Ep. 126 – Freedom, Gratitude, & the Buoyancy of Hope

Jack and the ‘Grandfather of Gratitude,’ Brother David Steindl-Rast, delve into sacred reflections on death, where Buddha meets Jesus, the power of compassion, the positive side of grief, and beyond.Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of free offerings by signing up for his email newsletter teachings at JackKornfield.com/newsletter “The process of grieving that breaks this little heart, which closes itself in itself, opens us to the heart that we all share, the one heart that we all have in common.” – Brother David Steindl-RastIn this sacred dialogue, Jack, Brother David, and Frank Ostaseski reflect on:How Christianity and Buddhism fit together spirituallyThe compassionate smile of Buddha meeting the sacred heart of Jesus ChristThe positive side of grief: opening to the collective heartDeath and grace in both traditionsDeconditioning from a difficult motherHarnessing the power of your common senseA funny story about the Pope, and how to awaken to who we already areJack’s journey to the Temple of the Coconut MonkHow to handle pain like a Burmese MasterHow to forgive yourself and overcome remorseDiffusing suicidal tendencies by cultivating self-compassionGuided meditations and sacred chants from Jack and Brother David“In a meditative way, one of the big pieces of being able to love, or touch, or open, or live, is really the work of forgiveness, grace, and receiving yourself in all of your complexity and loving.” – Jack Kornfield“Compassion, loving kindness, and understanding are our true nature, our true state.” – Jack KornfieldThis conversation recorded on 6/30/1988 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.

Fantastic Fungi's visionary director, Louie Schwartzberg, joins Jack to explore the profound connection between psychedelics and mindfulness. 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.“You can’t separate psychedelics from life.” – Jack KornfieldIn this fresh conversation, Jack and Louie spelunk the depths of:The connection between psychedelics and spiritualityPsychedelics as a gateway to wonder, curiosity, and the sacredHow tripping on psychedelics informed Louie’s filmmakingAlbert Einstein and psychedelics as the intersection between art and scienceThe universe and life as a constant transformation of light energyBuddha’s “Flower Sermon” and Zen Master Suzuki Roshi’s “Beginner’s Mind”Jack “exchanging maps” with famous LSD researcher, Stanislav GrofStudies showing the combination of psilocybin mushrooms and Louie’s time-lapse nature imagery as a powerful therapeutic tool for helping addiction and PTSDThe importance of “set and setting,” community, and integrationHow psychedelics actually fit into the Buddhist preceptsHonoring biology and the feminine aspects of natureThe gifts of sacred attention and loving awarenessFinding beauty wherever you are, and how Louie’s films heal by sharing patterns of nature for the soul to connect withThis conversation was originally recorded on 3/29/24 by Banyan Together – an online mindfulness community started by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. To join the community and learn more, visit BanyanTogether.com“A lot of the work I do is to make the invisible visible. And that’s the perfect description of what a psychedelic journey is like, making the invisible visible.” – Louie Schwartzberg“We live in a culture that’s almost defined by the absence of the sacred. And so we feel this yearning, this intuitive wish to connect—whether it’s going high in the mountains, or making love, or taking psychedelics, or meditating.” – Jack KornfieldSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Inviting in calm, strength, and steadiness, Jack leads a guided meditation into the heart of mindful loving awareness. This guided meditation was originally recorded on 2/19/2024 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. Register to join Jack's next livestream at JackKornfield.com/events"Feel the weight of your body, gravity, and how the earth completely supports you when you let go into your seat. You're met by the strength and steadiness of the earth itself. You can rest on her. – Jack KornfieldIn this fresh episode, Jack leads a guided meditation for:Inviting in a sense of ease and calmRelaxing into mindful loving awarenessFinding a steady, grounded, rooted postureKeeping a natural, soft, and flowing breathQuieting the mind and watching experience unfoldNoticing the arising and passing away of all phenomenaAllowing yourself into rest, trust, and relaxation Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practices to Cultivate a Wise HeartSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Exploring the great mystery of life and existence, Jack shares enlightening insights on the playful nature of wisdom.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to recieve 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom"The beautiful thing is, wisdom is gracious." – Jack KornfieldFresh from an adventure in Costa Rica, Jack offers wisdom on:Spelunking the great mystery of life Wisdom as inherently gracious and playful Balancing compassion with emptiness How to speak with suffering people Joanna Macy and the "Great Turning" of human civilization Ram Dass, Ajahn Chah, and Stephen Levine "Central Casting" and the human experience How Jack and his colleagues handle their own aging"It's all empty and it all matters." – Jack Kornfield"Meditation is not about gaining or attaining something, it's about seeing the world with the heart of wisdom." – Jack KornfieldThis Dharma Talk was originally recorded on 2/19/2024 for the Spirit Rock Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. Register to join Jack's next livestream at JackKornfield.com/eventsLearn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey starting April 15, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practices to Cultivate a Wise HeartSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Offering compassion for our human flaws, Jack relays how to stop being so loyal to our suffering, and helps uncover the heart of the Buddha living within each of us.Learn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practice to Cultivate a Wise Heart In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:Living the Divine Abodes to uncover the heart of the Buddha within yourselfHow to live in loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity/peaceRam Dass, the Chicken and Rice Man, and selfless serviceHow the circle of compassion is not complete until it includes self-compassionViktor Frankl and the boundless freedom of the human spiritDavid Roche and The Church of 80% SincerityMoving beyond looks and into the reality of unconditional loveTurning off the news and doing something enjoyableHow to stop being so loyal to your sufferingThis Dharma Talk from 12/10/2007 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.“You can search the tenfold universe as the Buddha and not find a single person more worthy of love and care than the one seated right here in your own body.” – Jack KornfieldSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Shining light on the Divine Abodes, Jack shares how we can navigate the world from the goodness of our hearts.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to recieve 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom"Luminous, says the Buddha, is this heart and mind." – Jack KornfieldIn this episode, Jack mindfully explores:The Divine Abodes (Brahmaviharas) as qualities of the Awakened HeartNavigating the world from the goodness of our heartsLoving kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity/peaceWhat is possible for us as human beingsDiscovering who we really are and what really mattersStories of Jack's Buddhist teacher, Maha GhosanandaThe spirituality of neuroscience's "Mirror Neurons."Sharon Salzberg, Metta practice, and the power of attentionRam dass, and the heart as the doorway to loveLearn to live beautifully with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Dan Siegel in their new online journey, Living Beautifully: Transformative Science and Mindfulness Practices to cultivate a Wise Heart"What we give our attention, that place will flower and blossom. So if we give our attention to love, it grows." – Jack Kornfield"Loving Kindness is like the rain that falls on all things, the just and the unjust, equally without discrimination. That love, when it grows within our heart, has a quality of nurturance, moisture, opening ,sweetness and constancy to it. It's an expression of the heart that's unencumbered by fear." – Jack KornfieldThis Dharma Talk from 12/10/2007 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 shares miracle stories and personal lessons from Dipa Ma – the luminous, compassionate and unshakeable spiritual master.Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield. The live version begins March 18! Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3T7Aafp"You had a sense from this very sweet, mild-mannered old lady of a kind of unshakable inner strength, an incredible sense of stillness and strength in her being." – Jack KornfieldIn this episode, Jack lovingly reflects on:His times with the great yogi and spiritual master, Dipa Ma Barua Miracle stories and spiritual lessons of Dipa Ma How the suffering in Dipa Ma's life drew her to Buddhism and meditation Dipa Ma's siddhis (spiritual/psychic powers) and compassionate shining heart A life-changing story of Jack being blessed by Dipa Ma Her grandmotherly loving kindness Dipa Ma's favorite spiritual questions"Dipa Ma's teaching was to always keep people in your heart, to give of your love to the people, and the earth and the world around." – Jack Kornfield"Of all of the possibilities that one can do with the heart and mind, Dipa Ma was a great master of them." – Jack KornfieldThis Dharma Talk from 11/01/1989 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.

