Dharma Talks

Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small. Gratitude receives in wonder the myriad offerings of rain and sunlight, the care that supports every single life.

How can we find a freedom of heart in this world of birth and death? We can start by acknowledging that everything is subject to change. Death is an advisor that can give us clarity about what really matters.

How do we touch our measure of suffering? With a forgiving heart. Step out of the tyranny of self-judgment. Forgive yourself for being a learner in this life.

In any moment you can become the loving witness—it’s why we sit in meditation. We learn to sit with both heartbreak and love—with whatever arises. We become the loving witness of it all.

When we learn to rest in awareness, our whole being can both comprehend the situation and be at ease. We see the dance of life, we dance beautifully, yet we’re not caught in it.

Here we are in the change of seasons—the great turning. The sun is something for us to pay attention to, something we often take for granted. Notice the way the gift of sunlight streams behind everything.

With mindfulness we can open to the mystery of our human incarnation—to gaze with an open heart at the unbearable beauty and the ocean of tears that make up life.

“Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate. Live in joy, in health, even among the afflicted. Live in joy, in peace, even among the troubled. Look within, be still. Free from fear and attachment, know the sweet joy of the way.” —Buddha

The poet Mary Oliver writes, “To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.” This is our dance, our human incarnation: to tend and love that which is ephemeral.

How do we tend ourselves, how do we tend this world? Can we pause, be present, take a step back and be the loving awareness that witnesses it all? We are consciousness itself having a human experience.

Conflict is natural—we can be attached to our needs, desires, ideas and visions. Our brains are wired with a negativity bias to look for things that are threatening. But some other part of us knows there is another way.

Many of us discover we live partially in a dreamworld, cut off from whole pieces of our life, our body, our past. Though we may sense our disconnection, we do not know exactly what is wrong. Enlightenment must be lived here and now through this very body or else it is not genuine.

We are spiritual beings incarnated into human form. We need to remember our zip code as well as our Buddha nature. We are creatures of this paradox. By neither grasping nor resisting life, we can find wakefulness and freedom in the midst of our joys and sorrows.

Jack Kornfield, Trudy Goodman & The Center for Humane Technology co-founders Tristan Harris & Randy Fernando discuss the asymmetry of power highlighted by Tristan & Randy in the docudrama “The Social Dilemma” and identify solutions.

It’s an important time to come together. We don’t want outer conflicts to take over the heart. Then we can venture into the conflict of the world with a peaceful heart and plant and water seeds of goodness.

We can tune into the goodness of the world that’s not always featured in the news. This is an invitation to understand equanimity and to see with the eyes of wisdom.

This is a time when the veils have been lifted—with the pandemic, climate change, & calls for justice we see that we are not separate. When we meditate from a place of “don’t know mind,” not clinging to our view of what we think is supposed to be right, we start to see that our heart is big enough to hold it all.

What these divisive times call for more than anything else is an ability to listen with the heart. The Buddha explained that if the members of a society come together and listen to each other in harmony and with respect for one another, they will prosper and not decline.

Suffering is not the end of the story. We can get lost in our suffering. But we can also be witness to bravery and the possibility of life. Mindfulness can help us live wisely amidst difficulties.

What is right effort? Simply the effort to be mindful, to notice what is happening in the present moment without judging it. In Zen it is called effortless effort. Effortless effort is not an effort to gain or attain anything, but simply the discipline and effort to stay aware in the present.

This dharma talk explores how the combination of compassion and equanimity can give rise to a peaceful heart even in times of turmoil and great change.

In this dharma talk, Jack discusses the health, economic and moral crises the world is facing.

This is the last talk of ten. Throughout 2017, Jack spoke about the ten paramis, or perfections of a buddha: generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, right effort, patience, truthfulness, resolve, equanimity, and loving-kindness. The effort in our own lives to...

The qualities of leadership taught by the Buddha are: generosity, integrity, non-harming, steadiness, sacrifice, patience, inclusiveness, vision, trust and loving awareness.