Fostering the mind-body-heart connection, Jack shares how the healing breath reawakens the body and reconnects us with life.

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores:

• Using breath to live wisely and simply in this complex human existence
• Good spiritual community as an island of peace and sanity
• Seeing past negative fear politics and news media
• A Charm to Use Against the Language of Politics
• The Buddha on mindfulness of your life breath
• Noting the subtle nuances of the breath in meditation
• "Buddha in the palm of your hand" technique
• Training the restless puppy of the mind
• Using breath to reconnect body, heart, and mind
• Short and simple guided breath practices
• What the Cross and the Circle represent
• Directing your breath to feel and open emotional wounds and dis-ease
• Reawakening your body, and reconnecting with life, through breathing

"Most of the destruction that modern society has caused in the world is the result of the mind being disconnected from the heart and the body." – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk originally taking place on 11/2/1992 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Standing up for compassion in this powerful new Dharma Talk, Jack offers a steady spiritual rudder for navigating turbulent politics with the heart of a Bodhisattva.

Learn the Dynamic Art of Interactive Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield in this online masterclass beginning April 7!

“It’s a time to get quiet and remember that you’re here for a beautiful purpose, oh Bodhisattvas. What better thing to do with your life?” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores:

• Navigating this world's maelstrom of change from a deep spiritual rudder
• Returning from his trip to Asia; landing in Los Angeles on fire
• Samsara and the nature of uncertainty
• Creating a wise society based on mutual care
• Trading our personal and cultural anxiety for imagination and hope
• Alison Luterman's heart-opening poem, Praise the Broken Promise of America
• Using the Dharma to move past Liberal versus Conservative
• How to help the vulnerable in the world
• Remembering your best values as things change
• Grounding yourself, steadying your heart, and remaining hopeful
• Bringing peace to this world, developing metta, and supporting what's good
• Taking the long view, living with integrity, virtue, and imagination
• Joining together with your community to stand up for compassion
• Being hopeful and helpful through difficult times
• Living like a Bodhisattva—offering support, compassion, loving kindness

“Take the long view—your intention, heart, and mind in all the cycles of birth and death. That deep intention of wisdom creates what’s possible for a wise society. It becomes a rudder through difficult times.” – Jack Kornfield

“When a society treats its members with respect, cares for the weak and vulnerable among them and tends the natural world around… it can be expected to prosper and not decline.” – Mahāparinibbāna Sutta

This Dharma Talk was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Talk and Meditation on 2/10/25.

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“A powerful way of practicing metta is to invite in the feeling of love without specific words or images. You become a beacon of kindness. Then whatever arises as you sit—thoughts, people, images, concerns—will be held in that kindness.” – Jack Kornfield

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

This week on Heart Wisdom, Jack offers listeners instruction on:

• Metta and invoking the spirit of love within ourselves 
• Holding all that arises during meditation with kindness
• Letting our body have a sense of care and well being 
• Allowing ourselves to soften, relax, and rest easily
• Feeling completely supported by the earth below us 
• Opening our hearts and minds via the metta sutta of loving-kindness
• Suffusing the whole world with unobstructed, sublime love

“The ideal as you practice is to find your own way, to find what most naturally resonates with yourself as a gateway to open the heart.” – Jack Kornfield

This episode was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation Livestream for Feb 2025.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this engaging Q&A session, Jack and Trudy explore romance, impermanence, attachment, diffusing anger, manifesting your dreams using mindfulness, and more!

Learn How to Thrive in Love: Buddhist Secrets to Transform Your Relationships with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman – join now!

In Part 2 of this episode, Jack and Trudy dive into Q&A on:

• Finding appreciation and wisdom in things “falling apart”
• Accepting change, aging, impermanence
• Entering the naked unknown of the wilderness, nature
• The wisdom of swimming with dolphins in the ocean
• Sending metta (loving kindness) to the world and those in positions of power
• How to tend our romantic relationships and partnerships with mindfulness and care
• Diffusing anger and learning how to communicate lovingly
• Connecting from a place of vulnerability and presence
• Moving past warfare, racism, violence, and blame
• Learning how to communicate across differences
• Noting the difference between your intention and it’s impact on others
• Manifesting your dreams using mindfulness
• “Attachment” in Buddhism vs Western Psychology
• Working through trauma in a safe and mindful way

This talk originally aired on the Voices of Esalen Podcast:

