In this new Dharma Talk, Jack explores how we can navigate the suffering of the world’s conflicts with compassion, understanding, and peace.
This episode is from the Cloud Sangha Community Talk on Dec. 13, 2023. If you would like to join Cloud Sangha to steep in spiritual community, they are offering a 2-week free trial here.
“I think that we are afraid somehow that our own heart is not big enough to hold the tears and suffering of the world.” – Jack Kornfield
In this fresh episode, Jack compassionately elucidates:
- How compassion is built into us and is absolutely natural
- Why the only side Jack is choosing is the side of peace
- Ajahn Chah’s monastery as a zone of peace during wartime
- Opening our heart big enough to hold it all, connecting with the Mother of the world
- Pausing, living from our best intention, listening with an open heart, and mending what we can
- How when love meets suffering, it transforms into compassion
- Seeing the world through the eyes of compassion, and taking a stand for love
- How hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed
- A powerful guided meditation practice in opening to the heart of compassion
- How not to get swallowed up by the collective suffering
- Turning off the news, stepping out of the war, and becoming a place of peace, compassion, and loving awareness
- Dealing with pain, death, regrets, and “what if’s”
- Being vulnerable and opening communication with estranged relations
- Acting beneficially without attachment to the results of our actions
Cloud Sangha, Jack and Tara Brach’s brainchild for digital spiritual community, is offering a 2-week free trial here.
“It’s not your job to fix the world or to stop all the wars. It’s your job to do your part, to stand for what matters, to speak and act in a way that represents compassion and love for everyone, to plant seeds to mend the places that you can.” – Jack Kornfield
“Love, when it meets suffering, changes to a different quality, which is compassion. It’s that quivering of the heart when we feel in ourself other’s struggles and difficulties. It’s the resonance with them, and the natural upwelling of, ‘How can I help?'” – Jack Kornfield
About Jack Kornfield:
Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as. a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies.
Dive into Jack’s ongoing dharma offerings and transformational online courses on the new JackKornfield.com
Listen to more from Jack:
Tune into Ep. 109 of Heart Wisdom: This Too Shall Pass
Learn about Living with a Peaceful Heart in Ep. 91 of Heart Wisdom
Check out Ep. 90 of Heart Wisdom to learn about Healing Through Loving Awareness
Listen to more Stories That Open the Mind, Mend the Heart and Lead to Joy with Jack Kornfield in Ep.92 of Heart Wisdom
Tune into Ep. 102 of Heart Wisdom: The Wisdom of the One Who Knows
Check out Ep. 1 of Heart Wisdom to gain wisdom on Impermanence
Photo via Khadi Ganiev