This week, Jack examines how the deepening levels of mindfulness and Loving Awareness can free the heart and mind.
Show Notes
Levels of Liberation (Opening) – Jack looks at the role of mindfulness in our lives and practice. Without mindfulness, we exist in the cycle of living known as samsara. We examine how the different levels of mindfulness practice allow us to shed this fear-based way of being and live free of the trappings of delusion, greed and fear.
“Whether you are a long-term practitioner or whether you are somewhat new, you don’t have to wait any longer to find freedom and you don’t have to go to the Himalayas; freedom and well-being are available exactly where you are. Where else would it be? This very body and this very mind is the liberation. It is the place where we can get entangled, lost and fearful. It is the place where trust, wakefulness and compassion can be born.”
Discover More: Check out this dialogue on fear and love between Jack Kornfield and Catherine Ingram.
The Invitation (8:05) – The invitation to mindfulness has two sides to it, to ease and to be fearless. Jack examines these qualities and how they guide us on the spiritual path.
Mindfulness of the Process (22:50) – As our practice develops the sense of freedom of being able to be with experience begins to shift. We start to look at the process of body, mind and senses in the world, and what we see is that it is all impermanent.
“Everything is arising, changing and passing away; selfless in the sense that you don’t choose your thoughts and feelings. All that you pay attention to arises for a time and vanishes.”
Discover More: Joseph Goldstein examines what we learn from being mindful and how it leads us to deeper insight into impermanence on this episode of the Insight Hour Podcast.
The One Who Knows (28:15) – The next level of the mindfulness process is the mindfulness of consciousness itself. Jack discusses what happens when we look at our interactions with the world and ask, “Who is this happening to?”
“Turn your attention from the content, or even the process of the experience, back to the knowing and become the one who knows. This invites a shift in identity.”
Tears of the Way (43:10) – A common hurdle that comes with the process of becoming more mindful is learning how to be present for the most difficult aspects of life. Jack talks how we can show up in these moments and let our hearts be affected by them in a healing way.
Discover More: Ethan Nichtern and Sharon Salzberg talk about integrating practice into our lives and showing up for everything that comes our way on this episode of the Metta Hour podcast.
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