Setting the Compass of Your Heart: What Really Matters? with Jack Kornfield

Ep. 215 (Part 1 of 2) | The first of Deep Transformation’s What is Real Greatness Series, this conversation with world-renowned meditation teacher Jack Kornfield is filled with beautiful teachings touching into the sacred at the heart of our lives and the point of our whole spiritual journey: to remember and embody our innate capacity to awaken and experience the reality of our own innate dignity and nobility. Respecting ourselves at the deepest level is what transforms us and transforms society too, Jack explains. “Do you hold yourself with nobility and respect?” he asks. “Can you remember your own beauty and dignity? Can you see it in others?”

The topic of greatness—real greatness—is woven throughout the dialogue, as Jack recounts the seed events of his own spiritual journey and ruminates on Roger’s question, what is the sacred question at the center of your life? This is a question Jack often asks his own students, and we are inspired to ponder it for ourselves, along with, if you were to write your own bodhisattva vow, what would it be? Jack is a master at inspiring us to live our ideals, to broaden the possibilities of our lives, and to remember the miracle of our existence. A warmly personal, deeply profound discussion. Recorded October 2, 2025.

“The beautiful thing about the bodhisattva ideal is that it becomes your intention… it becomes the setting of the compass of your heart.”

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1

1. Introducing the first of Deep Transformation’s What is Real Greatness? series (00:38)
2. Introducing renowned meditation teacher, prolific author, and clinical psychologist Jack Kornfield (03:09)
3. In discussing real greatness, Jack advises not to throw out money & power as being unworthy (04:47)
4. The story of Emperor Ashoka, who shifted from seeking outer greatness to seeking inner greatness: peace of mind and heart (07:49)
5. How the Buddha turned the Hindu caste system on its head, honoring young monks for their innate nobility (13:17)
6. Can you remember your own beauty & dignity? Can you see it in others? (16:19)
7. Each of us has a sacred question at the center of our lives, what’s been Jack’s? (17:30)
8. Jack’s first draw to Buddhism: suffering and the relief from suffering (21:08)
9. The seeds of our sacred journeys: the path doesn’t go from here to there but from there to here (24:15)
10. It’s completely weird that we exist! (25:40)
11. King Ashoka & other historical figures, good candidates for the What is Real Greatness Series (27:13)
12. Do we ask ourselves, “How do I live?” (28:28)
13. The beautiful thing about the bodhisattva ideal is that it becomes the setting of the compass of your heart (31:32)
14. The prayer with which the Dalai Lama begins his day (36:37)
15. Ideals illuminate the possibilities of how we might live (38:39)
16. If you were to write your own bodhisattva vow… what would it be? (40:47)
17. Sometimes it’s suffering and sometimes it’s an awakening experience that draws us to spirituality (44:28)
18. Jane Goodall, interspecies bodhisattva, and the story of Joanna Macy’s wake (47:37)

Resources & References – Part 1

1. Jack Kornfield, founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and the Insight Meditation Society
2. Mind & Life Institute, bringing science & contemplative wisdom together to better understand the mind and create positive change in the world
3. Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
4. Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology
5. Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy Right Where You Are
6. Emperor Ashoka the Great is credited with an important role in spreading Buddhism across ancient Asia
7. Dr. Wing-tsit Chan, Chinese scholar and professor
8. T. S. Eliot, “…the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time, ” from Eliot’s 1942 poem “Little Gidding”
9. Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
10. Shantideva, 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet & scholar
11. Diane Ackerman’s poem “School Prayer,” “In the name of daybreak… I offer myself humbly as a guardian of nature…”
12. The Sufi tradition of Sohbet
13. Trudy Goodman, founding teacher of InsightLA and co-founder of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy
14. Remembering Jane Goodall
15. Joanna Macy, beloved environmental activist, author & scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology

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Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, India, and Burma. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He is one of the key teachers to introduce mindfulness practice to the West, has taught internationally since 1974, and is the author of 17 books which have sold 2 million copies.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell