In this episode, Jack Kornfield leads his ‘Just Like Me’ guided meditation, a practice designed to work past our individual differences by seeing through the eyes of wisdom and heart of compassion.
Heralding from a November 23, 2020, Jack Kornfield & Friends session from Spirit Rock‘s ongoing Monday Night Dharma Talk & Meditation, Jack offers a potent guided meditation inviting us to work past our individual differences by celebrating our similarities and seeing the world through the eyes of wisdom. Encouraging us to bring a “difficult” person to mind, Jack walks us through a deep meditation aimed at peeling back our personal veils, so we can rest in the compassionate understanding, metta, and loving awareness of our unity. When we are truly seeing with the heart, we recognize that all others are…just like me.
Differences & The Eyes of Wisdom
How do we relate to people who are different? In truth, we are all strange and unique through the very nature of our differences within separate human incarnations; yet despite this slew of personal variance, we actually have more in common than we have in contrast. Through this lens, Jack relays how when we peer through the eyes of wisdom, we can transcend our games and ideas of differences, trading them for similarities, understanding, and oneness.
“When we see one another with the heart of wisdom—however strange the other seems—when we gaze over at another in a simple way and see them with the eyes of wisdom, we’re reminded that it’s a bigger and different game than all our ideas.” – Jack Kornfield
Join Ram Dass, as he explores how to work past our unhealthy preoccupation with individual differences, on Ep. 103 of Here & Now
‘Just Like Me’ Guided Meditation (2:53)
After outlining the problems inherent in seeing the world through the lens of differences, Jack introduces us to a guided meditation practice that invites us to begin to see the world through the eyes of wisdom, understanding, and similarities. Jack leads us in the practice, encouraging us to bring a “difficult” person to mind, and—through potent reflections—find similarities and offer loving kindness from the core of our being.
“Imagine that you can now gaze at this difficult person with the heart of wisdom. As you picture them, let yourself reflect: This person is incarnated in a body, going through life, just like me. This person was once a small, vulnerable child, just like me. This person is creative, just like me. This person has loved someone, just like me. This person’s heart has been broken, just like me…” – Jack Kornfield
Tap into another guided meditation from Jack, to help relax the nervous system and fill every breath with love, on Ep. 123 of Heart Wisdom
Seeing with the Heart: Reflections & Loving Kindness (15:54)
In the ‘Just Like Me’ guided meditation’s cool-down cycle, Jack invites us to reflect on how our feelings have changed toward this “difficult” person, as well as ourselves. From this space of Metta—loving kindness—Jack welcomes us to bring others to mind, recognizing how each one is ‘just like me.’ Flowing the conscious space into loving awareness, Jack closes the meditation by sharing time resting in the full presence of the moment.
“As you see with the heart, notice how this practice has changed the way you hold this person and the way you hold yourself. This practice is a form of loving kindness and compassion. Now, let yourself continue in this stillness, and picture yet another one, two, or three people. Each one that you envision and hold in your mind’s eye and heart, in your own way, gaze at them and reflect just as we have: This person is _____, just like me.” – Jack Kornfield
If you enjoyed this meditation, a printed version can be found in Jack’s book No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, & Joy Right Where You Are
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