[Video] Heart Wisdom – Ep. 291 – The Calm Ocean and the Storm: Navigating Duality with Ocean Robbins

Sign up for Jack's free email teachings

Jack is interviewed by Ocean Robbins to explore the big spiritual questions—why there is suffering, how to navigate duality, making the ordinary holy, and cultivating a loving witness.

YouTube video

“It’s important to not use spiritual practice to set up an ideal or judge yourself. Sometimes you need to shut down, and then you open again. So the spiritual path is really about being with both the calm ocean and the storm.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack and Ocean mindfully explore:
  • What first got Jack into mindfulness and meditation
  • Life as beautiful, and an ocean of tears
  • Suffering, Buddhism, and the end of suffering
  • Why is there suffering in the world?
  • Navigating the reality of duality—form and emptiness, life and death
  • The recycling nature of the universe
  • How to make the ordinary holy
  • Meeting our lives with presence
  • A simple way to explain “The Witness”
  • The magic of consciousness
  • A calming and deep guided meditation
  • Holding fear and grief in compassion
  • Not getting caught in reactions and anger
  • Acting the nobility of heart and your original dignity

“Life is extraordinarily beautiful, and it’s an ocean of tears. You can’t have birth without death, you can’t have light without dark, you can’t have beginnings without endings. We live in a universe constructed of opposites. That’s just the game of form, of duality. You can’t have form without the emptiness from which it comes.” – Jack Kornfield

About Ocean Robbins:

Ocean Robbins is an American entrepreneur and author, best known for his role as the co-founder of Food Revolution Network, Inc. This California-based company is dedicated to advocating for a whole foods, plant-based diet. Check out Ocean’s book, 31-Day Food Revolution, to learn more about healing the body and transforming the world. You can keep up with Ocean on his website, here.

This episode was originally recorded for the Food Revolution Network in November of 2024.
Subscribe to the weekly Heart Wisdom Podcast with Jack Kornfield on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and explore Jack’s ever-expanding Heart Wisdom Podcast library here on JackKornfield.com
Facebook
Twitter

Related Posts

Navigating the Cycles of Spiritual Life

Navigating the Cycles of Spiritual Life

There are big and small cycles in spiritual life. We can’t stop the cycles, but we can learn to navigate them with grace, ease, and

The Unique Expression of True Self

In awakening our Buddha nature, we find that there is one further aspect of self to understand, the need to honor our personal destiny. This…

The Earth is My Witness

“Make your mind like the earth which receives all things steadily.” – The Buddha Years ago, a crew of Russian cosmonauts ran into trouble in…

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.