In this much-needed dharma talk, Trudy Goodman Kornfield and Jack Kornfield share their wisdom on working with polarization, and how we can all quiet our minds and steady our hearts.
Trudy Goodman Kornfield, Ph.D., is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. She also teaches residential retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center, and Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, among others. Learn more at trudygoodman.com.
We’re All Seeing the Same Moon
Trudy explores how people have become so polarized in American society, especially when it comes to politics. She talks about why it’s so important to be able to see both sides of a coin, and why the skill of listening is so essential. No matter who we are and what we believe, we’re all seeing the same moon when we look at the night sky.
“So this image of the full moon, and being able to look at both sides; the sides that are dismaying, discouraging… Yet being able to hold this with the reality of this aliveness that we can connect with in any moment of our life when we’re a little bit mindful about ourselves.” – Trudy Goodman Kornfield
“Don’t Know Mind” (8:00)
How do we listen to each other when we’re so polarized? Trudy shares her technique for being a compassionate listener. She talks about how important it is to quiet our minds and steady our hearts through mindfulness practice and meditation, and how we can connect to what one of her teachers referred to as “don’t know mind.”
“This is a skill that we learn from mindfulness: how to mindfully hold mixed or opposing views in awareness, simultaneously.” – Trudy Goodman Kornfield
The Heart Can Hold It All (16:30)
Jack takes over the dharma talk, and explores how when we meditate from a place of “don’t know mind,” we start to see our hearts are big enough to hold all the opposites together. He shares a set of instructions from the great Buddhist sage, Atiśa, and talks about how we are less polarized when we quiet the mind and steady the heart. Jack ends with a reminder to tend to the garden of the world by voting in the next election.
“So when you sit in meditation, you come back to the vastness, you come back to this perspective of not blaming and judging, you come back to a place of trusting that the heart can hold it all.” – Jack Kornfield
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