Intersecting the Buddha’s ‘Wise Understanding’ with Alan Watt’s ‘Wisdom of Insecurity,’ Jack illuminates the path of discovering lasting happiness.
For an even deeper dive down the Eightfold Path, sign up for Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield, an online course designed to guide you through the wisdom, compassion, and freedom of Buddha’s teachings. Learn more and sign up here.
“Spiritual life is not about possessing or finding security, but rather it’s discovering what Alan Watts called, ‘the wisdom of insecurity,’ the capacity for freedom and compassion of heart, no matter what the circumstances. Right Understanding is a willingness to dedicate ourself to awakening, no matter how conditions change.” – Jack Kornfield
Exploring the first step of the Eightfold Path, Jack mindfully shares on:
- The Buddha, Enlightenment, the Eightfold Path, and Four Noble Truths
- How to live a wise, mindful, happy, and loving life
- The Middle Path as the pathway to freedom
- Wise Understanding, the first step on the Eightfold Path
- Suffering, it’s causes, and how to alleviate it
- Where happiness actually comes from
- Working with clinging, grasping, aging, aversion, fear
- Impermanence, change, and the wisdom of insecurity
- Spiritual Direction and the journey of the soul
- The seed of awakening your Buddha Nature
- Understanding the Law of Karma
- Finding nirvana through our current circumstances
- Having compassion for what puts us to sleep
- Tending your heart to tend the whole world
“Buddha saw that the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering is not so much in life itself, but in the way that we relate to life.” – Jack Kornfield
“Right understanding tells us that we can dedicate our life to something beautiful.” – Jack Kornfield
This Dharma Talk recorded in 1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center 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
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