Ep. 249 – Mindfulness: The Gateway to Liberation

Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield

Unraveling the mystery of who you truly are, Jack reveals mindfulness as the gateway to liberation within the ever-changing river of life.

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“Mindfulness, in the Buddhist tradition, is said to be the gateway to liberation, the gateway to that which is eternal, to the timeless or the deathless.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

• Mindfulness as the gateway to liberation
• The Buddha’s Eightfold Path and the Middle Way
• Sacred attention, receptivity, and sensitivity
• The prayer of Mad Bear, a magical Iroquois medicine man
• Overcoming worry in the present moment
• Rumi’s transformational poem, The Guest House
• Awareness of breath, body, mind states, feelings, dharma, and the laws of nature
• Using mindfulness as a vehicle to discover who we really are
• Eternity, time, timelessness, change, and becoming deathless
• What it was like when Thich Nhat Hanh visited Spirit Rock
• Entering the “river of life,” humanity’s collective pains, joys, etc
• Dealing with attachment, aversion, grief, and suffering
• Working spiritually with our dreams
• Stepping out of the bureaucracy of ego, thought, and mind
• The freedom of identifying with “the witness”
• Liberation as both practical and radical

“Reality comes out of nothing, exists according to certain patterns, and then disappears. To know this frees us. To not know it, we are bound. This recognition brings us face to face with the mystery.” – Jack Kornfield

“To become mindful is to become free, to have the capacity to step out of the rat race, the speed, the complexity and be who we are, be true to our hearts. There comes a great balance and ease with that. In any moment, we stop the war, we stop the conflict, we come back to be as the Buddha sits, as the Buddha walks, as the Buddha speaks, where we are, just present and alive.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk recorded on 3/1/1992 was originally published on DharmaSeed.

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