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Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield

Ep. 288 – The Trusting Heart: Letting Go of Victimhood, Awakening Resilience

Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield

Be Here Now Network

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

4.81.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Exploring how to let go of victim consciousness and awaken inner resilience, Jack shares how to rest in awareness and live from the trusting heart.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

Join Jack's New Free Course, Stand Up For Compassion: A Free Course and Resource for Navigating Uncertain Times

In this episode of Heart Wisdom, Jack mindfully explores:

  • Liberation, resilience, and the Trusting Heart
  • The physical nature of time within the infinite nature of awareness
  • Change, aging, and the weirdness of looking in the mirror
  • Meditation and working with the drama that arises
  • Remembering who we truly are, no matter how lost we get
  • Moving past victim consciousness, shame, and blame
  • Dropping our negative stories and starting to live with nobility
  • How we are so much more than our suffering
  • How to stop being loyal to our stories about ourselves and the world
  • Navigating these "latter day degenerate times with cherry blossoms everywhere”
  • The goal of practice as keeping our beginners mind
  • Letting go of fear and opening to adventure
  • Not confusing no-self with low-self esteem
  • "No self, no problem"
  • The strength, aliveness, and fullness of true emptiness
  • The Dharma of a zoo in a hurricane
  • The Trusting Heart as natural as the Tao, as resilient as water, and as forgiving as the earth
  • The resiliency, compassion, and intuition of the Witness
  • Recognizing how good you're actually doing

"When we become still, when we're not trying to be something, when we're in the moments of the trusting heart—what's left is not imitation or artificial, it is as natural as the Tao, as resilient and flexible as water, and as forgiving as the earth." – Jack Kornfield 

This Dharma Talk was recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and originally published on DharmaSeed.

“Is this who you really are—the victim, the abandoned one, the lonely one? Is that really who you are?  If you speak it out loud, 'I'm the victim,' it gets embarrassing because something in there can't say it very long. Over time we've become really loyal to this story, but actually, something in us knows that it's not the whole game. There comes tremendous freedom when we begin to experience this." – Jack Kornfield

About Jack Kornfield:

Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies.

Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year's worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield.

Stay up to date with Jack and his stream of fresh dharma offerings by visiting JackKornfield.com and signing up for his email teachings.

"There is a resiliency in us as human beings which becomes trustworthy when we let go of the small sense of self and become the spacious, open, witness to all things." – Jack Kornfield

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

0:04.5

In this culture, there can be a stigma around therapy and mental health.

0:09.4

As we enter Mental Health Awareness Month, let's encourage everyone to care for their well-being and break the stigma.

0:17.0

The world is better when people are healthy and happy.

0:20.5

Therapy is a great way to improve communication skills,

0:23.9

develop coping strategies, build stronger relationships, and more.

0:29.6

BetterHelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient.

0:35.1

Tap into a diverse network of more than 30,000 licensed therapist and find the right match for you.

0:42.1

We're all better with help.

0:44.2

Visit betterhelp.com slash heart wisdom today to get 10% off your first month.

0:50.4

That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash heart wisdom.

1:02.1

There is a kind of resiliency in us as human beings, which you can see and also becomes trustworthy

1:10.0

when we let go of the small sense of

1:12.4

self and become the witness to all things there's the state of awareness that is the witnessing

1:18.6

of life that is spacious and open and trustworthy and what comes in it then is not self-centeredness

1:27.3

but connectedness compassion and and a natural way of responding, and inner knowing, the one who knows, to whatever the circumstance.

1:37.3

And a caring, because it's not them and me, it's us. It's us. We are appearing in all these different forms, but it's just us. It's family.

1:53.0

In these latter day, degenerate times, cherry blossoms everywhere.

2:01.0

Zen master Issa, quoted by Jack Cornfield, in episode 288 of heart wisdom,

2:07.9

The Trusting Heart, Letting Go of Victimhood and Awakening Resilience.

2:14.3

This is the counterpart to last week's episode on remembering who you are, recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, sometime after Ram Dass's stroke.

2:25.3

And in this episode, Jack offers us something beautiful, our own innate beauty.

...

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