Reflecting on the election, Jack explores how we can most mindfully and lovingly dance with impermanence, suffering, and ‘the great turning’ of the world.

This episode was originally recorded for the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Dharma Talk and Guided Meditation Livestream on 11/11/24. Learn more about Spirit Rock’s offerings here. Join Jack’s next livestream event here.

“It’s not about an election one way or the other, they come and go. There’s such huge other forces happening right now—climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion energy—huge possibilities and huge problems. As T.S. Elliot says, ‘In my end is my beginning.’ Everything that turns offers a new openness and beginning for something else.” – Jack Kornfield

In this fresh episode, Jack mindfully explores:

• Navigating the election and politics in a changing world
• Returning to the basics of Buddhism and living a wise spiritual life
• Quieting the mind, tending the heart, listening to the cries, and seeing with the eyes of wisdom
• What Ajahn Chah’s wisdom for the election results would be
• Opening to change, honoring impermanence, facing suffering
• Annica – the wisdom of uncertainty
• Navigating the “Great Turning” of the world
• Shifting from exploitive and consumer consciousness to one of interdependence and mutual care
• Facing our suffering, warfare, racism, aging, death, loss, and change
• The Zen view of the “dew drop” world
• How annica, dukka, anatta connect with nirvana and unshakeable freedom
• To end the illusion of separation
• Politics as a form of ritualized warfare
• Standing up like Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita
• Human history as also containing compassion, courage, and sweetness
• Finding refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
• Living from unconditional love and a freedom from fear
• The transformative power of community
• Our inexorable connection to all the great Saints, Gods, and to the Great Mystery

“Our freedom comes when we realize our dukkha is not a mistake.” – Jack Kornfield

“You get to choose your spirit. No matter what.” – Jack Kornfield

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Helping us reflect on our daily habits and feelings, Jack shares how Right Attitude, Wise Aspiration, and Mindful Thought allow us to uncover the sweet joy of living in The Way.

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“With Wise Attitude we begin to discover the power of kindness, the joy in not grasping, the delight in generosity, the ease in letting go, and the immediacy of freedom and liberation that is here in every moment.” – Jack Kornfield

Exploring the second step of the Eightfold Path, Jack mindfully shares on:

• Right Attitude, Wise Thought, the second step on the Eightfold Path
• Seeing directly the true power of mind and heart
• Overcoming habitual patterns of thought, action, and attitude
• The Buddha on nobility, integrity, and the heart
• Overcoming greed, hatred, and delusion
• Knowing the sweet joy of living in The Way
• Wise Aspiration and the path of the Bodhisattva
• Reflecting on our attitude around death
• Rumi, Stephen Levine, Martin Luther King Jr, Suzuki Roshi, and Alan Watts
• Taking what life gives us as “grist for the mill” of awakening
• Examining spiritual teachings in our own life (what works, what doesn’t?)
• Trading ‘protection and defensiveness’ for ‘openness and curiosity’
• Accepting each moment as an unrepeatable miracle
• Beginner’s Mind and Don’t Know Mind
• Openness, respect, and compassion

“It is knowing what is true that brings ourselves freedom. We don’t get free by making ourselves free.” – Jack Kornfield

“It is only through mercy, through the kindness of compassion, that reconciliation happens, that what’s locked in suffering begins to grow and breathe new life.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk recorded in 1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

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Intersecting the Buddha’s ‘Wise Understanding’ with Alan Watt’s ‘Wisdom of Insecurity,’ Jack illuminates the path of discovering lasting happiness.

For an even deeper dive down the Eightfold Path, sign up for Walking the Eightfold Path with Jack Kornfield, an online course designed to guide you through the wisdom, compassion, and freedom of Buddha’s teachings. Learn more and sign up here.

“Spiritual life is not about possessing or finding security, but rather it’s discovering what Alan Watts called, ‘the wisdom of insecurity,’ the capacity for freedom and compassion of heart, no matter what the circumstances. Right Understanding is a willingness to dedicate ourself to awakening, no matter how conditions change.” – Jack Kornfield

Exploring the first step of the Eightfold Path, Jack mindfully shares on:

• The Buddha, Enlightenment, the Eightfold Path, and Four Noble Truths
• How to live a wise, mindful, happy, and loving life
• The Middle Path as the pathway to freedom
• Wise Understanding, the first step on the Eightfold Path
• Suffering, it’s causes, and how to alleviate it
• Where happiness actually comes from
• Working with clinging, grasping, aging, aversion, fear
• Impermanence, change, and the wisdom of insecurity
• Spiritual Direction and the journey of the soul
• The seed of awakening your Buddha Nature
• Understanding the Law of Karma
• Finding nirvana through our current circumstances
• Having compassion for what puts us to sleep
• Tending your heart to tend the whole world

“Buddha saw that the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering is not so much in life itself, but in the way that we relate to life.” – Jack Kornfield

“Right understanding tells us that we can dedicate our life to something beautiful.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk recorded in 1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.