Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 202 – Mudita: Sympathetic Joy Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

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.

Ep. 201 – Nature of Dharma Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

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.

Ep. 200 – Hunger: The Illusion of Incompleteness Aug 16, 2023

Show notes

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 incompleteness
Feeling idiotic, depressed, needy, judgmental, sad, lonely, hungry, etc
Trishna—thirst, desire, wanting—and the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts
Samsara and the propulsion of endless wanderings of seperation/seeking
Ajahn Chah and being with what is, rather than struggling against it
Relating wisely and tenderly to Buddha’s First Noble Truth of suffering
Nirvana 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.

Ep. 198 – Awareness and Intimacy Aug 02, 2023

Show notes

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.

Ep. 197 – Cycles of Change Jul 25, 2023

Show notes

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.

Ep. 196 – The Art of Paying Attention Jul 20, 2023

Show notes

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 it
The Buddha's four aspects of Right Effort
Learning the art of paying attention, and applying this to sit with life's 10,000 joys and sorrows
The Samurai way of going through the path of fire
Jack's hilarious personal experience solving koans on Zen retreats
Letting 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.

Ep. 195 – Freedom, Independence, and a Spiritual Rudder Jul 11, 2023

Show notes

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.

Ep. 194 – Sauna Sessions with Prince Ea Jul 04, 2023

Show notes

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.

Ep. 193 – Mindfulness, A.I., and the Future of Life w/ Soren Gordhamer & Sam Altman of ChatGPT Jun 20, 2023

Show notes

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 humanity
The ways Sam's meditation practice is influencing his tech career
Potential benefits and pitfalls of opening artificial intelligence onto the world
If we can instill values, ethics, and morals into A.I.
How Sam created OpenAI to allow a collective democratic process for how A.I. evolves
Does artificial intelligence technology have a sense of self?
Learning how humanity can best utilize these evolving tools
How 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.

Ep. 192 – Spirituality and Sexuality (Part 2) Jun 13, 2023

Show notes

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.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected