Be Here Now Network

In this brand new Dharma Talk, Jack sings a redemption song inviting us to lay down our suffering and anger so we can open to the heart of compassion.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

"These teachings of redemption point to the wondrous possibility that the conflicts that plague the world can be transformed by the nobility of heart." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully shares:

- Real tear-jerking stories of redemption of the human heart

- If there is a possibility of return from all the conflicts in the world today

- Contemplating who we push out of our hearts

- The value of offering compassion and loving kindness

- Not letting the suffering of the world poison our hearts and turn us against whole groups of people

- How without compassion and wisdom, we project it out on "them"

- How Buddhist teachings of impermanence lead to the possibility of redemption

- The transformative miracle of neuroplasticity

- Putting down thoughts of blame and turning towards a peaceful heart

- How good stories can help us break the trance and bring us into the present moment

- The way Ram Dass helped Jack, Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein work through a period of conflict

- How the world is full of second chances and redemption is possible

"What is the value of the gaze of compassion and loving kindness? It's the consciousness, it's the conscience that leads us to a wiser and more humane life. And with the most terrible dictators and terrorists, the warlords that we see causing so much suffering in this world—we have to do all we can to stop that suffering, but it's also important not to let it poison our hearts, not to let it in any way demonize our hearts to turn against whole groups of people, or give way to despair." – Jack Kornfield

"It's not just the grass that keeps growing, your body keeps renewing itself. Everything is in change. Consciousness is a waterfall, a river, an ocean of recreation again and again, inviting new patterns in illumination and the possibility of redemption. You can trust this power and align yourself to it." – Jack Kornfield

This lecture from Jack originally took place for the Spirit Rock Live: Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation. If you would like to join Jack online for his next livestream on Feb 19, register at JackKornfield.com/events

Joseph Goldstein joins Rohan Gunatillake to share the meditative story of how he first learned to integrate his spirituality into everyday life.

This episode was originally aired on Meditative Story, a podcast that combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with the immediate, science-backed benefits of mindfulness practice – all surrounded by breathtaking and cinematic music. You can find Meditative Story on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!

Joseph Goldstein shares a personal story about:

One of the most transformative moments in Joseph’s life

The beginning of Joseph’s enlightenment journey

Integrating the spiritual gifts Joseph learned from the east into his everyday life in the west

Learning to embrace the uncomfortable feeling of not-knowing

How Joseph first connected with Ram Dass

Joseph’s first job offer teaching a meditation class

Saying yes and allowing opportunities to present themselves

A guided mindfulness practice

“It’s as if my life exists as two separate strands. One is the strand of my practice, which feels clear and stable. The other is how that practice will manifest and how I can ever hope to apply it to the world. Spiritually, I am flying high. But I have no idea where to land.” – Joseph Goldstein

About Joseph Goldstein:

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

About Rohan Gunatillake:

Rohan Gunatillake is a writer, entrepreneur, and host of the podcast Meditative Story. By artfully crafting meditations to compliment each guest’s story, Rohan blends mindfulness with narrative to create a unique listening experience, encouraging listeners to use someone else’s transformative moment as the basis for their own. He’s also the founder of the best-selling app Buddhify, and author of Modern Mindfulness: How to Be More Relaxed, Focused, and Kind While Living in a Fast, Digital, Always-On World.

In this lively session, Jack illuminates how we can begin to open the heart through the transformational power of self-acceptance.

"Acceptance is the ground out of which true insight and understanding comes. It's an essential aspect of our practice. If we don't accept some aspect of ourself—some feeling, some physical sense of ourself aspect, some mental sense of ourself—then how are we to learn about it if we condemn it? How are we to discover it's nature? How are we to become free in relationship to it? Self-acceptance is not all of the practice, but it's a foundation and spirit which allows for attention and mindfulness to work." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates:

- Transforming ourself and our practice through self-acceptance

- How true acceptance allows the practice of attention and mindfulness to work

- Don Juan, attention, non-self, and "dissolving the world"

- The power of accepting our non-acceptance

- Practice as a process of opening the heart and mind

- Dipa Ma as an embodiment of loving kindness, metta

- The gradual transformational created through the careful continuity of 'noting'

- Overcoming and integrating doubt, anger, guilt, and pain

- Resting in the present and the natural calming of the heart and the mind

- Impermanence and the Five Aggregates

- The spiritual question of 'free will versus determinism'

- Meditation and looking at our intentions

- Moving poems by Thich Nhat Hạnh and Hanshan

"Practice is a process of opening both the heart and the mind. To open the heart is to allow ourselves to begin to experience whatever there is in our being—in our walking, in our moving, in our eating—with a kindness, with a softness." – Jack Kornfield

"You can sit, and the intention to get up will arise, and if you really notice with continuity and care, you can notice maybe the attention to standup and walk because you're uncomfortable, or the intention to go take tea, or the intention to go to the bathroom. And if you notice sometimes you'll see the intention arise as that quality, 'About to do something...', and you note it, and it disappears, and there you are still sitting there. You watch the breath for a while and the intention comes again, and you begin to see how intention functions, and that it too is impersonal. It's not something you can say is, 'I, me, or mine.'" – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk from 10/16/1983 at Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed.

In this essential talk, Ram Dass leans on the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, Ramana Maharshi, and Groucho Marx to explore identity, change, and how incarnation is the blueprint for liberation.

Want to be a part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Register now for the SoulPod Meet-Up on January 23rd at 3 pm EST: https://www.ramdass.org/fellowship/#soulpod

This episode of Here and Now is taken from a workshop in Los Angeles in May of 1991.

Ram Dass dives into the concept of identity and how we’ve lost the balance between our identity as individuals and our identity as part of the unity of all things. We begin by being too attached to the somebody-ness that’s drilled into us from birth and then, as we awaken spiritually, we go in the other direction and cling too tightly to the unity. The ultimate goal is to be in the world, but not of the world.

Offering the wisdom of Groucho Marx, Ram Dass talks about learning to play with reality and how part of what we’re awakening to is that there are many planes of reality. He references Ramana Maharshi and describes how the spiritual journey is ultimately about extricating yourself from your definitions of yourself.

Part of the predicament of being so attached to these definitions of self is that all things change, including our bodies. Ram Dass addresses the very nature of change and reads from the Tao Te Ching to offer us a clue to the Way. Ultimately, as we awaken, we can begin to see how our unique incarnations are actually the blueprint for our liberation. There are no errors in this game.

“The balance that got off was that we started out with this undifferentiated self and we so well learned our separateness that our separateness veiled over the connection we had to the unity of all things.” – Ram Dass

Examining how mysticism hides in plain sight, Omid Safi describes God as love, the lover, and the beloved with guest host Kelly Deutsch.

This episode was originally recorded for the Spiritual Wanderlust Podcast, with Kelly Deutsch. Learn more about this series that explores the wild, untamed frontiers of our interior life at spiritualwanderlust.org/podcast

This time on Sufi Heart, Omid Safi speaks with Kelly about:

Discovering Islamic Mystics

Sufism and having a pure heart

Omid’s life in Iran and exposure to masculine displays of emotion

The mystery of being human, the mystery of God

Heartbreak and experiencing the heart breaking open

Sacred Eroticism and using our senses to experience loveliness

What we can learn from the type of love a mother provides

Radical love and going into the roots

Linking together love and justice

“The Sufis explicitly say something that of course we find also in the Christian mystical contemplative tradition. Mischievously, they almost say there is a holy trinity, a language which most orthodox Muslims would avoid and all Jews would have avoided. But they say the trinity is love, lover, and beloved. God is love, God is the lover, and God is the beloved.” – Omid Safi

In a discussion on Buddhism and wellness, author George Pitagorsky joins Raghu to explore his new book, The Peaceful Warrior’s Path.

In this episdoe, Raghu and George explore:

George’s history with yoga and meditation

The clear canon of Buddhism and Non-dualism

Compassion beyond the ego

The continuous dance between the relative and the absolute

Cultivating patience

Creating new patterns to replace our habits

Hope in neuroplasticity and changing behaviors

What is behind witnessing

Remaining open to all skillful means

The current suffering in the world

Opportunities to practice self awareness

“Chances are you’re not going to be completely enlightened next week, no matter what you do, though it could happen. So you take on the work of becoming as well as possible. Wellness is the subtitle of this book, and it’s not just about physical wellness. Wellness has got like eight dimensions to it including spiritual, mental, physical, financial, and all of that. Your goal is how can I cultivate wellness, how can I be as well as possible given my condition?” – George Pitagorsky

After a chant to Ma Durga, Krishna Das answers questions about global suffering and anchoring our hearts through regular practice.