The Voices of Esalen Podcast showcases in-depth interviews with the dynamic teachers and thinkers who are part of Esalen Institute. Hosted by Sam Stern, a former Esalen student and current staff member, the podcasts have featured engaging conversations with authors Cheryl Strayed and Michael Pollan, innovators Stan Grof and Dr. Mark Hyman, teachers Byron Katie, Mark Coleman and Jean Houston, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, and many more. Learn more at Esalen.org/story/podcasts

About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

This episode is brought to you by Dharma Moon. Join Buddhist teachers David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman for a free online event on Tuesday, March 4th at 6pm ET. Together, they'll explore the power of lineage, tradition, and the evolution of mindfulness practices. They’ll also discuss Dharma Moon’s renowned mindfulness meditation teacher training program. Visit dharmamoon.com/lineage for more info and to reserve your spot for the free online event with David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman!

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.

Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a years worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield

Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings.

“It’s important to love what we love; it’s only a problem when we need to let go.” – Trudy Goodman

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman join forces in an exploration of Buddha’s eternal wisdom: ‘hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed.’

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

“We start to sense that who we are is not just limited by the events of the world, but that we’re connected to something vast, mysterious, and greater.” – Jack Kornfield

In Part 1 of this episode, Jack and Trudy mindfully explore:

• Loving Awareness and mindful response
• Seeing the world with the eyes of a Buddha
• Opening to that world with the heart of a Buddha
• How the art of meditation is actually the art of love
• The story of Maha Ghosananda, the Gandhi of Cambodia
• Buddha’s eternal wisdom: Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed
• Facing climate change, racism, warfare, refugees, injustice, and trauma
• Dealing with our cultural anxiety, and saving ourselves from despair
• Becoming the calm person on the boat who can show the way for all
• Becoming a Bodhisattva, setting the compass of your heart for compassion
• Standing up for what matters, and tending the world with beauty
• Shifting our practice from unconsciousness to loving awareness
• Suffusing mindfulness practice with tenderness and compassion
• How we are all the same size when facing the vulnerability of our mortality
• The Heart Sutra mantra: Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha
• Finding wisdom and comfort in “falling apart”

“Spiritually, we are all the same size, because we all are facing the vulnerability of our mortality.” – Trudy Goodman

“In community, in family, in our lives, in joy and sorrow, in birth and death—we’re, given the responsibility to hold ourselves in a web of love.” – Jack Kornfield

Learn How to Thrive in Love: Buddhist Secrets to Transform Your Relationships with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman beginning Feb 17 – join anytime!

About Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about about Trudy's flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

This talk originally aired on the Voices of Esalen Podcast:

The Voices of Esalen Podcast showcases in-depth interviews with the dynamic teachers and thinkers who are part of Esalen Institute. Hosted by Sam Stern, a former Esalen student and current staff member, the podcasts have featured engaging conversations with authors Cheryl Strayed and Michael Pollan, innovators Stan Grof and Dr. Mark Hyman, teachers Byron Katie, Mark Coleman and Jean Houston, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, and many more. Learn more at Esalen.org/story/podcasts

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.

Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses and programs diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation, Relationships, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Learn about these and Jack's flowing stream of Dharma offerings at JackKornfield.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Love is in the air, as Jack explores the nature of desire, relationships, and spiritual passion—offering wisdom on stabilizing the heart, navigating distractions, and awakening to the timeless and sacred.

Learn How to Thrive in Love: Buddhist Secrets to Transform Your Relationships with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman beginning Feb 17 – join anytime!

“If you know what it’s like to really fall in love with someone, then you can begin to sense what it means to bring the full presence of attention to your life.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

• The Buddha on mindfulness and awareness
• Stabilizing the heart, mind, and body in the present
• Overcoming distractions and difficult moods
• Being aware of desires arising and passing
• Chanda – spiritual passion, the desire for awakening
• The connection between power, insecurity, and fear
• How to stop feeding the hungry heart in unskillful ways
• The difference between desire and love
• Relationship, marriage, and staying in love
• A moving love story from Thich Nhat Hanh
• Reclaiming our humanity and animal nature
• Reawakening mystery, gratitude, awe
• Touching that which is timeless and sacred
• Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of infinite compassion
• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and living your fullness
• Noticing what tempts you away during meditation

“What direction do our personal desires take us? It’s good to study them. As my teacher Ajahn Chah said, ‘It may be a very fast car, but you ought to look at what road you’re going down and which way it’s headed.'” – Jack Kornfield

“Perhaps what we most deeply desire is immensely simple—to reclaim our humanity, our animal nature that Jung talked about, the wondrous senses, the sense of the spirit of awe, the remembering, the reawakening of that sense of gratitude and mystery for life.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk recorded on 9/28/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rekindling the ancient art of listening, Jack shares how we can transform our lives through nourishing inner stillness and simplifying the mind.

