“Someone once asked me, ‘What’s happened to you from all this practice?’ I said, ‘I became kind.’ They said, ‘No, you were always kind.’ So I said, ‘Well then, I became kinder.’ And the big surprise is that I’m also happier.” – Sylvia Boorstein

Dear friends,

At Sylvia Boorstein’s 90th birthday celebration at Spirit Rock, she offered a beautifully simple reflection on what nearly five decades of meditation practice has given her: “I became kinder—and I’m also happier.”

In this short video, Sylvia and I reflect on how practice softens the heart—not through one final realization, but through a lifetime of seeing, remembering, making amends, and beginning again. As the mind grows quieter and the heart more attentive, kindness becomes less something we try to practice and more a natural way of meeting the world.

May this sweet exchange be a reminder of the freedom and goodness that are already possible within you.

Metta,
Jack

P.S. If you’d like to watch or listen to this full conversation, tune into Ep. 330 of my Heart Wisdom podcast – Becoming Kinder: 49 Years of Friendship, Practice, and Insight with Jack Kornfield and Sylvia Boorstein