Ep. 197 – Cycles of Change

Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield

Be Here Now Network

Kornfield, Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Jackkornfield, Buddhism, Spirituality, Jack Kornfield

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Navigating the body's river of sensations, Jack helps us into the still-point of freedom amidst life's cycles of change.

"If our goal in spiritual practice is some state, some open state, it would be in spiritual life like buying already open flowers instead of buds, or like adopting an adult instead of a child. To awaken the heart of a Buddha requires us to find the deepest respect and compassion for things as they are, for they way things are. There isn't anything you can hold onto in that because it's always changing. There is no enlightened retirement. The way things are includes the cycles of stillness and action, the times of raising a family or being a renunciate, making money or retiring—and finding somehow a way to be with what is, with the truth of change." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully elucidates:

The Dalai Lama's view on the Big Bang Theory
How when we open deeply to our feelings, we recognize the body as a flowing river of sensation
The Buddha's 'Eight Worldly Winds' and using mindfulness and Right Effort to navigate life's cycles of expansion and contraction
Ram Dass, Be Here Now, and the "rollercoaster of highs and lows" of spiritual practice
Finding freedom in the still-point amidst the cycles of change
Trusting ourselves and the universe enough to let go into the mystery

"Life is a process of expansion and contraction. We breathe, and as we sit in meditation you notice there are long and short breaths, cool, fast, deeper ones and shallow ones. If you let it breath itself it has all these rhythms of the body opening and closing all the time. Then you pay attention to sensations in the body. At first it feels like tension, pain, hot, or cold, but the more deeply you listen with your inner-awareness, that which we call pain, tension, hot, or cold, becomes pulsing, throbbing, needles, pinpricks, swirling movement. The more deeply we feel, the more our body shows itself to be a river of sensation." – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk from Spirit Rock on 4/23/1989 was originally published on DharmaSeed.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. There are times when we all feel uncertain about
0:07.1	where we're going in life. Maybe there's a big career change on the horizon, or it's
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0:43.0	slash heart wisdom today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelpHELP.com
0:51.3	slash heart wisdom. So if our goal in spiritual practice is some state, whatever, some open
1:02.3	state, we're going to be like, get this, have that, and then be there as soon as we can.
1:09.8	It would be in spiritual life like buying already open flowers instead of buds, or like
1:16.8	adopting an adult instead of a child. To awaken the heart of a Buddha requires us to find
1:30.2	the deepest respect and compassion for things as they are for the way things are. And there
1:37.7	isn't anything that you can hold on to in that because it's always changing. There is
1:42.2	no enlightened retirement.
1:52.2	Hey there, heart wisdom fam, and welcome back to Rom Doss's Be Here Now Network. This
1:56.2	is once again Ganesh Pramilar, Jack's Media Manager, Content Specialist, and Drip Coffee
2:00.6	Sipping Elephant. Here to shine some light to help this episode bloom amongst the mountain
2:04.6	flowers. This Dharma talk, originally taking place at Spirit Rock on April 23rd, 1989, has
2:11.2	had a revolving door of titles. It was originally called the Life of expansion and contraction.
2:17.5	As in, Jack dives into how when we let life breathe itself, it's like watching our diaphragm,
2:22.4	rising and falling, like in meditation. But then, due to how this next quote turns out,
	...

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