Name: Refuge in Difficult Times - Jack Kornfield by Jack Kornfield
Duration: 8 min 24 s
Description: In times of stress, it’s important to discover ways to quiet our minds and tend our hearts. This meditation and visualization can help us cultivate an inner refuge that can guide us through difficult times.

Let the breath be natural. Let the heart be soft to receive whatever arises with compassion. Now with this embodied presence, begin to notice the play of your human experience—sensations, sounds, feelings and thoughts. Become the loving witness of it all.

Visit https://www.jackkornfield.com​​ for meditations, articles & other materials.

Calm, Clarity, Compassion Meditation — Jack Kornfield

In this meditative practice, you will take time to reflect inwardly,
with kindness and with courage, on how and when you are 
living true to yourself. When you live fully and honestly,
it can change your life and all around you.

Being True To Yourself - Jack Kornfield

Waves arise naturally on the surface of the vast ocean without troubling its depth. This meditation is an invitation to make your mind like the vast ocean.

Mind Like Ocean - Jack Kornfield

Peace is possible. We can step out of the struggle with ourselves, with our judgments and fears and inner conflicts. We can learn to live in peace and with a kind heart, without believing the reactive mind.

Stopping The War Within - Jack Kornfield

“Enlightenment is one with the trusting heart.”- Zen proverb

You can learn to trust the big picture, you can learn to trust your inner knowing,  you can be inspired by trust. These simple meditations invite you to find in yourself a trusting heart.

Meditations On Trust - Jack Kornfield

Eternity is always here. It is always Now.

In this simple meditation, we are invited to become "The One Who Knows," the spacious witness to all things. We can take a breath, come to rest, step outside of time, let go of making and doing and planning, and remember the vast openness outside of thoughts and the entanglements of time.  

Let’s meet there.

Open To Timelessness - Jack Kornfield

We need compassion to help us be tender with our difficulties and not close off to them in fear. This is how healing takes place. This meditation and visualization can help.

Wisdom In The Midst Of Difficulties - Jack Kornfield

Do this grounding practice for 3-5 minutes at different times of the day to steady yourself. With each breath, exhale tension. Let yourself imagine that you have roots that go deep into the soil of the earth, to steady and nurture you. If images help, let yourself remember a wonderful tree from your life—an old tree, a strong tree. Imagine that you are standing in front of the tree, meditating together. Just as this great tree has a strong trunk that has weathered storms and the changing of the seasons, feel your own body steady like the trunk of that tree.

Grounding Practice - Jack Kornfield

In times of stress, it’s important to discover ways to quiet our minds and tend our hearts. This meditation and visualization can help us cultivate an inner refuge that can guide us through difficult times.

Refuge in Difficult Times - Jack Kornfield

Sitting like a great tree, imagine you have roots that extend deep into the earth. Let calm and ease grow with each breath.

Quiet Mind, Peaceful Heart Meditation - Jack Kornfield

If you find yourself in the midst of grief, anxiety, or frustration, you can respectfully acknowledge these feelings and then change the channel.  You can connect with a parallel universe of abundance, generosity and joy. They are here in the present. As you sit, hold your body with loving awareness and thank it for all that it has carried. Tell your body “You can relax, I’m OK now.” Next, hold your great heart with loving awareness and thank it for all it holds.  Let your body be at ease, your heart soften. The mind that has been so busy—thank it for trying to protect you. Invite your mind to relax. Say “I’m OK just now.” Envision a field of goodness—there are a billion acts of goodness happening in the world right now by parents, children, friends, teachers, nurses, doctors, artists, cooks, healers—so many of us tending one another with love.

Align Yourself with Goodness Meditation - Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield is an American Buddhist teacher. He is a founder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, Calif., where he lives & teaches.

Refuge in Difficult Times - Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield

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