Today’s episode originally aired on Krisha Das’ “Hanging Out In the Heart Space” online satsang on March 10th, 2022. Be sure to subscribe to Krishna Das on Youtube to get new episodes of “Hanging Out In the Heart Space”, fresh music from KD and more: youtube.com/channel/UCtzvMbKEud7MqkIVdFjfHXQ

This time on Pilgrim Heart, Krishna Das talks about:

- Praying to Hanuman for the removal of obstacles

- Keeping an open and available heart for all people

- The mythology of Shiva

- Stories of K.K Sah

- The beauty of Lila (divine play)

- Maharaj-Ji as a manifestation of love

- Escaping from the habit loop

- The suffering that comes from trying to control our experiences

- Letting all things in life come and go

- Planting seeds through regular practice

“One has to allow all kinds of experiences to come and go, without being destroyed by them. You only get that strength from spiritual practice and from coming into contact with the beings who have conquered suffering, overcame all suffering. Read about those beings, get to know those beings. How did they do it? How did they see the world?” – Krishna Das

Discussing the differences between knowing, awareness and wisdom, Joseph Goldstein helps deepen our insights into the nature of body and mind.

This 2007 talk was originally published on Dharmaseed.

This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour

This time on Insight Hour, Joseph lectures on:

- The Satipatthana Sutta

- The four foundations of mindfulness

- Overcoming suffering and attaining freedom

- How wisdom combines awareness and investigation

- Struggling as the manifestation of non-acceptance

- Grounding in awareness of different sense objects

- Attuning to the patterns and conditioning in our minds

- The attitudes and judgements we have about experiences

- The ability to learn about our minds in any situation

“Wisdom arises out of awareness and it combines the qualities of investigation, of what the Buddha called right understanding/right attitude. With mindfulness as the platform, that is the foundation. Without mindfulness none of this happens.“ – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack illuminates the law of karma and shares how we can overcome habits in order to live a life of awareness.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/heartwisdom

"To live a life of awareness asks a lot of us—it asks that we know ourselves, know our feelings, and know our hearts." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack compassionately outlines:

- How to move past our karmas to live a life of awareness

- Listening inside to find integrity with our words, actions, and hearts

- Buddha's emphasis on working with our feelings to find freedom

- How not to get caught in reaction to the 'Eight Worldly Winds'

- Understanding the law of karma and law of change

- Overcoming our habits and shaping our future with awareness

- Understanding our motivations in our actions

- Discerning between feelings in the body and our mind's stories

- Diffusing overpowering emotions with awareness

"The first part of karma is simply that things keep changing, and that how we respond to them creates our future. What's in our hearts that motivates us, creates how the future will be." – Jack Kornfield

"Wisdom—understanding, living wisely—comes from the cultivation of awareness." – Jack Kornfield

This talk from New Years Day 1/1/1988 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

In this New Years episode exploring how we can revolutionize our lives by becoming aware of our feelings, Jack talks clear seeing and gives instructions for an eating meditation.

"If you become aware of your feelings, they don't last very long. We feel like we're angry for a day, or sad for a week, or happy for a month, or grieving for a while—as if those feelings lasted that long. But if you look closely and you let yourself feel what's here and pay attention, feelings rarely last more than thirty seconds, maybe a minute, and then then turn into something else. Guaranteed. If you have some feeling that feels like it's lasted much longer than that, you haven't paid attention to it." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully illuminates:

- The practice of awareness, mindfulness, and paying attention

- Working with the inevitability of change, impermanence, and death

- Clear seeing, clear comprehension, and integrity

- Mindfulness of the process of eating, food, diet, and hunger

- Instructions for an 'eating meditation'

- Discerning the voices in our head and choosing the most skillful one to follow

- Using 'noting' and 'tracking' to become aware of our feelings and diffuse their grip on us

"When we remember that things change, when we can see it in front of us from moment to moment, it effects deeply the way that we live. If we know that things are really fleeting, it brings a quality or a care to our attention to know where we are. Because we realize that this may be the only time—in fact it is the only time—that we'll be in this day, in this moment, in this circumstance. So one tends to live less automatically if we remember the fact of change, of impermanence and death." – Jack Kornfield

This talk from New Years Day 1/1/1988 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.