the possibility of redemption The transformative miracle of neuroplasticity Putting down thoughts of blame and turning towards a peaceful heart How good stories can help us break the trance and bring us into the present moment The way Ram Dass helped Jack, Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein work through a period of conflict How the world is full of second chances and redemption is possible "What is the value of the gaze of compassion and loving kindness? It's the consciousness, it's the conscience that leads us to a wiser and more humane life. And with the most terrible dictators and terrorists, the warlords that we see causing so much suffering in this world—we have to do all we can to stop that suffering, but it's also important not to let it poison our hearts, not to let it in any way demonize our hearts to turn against whole groups of people, or give way to despair." – Jack Kornfield "It's not just the grass that keeps growing, your body keeps renewing itself. Everything is in change. Consciousness is a waterfall, a river, an ocean of recreation again and again, inviting new patterns in illumination and the possibility of redemption. You can trust this power and align yourself to it." – Jack Kornfield This lecture from Jack originally took place for the Spirit Rock Live: Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. If you would like to join Jack online for his next livestream on Feb 19, register here! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this lively session, Jack illuminates how we can begin to open the heart through the transformational power of self-acceptance. "Acceptance is the ground out of which true insight and understanding comes. It's an essential aspect of our practice. If we don't accept some aspect of ourself—some feeling, some physical sense of ourself aspect, some mental sense of ourself—then how are we to learn about it if we condemn it? How are we to discover it's nature? How are we to become free in relationship to it? Self-acceptance is not all of the practice, but it's a foundation and spirit which allows for attention and mindfulness to work." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates: Transforming ourself and our practice through self-acceptance How true acceptance allows the practice of attention and mindfulness to work Don Juan, attention, non-self, and "dissolving the world" The power of accepting our non-acceptance Practice as a process of opening the heart and mind Dipa Ma as an embodiment of loving kindness, metta The gradual transformational created through the careful continuity of 'noting' Overcoming and integrating doubt, anger, guilt, and pain Resting in the present and the natural calming of the heart and the mind Impermanence and the Five Aggregates The spiritual question of 'free will versus determinism' Meditation and looking at our intentions Moving poems by Thich Nhat Hạnh and Hanshan "Practice is a process of opening both the heart and the mind. To open the heart is to allow ourselves to begin to experience whatever there is in our being—in our walking, in our moving, in our eating—with a kindness, with a softness." – Jack Kornfield "You can sit, and the intention to get up will arise, and if you really notice with continuity and care, you can notice maybe the attention to standup and walk because you're uncomfortable, or the intention to go take tea, or the intention to go to the bathroom. And if you notice sometimes you'll see the intention arise as that quality, 'About to do something...', and you note it, and it disappears, and there you are still sitting there. You watch the breath for a while and the intention comes again, and you begin to see how intention functions, and that it too is impersonal. It's not something you can say is, 'I, me, or mine.'" – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 10/16/1983 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack illuminates the law of karma and shares how we can overcome habits in order to live a life of awareness. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "To live a life of awareness asks a lot of us—it asks that we know ourselves, know our feelings, and know our hearts." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack compassionately outlines: How to move past our karmas to live a life of awareness Listening inside to find integrity with our words, actions, and hearts Buddha's emphasis on working with our feelings to find freedom How not to get caught in reaction to the 'Eight Worldly Winds' Understanding the law of karma and law of change Overcoming our habits and shaping our future with awareness Understanding our motivations in our actions Discerning between feelings in the body and our mind's stories Diffusing overpowering emotions with awareness "The first part of karma is simply that things keep changing, and that how we respond to them creates our future. What's in our hearts that motivates us, creates how the future will be." – Jack Kornfield "Wisdom—understanding, living wisely—comes from the cultivation of awareness." – Jack Kornfield This talk from New Years Day 1/1/1988 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this New Years episode exploring how we can revolutionize our lives by becoming aware of our feelings, Jack talks clear seeing and gives instructions for an eating meditation. "If you become aware of your feelings, they don't last very long. We feel like we're angry for a day, or sad for a week, or happy for a month, or grieving for a while—as if those feelings lasted that long. But if you look closely and you let yourself feel what's here and pay attention, feelings rarely last more than thirty seconds, maybe a minute, and then then turn into something else. Guaranteed. If you have some feeling that feels like it's lasted much longer than that, you haven't paid attention to it." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates: The practice of awareness, mindfulness, and paying attention Working with the inevitability of change, impermanence, and death Clear seeing, clear comprehension, and integrity Mindfulness of the process of eating, food, diet, and hunger Instructions for an 'eating meditation' Discerning the voices in our head and choosing the most skillful one to follow Using 'noting' and 'tracking' to become aware of our feelings and diffuse their grip on us "When we remember that things change, when we can see it in front of us from moment to moment, it effects deeply the way that we live. If we know that things are really fleeting, it brings a quality or a care to our attention to know where we are. Because we realize that this may be the only time—in fact it is the only time—that we'll be in this day, in this moment, in this circumstance. So one tends to live less automatically if we remember the fact of change, of impermanence and death." – Jack Kornfield This talk from New Years Day 1/1/1988 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Bestselling author, Yung Pueblo, and reporter, Dan Harris, join Jack to dive into how to love without grasping, Ram Dass's humor at his own predicament, and how to meditate when you are freaking out. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "The point of meditation practice isn't to withdraw from the world or become a monastic, but it's the possibility to live and take the activities of our life and bring them alive through loving kindness, compassion, and care for yourself and others. People sometimes think if I'm supposed to serve, I have to take care of everybody else, but the circle of compassion is only complete when it also includes yourself." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack, Yung Pueblo, and Dan Harris dive into: Jack and Yung Pueblo's connection to create Wisdom Ventures to bring compassion and right livelihood to business How the circle of compassion is only complete when you also include yourself Ram Dass' vulnerability, and how having a sense of humor about one's own predicament and being amused at our neurotic humanness is actually what truly liberates us Meditation as an act of care and listening which allows intuition and understanding The importance of community and why meditating in groups holds a different and usually higher resonance than meditating alone Skillful ways to handle conflict and difficult situations How to love family, partners, and friends openhandedly rather than with attachment and grasping"Meditation is not a grim duty, it's meant to be an act of care. And we live in a culture that's forgotten how we can take care of ourself. And one part of that care, even though at first it feels unfamiliar, is just to be quiet for a little bit and listen. Then there are things in us that we know—intuitions and understandings that come for how to navigate our life from what really matters." – Jack Kornfield This conversation originally aired on the Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris. If you enjoy this, Dan Harris has a new series – Non-Negotiables in the New Year – where he interviews celebrities and dharma experts to discuss their time tested, research-backed advice to get you through the new year and beyond. Listen here! About Yung Pueblo: Diego Perez is a meditator and #1 New York Times bestselling author who is widely known on Instagram and various social media networks through his pen name, Yung Pueblo. Online he has an audience of over 3 million people. His writing focuses on the power of self-healing, creating healthy relationships, and the wisdom that comes when we truly work on knowing ourselves. Learn more at YungPueblo.com About Dan Harris: A skeptical journalist, Dan Harris had a panic attack on live TV that sent him on a journey that led him to try something he otherwise wouldn't have considered: meditation. He went on to write the best-selling book, 10% Happier. The show features interviews with top scientists, celebrities and experts in the field of mindfulness. And Dan's approach is seemingly modest, but secretly radical: happiness is a skill you can train, just like working your bicep in the gym. For more Dan check out podcast, Ten Percent Happier, and visit his website TenPercent.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this new Dharma Talk, Jack explores how we can navigate the suffering of the world's conflicts with compassion, understanding, and peace. This episode is from the Cloud Sangha Community Talk on Dec. 13, 2023. If you would like to join Cloud Sangha to steep in spiritual community, they are offering a 2-week free trial here. "I think that we are afraid somehow that our own heart is not big enough to hold the tears and suffering of the world." – Jack Kornfield In this fresh episode, Jack compassionately elucidates: How compassion is built into us and is absolutely natural Why the only side Jack is choosing is the side of peace Ajahn Chah's monastery as a zone of peace during wartime Opening our heart big enough to hold it all, connecting with the Mother of the world Pausing, living from our best intention, listening with an open heart, and mending what we can How when love meets suffering, it transforms into compassion Seeing the world through the eyes of compassion, and taking a stand for love How hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed A powerful guided meditation practice in opening to the heart of compassion How not to get swallowed up by the collective suffering Turning off the news, stepping out of the war, and becoming a place of peace, compassion, and loving awareness Dealing with pain, death, regrets, and "what if's" Being vulnerable and opening communication with estranged relations Acting beneficially without attachment to the results of our actions "It's not your job to fix the world or to stop all the wars. It's your job to do your part, to stand for what matters, to speak and act in a way that represents compassion and love for everyone, to plant seeds to mend the places that you can." – Jack Kornfield "Love, when it meets suffering, changes to a different quality, which is compassion. It's that quivering of the heart when we feel in ourself other's struggles and difficulties. It's the resonance with them, and the natural upwelling of, 'How can I help?' – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this unique exploration of Dharma, Jack shares how we can transform our daily lives by looking into how the Buddha answered questions. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "This talk on the way the Buddha answered questions is not to give you another talk on Buddhist history, but to connect us with the ancient timeless endeavor of practice, of awakening, and the ways human beings over many centuries have worked with the development of their understanding." – Jack Kornfield In this illuminating episode, Jack highlights: How the way Buddha answered questions is relevant to living in our modern times Buddha's ancient sutras, talks, and Q&As, and how those teachings have touched the world Buddha's vision of mind and ability to understand the psyche, how it gets entangled, and how we can become free The "one taste" of Dharma and our capacity for inner-freedom Illuminating the reality of non-self How the teachings of the Dharma turn the mind back to one's own personal experience The radical way of seeing the world through a lens that is not, "I, me, mine." How to live fully whether we have one life or many lives to live Buddha's view of the "world on fire" and how to work with this in our daily lives How to work with contradictions along the spiritual path Continuity and carrying our practice and presence into the day in an enjoyable way "The essence of Dharma is how we love moment to moment." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from October 1983 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In Jack's heartfelt final talk at Insight Meditation Society, he explores heart and mind, wholeness and emptiness, and how the only way to be free is to let go of it all. "When I was first studying Buddhism and meditating, even as it got a lot deeper, it was a clearing of the mind—mind becoming more silent, fewer thoughts, starting to see with a vision of clarity how things really arise, pass, and are truly ownerless. There's a kind of coolness to that vision, just like on a hot summer day when you go into a place and the cool breeze comes, and it cools off at night. That kind of vision of openness, of spaciousness of mind, and the clarity to see, has a sweetness, a sweet kind In this heartfelt episode, Jack mindfully explores: The significance of this session as his last Dharma Talk at Insight Meditation Society before leaving to California to found Spirit Rock Meditation Center Jack's connection as a founding teacher of IMS alongside other Be Here Now Network teachers and podcasters, Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein How sangha—spiritual community—has a way of naturally calibrating itself and the students/teachers within it The sweet coolness and spacious clarity which comes from spiritual practice Suzuki Roshi and the wisdom of 0 and 1, emptiness and wholeness A moving story of service and renewal from a Ram Dass book How the only way to be free is to let go of all of it, absolutely everything The question Jack will ask himself when his body is dying: whether I've lived fully and loved well What the Buddha said about love "The only way to be free is to let go of all of it." – Jack Kornfield "What I imagine I'll ask myself when I die is: whether I've lived fully—but even more than that—whether I've loved very well." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 03/18/1984 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Illuminating the benefits of taking spiritual retreat, Jack highlights the importance of meeting our practice with great faith, great courage, and great questioning. Join Jack with Trudy Goodman, Krishna Das, Anne Lamott and more, live online from Maui in the virtual Ram Dass Legacy Retreat: Love and Renewal 11/29 - 12/3! "It's not a question of practicing and losing weight, or getting rid of our neurosis or figuring out our mother, father, husband, or wife trip; but it's really to get the bottom of the question of life itself: Who are we? What makes up our experience? And to ask that question, to come to the end of our questioning requires a kind of passion, a kind of urgency, to see, to know." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates: The history and importance of taking spiritual retreat in Eastern traditions What it was like for Jack to take spiritual retreat with Burmese Buddhist teacher, Mahasi Sayadaw, and his Thai Buddhist teacher, Ajahn Chah Instructions for meditation and how to apply them properly to the retreat experience Moving beyond our psychological melodrama so we can gain deeper insight into the processes of mind Gurdjieff and using the fire of practice to transform our inner-world into a single whole Using our time wisely within the great mystery of this precious human birth Meeting our meditation practice with great faith, great courage, and great questioning The Diamond Sutra and how to live with a heart of light "You say that practice is difficult. This is thinking. Practice is not difficult. If you say it's difficult this means you're examining yourself too much—examining your situation, your condition, your opinion—so you say practice is difficult. But if you keep the mind that is before thinking and planning, then practice is not difficult." – Jack Kornfield quoting a Zen Master This Dharma Talk on 10/07/78 from Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring the liberating step of Right Attitude, Jack illuminates how we can break free from our automatic habits by becoming fully conscious of them. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "There's a strength of heart that comes when we don't just follow our habit. It's a strengthening of heart that brings a sense of wellbeing or purity. Because we begin to train ourselves that we don't have to follow all our habits and all our desires." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Right Attitude / Right Thought as one of the steps on the Buddha's Noble Eightfold PathThe three aspects of Right Attitude: openness/exploration, renunciation/effort, love/non-harmingWorking with our unique personality in this incarnationThe importance of adding fire to our spiritual practiceBreaking free from our automatic habits by bringing conscious awareness to themRam Dass and becoming a "connoisseur or your neurosis"Transforming our life from automatic pilot to being fully consciousThe story of Larry Brilliant helping cure smallpox and what he learned about surrender and interconnectivity "I think love really manifests when things get difficult. That's when you really know it. That's the fire that melts whatever barriers we ever have in our hearts. And our hearts want to be melted. The pain isn't so bad; it's much better than having it still solid and barricaded." – Jack Kornfield Join Jack and friends live ONLINE from Maui Nov. 29 - Dec. 3 at the 3rd Annual Ram Dass Legacy Retreat in this 5-day virtual livestream event. Learn more and register here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Connecting the Buddha's wisdom with the teachings of Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda's infamous Yaqui shaman, Jack explores how to become a spiritual warrior. Learn the Dynamic Art of Guided Meditation in this Masterclass with Jack Kornfield! Sign up for the on-demand version before Nov. 15 to take part in two live Q&A sessions with Jack! "There's a mysterious beauty that surrounds those individuals who live their lives as warriors, as men or women of knowledge." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates: How Buddha's factors of enlightenment (qualities of awakening) connect with Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda's infamous teacher and Yaqui shaman and sorcererDon Juan's wisdom of the 'Way of the Warrior' in relation to BuddhismThe qualities of living as a spiritual warrior: impeccability/wholeness, wise effort/energy, courage/investigation, controlled-folly (play/lightness), strength/concentration, and steadfastness/unshakeablenessShamanism and cutting through our sense of separation into the root of consciousnessFinding inner-freedom by learning how to stop our internal dialogue "The basic difference between an ordinary person and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary person takes everything as a blessing or a curse." – Carlos Castaneda (Author of The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge) This talk from 12/31/1983 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In response to the conflicts in the world, Jack offers a harmonizing guided meditation inviting us into peace, sanctuary, and the heart of refuge. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "I breath in peace and breath out peace to all those who are amidst the troubles of this world—the conflicts, the refuges, the violence and the fear. I send you a peaceful breath. May we be peaceful together." – Jack Kornfield In this timely episode, Jack leads a harmonizing guided meditation to help us: Find a mindful, balanced, and compassionate response to the conflicts and tragedy's happening throughout the world todayTurn our awareness to the present moment, merging mind, body, and spiritExtend our consciousness, compassion, and mindful loving awareness around the planet, it's people, and environmentsSend out peaceful healing breaths to all those who are amidst the troubles of the world This episode is from the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation on 10/23/2023. Learn the Dynamic Art of Guided Meditation in this Masterclass with Jack Kornfield! Sign up for the on-demand version before Nov. 15 to take part in two live Q&A sessions with Jack! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this powerful new Dharma Talk touching on current events, an emotional Jack offers a heart of refuge amidst the world's conflicts. "There's a liberation amidst birth and death, joy and sorrow, war and peace, that is beyond it all. This is the sacred openness of love and awareness itself.” – Jack Kornfield In this emotional episode, Jack touches into: The terrors of the ongoing wars in Gaza, Ukraine, DarfurHow constant news media effects our emotions and wellbeingLearning to live from the 'heart of refuge' which the Buddha offersWhat does it mean to be a refugee? How can we help create sanctuary?The importance of outsiders opening to the suffering of all humans rather than taking sidesHow the Buddha's mindful loving awareness overcomes Mara's aggression, greed, and doubtThe ways we can open ourselves to forgiveness, compassion, community, safety, love, and trust This episode is from the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation on 10/23/2023. Already downloaded by over 15k people, visit dharmamoon.com/ebook to get YOUR free copy of The Art of Teaching Mindfulness! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack explores how meeting our lives with a directness and simplicity helps bring the mind, body, and heart into unity. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "The spirit of the practice is a unification of the mind with the body and the heart, bringing them all together into one. In that unification, or collectedness, then it becomes possible, when the mind isn't wandering in fantasy of past or future, to see directly and clearly.” – Jack Kornfield In this Dharma Talk, Jack mindfully illuminates: Buddha's simple wisdom: "In the seen, there is only the seen. In the heard, there is only the heard. In the sensed, there is only the sensed. In the thought, there is only the thought." Meeting our practice and the world with a directness and simplicity; bringing the mind, heart, and body into unity Cultivating an "excruciatingly" precise awareness and paying careful attention so we can see our life process in a new way The three-sided crystal of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness/insecurity, and selflessness Suzuki Roshi and the blissful wisdom of simplicity This Dharma Talk 9/29/1983 at the Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed. Learn the Healing Art of Guided Meditation in this Masterclass with Jack Kornfield! Sign up for the on-demand version before Nov. 15 to take part in two live Q&A sessions with Jack! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this riveting episode, Jack shares hilarious personal stories illuminating lessons from his life as a forest monk in Thailand. "The spirt was you just did it, and you worked with whatever came up as your practice. Living the life of a monk meant taking what came to you and working with it, whether it was difficult or easy.” – Jack Kornfield In this riveting episode, Jack dives into: What it was like living as a forest monk in Thailand at Ajahn Chah's forest monastery The wisdom he learned through experiencing Ajahn Chah's four-part teachings on surrender, opening up to see clearly, working with the mind, and gaining balance/perspective The two levels of Dharma practice: using Dharma to feel comfortable, and using Dharma to get free Ajahn Chah's rascally yet direct interactions with students, including one with Ram Dass Working with attachments and aversions in order to overcome them and grow spiritually Learning how to let go and not get caught in the mind's lures, traps, and intricacies Discover the transformative practice of teaching mindfulness in a new FREE 30-page ebook by Senior Buddhist teacher and Emmy award-winning musician, David Nichtern. With its blend of humor, wisdom, and accessible approach, The Art of Teaching Mindfulness ebook is a must-read for anyone interested in sharing the life-changing practices of mindfulness with others. Already downloaded by over 15k people, visit dharmamoon.com/ebook to get YOUR free copy of The Art of Teaching Mindfulness! This episode from Insight Meditation Society on 6/7/1981 was originally published on DharmaSeed. "Meditation practice is where you are sitting. It's not to go to some other place, or have the ideal setting, or have your coffee, or have your quiet little room. Where you are is your practice." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Illuminating the Way of the Bodhisattva, Jack shares wisdom from St. Teresa of Calcutta, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, Ajahn Chah, and Sueng Sahn on walking the spiritual path. This vintage episode from April 10, 1977 at Camp Cedar Glen was originally published on DharmaSeed. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom In this vintage episode, Jack mindfully illuminates: The selfless service, love, and wisdom of Saint Mother Teresa of CalcuttaElizabeth Kübler-Ross's unshakeable compassion and revolutionary work around death and dyingHow his teacher Ajahn Chah's Thai monastery was an island of peace and possibility amidst war and conflictWhat the story of Korean Zen Master, Seung Sahn, getting a job at a laundry mat teaches us about non-attachment to selfCompassion, the spiritual path, and the Way of the Bodhisattva Discover the transformative practice of teaching mindfulness in a new FREE 30-page ebook by Senior Buddhist teacher and Emmy award-winning musician, David Nichtern. With its blend of humor, wisdom, and accessible approach, The Art of Teaching Mindfulness ebook is a must-read for anyone interested in sharing the life-changing practices of mindfulness with others. Already downloaded by over 15k people, visit dharmamoon.com/ebook to get YOUR free copy of The Art of Teaching Mindfulness! "The power that a human being who’s really committed to truth and love has to transform people around them is quite remarkable." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this flowing question and answer session, Jack helps his students mindfully navigate topics like loneliness, intention setting, meditating with ADD, meeting our shame with nobility, and dealing with jerks. "The spiritual path is really step by step. If you think of it as long, you can get lost and overwhelmed. But if you realize that you're not going from here to there, you're going from there to hear, the path leads you back to this moment and to a more tender heart.” – Jack Kornfield In this question and answer session, Jack and his students mindfully explore: A do-it-yourself intention setting ceremonyWhat it's like to practice meditation with ADDThe benefits of going on spiritual retreat both in-person and onlineHow to handle being triggered by "jerks," politics, greed, hate, and injusticeMeeting our shame and regret with nobility and growthFinding patience and trust for the spiritual pathSpirituality and how to deal with difficult familyThe importance of satsang (sangha, spiritual community) Transform your life through Jack's Kornfield's most powerful stories in this brand new 10-hour journey! Live session begin this October! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Executive Chairman of the Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford, joins Jack to discuss capitalism, Right Livelihood, and the next generation. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom “To be successful in business you have to have values, you have to stand by those values, and you can't compromise those values. But you also have to have the tools to do that. Whether it's meditation or other forms of self-exploration, you have to have a way to shed the stress and to really dive into what's important.” – Bill Ford In this episode, Jack and Bill mindfully navigate: How we can make business and work a force for good The stakes and rewards of servant leadership Capitalism, Right Livelihood, and the Next Generation Navigating tough decisions and bringing out the best in others Compassionate leadership in a cold economy Living with empathy and from our highest intention Transform your life through Jack's Kornfield's most powerful stories in this brand new 10-hour journey! Live session begin this October! "What's the point of your life if there isn't some well-being woven into it? It's not meant to be a grim duty. Some people take meditation as a grim duty. That doesn't make it happy, and it doesn't actually serve you in some deep way." – Jack Kornfield This conversation was originally recorded for the Inner-MBA program presented by Sounds True. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this hilarious episode, Jack Kornfield, Trudy Goodman, and Bonnie Duran, DrPH, share stories on becoming empowered to solve your own problems. Transform your life through Jack's Kornfield's most powerful stories in this brand new 10-hour journey! Live session begin on Sept 28th! “The Buddha's enlightenment solved the Buddha's problem, now you solve yours.” – Joseph Goldstein In this episode Jack, Trudy, and Bonnie mindfully explore: The powerful lesson encased within Bonnie's first one-on-one session with Joseph Goldstein Empowerment, personal understanding, and spiritual awakening Hilarious stories from Jack on his teacher Ajahn Chah involving enlightenment, Jesus, and the wisdom of not-knowing Trudy's two-sided spiritual lesson on aging, impermanence, and presence Dealing with uncertainty and learning to trust yourself About Bonnie Duran, DrPH: Bonnie Duran, DrPH, (mixed race Opelousas/Coushatta) is a Professor Emeritus in the Schools of Social Work and Public Health at the University of Washington (UW), in Seattle. Before, during and after completing her doctoral degree at UC Berkeley, she has worked in public health and social care research, education and practice with a focus on Native Americans/Indigenous peoples and other communities of color for over 35 years. Dr Duran has conducted studies of mental disorder prevalence, risk and protective factors, victimization, and treatment seeking/ barriers to care among people attending Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities and probability samples from the Tribal Colleges and University’s within the largest rural Tribal Nations in the U.S. In partnership with communities, she has adapted and developed Indigenous interventions for system level, community and individual health and wellbeing. About Trudy Goodman: Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats and workshops worldwide. Learn more about Trudy’s offerings at trudygoodman.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Reflecting on what it means to live in a wise society, Jack shares stories on how we can handle difficult topics – cancer, abortion, women's rights, prison, and war – with a mutual respect. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom “How much respect do you give to those you disagree with? And what would they feel from you? Not that you have to have the same ideas, but is there that spirit of respect? Can you see the secret beauty behind their eyes? Can you see them all with a heart open even if you disagree?” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: What the truth of interdependence means to tending a wise society How Buddha, Dharma, and meditation connect with politics and community A story of enlightenment about 'The Rabbi, the Abbot, and The Messiah' Quieting the mind, opening the heart, mutual respect, and listening deeply The compassion of Quan Yin, and the Dharma as medicine for the world Gracefully handling topics like cancer, abortion, women's rights, the prison system, and war Transform your life through Jack's Kornfield's most powerful stories in this brand new 10-hour journey starting Sept 28th! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack shares a guided meditation on relaxing into the ocean of air we find ourselves in when we open to the present moment. Transform your life through Jack's Kornfield's most powerful stories in this brand new 10-hour journey starting Sept 28th! “You become a connoisseur of breathing for this moment, attentive to this remarkable breathing in and out of the atmosphere, keeping you alive, exchanging with all.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack leads a guided meditation helping us: Tune into embodied presence Invite in relaxation, ease and calm Become mindful of the body breathing itself Use noting to move past waves of emotions and thoughts "As you sense each breath, you can whisper softly in the background of your mind, 'Ease, calm,' and allow the embodied presence that is feeling this breath to invite you into a place of stillness, breath by breath." – Jack Kornfield This meditation was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock Meditation Center for the Monday Night Dharma Talk on July 24, 2023. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Illuminating the concept of mudita – sympathetic joy – Jack helps us cultivate authentic happiness for those around us, and leads a guided meditation on the topic. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Spiritual joy is the innate capacity for the heart to take pleasure and wonderment in this life and in the happiness of others, a kind of sympathetic joy." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully navigates: Mudita as a spiritual/sympathetic joy and generosity of spirit which take s pleasure in the happiness of others Rumi, the ocean of poetry, channeling, listening, and inspiration Seeing the beauty in the the light, eyes, and world around us Spirituality, happiness, and taking responsibility for your heart The Buddha's lens that joy and beauty are crucial factors of enlightenment A guided meditation partner practice to cultivate mudita (sympathetic joy) and metta (loving kindness) This Dharma Talk from 12/03/2001 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published by DharmaSeed. Grab an All-Access Plan for Jack's growing library of online courses at jackkornfield.com/all-access-pass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack returns to explore the nature of Dharma as universal, immediate, timeless, beneficial, protective, and available to all. "The Dharma is universal, it's immediate, it's open-handed, it's to be experienced by each person for themselves directly, it's timeless. The truth of life is here to be discovered for any individual with eyes open to see." