Jack Kornfield, a renowned mindfulness and meditation teacher, invites listeners to embrace the 'song of the present moment.' He explores the challenges of truly being present, highlighting the interplay of joy and sorrow. Kornfield discusses how love intertwines with presence and emphasizes the importance of breath awareness. He shares insights on the fluidity of enlightenment, the healing power of connecting with emotions, and the significance of recognizing life as dynamic rhythms. Dive into the beauty of life's impermanence and the essence of mindful living.
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The Child's Song
An African tribe calculates a child's birthdate from when the mother first thinks of having them.
The mother then learns the child's song and shares it with the father and villagers, creating communal harmony.
insights INSIGHT
Present Moment Awareness
Hearing the song of birth and death is like meditation: listening without judgment.
The present moment, though containing both joy and sorrow, is the only place where true love exists.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Breath Awareness
Pay attention to your breath's rhythm; even small improvements increase present moment awareness.
Let the breath's softness guide your mind to subtle attention, observing its qualities.
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Listening to the song of the present moment, Jack uncovers how to dance with life’s dynamic rhythms along the harmonizing path to inner-freedom.
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“The rhythm of your breath is no different than the rhythm of the stars.” – Jack Kornfield
In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:
The art of listening to the song of life, birth and death
Why it can be so tough to actually “Be Here Now” like Ram Dass
How love connects to the present moment
Alan Watts, music, dance, and harmonizing to the universe
Feeling the rhythms of your breath and body
Learning to dance to life’s dynamic music
Staying open and avoiding spiritual bypass
Looking at our body and life clearly and directly
The power of attention, noting, and spaciousness for diffusing our judgements and emotions
Buddha’s discovery of the Middle Way, and why he stopped fighting himself
Dealing with the unfinished business of grief, loss, loneliness, wounds
How to handle worries or fantasies that keep looping over and over
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the tenderness and fearlessness of an Awakened Heart
Why Buddha focused on humans as ‘five processes,’ rather than personalities
Letting go of our rigid sense of self and diving into the fluidity of life
Non-grasping and how even enlightenment is a problem
Discovering the true path to liberation
Death, dying, and a reading from the Tibetan Book of the Dead
“To listen is to be awake in the present without moving away from or running away from what’s actually here.” – Jack Kornfield
“The only place to actually love another person, or a tree, or a living creature, or the earth itself, is when we’re here in the present.” – Jack Kornfield
This Dharma talk originally recorded in 1991 was originally published on DharmaSeed.
Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path. Register for free today: The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET
Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield 