Book Excerpts

Recommended Courses

How to Thrive in Love: Buddhist Secrets to Transform Your Relationships with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman – 2026

Discover the profound wisdom of love as a spiritual path. Join Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman in this transformative course exploring intimacy, mindfulness, and compassion

Ask Jack: Dharma Wisdom for Life’s Real Struggles (payment plan)

A 21-day online course with beloved meditation teacher Jack Kornfield. Each day offers short video teachings, reflection prompts, and a simple practice to help you

Discovering your Buddha Nature with Jack Kornfield

The ten paramitas, or "perfections," are central to Buddhist teaching and practice. These perfections represent qualities to cultivate in order to progress along the path

Confusing Charisma with Wisdom

Another source of spiritual misunderstanding is our confusion of charisma with true wisdom. Certain spiritual leaders possess the ability to evoke extraordinary states. Amplified by

Freeing Ourselves

Unhealthy thoughts can chain us to the past. They arise as vipaka, the result of past karma that we cannot change. We can, however, change…

The Near Enemies of Awakening

Compassion vs. Pity and Despair The near enemy of compassion is pity. Instead of feeling the openness of compassion, pity says, “Oh, that poor person.…

No Enlightened Retirement

“If there be anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown…

The Four Radiant Abodes

The most treasured description of optimal mental health is the Four Radiant Abodes. These four radiant abodes are: loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity or peace.…

Examining Thoughts

    Buddhist psychology helps us with two important tasks in working with thoughts. First it teaches us how to acknowledge the content of our…

The Compassionate Replacement of Painful Thoughts

If you are a person who has regular, repeated destructive thoughts, thoughts of self-judgment, criticism, shame, or unworthiness, work with this training for a week…

Non-Identification

In non-identification we stop taking the experience as me or mine. We see how our identification creates dependence, anxiety, and inauthenticity. In practicing non-identification, we…

Awakening the Buddha of Wisdom in Difficulties

“Who is your enemy? Mind is your enemy. Who is your friend? Mind is your friend.” ~Buddha I have on my refrigerator a picture of…

Misconceptions About Selflessness

Misconceptions about selflessness and emptiness abound, and such confusions undermine genuine spiritual development. Some people believe that they can come to selflessness by struggling to…

The Bird in the Trap

A certain man caught a bird in a trap. The bird says, “Sire, you have eaten many cows and sheep in your life, and you’re…

Healing Through Emptiness

The last aspect of mindful healing is awareness of the universal laws that govern life. Central to it is an understanding of emptiness. This is

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