Exploring the relationship between spirituality and sexuality, Jack offers reflections and perspectives on ways to dance with the sexual energy in our lives.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom"In a way, sex is a mirror. How your sexuality goes in a particular day or week is pretty much a reflection of the rest of your heart, mind, spirit, and being. In that regard, it's just like meditation—you sit down, close your eyes, and you get to see what's there: frustration, anger, happiness, or love. Sexuality serves the same way, physically, but even more so emotionally." – Jack KornfieldIn this episode, Jack mindfully explores:The relationship between spirituality, sexuality, and our lives Why sexuality is such a major part of our culture Our underlying fear of true intimacy Suzuki Roshi's koan of "How do you realize Buddha while making love?" The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in relation to our sexuality Wounds, trauma, healing, and the body Using relationships in a skillful way to grow Tantra, breath, and going beyond ourselves"If you look at our culture, television and mass media, sex is such a big part of it. Why is it such a big thing in our culture and our lives? Because, in part, it's a vehicle to go beyond ourselves." – Jack KornfieldThis Dharna talk from 1987 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Directly following Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's death, Jack offers perspectives on the life and dharma of one of spirituality's most impactful and controversial figures."Lama Govinda said that of all the young tulkus, of all the young incarnate lamas to leave Tibet, there was none as bright as Trungpa Rinpoche—bright in the sense of his field of his being and his energy. Lama Govinda, even at a point when he wasn't very happy with the way Trungpa Rinpoche was behaving, said that he still had to admit there was no one who walked across the Himalayas and came out who had that light more than Trungpa." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack dives into:A celebration of the life, teachings, and impact of Chögyam Trungpa RinpocheThe Vimalakīrti Sutra, and how certain Bodhisattvas teach as householders so that their message can be best understood by the worldHow Jack being invited to teach alongside Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein on the faculty of Trungpa's Naropa University in Boulder, CO sparked their teaching careers in the WestLama Govinda's view on Trungpa's innate radiant brightness and his "lion's roar"The traditions, trainings, and spirit of Shambala through the metaphor of the rising sunMeeting our life and practice with an openness and fearlessnessBuddhist personality types and their unique seeds of awakeningTrungpa's discipline for practice, and his deep devotion for his teachers and dharma lineagePing-ponging between Ram Dass's and Trungpa Rinpoche's dueling Bhakti and Buddhism sessions the opening summer at Naropa"Trungpa Rinpoche gave himself as fully to the West as any Buddhist teacher that I know that has come. And in a more remarkable way, he absorbed our culture, our language, our customs, who we are, into himself and said, 'Alright, let's play! Let's take the seed of the Dharma and really make it sparkle and alive in the West.'" – Jack Kornfield This Dharma Talk on 4/01/1987 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rewiring our brains around difficulties, emptiness, fear, and longing, Jack highlights how we can connect our practice with our deepest love.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom"When you get afraid or things are difficult, fear is simply the signal that you're about to learn something new. When you feel afraid it's like the little light comes on that says, 'About to grow.'" – Jack KornfieldIn this episode, Jack contemplates and explores:The times in our lives where we feel truly connected to our heartsAjahn Jumnian, motivation for practice, spiritual thirst, and working with addictionBringing awareness to the truth of emptiness and nature of joy and sorrowReincarnation and seeing everyone in the world as your mothers, fathers, and childrenFinding that what we really want is simple heart connectionEmptiness, longing, and feeding the hungry heartStillness and living from our fundamental nature of love and caringThe difficulties in life as part of the spiritual pathSeeing life as a continuous flow of mistakes to learn from, and fear as a signal that you are about to grow"To study emptiness means to accept without resisting, to not push away or not distract ourselves from the emptiness that's within us that we half-feel and keep trying to fill up through all of our sense of longing and deficiency. Instead, it's to sit and say, 'Alright, let me feel that longing, that emptiness, that space, that deficiency. Let me feel how deep it is, how big it is, and not just try to fill it right away.' When we stop running and feel that, then something new comes alive in us." – Jack KornfieldSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mindfully retelling ancient Buddhist Dharma stories, Jack reflects on what it means to live with a wise heart."For someone who wants to break free inside of the forces of ignorance, delusion, habit, and sleepwalking—you must really see that there's something greater than just getting through each day, and devote yourself in some fashion to it." – Jack KornfieldIn this episode, Jack opens us to:Modern retellings of ancient Buddhist Dharma storiesThe courage and mystery of the heartThe law of karma and the power of intentionThe compelling nature of spiritual practiceBuddha's past life as a lion living on an island with an elephant friendDiscovering what is love, and what is goodness in the heartLearning to listen to where our actions comes from"Find a place in yourself—in your being, your heart—that really wants to understand what life and death is about, that wants to live in a different way. Let that be the source of your inspiration, the source of your guidance." – Jack KornfieldThis Dharma Talk from 3/23/86 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this vintage Dharma Talk, Jack illuminates Buddhism's Three Characteristics of Life: stress, non-self, and impermanence.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom "Somehow we believe our concepts, that we'll be here forever, that our life is really going to go on and on. Or we believe our advertising, the idea from the culture that if you get 'this' you'll be able to hold onto it and it will make you happy. It's just not true. Happiness is a matter of the heart; not something we can grasp or hold." – Jack Kornfield In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:Knowledge, love, patience, and a spirit of constancyBeing here now and living in mindfulness in the present momentBuddhism's Three Characteristics of LifeAnicca: impermanenceAnatta: non-selfDukkha: stress/sufferingTrue happiness as a matter of the heartHow you can't stop the waves, but you can learn how to surfThe original truth of self and freedomThis teaching is part of a 4-week long Yoga of Heartfulness online course featuring teachings from Ram Dass and friends. Learn more about this 10 hour course: Ram Dass' Yoga of HeartfulnessThis flowing lecture from 4/18/1985 was originally published on DharmaSeedSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.