Ep. 226 – The Courage to Recognize Truth

Sharing spiritual wisdom on meditation, abundance, intimacy, and the astral body, Jack helps us cultivate the courage to recognize truth.

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"In one important sense, meditation is an exercise in truth, an exercise in opening to what is true, to what is here in front of in the most direct and obvious ways." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack compassionately illuminates:

• Meditation as an exercise in truth
• Jesus and the Buddha following their deepest inner truths
• Dharma and direct seeing from the heart
• Buddhism's three characteristics of life: impermanence, suffering, selflessness
• Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's view on the rebirth of our bad habits
• The difference between our physical 'fear body' we inhabit during the day, versus our expansive 'astral body' we expand into at night
• Mindfulness, spaciousness, and Buddha Nature
• Abundance and intimacy in spirituality
• The 16th Karmapa as the Dharma King
• A beautiful (and funny) story of an end-of-life guided meditation

"Somebody asked Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the Tibetan Lama, 'If there's no self, what is it that is reborn in Buddhism?' He smiled and said, 'I hate to tell you this, but what's reborn is your bad habits.'" – Jack Kornfield

"To note what's present is the first task. The second task is to see or sense what happens to it. These are both important. So, sadness comes and you note, 'Ah, here's the feeling of sadness.' And then you name it for a while, you stay with it and see what it does, 'Sad...sad...sad.' Maybe you name it five to ten times and it disappears. Then itching comes and you name, 'Itching...itching...' You don't just name it and hurry back to your breath. You name it and see what it does, 'Itching...itching.' Then, it spreads and your whole face is tingling, 'Tinging...tingling... I'm gonna die if I don't scratch this... Dying...dying...' Then if you stay with it, dying passes, tingling passes, itching passes. If you let yourself stay with things, naming them as long as they are there and seeing them happen, they show their true nature—which is to arise, change, and pass." – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk from 7/11/1990 at was originally published on DharmaSeed.

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