Illuminating the deepening levels of spiritual practice, Jack explores how to let life breathe while setting your heart on gold.
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“What we’re doing in practice is feeling the actuality of how life is pulsing, moving, flowing and swirling, fast and slow, rhythmically, within our own body, within our own direct experience.” – Jack Kornfield
In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:
- How to let life breathe while setting your heart on gold
- The importance of balancing our concentration, effort, and equanimity
- How the quality of presence can help the gold of the heart and mind shine
- Riding the body’s rhythm of breath as our main focus of attention and rest
- To feel of how life is pulsing, moving, and flowing through our experience
- Working with our loneliness, suffering, grief, fear, and longings
- Awakening into the present moment to see past the body of fear
- How recognizing spaciousness and impermanence helps us overcome our difficulties
- The power of trust, letting go, and letting life breathe
This episode from 10/09/1983 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed.
“People sometimes feel like it’s not worth it to practice. In the beginning it seems like you’re here 2% of the time, but if you continue and look honestly, you might be here 4% of the time. In one way, that’s discouraging statistically that you’re off 96%, but in another way it says you are now here alive and present twice as much as you were two days ago.” – Jack Kornfield
“The insight into the true path comes when we discover that we’re not trying to hold onto a single thing, not a perception, not a pleasant experience, not the calm of meditation—those are all parts of the waves of experience that rise and pass in space. The idea isn’t to hold your breath when you get something good to see how long it can stay, that doesn’t work very well. The idea is to let all of life breath. As we do, we let go moment by moment, more fully. We learn to trust, like the goldsmith, blowing on it, sprinkling water, softening, cooling, and a lot of time just giving presence so it’s beauty can start to show.” – 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 Mila Supinskaya Glashchenko