Heart Wisdom – Ep. 293 – Discovering the Great Way: Freedom from Attachment

Exploring the ancient Zen teaching of the Great Way, Jack guides us toward freedom from attachment, clarity beyond preferences, and the liberating joy of letting go.

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“Go where you wish—cave, monastery, India, Tibet, do what you like—your mind goes with you, that’s the problem.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:
  • Finding freedom from attachment by learning to let go
  • Can we meditate society’s problems away?
  • What does it mean to seek wisdom, compassion, freedom?
  • The Third Patriarch of Zen
  • Finding the Great Way and seeing the truth
  • Moving past our opinions and preferences
  • How our desires blind us and manufacture our reality
  • Suffering, impermanence, grasping, and not relying on reality
  • The path to liberation from our grasping and fears
  • The joy of letting go of our attachments and relaxing into what is
  • Training ourselves to have an obedient mind of the Buddha
  • Is there appropriate or wise attachment?
  • Clarifying the full spectrum of attachment
  • How to get out addiction and the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts
  • Dealing with attachment to our isolation, our separateness
  • Commitment as a healthy devoted attachment
  • Seeking a Wise Relationship to ourselves, others, and the world
  • The slippery slope of pleasure, into desire, into habit, into need
  • Wise attachment vs unwise attachment
  • The full spectrum of attachment and love

“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When attachment and hatred are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction; however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinion for or against anything.” – Third Zen Ancestor

“Often we think attachment is only to other people and things, but often what we are attached to is our own isolation, our own separateness.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk was originally recorded on 03/08/1993 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
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