Heart Wisdom – Ep. 229 – Expectations

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.

“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 Kornfield

In 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 expectation
This Dharma Talk originally took place on 10/10/1988 at Insight Meditation Society.

“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 Kornfield

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!

For more podcasts like this from Jack, Trudy Goodman, Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein and more, please visit the Be Here Now Network family of podcasts.

Sign up for Jack's free email teachings

Facebook
Twitter

Related Posts

Fear and Anger

Aversion, anger, and hatred are states of mind that strike against experience, pushing it away, rejecting what is presented in

Heart Wisdom – Ep. 120 – Seeding Goodness

Don’t think that the seeds that you plant won’t make a difference. With equanimity, with a peaceful heart and a vast mind, you water the seeds that matter. Feel yourself a part of this web of life, be carried by it—the web of goodness.

Heart Wisdom – Ep. 118 – Right Effort and Loving Awareness

Wise effort—the effort to be present—can also be called an act of love, for it invites us to show up for this life with open arms, open awareness, and an open heart, and to see what’s true in the world around us. By becoming present with love, we discover it is the gateway to freedom and liberation.

Subscribe to Jack's Teachings

Unlock inner peace and clarity with Jack Kornfield’s weekly teachings.
Sign up now to receive exclusive mindfulness insights directly in your inbox.