Talking Kabir, breakups, LSD, & Ram Dass, Jack shares how we can unfurl from the suffering 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.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 229 – Expectations

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.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 230 - The Inspiration Of Dipa Ma

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 receive 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 Heart
- Navigating the world from the goodness of our hearts
- Loving kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity/peace
- What is possible for us as human beings
- Discovering who we really are and what really matters
- Stories of Jack's Buddhist teacher, Maha Ghosananda
- The spirituality of neuroscience's "Mirror Neurons"
- Sharon Salzberg, Metta practice, and the power of attention
- Ram 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 Practice to Cultivate a Wise Heart. Register here: https://bit.ly/JackandDan

"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.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom 231 – Navigating The World From The Goodness Of Our Hearts

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. Join here: https://bit.ly/JackandDan

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 233 – Wisdom Is Playful

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 calm
- Relaxing into mindful loving awareness
- Finding a steady, grounded, rooted posture
- Keeping a natural, soft, and flowing breath
- Quieting the mind and watching experience unfold
- Noticing the arising and passing away of all phenomena
- Allowing 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. Register at https://bit.ly/JackandDan

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 234 – Guided Meditation: Mindful Loving Awareness

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 spirituality
- Psychedelics as a gateway to wonder, curiosity, and the sacred
- How tripping on psychedelics informed Louie’s filmmaking
- Albert Einstein and psychedelics as the intersection between art and science
- The universe and life as a constant transformation of light energy
- Buddha’s “Flower Sermon” and Zen Master Suzuki Roshi’s “Beginner’s Mind”
- Jack “exchanging maps” with famous LSD researcher, Stanislav Grof
- Studies showing the combination of psilocybin mushrooms and Louie’s time-lapse nature imagery as a powerful therapeutic tool for helping addiction and PTSD
- The importance of “set and setting,” community, and integration
- How psychedelics actually fit into the Buddhist precepts
- Honoring biology and the feminine aspects of nature
- The gifts of sacred attention and loving awareness
- Finding beauty wherever you are, and how Louie’s films heal by sharing patterns of nature for the soul to connect with

“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

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

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 235 – From Psychedelics To Mindfulness With Louie Schwartzberg

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 spiritually
- The compassionate smile of Buddha meeting the sacred heart of Jesus Christ
- The positive side of grief: opening to the collective heart
- Death and grace in both traditions
- Deconditioning from a difficult mother
- Harnessing the power of your common sense
- A funny story about the Pope, and how to awaken to who we already are
- Jack’s journey to the Temple of the Coconut Monk
- How to handle pain like a Burmese Master
- How to forgive yourself and overcome remorse
- Diffusing suicidal tendencies by cultivating self-compassion
- Guided 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.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom 236 – Sacred Reflections w/ Br. David Steindl-Rast & Frank Ostaseski

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 world
- How to meditate when it feels like you can’t meditate
- The way emptiness connects with compassion
- Reconciling where peace meets struggle
- Peace as an internal state you can bring with you
- Being Here Now, opening to life fully, and becoming intimate with all things
- How we can find joy, liberation, and freedom in any situation
- Dharma stories of the Buddha as well as the Bodhisattva Vimalakīrti
- Coming to terms with the First Noble Truth of suffering, disappointment, and change
- The transformative power of meeting life exactly as it is
- What we can learn from both a “Duck Meditation,” “Goose Poem,” and a Tibetan Prayer
- Love and it’s connection with courage

This Dharma Talk originally recorded on 12/01/1989 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

“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

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 237 – Discovering Peace Within Yourself

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 opinions
- Ram Dass's teaching advice to Jack
- Balancing life's sufferings with life's joys
- Zen wisdom on how to drop your views
- Accepting what you see and rejecting what you think
- Overcoming suffering by living with a pure heart
- Buddha's 'Fire Sermon' teachings
- The way attachment connects to fear, and how to get to the root
- How views and opinions keep you separate, ego-focused, and defensive
- Working with racism and fear by imbibing wakefulness and mindfulness
- Overcoming 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! http://bit.ly/InteractiveCohort

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 238 – Freeing Yourself From Fear And Opinion

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 mind
- Touching into emotions, fears, and judgements with compassion instead of aversion
- Using techniques like "noting/naming" for moving past intense feelings
- Loving your negatives states as you would love your own child
- Seeing clearly the karma, value, and consequence of your personal patterns
- Who would you be if you dropped your opinions, views, identity?
- Growing your heart to the size of the sky
- Practicing the 'art of letting go'
- Learning to live in the reality 'the Now'
- Why Buddha had a better time than most
- Painting as a doorway to spiritual experience
- Transmuting difficulties by dropping our resistance to them
- How 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

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 at bit.ly/InteractiveCohort

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 239 – Heart As Big As The Sky

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 starting June 6! bit.ly/InteractiveCohort

