“Can you be in this world and can you love it with all its imperfections? And can you bring that spirit of care and love in the middle of what’s tragic and what’s beautiful? That’s a liberated heart.”
— Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield (@JackKornfield) trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to have introduced Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West.
Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, and Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. Current projects include CloudSangha.co, which offers practice groups for all; The Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, which has trained 7,000 mindfulness teachers in 75 countries; and Wisdom Ventures, a fund investing in companies that promote compassion.
His books have been translated into 22 languages and sold 2 million copies. They include The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology; A Path with Heart; After the Ecstasy, the Laundry; Buddha’s Little Instruction Book; The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace; and his most recent book, No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy Right Where You Are.
Jack is also co-founder of Cloud Sangha, and they offer a quick and free Mindfulness Test to gauge your mindfulness levels. As a conscious online community, Cloud Sangha brings people together to create meaningful human connections and integrate mindfulness into everyday life.
Please enjoy!
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Want to hear Jack Kornfield’s previous interview on the podcast? Have a listen to our conversation in which we discuss apathy and polarization, truth beneath anger, contractor-ese, retuning the tone of rage, coping with trauma-induced hypervigilance, out-of-body experiences, guided meditation for recapturing the adventure and joy of childhood, and much more.
#601: Jack Kornfield — How to Overcome Apathy and Find Beautiful Purpose
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Jack Kornfield:
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- A Weekly Meditation Group for Practical Support | Cloud Sangha
- Free Mindfulness Test | Cloud Sangha
- No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy Right Where You Are by Jack Kornfield | Amazon
- Other Books by Jack Kornfield | Amazon
- Jack Kornfield — How to Overcome Apathy and Find Beautiful Purpose | The Tim Ferriss Show #601
- Jack Kornfield — How to Find Peace Amidst COVID-19, How to Cultivate Calm in Chaos | The Tim Ferriss Show #414
- Jack Kornfield — Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy in the Present | The Tim Ferriss Show #300
- Tranquility. Wisdom. Compassion. | Insight Meditation Society
- An Insight Meditation Center | Spirit Rock
- Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program | MMTCP
- Building a Future of Greater Human Connection and Well-Being | Wisdom Ventures
- About Holotropic Breathwork | Grof Transpersonal Training
- The Grateful Dead
- The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso) by Dante Alighieri | Amazon
- Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: The 8 Limbs of Yoga | Sukhavati Ayurvedic Wellness Retreat
- The Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali | Amazon
- Can You Control What You Say After Wisdom Teeth Removal? | Healthline
- What Anesthesia Can Teach Us About Consciousness | The New York Times
- Consciousness | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- What is Lila? | Yogapedia
- “If You Don’t Realize the Source…” — Lao Tzu | Goodreads
- Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu | Amazon
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryū Suzuki | Amazon
- Karma | Wikipedia
- The Day Nelson Mandela Walked Out of Prison | NPR
- The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness by Stanislav Grof | Amazon
- The Buddha and His Frenemy | Melting-Pot Dharma
- I Am an Old Man and Have Known a Great Many Troubles, But Most of Them Never Happened | Quote Investigator
- The Work | Byron Katie
- Sohbet: Sermon of Divine Inspiration | Ansari Qadiri Rifai Tariqa
- Mysticism | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Non-Profit Meditation, Practice Mindfulness Online | InsightLA
- What Is a Whirling Dervish and Why Is It Called That? | Istanbul Dervish Ceremony
- Jhāna: The Spice Your Meditation Has Been Missing | Tricycle
- Matthew 6:22-23 | King James Version (KJV)
- A Seeker’s Guide to Samadhi | Yoga International
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker | Amazon
- Einstein on Widening Our Circles of Compassion | The Marginalian
- Thomas Merton Square | Thomas Merton Center
- Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton | Amazon
- Brief Instructions for Loving-Kindness Meditation | Metta Institute
- Audio: Loving-Kindness Meditation | Jack Kornfield
- The Way of the Animal Powers (The Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Vol. 1 by Joseph Campbell | Amazon
- I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj | Amazon
- What Did Nisargadatta Maharaj Mean? | Reddit
- Dr. Mark Plotkin on Ethnobotany, Real vs. Fake Shamans, Hallucinogens, and the Dalai Lamas of South America | The Tim Ferriss Show #469
- Shamans vs. Synthetics | The Scientist Magazine
- Cultivating Grace: Ease and Irrational Joy | Easing Awake
- A Brief For The Defense by Jack Gilbert | The Sun Magazine
- Britain’s Appointment of a “Minister of Loneliness” Is No Laughing Matter | The New Yorker
- Loneliness Minister: “It’s More Important than Ever to Take Action” | GOV.UK
- Minyan: The Congregational Quorum | My Jewish Learning
- What is Satsang? | Yogapedia
- The Meaning of Sangha | Tricycle
- Transcendental Meditation
- Be Here Now by Ram Dass | Amazon
- Transforming Lives by Restoring Sight | Seva Foundation
- The Glance Of Mercy | Community Life Church
- Ram Dass Here and Now Podcast Archives | Be Here Now Network
- When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities by Stanislav Grof | Amazon
- Sensed Presence without Sensory Qualities: A Phenomenological Study of Bereavement Hallucinations | Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences
- Sensing the Dead Is Perfectly Normal – And Often Helpful | The Conversation
- World as Lover, World as Self by Joanna Macy | Amazon
- The Great Turning | The Center for Ecoliteracy
- Joanna Macy — A Wild Love for the World | The On Being Project
- Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings by John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming, and Arne Naess | Amazon
- Council of All Beings | The Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain
- Website for the Academic Study of Religion and Nature & Religion and Ecology | Religion and Nature
SHOW NOTES
Editor’s Note: Timestamps will be added shortly.
- Stan Grof.
- Yogic swoons and anesthetic autopiloting.
- What’s the point of consciousness?
- A big story or no story at all?
- The Cosmic Game.
- How would the Buddha deal with anxiety?
- The stories anxiety tells.
- Mystics and the mystery.
- Jhana practice and the dimensions of meditation.
- Achieving altered states: a matter of confidence or capacity?
- What is love?
- Wise guys.
- Reliably eliciting the non-self.
- Sifting out the charlatans.
- Atisha’s instructions.
- Cultivating a more joyful mind.
- Living “social, not solo” and Cloud Sangha.
- Ram Dass flunking the course.
- Connection, climate, and justice.
- Parting thoughts.
MORE JACK KORNFIELD QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“If we’re actually to become wise, we need to direct our attention to body, to emotions, to relationships, to thought. We actually need to become wise in those major dimensions of our life. And we can’t expect that of people just because they have a certain title or robe or anything else.”
— Jack Kornfield
“Can you be in this world and can you love it with all its imperfections? And can you bring that spirit of care and love in the middle of what’s tragic and what’s beautiful? That’s a liberated heart.”
— Jack Kornfield
“People think spiritual life is a grim duty. … It’s not meant to be a grim duty. If you don’t have some joy and pleasure in it, that’s the wrong direction, maybe. It’s really an invitation to quiet and calm, to bring in care and compassion, and to find a joy.”
— Jack Kornfield
“You don’t have to fix the whole world, but you can reach and mend the places that you can touch.”
— Jack Kornfield
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