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

“The Divine waits for us to taste the food and not just read the menu.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

• Reclaiming the ancient Art of Listening
• Meditating like the Buddha in nature
• How your breath reflects your life
• Meditation, attention, and overcoming restlessness
• The ways we keep ourselves busy
• How to trust your human instincts
• Reclaiming an intimacy with your senses
• Noticing when we’re listening and when we’re not
• Honoring others through your attention
• Cultivating the humility of ‘Don’t Know Mind’
• The mystery of life, death, love, consciousness
• Nourishing inner stillness and simplifying your mind
• Letting go into the unfolding present moment
• The rather bizarre situation of having a human body
• Our connection to nature, earth, the elements, and all of being
• Finding the meditative space of no going forward, backward, or standing still

“To meditate is to remember, reclaim, reawaken the ancient art of listening.” – Jack Kornfield

“When the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree on his night of enlightenment, it wasn’t to do, get, or make something, but to listen inwardly with all of his senses to the nature of this world that we are born into for a time.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk recorded on 9/21/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this defining talk, Jack shed's light on his adventurous journey to Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, and how upon returning home, he had to learn to embody a heart of authenticity.

Transform your 2025 with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online program on mindfulness, love, community, and connection. Join in anytime.

“Being with Ajahn Chah was being with a person who rested in their Buddha Nature, their own true nature. He was just himself. He was really at peace with himself. You could feel it from the energy of his presence, rooted like a great tree in the earth.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

• His mystical journey to learn with Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah,
• Needing to work his way down the chakras to fully live this human life
• Sudden awakening versus gradual change on the spiritual path
• Ramana Maharshi and liberation through facing one’s own death
• How to live in your soul and dance your unique dance
• What it’s like hanging out with monks covered in wild bees
• Ajahn Chah’s tree-like quality of roundedness, freedom, and openness
• Matching our thoughts and actions with our values
• His first time experience rapture in meditation
• The transformative aspects of therapy, bodywork, marriage, family
• Ram Dass and the healing quality of presence
• Navigating differences in our romantic relationships
• Learning to acknowledge the pain and loss beneath our anger
• Opening to life’s lessons of compassion, wisdom, and wakefulness
• The gift of spiritual community and sharing our authenticity
• Embodying the timeless eternal truth of mindfulness, intimacy, and wakefulness

“To love another person just as they are is the only kind of love that makes any sense.” – Jack Kornfield

“There’s an intimacy and a presence that is true about mindfulness: it’s either now or never.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk recorded on 9/14/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jack helps us heal conflicts, release defensiveness, and cultivate the harmony of wise relationships through the art of reconciliation, deep listening, and truth.

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

“When we read about western civilization, it is in our history books as predominantly a history of conflict—who fought whom, who took over what kingdom, country, or land from someone else and conquered and triumphed. That conflict is still with us in very obvious ways, whether it is in Los Angeles, or Yugoslavia, or Somalia, Ethiopia, or Cambodia. And so, when we look at human civilization with such a long history of conflict, the question comes, can we learn another way to live as humans?” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

• Buddhist teachings on community, conflict, and living harmoniously
• If modern civilization is actually all that civilized
• Aristotle on humanity’s weapons of wisdom and virtue
• The historical evolution of human consciousness and compassion
• Types of slavery, overt and hidden: physical, economic, political, clandestine
• The spirituality of truly celebrating life in this present moment
• Wise Relationship, living harmoniously, listening in a way that honors everyone
• Creating a ‘wise culture’ built on honesty and integrity
• How to truly apologize, forgive, reconcile, and renew
• Wise mechanisms for diffusing conflict
• How to stop being defensive and start listening
• Reconciling conflicts in monasteries and spiritual communities
• How the ‘art of listening’ begins with the ‘art of letting go’
• Learning to cooperate in courage, fearlessness, and honoring
• Navigating life from our ‘unarmed truth’ and ‘Soul Force’

“To be able to enter into a process of reconciliation in one’s family, community or body-politic, is to be able to learn to let go of our views, our ideas, how it should be, what we want, what we fear—which is underneath all of those things. It’s a shift of our identity from this small sense of self that we carry often with us, to something that’s greater—the common good, the good of the earth, that which is beautiful and noble no matter what happens in the world around us—to some greater identity of our being.” – Jack Kornfield

“We all want that kind of respect—if you give nothing else to your lover, spouse, children, parents or colleagues, but just that quality of listening with respect—there’s this tremendous sweetness that comes, people love you for it. – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk recorded on 7/27/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Opening the doorway to transformation, Jack and Dr. Hübl explore spiritual discernment, identity, “central casting,” overcoming nervous system triggers, reframing trauma, and more.