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully navigates: Sufis introducing the Dance of Universal Peace to Jack's retreat of Buddhists Dharma as universal, immediate, timeless, beneficial, protective, and available to all The various meanings of 'Dharma': the teachings, the physical/emotional elements of the world, personal destiny/path, and Universal Laws/Truth How Joseph Goldstein accidentally found his teacher Munindraji while on the way to take LSD under the Bodhi Tree Karma, impermanence, duality, selflessness, attachment, metta (loving kindness), and the preciousness of life The Vipassana paradox of Tibetan Dream Yoga "The Dharma protects those who follow it like a great umbrella in the rainy season." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 12/05/1987 was originally published on DharmaSeed. Grab an All-Access Plan for Jack's growing library of online courses at jackkornfield.com/all-access-pass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Getting vulnerable about the hungers which afflict our lives, Jack helps us into the nirvana beyond the illusion of incompleteness. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom “In Sanskrit or Pali the word is ‘Trishna,’ which means thirst, desire, wanting. It’s exaggeration, or the realm that it manifests in in the greatest way, is called ‘The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts.’ Hungry Ghosts are pictured as these beings who have huge stomaches and tiny little mouths, so that it’s never possible to get enough in there to ease that hunger.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack vulnerably navigates: Hunger, abundance, deprivation, indulgence, addiction, and the illusion of incompletenessFeeling idiotic, depressed, needy, judgmental, sad, lonely, hungry, etcTrishna—thirst, desire, wanting—and the Realm of the Hungry GhostsSamsara and the propulsion of endless wanderings of seperation/seekingAjahn Chah and being with what is, rather than struggling against itRelating wisely and tenderly to Buddha’s First Noble Truth of sufferingNirvana as the end of cyclical grasping and the illusion that we are incomplete “Nirvana is the end of cyclic existence, which is to say, the end of grasping and going around in circles looking for something that you are, but haven’t yet touched—the end of the illusion that we are incomplete.” – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 02/01/1987 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this lively episode, Jack dives into how mindfulness, awareness and intimacy help us engage with life more fully. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Zen master Dōgen said that to be mindful, to be awake, to pay attention, is the same as intimacy—intimacy with your lover, with your friends, or the sky and the trees, the drought, the grasses, your neighbors, the rhythms of the seasons, your children or parents." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates: Spiritual practice as a path with heart about connecting our spiritual life and worldly life Using breath to relate with nature and life as movement and a process of change Understanding the movements of mind and using mindfulness to live more fully A story involving Jack, a Zen master, and a glass of sake at Naropa How mindfulness, awareness and intimacy are synonymous The way Jack personally deals with and gets intimate with loneliness in his life Meditation as teaching the art of appreciation for what's in front of us The art of getting intimate with our fear to engage with life more fully "To enter into one thing in a very personal and immediate way—not with your mind, but your whole being—is to touch everything." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from Spirit Rock in January 1989 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Navigating the body's river of sensations, Jack helps us into the still-point of freedom amidst life's cycles of change. "If our goal in spiritual practice is some state, some open state, it would be in spiritual life like buying already open flowers instead of buds, or like adopting an adult instead of a child. To awaken the heart of a Buddha requires us to find the deepest respect and compassion for things as they are, for they way things are. There isn't anything you can hold onto in that because it's always changing. There is no enlightened retirement. The way things are includes the cycles of stillness and action, the times of raising a family or being a renunciate, making money or retiring—and finding somehow a way to be with what is, with the truth of change." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully elucidates: The Dalai Lama's view on the Big Bang Theory How when we open deeply to our feelings, we recognize the body as a flowing river of sensation The Buddha's 'Eight Worldly Winds' and using mindfulness and Right Effort to navigate life's cycles of expansion and contraction Ram Dass, Be Here Now, and the "rollercoaster of highs and lows" of spiritual practice Finding freedom in the still-point amidst the cycles of change Trusting ourselves and the universe enough to let go into the mystery "Life is a process of expansion and contraction. We breathe, and as we sit in meditation you notice there are long and short breaths, cool, fast, deeper ones and shallow ones. If you let it breath itself it has all these rhythms of the body opening and closing all the time. Then you pay attention to sensations in the body. At first it feels like tension, pain, hot, or cold, but the more deeply you listen with your inner-awareness, that which we call pain, tension, hot, or cold, becomes pulsing, throbbing, needles, pinpricks, swirling movement. The more deeply we feel, the more our body shows itself to be a river of sensation." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from Spirit Rock on 4/23/1989 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Illuminating the art of paying attention, Jack shares hilarious stories and mindful insights around how we can let go into the present. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "To learn the art of paying attention requires some practice, that we learn how to sit and steady ourselves, to steady our bodies, and listen with a steadiness of heart, to actually be with what is here in our experience—pleasant and unpleasant, beautiful and ugly. That's what sitting is about, really, is to sit and be with the 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows, to see them, feel them, and let ourselves be as we are." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack artfully illuminates: How your spiritual path is truly in your own hands; other's can point the way, but you must walk itThe Buddha's four aspects of Right EffortLearning the art of paying attention, and applying this to sit with life's 10,000 joys and sorrowsThe Samurai way of going through the path of fireJack's hilarious personal experience solving koans on Zen retreatsLetting go into the present moment (while still acting in the world)"As one Zen master says, 'Just put it down, put everything down. Just be here and forget about the past and future. That's enough.'" – Jack Kornfield This Dharma talk from March 13, 1989 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this Independence Day focused episode, Jack reflects on how we can foster true freedom and independence through using a spiritual rudder. "The Buddha, in the last bit of his life, said, 'When I'm gone, don't follow or place all of your reliance on elders or teachers, but rather follow the Dharma, the universal law, and know these things for yourself. Know the forces of grasping, hatred, and ignorance. Really know what they are. Let yourself see them, and know that it is possible to find freedom from these. If it weren't possible I wouldn't tell you about it. Then as you live your life, be aware of what brings goodness, what brings freedom from grasping, hatred, and delusion. Nourish that which brings that freedom, sustain it and support it." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack dives into: The ideals of the U.S., versus its reality and history What it means to be independent, what it means to be free Learning what your "spiritual rudder" is to steer you in the midst of this Kali Yuga Buddha's advice on following the Dharma, and your Way, rather than following others Our spiritual rudder as synonymous with truth, love, integrity, and our Buddha Nature True freedom as freedom from the pull and sway of outside circumstances Real loving kindness, real metta, as timeless, fearless, and free This Dharma talk given by Jack on July 4th, 1994 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Hop in the Sauna with Jack Kornfield and Prince Ea, as they steep deeply into topics of spirituality, fear, meditation, compassion, and staying awake in the world. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "People say the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, but that's only half the story. There is a lot of suffering that really needs our honest compassion and tending, but it also needs hope. If you go into a refugee camp and you're depressed and worried; they don't need that, they already have plenty of that. They need somebody that comes in and says, 'We human beings can make the world better." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack and Prince Ea steam in: Meeting all facets of the world with optimism and hope Why we should never underestimate the human heart Mindful presence, loving awareness, and waking up to who we are Overcoming fear and not buying into the scare tactics used in politics What it was like for Jack to meet and learn from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj The story of Jack becoming a Buddhism monk and finding Vipassana meditation Unpacking compassion as a verb, rather than empathy which is inactive About Prince Ea: Prince Ea is a film maker, speaker, human optimization researcher, and creator who has touched the hearts, minds and souls of millions of people worldwide. By producing creative, inspirational and thought provoking content, Prince has accumulated over 1 billion views on Facebook alone and even more on a combination of other platforms. For more info, please princeea.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack joins CEO of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Sam Altman, onstage with Soren Gordhamer at Wisdom 2.0 to talk artificial intelligence, spirituality, ethics, and the future of humanity. Sam Altman is the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI and ChatGPT. Soren Gordhamer is the founder of Wisdom 2.0. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom In this episode, Jack, Sam, and Soren explore: How A.I. technology will impact our world and the future of humanityThe ways Sam's meditation practice is influencing his tech careerPotential benefits and pitfalls of opening artificial intelligence onto the worldIf we can instill values, ethics, and morals into A.I.How Sam created OpenAI to allow a collective democratic process for how A.I. evolvesDoes artificial intelligence technology have a sense of self?Learning how humanity can best utilize these evolving toolsHow A.I. can aid our spiritual practice"What are people going to do in the post-A.I. world when we all have tremendous resources, we've solved a lot of inequities in the world, and we have a lot of time on our hands? Well, there are a lot of people who need a lot of spiritual practice, and we're gonna have that time." – Sam Altman See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Plunging further into last week's topic, Jack offers vulnerable perspectives on how sexuality and relationships play into our life and practice. "If one wants to understand karma, or one wants to understand virtue, ethics, or morality—which are equally important and profound in developing a spiritual life—the way to do it is very simple: it's beginning to know, observe, feel, and understand what's going on in our hearts as we act." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack vulnerably explores: Understanding karma, virtue, intention and action How so much of our sadhana and practice comes through our relationships Learning about ourselves and the universe through sex and relationship Sex and relationship as a form of opening and surrender, as well as commitment, offering, acceptance, growth, and healing Desire, grasping, reality, love, and the present moment Relationships as a place to find the foundations of mindfulness The nature of love as expression, growth, and unity This episode from 1987 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring the relationship between spirituality and sexuality, Jack offers reflections and perspectives on ways to dance with the sexual energy in our lives. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "In a way, sex is a mirror. How your sexuality goes in a particular day or week is pretty much a reflection of the rest of your heart, mind, spirit, and being. In that regard, it's just like meditation—you sit down, close your eyes, and you get to see what's there: frustration, anger, happiness, or love. Sexuality serves the same way, physically, but even more so emotionally." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: The relationship between spirituality, sexuality, and our lives Why sexuality is such a major part of our culture Our underlying fear of true intimacy Suzuki Roshi's koan of "How do you realize Buddha while making love?" The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in relation to our sexuality Wounds, trauma, healing, and the body Using relationships in a skillful way to grow Tantra, breath, and going beyond ourselves "If you look at our culture, television and mass media, sex is such a big part of it. Why is it such a big thing in our culture and our lives? Because, in part, it's a vehicle to go beyond ourselves." – Jack Kornfield This Dharna talk from 1987 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Directly following Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's death, Jack offers perspectives on the life and dharma of one of spirituality's most impactful and controversial figures. "Lama Govinda said that of all the young tulkus, of all the young incarnate lamas to leave Tibet, there was none as bright as Trungpa Rinpoche—bright in the sense of his field of his being and his energy. Lama Govinda, even at a point when he wasn't very happy with the way Trungpa Rinpoche was behaving, said that he still had to admit there was no one who walked across the Himalayas and came out who had that light more than Trungpa." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack dives into: A celebration of the life, teachings, and impact of Chögyam Trungpa RinpocheThe Vimalakīrti Sutra, and how certain Bodhisattvas teach as householders so that their message can be best understood by the worldHow Jack being invited to teach alongside Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein on the faculty of Trungpa's Naropa University in Boulder, CO sparked their teaching careers in the WestLama Govinda's view on Trungpa's innate radiant brightness and his "lion's roar"The traditions, trainings, and spirit of Shambala through the metaphor of the rising sunMeeting our life and practice with an openness and fearlessnessBuddhist personality types and their unique seeds of awakeningTrungpa's discipline for practice, and his deep devotion for his teachers and dharma lineagePing-ponging between Ram Dass's and Trungpa Rinpoche's dueling Bhakti and Buddhism sessions the opening summer at Naropa "Trungpa Rinpoche gave himself as fully to the West as any Buddhist teacher that I know that has come. And in a more remarkable way, he absorbed our culture, our language, our customs, who we are, into himself and said, 'Alright, let's play! Let's take the seed of the Dharma and really make it sparkle and alive in the West.'" – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk on 4/01/1987 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Rewiring our brains around difficulties, emptiness, fear, and longing, Jack highlights how we can connect our practice with our deepest love. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "When you get afraid or things are difficult, fear is simply the signal that you're about to learn something new. When you feel afraid it's like the little light comes on that says, 'About to grow.'" – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack contemplates and explores: The times in our lives where we feel truly connected to our heartsAjahn Jumnian, motivation for practice, spiritual thirst, and working with addictionBringing awareness to the truth of emptiness and nature of joy and sorrowReincarnation and seeing everyone in the world as your mothers, fathers, and childrenFinding that what we really want is simple heart connectionEmptiness, longing, and feeding the hungry heartStillness and living from our fundamental nature of love and caringThe difficulties in life as part of the spiritual pathSeeing life as a continuous flow of mistakes to learn from, and fear as a signal that you are about to grow "To study emptiness means to accept without resisting, to not push away or not distract ourselves from the emptiness that's within us that we half-feel and keep trying to fill up through all of our sense of longing and deficiency. Instead, it's to sit and say, 'Alright, let me feel that longing, that emptiness, that space, that deficiency. Let me feel how deep it is, how big it is, and not just try to fill it right away.' When we stop running and feel that, then something new comes alive in us." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Mindfully retelling ancient Buddhist Dharma stories, Jack reflects on what it means to live with a wise heart. "For someone who wants to break free inside of the forces of ignorance, delusion, habit, and sleepwalking—you must really see that there's something greater than just getting through each day, and devote yourself in some fashion to it." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack opens us to: Modern retellings of ancient Buddhist Dharma storiesThe courage and mystery of the heartThe law of karma and the power of intentionThe compelling nature of spiritual practiceBuddha's past life as a lion living on an island with an elephant friendDiscovering what is love, and what is goodness in the heartLearning to listen to where our actions comes from "Find a place in yourself—in your being, your heart—that really wants to understand what life and death is about, that wants to live in a different way. Let that be the source of your inspiration, the source of your guidance." – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk from 3/23/86 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this vintage Dharma Talk, Jack illuminates Buddhism's Three Characteristics of Life: stress, non-self, and impermanence. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Somehow we believe our concepts, that we'll be here forever, that our life is really going to go on and on. Or we believe our advertising, the idea from the culture that if you get 'this' you'll be able to hold onto it and it will make you happy. It's just not true. Happiness is a matter of the heart; not something we can grasp or hold." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: Knowledge, love, patience, and a spirit of constancyBeing here now and living in mindfulness in the present momentBuddhism's Three Characteristics of LifeAnicca: impermanenceAnatta: non-selfDukkha: stress/sufferingTrue happiness as a matter of the heartHow you can't stop the waves, but you can learn how to surfThe original truth of self and freedom This teaching is part of a 4-week long Yoga of Heartfulness online course featuring teachings from Ram Dass and friends. Learn more about this 10 hour course: Ram Dass' Yoga of Heartfulness This flowing lecture from 4/18/1985 was originally published on DharmaSeed See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack returns with a cosmic Dharma Talk exploring expansion and contraction in relation to impermanence as the root of spiritual practice. "The law of change is the brown rice and vegetables of spiritual practice, it's the root of our direct experience of life." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack takes us on a cosmic journey through: The basic fundamentals of Dharma teachings on how to live wisely in our practiceA trippy interstellar perspective flip through a simple intergalactic thought experimentLife—this capacity to be conscious and aware—as a process of expansion and contractionThe law of change, impermanence, as the "brown rice and vegetables" of spiritual practiceSpiritual practice as a way to find freedom and compassion within ourselvesLearning to live in the present of how it is, rather than how we wish it would be This Dharma Talk from Spirit Rock Meditation Center on 6/20/1994 was originally published on DharmaSeed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, Jack joins Michael Krasny for a conversation diving into mindfulness, loneliness, compassion, gratitude, suffering, meditation, and the Dharma. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "With mindfulness you learn to live in the present. If you walk down the street and you're spending all your time thinking about that conversation you had and the tasks you have to do, you miss the people walking by, you miss the clouds after that rainstorm, the colors of the sunset—the lavender, red, and orange that's reflected in the windows and puddles—you miss your life. Mindfulness becomes liberating in that way." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack and Michael discuss: Ram Dass and the idea of "being here now" in regards to suffering, depression, and suicidal thoughtsOvercoming loneliness, isolation, and grief by reaching out and connecting with othersWrapping ourselves in the infinitely compassionate cloak of of Quan Yin or Mother MaryHow compassion and mindfulness practices regulate our body away from the 'fight, flight, freeze' responseVipassana meditation, the mindful loving witness, and bringing it back into the worldPlanting seeds with your conscious effort and peaceful heart, but not being attached to the outcomeHow mindfulness liberates us to be fully present for the beautiful nuances of our livesThe difference between pain (inevitable) and suffering (optional)The various meanings of the word "Dharma," and it's relation to truthMaking friends with our inner-critic and judging mindConsciousness, gratitude, and the Great Mystery "We have the capacity to hold our sorrows and our measure of suffering with compassion rather than judgment, rather than fear, almost as if you could wrap yourself with the cloak of Quan Yin—the Goddess of Infinite Compassion—or Mother Mary, so that you know that you're not alone, and that we've done this." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Uncovering how to live with a peaceful heart, Jack maps the inner landscapes of meditation, and shares how we can use listening to find The Way. “A peaceful heart is not a withdrawal from life, but rather coming back into ourselves to remember the place that neither grasps nor judges and hates.” – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores: What it means to live with a peaceful heartMoving beyond the grasping of attachment and aversionLiving in the world from a place of wisdomThe inner landscapes of meditationGreed, hatred, delusion, and revengeInterdependence, connection, and BodhicittaImpermanence and the wisdom of insecurityThe Goddess of Peace and the Goddess of JusticeWise response and transmuting sufferingBodhisattvas and compassionBuddha and the boundless infinity of loveListening to embody The Way This flowing Dharma Talk from Jack on 10/01/2001 was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack returns for an illuminating Dharma Talk exploring the deep human longing for the wedding of body and spirit. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "The invitation of spiritual life, of awareness or mindfulness—we could call it a sacred attention—is not to hurry up, fix, or make this human realm perfect or better. Nor is it to ignore it, but rather to awaken to what is each day as we meet it in our bodies, in our hearts, in our minds, in our family, in our community on this earth – to see it how it is, and to illuminate it with the heart, to illuminate it with our understanding and compassion, to find the basket of spirit that is here, and let that spirit shine in this human realm." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack dives into: - An old African wisdom story of a shepherd, his cattle, a dark forest, a lover, and a magic basket - Life, death, void, silence, and opening to the great mystery - Perception, consciousness, and Buddha's wisdom that mind is the principle element of creation - Listening, truth, timelessness, and The One Who Knows - The balance and connection between spirit and form - Rumi and the deep human longing to wed body and spirit - Buddha and the teachings of compassion - Breath, wholeness, and the eternal present - Moving past the fear body by breaking through the myth of seperation This Dharma Talk from Spirit Rock Meditation Center on 09/11/2000 was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield connects with lifestyle expert Sarah Grynberg to talk about a life of greatness. "Really, meditation is about deep listening. You sit and what needs to be understood will come if you sit quietly. It is like going into the forest and finding a little clearing and sitting down. If you're quiet for a while the animals, the birds, they all resume their life and you see all the things you would never see before. " – Jack Kornfield In this episode Jack Kornfield and Sarah Grynberg discuss: What it was like for Jack to grow up in Judaism Ajahn Chah and being ready for suffering Surrender in meditationThe catharsis of emotional release Deep Listening Buddhism as a practice versus a religionThe Psychology of Heart and Mind About Sarah Grynberg Sarah Grynberg is a well-renowned interviewer, well-being expert, keynote speaker, and host and producer of the highly-rated lifestyle and internationally successful podcast, A Life of Greatness, where she’s engaged some of the world’s biggest names. Through her years of research studying the links between the facets of human behavior, personal growth, and happiness, Sarah formulated her own blueprint for cultivating greatness. This powerful blueprint has become the touchstone of Sarah’s courses, talks & writing. You can keep up with Sarah on Instagram or on SarahGrynberg.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Teaching us about breath work and presence, Jack Kornfield guides a mindfulness meditation and discusses the beauty of listening. "You are not the body, you are the mindful loving awareness that notices this body with kindness and care." – Jack Kornfield In this episode Jack Kornfield offers us: A guided mindfulness meditation Tools to relax and experience presence Breathing techniques for full body awareness Ways to develop the capacity to listenAdvice on working with trauma Ways to thank our fears See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein explore the emergence of Western Buddhism and balancing faith with wisdom. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "In the Buddhist tradition it's said that one of the prayers one might make is: May I be born in circumstances that I may experience the Dharma that will bring me to awaken the heart of boundless compassion and discover inner freedom." – Jack Kornfield "That kind of questioning which isn't cynical and isn't arrogant but is really wondering, really wanting to know the truth for oneself, I think of as an essential component of faith." – Sharon Salzberg "Even in those first few minutes, what I discovered was there was a way to look into the mind as well as looking out through it. To me that was revelatory." – Joseph Goldstein In this episode Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein touch on: The formation of the Insight Meditation SocietyThe emergence of Western BuddhismThe balance of faith and wisdom Starting small with meditationBeing the product of our conditioningHaving compassion for the human predicament See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield teaches us about fostering femininity in our dharma practice. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom In this episode Jack Kornfield discusses: The relationship of birth and deathLoving deeply by opening our hearts, bodies, and mindMoving from the masculine to the feminine The power of forgiveness "Part of what's happening to practice is that it is becoming balanced with a greater emphasis of the feminine...instead of independence there's more teaching of interdependence, of relationship to one's body, relationship to the earth." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, Jack Kornfield helps us discover how the ocean of breath can lead to greater compassion for all. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "With the opening of breath comes a spaciousness or a healing quality which is that we can allow ourselves to hold in compassion, with a kindness of heart, all that arises." – Jack Kornfield In this episode Jack Kornfield discusses: Breath as the movement of spiritThe cycle and rhythms of lifeDeveloping awareness of the breathNoticing our senses This 1994 talk was originally published on Dharmaseed See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
By telling stories of the Buddha, Jack Kornfield directs us on the purpose of practice and the laws of Dharma. "What we repeatedly direct our mind to in this society is consumerism and materialism and addictions of different kinds. What we direct ourselves to, we get. For better or for worse." – Jack Kornfield This talk from Jack Kornfield 1/4/1994 was originally published on DharmaSeed. In this episode Jack Kornfield discusses: The will to doSkillful actionThe mind as a mirrorBirth stories of the BuddhaRenunciationAwakening to the law of DharmaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In simple, heartfelt presence, Jack Kornfield teaches us about coming into the dharma body. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "You can see it in your life. It's helpful to be aware when you drive, or if you paint or you do computer programming or you make love, or you write poetry, or you garden. Mindfulness, I declare, is all helpful. With that presence is the path to freedom, to awakening." — Jack Kornfield In this episode Jack Kornfield discusses: Stories of Thich Nhat HanhBecoming the BuddhaCosmic BreakthroughsNavigating DeathMindfull AwarenessSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield describes the Buddha's vow to awakening and how we too can set a daily intention to awaken. NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommune.com/ramdass "An intention creates our life. Thought manifests or leads to deeds, deeds develop into habit, habit hardens into character and character shapes our world." – Jack Kornfield In this episode Jack Kornfield discusses: The small, intimate choice to awakenCollective awakeningIntention in practiceThe interplay of mind and bodySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Moving beyond our small sense of self, Jack Kornfield introduces us to the ways intention, love, and acceptance can transform us. Amidst our ever-changing lives, we can find the patterns which form from our hearts and realize the source of who we are. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommune.com/ramdass "Our heart is the garden into which we plant seeds and nourish them. Depending on our intention, gradually, we shape the patterns of our lives. What's important then is not so much what we say or do, but what is the intention with that? " – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Reflecting on impermanence, Jack Kornfield explains that despite our physical frailty our spirit can never truly die. Where can we go when we die? Jack Kornfield explores the recycling of energy, our limitlessness beyond death, and how death enables us to live more presently. NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommune.com/ramdass "There's this amazing thing with death that there is both less of someone and yet more of them. There's some way in which you can walk in the woods and they are there to speak too. Being with death slows us down, it softens us, it makes us more gracious." — Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Mindfully navigating death, we learn from Jack Kornfield how to appreciate the vulnerability of one's final moments on earth. Jack Kornfield describes the truth death pushes us to face and how keeping an awareness of the inevitable aids us in living fully while we can. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective meditation experience: onecommune.com/ramdass "Mindfulness of death is powerful because it begins to bring abut a deep questioning, a profound shift of identity. In the face of death, who are we?" — Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield describes finding a light in the dark via Buddhist wisdom on forgiveness, transience, and a profound sense of freedom. Through ancient storytelling and dharmic conversation, Jack Kornfield helps us grasp forgiving ourselves and others, keeping a connection to our senses and instincts, and resting in our Buddha nature. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom “To forgive means simply that we will not put anyone out of our heart because to do so closes us. It reduces us from being human.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Traversing the receptive energy of water, Jack Kornfield details the power of fluidity, serenity, and gentleness. This lecture was originally uploaded on DharmaSeed.org A spiritual journey is often quite gradual. It is not typical to one day wake up and have a deep relationship with God or become enlightened. That gradual deepening we feel as we tune into our practice is much like a body of water. We are open, receptive, and vast. The mystery of being is that we do not know our destiny or how our spiritual journey will form, but like water, we can yield to the mystery. "Do you have the constancy to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving and present until the right action arises by itself?" See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Through catalysts of compassion and acceptance, Jack Kornfield guides us into a life of lasting transformation. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom “We are a pattern, a process, that is never the same. In this process of our life, the patterns that continue for us flow out of our intentions.” – Jack Kornfield This dharma talk was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sharing the wisdom of beloved Buddhist teacher Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield describes experimenting with life and accepting things as they are. This Dharma Talk from Jack Kornfield was originally published on DharmaSeed.org "What he was pointing to was that we can see with great honesty our circumstance, with great compassion, and in the middle of it laugh. This too is a part of our humanity...there is a wisdom that is so much greater than the things we get caught up in." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Leaning into the qualities of an awakened heart, Jack Kornfield teaches us the perfection of truthfulness and how it will set us free. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom In a society that does not promote the truth among its citizens, government, or economy, we have to work hard on our individual honesty. Sometimes that may mean something quite surface-level. Jack says that there are levels of truth. We may see the truth of someone's personality, their job, and their costume. Or, we may see a deeper, soul level of truth. Meeting someone in their true spirit, from our true spirit, allows everyone to be fully seen. "The truth really becomes married with compassion and our words then become a part of something that awakens not just ourselves but everybody else." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Gather around for story time as Jack Kornfield offers a dharma talk centered around the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta, which contains the teachings from the last year of the Buddha’s life. This dharma talk was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on 8/22/22 Find more teaching from Jack Kornfield at jackkornfield.com. “Because it’s the shaking of the foundation of all the ground that we stand on. Enlightenment, the teachings of birth and death, the earthquake says this is what wakes us from the dream of separateness and solidity. There’s something greater here in this human incarnation. Who are you really? Remember. You are consciousness itself born into this body. You are the witness to it all. And the earthquake reminds you of this.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Proceeding with the practice in daily life series, Jack Kornfield plunges into right concentration and mindful breathing. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Concentration isn't a forcing of your mind on the breath or on the pain, the pleasant sensation or on the thought. It's much more a sense of the opening, the softening, the receiving—that's what allows the mind to settle." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Continuing his survey of the Eightfold path, Jack Kornfield teaches listeners about Right Effort and how we can apply ourselves in spiritual practice. “In the end, you have to let go. No matter how much effort you make and where it takes you, it doesn't take you all the way. Because it is not your effort that makes you free, but your discovery of what's true about yourself and life.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield delves into Right Livelihood, one of the key practices on the Eightfold Path that can help us find joy in our occupation. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/beherenow "Find something, and really give yourself to it. That is a happiness." – Jack Kornfield This talk from Jack Kornfield was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Exploring Right Action and the Five Precepts, Jack offers modern Buddhist insight on ahimsa, virtue, happiness, drugs, sex, and samadhi. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom Continuing a series of talks illuminating the Noble Eightfold Path, Jack sheds light on a prominent aspect of Buddhism: Right Action. Taking you on a journey through the Five Precepts by sharing deep and entertaining stories and insights, Jack offers wisdom around ahimsa (non-harming), reflects on witnessing a transformation prayer from Mad Bear of the Iroquois Nation, and relays down-to-earth Middle Way guidance around drugs, sex, and samadhi. "Look in your life at what it is that makes you more conscious rather than less conscious. Rather than running away or deluding yourself, what brings you face to face with life and wakes you up? Cultivate that." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield continues his series of talks on practice in daily life by focusing on uprightness of heart, Right Speech, and how we can learn to let our words come more directly from our heart. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/beherenow “What Right Speech does, it asks us a question: Can we start to become conscious of all these hours where we talk on automatic pilot? Can we make it become more useful to ourselves and to our planet, to that question I asked: What do you care about? What do you want for the world and for yourself?” – Jack Kornfield This talk from Jack Kornfield was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this second part of his 'Practice in Daily Life' series, Jack Kornfield leads a lecture on intention and the ways it can determine our karma. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This talk from Jack Kornfield was originally published on DharmaSeed.org “The gift of intention, the dedication, is to fulfill your own true nature – to fulfill that which is beautiful in you.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this dharma talk from 1985, Jack Kornfield speaks to the heart of meditation by posing a series of frequently asked questions about bringing our spiritual practice into daily life. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom Support podcasts like this through the Be Here Now Network 6th-Anniversary Fundraiser Drive - win tickets to the Ram Dass Legacy retreat in Maui, shop limited edition BHNNxBrunofsky merch and more: beherenownetwork.com/fundraiser This Jack Kornfield talk was originally published on Dharma Seed See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
There is never a bad time to open ourselves to the spirit of the holidays! Reflecting on the 'season of generosity', Jack shares holiday Dharma stories on quieting the mind and opening the heart. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom In this Dharma talk stemming from Spirit Rock's Monday Night Dharma Class on 12/14/2015, Jack Kornfield focuses on the holiday season, relating various stories and perspectives to how we can move about human incarnation and our daily lives in a compassionate and generous way. This talk from Jack Kornfield was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion, Jack Kornfield explores the theme of mindful respect and how we can all listen to each other with loving awareness. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This dharma talk was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on June 27, 2022. “When we embody respect, graciousness, loving awareness for all, when we listen deeply, we are changing the world person by person, piece by piece. And this is the only way that it happens. We add our voice, we add our love, we add our courage, and we do so with the power of loving awareness and the freedom that it offers.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield guides a “Here and Now” meditation focusing on connecting to the present moment, and receiving the breath and waves of experience with loving awareness. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This meditation was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on 5/16/22. "There will be sensations of the body, sounds, emotions, and feelings arising, and a parade of images and thoughts and words will come and go. And you take your seat just where you are in the midst of all of these rising and passing experiences." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield offers spiritual advice on the path of parenting, shedding light on engaging the mystery with qualities of consciousness, mindfulness, and love. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom In this Dharma Talk stemming from the Spirit Rock Meditation Center on January 1st, 1991, Jack Kornfield shares spiritual practices and perspectives on the multi-faceted realm of raising children in the modern world. Outlining the qualities of conscious parenting, he shares stories from the Buddha, poems from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and leads meditations aimed at bringing awareness to the path of parenting. "In some way, to parent is to plant something that's beautiful onto this earth for generations ahead." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield offers wisdom on awakening in the midst of life, sharing insight on navigating life's joys and sorrows with a fearless heart. In this Dharma Talk stemming from January 4th, 1991, Jack Kornfield speaks to the process of awakening in the midst of life. Exploring the cycle of return, life's 10,000 joys and sorrows, and what role time and the present moment play in relation to Bodhisattvas and enlightenment, Jack elucidates the intricacies of life, death, fearlessness and the heart. "To make one's activity sacred is to do it for that which is your deepest love, for that which you most deeply value." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week on Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield lectures on false gurus, cults, and finding true teachers along our spiritual path. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This dharma talk from Joseph was originally published on Dharma Seed “We have this amazing capacity to take situations and imagine them to be different than they are.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield blesses us with a dharma talk on the most basic truths in Buddhism: Annica, Dukkha, and Anatta. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "As we become wise, we step back and see the mystery of it instead of how it is supposed to be." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This time on Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield reveals how Buddhist principles have the capacity to bring us happiness and joy. Explore the intersection of Buddhism & Bhakti with Be Here Now Network teachers and guests at the inaugural Love Serve Remember Summer Mountain Retreat August 25th – 29th in Boone, NC: https://www.ramdass.org/event/lsrf-summer-immersion-mountain-retreat/ “We can reawaken that capacity to actually appreciate life through a training of awareness and through being somewhat disciplined in a sitting practice.” – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Reminding us of our luminous true nature, Jack invites us into the war-free zone of the heart, and leads a chant of the mantra 'Namoh.' Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom In this Dharma Talk from Spirit Rock Meditation Center on 12/10/2007, Jack Kornfield shares reflective wisdom pointing to our innate capacity for love, compassion, metta, and joy. Exploring how our heart can be a war-free zone no matter the outside circumstances, he offers insight around the modern human predicament, before closing with a powerful and harmonic group chanting of the mantra 'Namoh.' This talk from Jack Kornfield was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield reflects on dynamic Buddhist stories highlighting how we can tend the garden of the world by tending to the garden of our heart. Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Stay connected to the best of these seeds. Take a moment to reflect: What is your highest intention—in your love relationship, in raising children, in doing your work? Your intention is part of the seed. Come back to it again and again to water it. What is your intention for this world?" – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield offers a potent guided meditation designed for letting go into open, spacious awareness. Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "You are the Buddha resting in vastness, seeing the arising and passing of all things with the great heart of compassion, peaceful in the midst of it all." – Jack Kornfield See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Amidst Russia's war on Ukraine, Jack Kornfield applies spiritual wisdom to remind us that peace is possible. Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This talk was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock Meditation Center on 3/28/22 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield inspires us with a dialogue on stillness, suffering, and how we can set intentions to help others. “We stop and try to sit quietly and it's like there is a layer of ice that needs to thaw before the water can even move inside.” Each year we watch birds come and go; we see stillness and then movement. Sometimes, we forget that humans too are a part of nature. Jack reads us a poem by Pablo Neruda about being still and making each moment exotic. The poem is an invitation to quiet the mind, be present, and live from our hearts. Jack empathizes with how difficult it can be to relish in the stillness of life. Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This meditation was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this guided meditation, Jack Kornfield helps us to open our hearts and to extend compassion to all in a time of war. This episode of the Heart Wisdom Podcast was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on 2/28/22. Subscribe to the Jack Kornfield Youtube channel to get new meditations and talks from Jack: Jack Kornfield on Youtube See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield addresses the grief of the war in Ukraine, talking about how to have a peaceful heart in a time of war, and then explores the legacy and teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This meditation was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on 2/28/22 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this guided meditation, Jack Kornfield helps us settle into an embodied awareness where we can simply let the breath breath itself and become the loving witness, consciousness itself. This meditation was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on 8/23/21 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Opening to the Great Mystery, Jack Kornfield illuminates how we can traverse the tumultuous polarities of life from the mindful and freeing perspective of the loving witness. Today's episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This talk was originally livestreamed by Spirit Rock Meditation Center on 8/23/21 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield engages the topic of how and why we become enlightened, talking about how we can experience the qualities of enlightenment at different times and in different ways. This podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This Jack Kornfield dharma talk was originally published on Dharma Seed See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this dharma talk from 2014, Jack Kornfield explores how we can navigate the never-ending waves of change in our lives with loving awareness, equanimity, and compassion. This Jack Kornfield talk was originally published on Dharma Seed This podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman join together to speak on the art and heart of forgiveness, and how forgiveness is an expression of what it means to live with loving awareness. This dharma talk from Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman on the art and heart of forgiveness was originally published on Dharma Seed See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield offers Buddhist wisdom for guiding your own practice as a householder, exploring continuity and impermanence with careful attention. This podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom This talk was given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in 1986 and was originally published on DharmaSeed.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this heartfelt dharma talk, Jack Kornfield offers us wisdom on how we can practice gratitude and generosity during these challenging and difficult times. This dharma talk was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on 11/22/21 This podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Planting seeds of faith, Jack weaves together Buddhist Sutta, teaching advice from Ram Dass, & an unknowing koan from his daughter—inviting us into the sacred pause of mystery & eternity. Jack Kornfield shares a dharma talk on 'The Sacred Pause' – originally airing 3/22/21 from his ongoing Spirit Rock Monday night livestreams. This podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield explores the forgiving heart, offering us the basic ingredients for wise forgiveness, and leads a powerful guided meditation practice called the three directions of forgiveness. This dharma talk was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on 9/20/21 This podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A flowing and mystical Jack Kornfield opens our hearts to the vast spiritual mystery of death and impermanence. Just in time for Halloween and the transition into the winter season, Jack Kornfield shares a timely lecture on death from his ongoing Spirit Rock Monday night livestreams. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jack Kornfield shares how we can apply parenting wisdom to our personal spiritual practice to heal and train our inner child. This dharma talk was recorded on Jan 1st, 1988 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and originally published on Dharma Seed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Reflecting on our intrinsic Basic Goodness, Jack outlines how acceptance, trust, meditation, and faith in the heart can help us navigate life’s 10,000 joys and sorrows. This episode of the Jack Kornfield's Heart Wisdom Podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. A professional counseling service done securely online. A convenient and affordable way to find the particular expertise you need – wherever you are worldwide. BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. As a listener, you’ll get 10% off your first month by visiting our sponsor at BetterHelp.com/HeartWisdom. Join over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health. "There's a kind of goodness that can be tapped in people when it serves an end that's greater than our small self that is really wonderful... It's something really basic in human beings and in our heart." – Jack Kornfield This Jack Kornfield dharma talk from March 3rd, 1986 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on Dharma Seed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
With a little help from Carlos Castaneda and Don Juan, Jack Kornfield explores the Seven Factors of Enlightenment and how we can all become impeccable warriors. This episode of the Jack Kornfield's Heart Wisdom Podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. A professional counseling service done securely online. A convenient and affordable way to find the particular expertise you need – wherever you are worldwide. BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. As a listener, you’ll get 10% off your first month by visiting our sponsor at BetterHelp.com/HeartWisdom. Join over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health. “One of the wonderful things about practice is each moment, in each thing we do in our life, is a new opportunity to be mindful, to be complete, to be whole. It’s never too late, and it’s never lost. It’s just now, again.” – Jack Kornfield This Jack Kornfield talk from June 16, 1982 at the Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center was originally published on Dharma Seed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this timeless dharma talk from 1977, Jack Kornfield explores working with wisdom, power, and knowledge on your spiritual path, and why it’s so important to walk the Middle Way. This Jack Kornfield talk from December 1977 at the Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center was originally published on Dharma Seed. This episode of Jack Kornfield’s Wisdom Hour is brought to you by BetterHelp. A professional counseling service done securely online. An affordable and convenient way to find the particular expertise you need – wherever you are worldwide. BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. Start living a happier life and explore your inner world with a professional therapist in under 48 hours. As a listener, you’ll get 10% off your first month by visiting our sponsor at BetterHelp.com/heartwisdom Join over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this dharma talk from 1986, Jack Kornfield explores a few truths about life that are really all we need to know, and how our direct experiences of these truths lead to freedom. This Jack Kornfield talk given at Spirit Rock in 1986 was originally published on Dharma Seed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sharing a guided meditation and dharma talk, Jack explores the transformative power of Mudita – our innate sympathetic joy – through the childlike wonder of the Buddha. This meditation & dharma talk were originally streamed live by Spirit Rock on 4/12/21. For more livestreams, meditations, & offerings, visit Jack's Youtube & JackKornfield.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this dharma talk, Jack Kornfield explores seeing the world with the heart of wisdom and what it means when we rest in the One Who Knows. This dharma talk was originally live-streamed by Spirit Rock on 2/8/21. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Offering timeless wisdom, Jack Kornfield elucidates pertinent lessons on the topics of freedom, gratitude, trust, and the buoyancy of hope. In the adjoining talk to last episode's 'Just Like Me' Guided Meditation—from a November 23, 2020 Jack Kornfield & Friends session from Spirit Rock‘s ongoing Monday Night Dharma Talk & Meditation—Jack shares pertinent wisdom on to aid the trying times we find ourselves in. Offering lessons learned of freedom, he shares the example of Nelson Mandela. In teaching on gratitude, he recounts a ceremony with Iroquois Medicine Man, Mad Bear. And sharing on trust, Jack offer's Martin Luther King's 'buoyancy of hope,' to keep us afloat on turbid waters. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, Jack Kornfield leads his 'Just Like Me' guided meditation, a practice designed to work past our individual differences by seeing through the eyes of wisdom and heart of compassion. Heralding from a November 23, 2020 Jack Kornfield & Friends session from Spirit Rock's ongoing Monday Night Dharma Talk & Meditation, Jack offers a potent guided meditation inviting us to work past our individual differences by celebrating our similarities and seeing the world through the eyes of wisdom. Encouraging us to bring a "difficult" person to mind, Jack walks us through a deep meditation aimed at peeling back our personal veils, so we can rest in the compassionate understanding, metta, and loving awareness of our unity. When we are truly seeing with the heart, we recognize that all others are...just like me. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield explores how conflict is natural for human beings and covers the Buddha’s seven-step process of reconciliation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
On this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield leads a guided meditation that focuses on the practice of deep listening as we breathe love in, and breath love out. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this dharma talk, Jack Kornfield offers wisdom and inspiration amidst the chaos of today’s world and explores how suffering is not the end of the story, but the beginning. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack shares poems and stories to help us bask in the wonder and mystery of life, meet cosmic pain with compassion and reflect on gratitude. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.