Ep. 279 – Jack Kornfield
Metta Hour with Sharon Salzberg
Be Here Now Network
4.6 • 682 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For episode 279, Jack Kornfield returns to the Metta Hour to talk about his new book, “All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World.”
Jack trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India and has taught worldwide since 1974. He is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practices to the West. He is the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and of Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology and has written more than fifteen books, including The Wise Heart, A Path with Heart, and more.
In this conversation, Sharon and Jack speak about:
- The impetus for Jack’s new book
- The universe is made of stories
- Beginner’s Mind as the goal of practice
- Ajahn Chah’s squirrel story
- How repetition factors into storytelling
- Trusting the gifts of interconnectedness
- Ram Dass as the great public neurotic
- The glance of mercy
- The Bodhisattva Vow
- Envisioning generosity to change the world
- Working with our expectations
- Despair is not the end of the story
- Mindful Service as a source of happiness
- The Insight Meditation Society's 50th anniversary
- The founding of IMS told by Jack
- How the Dharma evolves across cultures
This episode closes with a guided meditation from Jack. Learn more about Jack’s many offerings right here and get yourself a copy of his new book All in This Together.
Join the IMS 50th anniversary online celebration on February 14th, 2026! Learn more and register right here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Meta Hour podcast with Sharon Salzberg. |
| 0:16.2 | I'm Lily Cushman. I produce this podcast and we're returning today with episode 279, the illustrious |
| 0:25.0 | return of Jack Cornfield to the Meta Hour. He's here today talking with Sharon about his |
| 0:31.9 | new book that came out right at the end of 2025, all in this together, stories and teachings for loving each other |
| 0:41.6 | and our world. If you don't know Jack, he's maybe one of Sharon's oldest friends. He trained as a Buddhist |
| 0:50.2 | monk in Thailand, Burma, and India, and he began teaching in 1974. He is one of the |
| 0:58.6 | co-founders of the Insight Meditation Society, as well as the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. |
| 1:08.4 | Jack has written more than 15, I think now it's about 17 books, including this |
| 1:14.9 | latest, All in This Together, and it's always a delight to have him here on the pod. In today's |
| 1:22.8 | conversation, he shares the inspiration for his new book, and he and Sharon talk a lot about the way that |
| 1:30.8 | storytelling serves in the teaching of the Dharma, both in kind of how they were taught by their |
| 1:38.0 | teachers and each of their teaching styles. There are a lot of great stories told in this episode and some themes from the book as |
| 1:47.7 | well, like the gifts of interconnectedness, the Bodhisattva vow, working with generosity to change the |
| 1:56.7 | world, mindful service as a source of happiness, and the way that love can help us to |
| 2:04.4 | heal ourselves and heal the world. So this is a lovely conversation between two old friends. |
| 2:12.2 | They also chat about the founding of the Insight Meditation Society because a few weeks from now, |
| 2:21.1 | IMS is turning 50 years old right on Valentine's Day, February 14th. |
| 2:28.6 | Sharon has told the story many times here on the podcast of, you know, the founding of IMS, |
| 2:35.3 | kind of how it came to be, |
| 2:41.3 | but we have the treat today of Jack telling that story with some different nuances and perspective. So lots of great things here, and Jack closes out the conversation with a gorgeous |
| 2:49.0 | guided meditation. And I'll mention also here that |
| 2:53.9 | there is an online celebration happening on Valentine's Day for IMS that is a day of |
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