Transform your 2025 with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online program beginning Jan 2025, but join anytime.

The ‘wisdom of insecurity’ is to learn that it’s okay to feel insecure—that it’s part of our human law—and to love anyway.” – Jack Kornfield

In Part 2 of this episode originally airing for Dr. Hübl’s ‘Spiritual Healing Journey Summit,’ Jack and Thomas mindfully explore:

• Spiritual community, idealism, disillusionment, and healing spiritual injury
• Jack’s experience “pressure testing” his teacher Ajahn Chah
• Trading our “blind faith” for “spiritual discernment”
• Living in joy with a free heart amidst it all
• Ram Dass, identity, and “central casting”
• Seeing past our identities/roles to our Divine Nature while still fully honoring them
• Reframing “trauma” with Buddha’s lens of suffering
• Healing the nervous system and it’s triggers
• Expanding our loving kindness to encompass all beings
• Walking through the doorway of transformation and dissolving the cosmos into love
• How to deal with our trauma and learn to live with suffering
• Reaching out and healing the part of the world we can touch
• The Bodhisattva vow as fostering the awakening of the heart
• Opening to the “wisdom of insecurity”

“Spiritual practice is to remember your true divine nature, and also your social security number, your particular role which ‘central casting’ has placed you in at this time.” – Jack Kornfield

"Disillusionment is part of the spiritual path, baby. It is! You have to see with the eyes of the Buddha to see the truth of suffering and greed and hatred, and also see that it's not the end of the story, that that's not who you are." – Jack Kornfield

About Thomas Hübl, PhD:

Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator who works within the complexity of systems and cultural change, integrating the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. Since the early 2000s, he has led large-scale events and courses on the healing of collective trauma.

He is the author of Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World and Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. He has served as an advisor and guest faculty for universities and organizations, as a coach for CEOs and organizational leaders, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. For more info, books, podcast, and upcoming offerings, please visit thomashuebl.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jack and Thomas explore how ritual serves as a powerful language for opening the heart and living joyfully through life’s challenges.

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/heartwisdom and get on your way to being your best self.

"Ritual and symbol become a gateway back to the heart to our deep connection. When we have that in spiritual life, things open up in a different way." – Jack Kornfield

In Part 1 of this episode originally airing for Dr. Hübl’s ‘Spiritual Healing Journey Summit,’ Jack and Thomas mindfully explore:

• How to live joyfully through difficult times
• Finding the wonder of “everyday grace”
• Reducing suffering through spiritual practice
• Western Psychology and Eastern Spirituality
• Interconnection and opening to the great web of being
• Relational mindfulness and communal mindfulness
• Ritual as a language and gateway to the heart
• How to talk with nature and speak for the trees
• The transformation of having true mentors and guides
• Service, activism, and navigating burnout
• Paying attention and listening to each other and nature

"The nuclear waste of what you've been through can burn in some way that it becomes the fuel for energy and light. It gets transformed in the reactor of the heart and you have a power now." – Jack Kornfield

“No amount of nanotechnology, A.I., space technology, or biotechnology is going to save us. Because the source of hatred, war, racism, conflict, exploitation, and climate disruption is in the human heart. That’s where it starts and where it grows from. Therefore, the outer developments which are becoming really remarkable have to be matched by the inner developments of humanity.” – Jack Kornfield

About Thomas Hübl, PhD:

Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator who works within the complexity of systems and cultural change, integrating the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. Since the early 2000s, he has led large-scale events and courses on the healing of collective trauma.

He is the author of Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World and Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. He has served as an advisor and guest faculty for universities and organizations, as a coach for CEOs and organizational leaders, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. For more info, books, podcast, and upcoming offerings, please visit thomashuebl.com

Transform your 2025 with Jack! Join “The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield” a year-long online program beginning Jan 2025! Join at bit.ly/Awakening2025

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.