"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 abundance
- The Buddhist notion of "dana" – generosity, service, open-hearted caring
- Greed as a strategy of impoverishment, rejection, and incompleteness
- Transforming our 'endless wanting' into a beneficial awakened dance with the world
- Expressing the Tao, the harmony of the universe, through our being
- The Dharmic alchemy of the Bodhisattva
- Meditation, listening, and finding out what we truly want in this life
- Where Suzuki Roshi meets Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- How abundance of the spirit connects with simplicity rather than things
- A personal story of Jack taking his unique Bodhisattva Vows in the Rocky Mountains while teaching at Chögyam Trungpa's Naropa University
- Taking your strong, grounded, noble seat that can handle it all
- How being there for others is abundance in their life
- The generosity and delight of authentically giving – things, space, silence, listening, attention, commitment, honesty, smiles, blessings
- Ram 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.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 240 – How To Unlock True Abundance

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-self
- The Jewel of the Buddha's Awakening
- Anattā (selflessness) and how it connects with respect
- Tales of a Magic Monastery
- Living in the reality of expansion and contraction
- Why Ajahn Chah shared 'self' and 'no self' both aren't true
- The word "happy/sad" in Japanese
- Opening to our life as a flowing, moving process
- Becoming aware of selflessness
- Interdependence, interconnection, codependent arising
- Learning to respect ourself and nourish beneficial qualities
- Developing yourself while also "losing yourself"
- Discovering your True Self
- The importance of integrating our spiritual practice into our lives
- Learning 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

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 241 – The Paradox Of Self And No - Self

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: go.spiritrock.org/SR062224

“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 illusions
- Opening to the paradox of self and no-self
- The yogic practice of asking, “Who am I?”
- This mystical present moment
- How the entire universe is inside your mind
- Experiencing selflessness
- Why you can’t just ‘no-self’ it away
- Moving past your inner-critic, shame, and unworthiness
- Listening to, accepting, and loving the shadow
- The strength of being grounded on Earth
- Working with meaninglessness
- Letting go of old identities
- Love as the work of a lifetime

This Dharma Talk estimated to be recorded on 4/23/1990 was originally published on DharmaSeed.

“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

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 242 – Disentangling Your Illusions

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 Spheres
- The energies of the 2024 Solar Eclipse
- Alan Watts on why 'life is like music'
- The enlightening present moment
- Harmonizing life's opposites like the Tao
- Dancing with life's changing rhythms
- To be married to amazement and mystery
- The beautiful revelation of sudden awakening
- Being at the still point of the turning world
- Sudden realization, gradual practice, and Zen
- Releasing from the body of fear
- Buddha's gardening wisdom
- The 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

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 243 – The Music Of The Spheres

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 suffering
- A relaxing Jack “Just Here: Guided Meditation” on loving awareness
- How An Autobiography of Trauma led to Peter’s powerful healing journey
- Working with the astrological and Jungian archetype of Chiron, the Wounded Healer
- Somatic Experiencing and the roots of healing trauma in the body
- The transformative aspects of meeting trauma with loving kindness and persistence
- Curiosity as a necessary factor of enlightenment
- How the gift of Jack’s childhood trauma led him to discover Buddhism
- Imagination and Peter’s mystical meet-ups with Albert Einstein
- Miracles, intuition, and psychic premonition/knowing
- What Jack shared with his scientific-materialist atheist father on his deathbed
- Our 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

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 244 – An Autobiography Of Trauma With Peter A Levine, PhD

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 times
- Why someone would take vows and become a monk or nu
- Kabir's poetry, being human, and walking the spiritual path
- Sexuality and celibacy in spiritual communities
- Relating to both ultimate and relative reality
- Dealing with the body in physically taxing situations
- Working with injustice, inequality, and hierarchy within monasteries and spiritual institutions
- The nature of change and how our present creates our future
- Open-heartedness and open-mindedness
- Living the Dharma every second of our existence
- Letting our issues be our teachers
- A 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.

Ep. 245 – The Joys Of Monastic Life With Pema Chödrön And Ajahn Sumedho

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 life
- Spiritual practice as a voyage, a journey
- Openness and the necessity of letting go
- What we can learn from the change of seasons
- Cultivating the courage to live a spiritual life
- Rumi’s poem of the wisdom of the bird in the trap
- The peace of rejecting nothing whatsoever
- How Jack had to work his way down the chakras instead of up
- Embodying and experiencing your feelings
- Stillness, simplicity, intimacy and reconnecting with the earth
- A perspective-shifting Buddhist meditation on death and good deeds
- Overcoming self-judgement and unworthiness
- Non-attachment and commitment in relationships
- A tantric master’s wisdom on overcoming burnout
- The 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.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 247 – Living The Dharma

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 present
Seeing the Eightfold Path as a lotus or mandala
Carlos Castaneda, impeccability, and becoming a spiritual warrior
How to wake yourself up from sleepwalking through your life
Having a full heart, deep attention, and clear seeing
The two levels of spiritual friends and spiritual practice
Using suffering to develop a wise heart
Remembering death and impermanence
What Jack taught his daughter about death
Bowing to our difficult emotions and moving on
Disentangling ourselves from greed, fear, and obsession
Nourishing equanimity, ease, joy, beauty, and loving kindness
Tending each moment as if you were planting a seed
Balance and the Buddha stringing the lute
Ramana Maharshi and the wisdom of letting go
Making 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.

Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom – Ep. 248 – Sacred Effort

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