Talking Kabir, breakups, LSD, and Ram Dass, Jack shares how we can unfurl from the suffering of our expectations in order to live the mystery.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Awareness has this quality of allowing change or openness to take place, because you're not trying to make it a certain way... you're observing it." – Jack KornfieldIn this episode, Jack mindfully explores:- Kabir and waking up in this very life- Grief, breakups, disappointment, and letting go- How expectation creates suffering- Meditation and "manufacturing the light"- Expectations, battling reality, and opening to the mystery- How the mind measures, but the heart loves- What Ram Dass told Jack about dealing with the death of his father- Moving past the content of mind, and truly experiencing life- The essence of Buddha's practice of mindfulness- Labeling/noting feelings as a way to release them- Albert Hoffman and LSD- Relationships and how to make commitment without expectationWant to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield. The live version begins March 18! Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3T7Aafp"Now, what's interesting to discover in meditation, is as you pay attention inside, it's the mind which measures, the mind with thought. The heart doesn't measure, the heart doesn't have that capacity, actually." – Jack Kornfield"This is an amazing thing—bodies, and life, and cars, and planets hanging in space, and big balls of fire that we name stars and no one knows where they come from...beetles, insects, and strange things. What is this? So we sit and make ourselves a little bit quiet in order to turn the heart and the mind together to face directly this reality, this changing reality of birth and death, of change of life." – Jack KornfieldThis Dharma Talk from 10/10/1988 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.

Going back to the basics, Jack explores how we can skillfully navigate our dynamic mood states by experiencing them as clouds of the mind.Want to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield beginning March 18!"Moods are actually kind of mysterious and quite impersonal. They're like the weather. It's been kind of cool this year, then we get our rainstorms, and the sun comes in between, and the wind comes and dies down, and we don't have any control over it whatsoever. It just comes. It's due to certain conditions." – Jack KornfieldIn this episode, Jack compassionately illuminates:Experiencing moods as clouds or weather—arising and passing naturally from impersonal sets of conditions The six flavors of experience in Buddhism Finding the middle ground between acting on feelings and suppressing them The "vipassana romance" and understanding the "siren call" of desire Diffusing desire with humor, mindfulness, and noting Moving past attachment and aversion by leaning into them Techniques for overcoming doubt Letting go and becoming more happy and more live"The optimist wakes up and says, 'Good morning, God!' And the pessimist wakes up and says, 'Good God! Morning...' It's the same experience, but the mood somehow changes it." – Jack Kornfield"One sits and practices, and let's these experiences come and fill us. We bow to them, name them, soften in the heart and say, 'Okay, show me your stuff, give me the whole thing.' And you know what happens after a while? If you make this spaciousness in the heart and that still point, at some point it ends. Because everything does. You say, 'Wow that was a big storm of desire, wasn't it?' And there you are, and there's this sense of freedom that comes that that's not who we are most fundamentally." – Jack KornfieldThe Dharma Talk from 4/1/1988 at 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.

Illuminating the subtle but crucial difference between codependence and compassion, Jack outlines how to set boundaries and live from our unique truth.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom"Codependence means being an accomplice, a kind of complicity with someone who's acting in a self-destructive way, being dependent on their behavior, or supporting it somehow for your own security." – Jack KornfieldIn this episode, Jack sheds mindful light on:The subtle but crucial difference between compassion and codependenceTrying to fix it or save someone instead of allowing them to taste the fruits of their karmasFeeling locked into supporting someone's destructive behaviorThe lack of feeling secure leading to needing to over-controlNeeding to fix someone else's problems because we can't live with it in ourselfHow we are all accomplices to a codependent societyMother Teresa and seeking to love the world instead of trying to fix itThe necessity of balancing compassion practice with equanimity practiceThe spiritual importance of disharmony and the value of sufferingBoundaries and the ability to say "no"Ownership, possessiveness, and the trouble with believing our rolesThe Bhagavad Gita and acting from our hearts without attachment to the fruit of the actionLiving our our unique truth amidst the mysteryWant to learn how to follow the Buddha’s path to freedom in the modern world? Sign up for Jack’s new online course Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield beginning March 18!"We are all heirs to our own karma, we have created our own lives. We can love and assist others, but in the end, no one can create a life for someone else, no one can change another person's fate. We are the ones that create what will happen for us." – Jack Kornfield"Can we seek to love the world instead of trying to fix it? It is possible to be in a codependent relationship with the ills of the society, so we have to start looking within ourselves. What does it mean to do good? Mother Teresa taught in her work in Calcutta in the death and dying centers, 'We're not social workers. Our work is not to take people off the streets and clothes them and feed them. The government could do that. Our work is to bring to the people that we touch the spirit and the love of God that has touched us. The rest of it is just the vehicle to communicate that spirit.' It's a very different way of approaching solving a problem.'" – Jack KornfieldThis Dharma Talk from 9/1/1989 at 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.