Exploring how to direct energy in a wise way, Jack shares how embracing Sacred Effort nourishes joy, ease, beauty, equanimity, mindfulness, and loving kindness in your life.
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“Right Effort, or Wise Energy, most fundamentally is the effort to pay attention, the effort to be present, awake, and see what is true in front of us. Out of all the kinds of efforts we can make, the most fundamental wise effort in spiritual life is to be where we are and see it clearly, to be conscious, or mindful.” – Jack Kornfield
In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:
- Directing the energy of your life to be awake, aware, and present
- Seeing the Eightfold Path as a lotus or mandala
- Carlos Castaneda, impeccability, and becoming a spiritual warrior
- How to wake yourself up from sleepwalking through your life
- Having a full heart, deep attention, and clear seeing
- The two levels of spiritual friends and spiritual practice
- Using suffering to develop a wise heart
- Remembering death and impermanence
- What Jack taught his daughter about death
- Bowing to our difficult emotions and moving on
- Disentangling ourselves from greed, fear, and obsession
- Nourishing equanimity, ease, joy, beauty, and loving kindness
- Tending each moment as if you were planting a seed
- Balance and the Buddha stringing the lute
- Ramana Maharshi and the wisdom of letting go
- Making your life and activity an expression of the Tao
“The teaching of Right Effort or Wise Effort is a reminder of our nobility. It is a reminder of the human inspiration of spirit not just to get through our lives, but to honor it, to respect it, to be present for it, to delight in it.” – Jack Kornfield
“Unclench the heart, steady yourself, and be present for things as they are, and then your activity becomes an expression of your awakening, it becomes a vehicle for the Tao.” – Jack Kornfield
This Dharma Talk recorded on 3/1/1992 was originally published on DharmaSeed.
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.
Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of new dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings.
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 Huureal79