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.

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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 ecosystem
• Discovering the truth of our inexorable interconnection
• Seeing clearly the reality of change and impermanence
• Interconnectedness within the flowing stream of interbeing
• Spiritual maturity and recognizing the patterns and cycles of life
• The many unique expressions of Dharma, spirituality, and truth in this world
• Wisdom from Buddha, Dipa Ma, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, HH the Dalai Lama, S.N. Goenka, and Tibetan cave-dwelling yogis
• Bringing your compassion to the environment, politics, social action, homelessness, education, etc
• Meditation as a radical act: facing head-on the forces of greed, prejudice, hatred, and delusion
• Finding your unique dharma and way to help the world
• Life and spirituality as a process of death and rebirth over and over again
• Uncovering a deep ‘joy for no reason’
• How the “light and love” in meditation is actually literal
• Untangling the knots of our attachments to live in inner freedom
• A poem dedicated to the struggles in the Middle East
• Discovering 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 path
• Consciousness, impermanence, and working with human emotions
• Wisdom stories of Ajahn Chah, Jack’s accomplished Thai meditation teacher
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the legend of building a Spiritual Amusement Park
• Progress and patience along the spiritual path
• Enlightenment as intimacy with all things
• A guided meditation practice reflecting on life, death, and good deeds
• Transforming the the world with one small act of kindness at a time
• Honoring our own beauty and goodness
• How compassion is characterized by true intimacy
• Recognizing and coming to our spiritual maturity
• Living 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

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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 sages
• A moving story about the deep transformative power encased within committing an act of truth
• The nature of timeless awareness and the witness
• Exchanging “spiritual trading cards” with Ram Dass
• Humor, listening, stillness, and spiritual perspective
• Not being swayed by outer circumstance
• Learning what really matters in this life
• Living with an honest and compassionate heart
• Emptiness and considering all phenomenon to be dreams
• Not brooding over the faults of others
• Noticing our inner waterfall of thoughts, feelings, sensations
• Becoming medicine for others and the world
• Looking through the eyes of mercy
• Being grateful to everyone and everything
• Always relying on joyful and peaceful mind and heart
• Don’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 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. To join Jack's next livestream, head to JackKornfield.com/events

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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 happiness
• Finding ease, stability, stillness, and presence
• Receiving whatever arises with kindness and compassion
• Inviting thoughts and emotions to quiet
• Resting in mindful loving awareness
• Uncovering 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

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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 death
• Why it can be so tough to actually “Be Here Now” like Ram Dass
• How love connects to the present moment
• Alan Watts, music, dance, and harmonizing to the universe
• Feeling the rhythms of your breath and body
• Learning to dance to life’s dynamic music
• Staying open and avoiding spiritual bypass
• Looking at our body and life clearly and directly
• The power of attention, noting, and spaciousness for diffusing our judgements and emotions
• Buddha’s discovery of the Middle Way, and why he stopped fighting himself
• Dealing with the unfinished business of grief, loss, loneliness, wounds
• How to handle worries or fantasies that keep looping over and over
• Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the tenderness and fearlessness of an Awakened Heart
• Why Buddha focused on humans as ‘five processes,’ rather than personalities
• Letting go of our rigid sense of self and diving into the fluidity of life
• Non-grasping and how even enlightenment is a problem
• Discovering the true path to liberation
• Death, 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, loss
• Honoring life’s ‘ocean of tears’ with love and kind attention
• Cultivating the courage to allow your heart to be broken
• Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the tender heart of a warrior
• Self-acceptance, allowing yourself to feel, and reawakening a trust in yourself
• Healing the mind by seeing clearly and not taking it so seriously
• Resting the in heart and letting the mind come and go
• Discovering Your Buddha Nature, your fundamental ground of being
• The technique of seeing the world as enlightened, and the path as yours
• The healing encased within understanding emptiness, selflessness, and letting go
• Meditation 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 all
• The Coconut Monk and the Jesus-Buddha connection
• Finding compassion and joy despite suffering and war
• Healing—what it is, how it arises, and how we can connect with it
• Listening and respect as the ground for healing
• Finding and living a path with heart
• Mindfulness, breath, attention, noting, and the Buddha
• Meditation and having an ‘in-body experience’
• Kundalini and opening the energy body
• Learning to handle both pleasure and pain
• Buddha and finding the Middle Way
• The healing of reconnecting with our senses and world around us
• What addictions really mean in an addicted society
• Facing our suffering as the gateway to the precious mystery of life
• Reading 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.