Jack Kornfield Explained

Jack Kornfield
Birth Place:U.S.
Religion:Buddhism
School:Theravada
Vipassana Meditation Teacher
Spouse:Liana Kornfield (first wife, divorced), Trudy Goodman (current wife)

Jack Kornfield (born 1945) is an American writer and teacher in the Vipassana movement in American Theravada Buddhism.[1] He trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India,[2] first as a student of the Thai forest master Ajahn Chah and Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. He has taught mindfulness meditation worldwide since 1974. In 1975, he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, and subsequently in 1987, Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Kornfield has worked as a peacemaker and activist, organized teacher training, and led international gatherings of Buddhist teachers including the Dalai Lama.

Biography

Kornfield is of Jewish descent and has three brothers.[3] He is a fraternal twin. His father was a scientist, which brought him to an interest in healing, medicine and science. He took a course in Asian philosophy with Dr. Wing-tsit Chan. Kornfield ended up majoring in Asian studies.[4]

After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1967, Kornfield joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Thailand where he worked on tropical medicine teams in the Mekong River valley.[5] There he met and became a monk under the forest master Ajahn Chah, and later practiced with Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma and Dipa Ma.[6] Kornfield returned to the United States in 1972 and in the summer of 1974, participated in the founding session of Naropa University. From the associations of this period came the Insight Meditation Society co-founded in 1975 with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein in Barre, Massachusetts. In 1987 he co-founded Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California.

Kornfield has trained many of the Vipassana teachers in America, and hosted and led gatherings for Buddhist teachers together with the Dalai Lama and worldwide. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Saybrook Institute.[7] Kornfield has written extensively on the bridge between Eastern and Western psychology.

His daughter Caroline is a graduate of Berkeley Law and practices Asylum Law. His ex-wife Liana is an artist and therapist. His wife Trudy Goodman[8] is also a renowned meditation teacher and the founding teacher of InsightLA, which combines training in Vipassana and non-sectarian mindfulness and compassion practices, including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC).[9]

Teachings

Kornfield has worked to make Buddhism accessible for Westerners.[10] He has focused on combining loving kindness and self compassion with the practice of mindfulness, and incorporating together the wisdom of Eastern and Western psychology.

In Jack Kornfield's book After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, he writes about the honest development of the wise heart within the cycles of day-to-day life; for instance "amid all the Western masters and teachers I know, some idealistic perfection is not apparent. Times of great wisdom, deep compassion, and a real knowing of freedom alternate with periods of fear, confusion, neurosis, and struggle. Most teachers will readily admit this."[11]

Kornfield lectures were featured by Joe Frank on his radio series "The Other Side."

Books published

His books include:

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Elliott, William . Tying rocks to clouds: meetings and conversations with wise and spiritual people . registration . June 6, 2011 . March 1, 1996 . Image Books . 978-0-385-48191-5 . 215 . So before my interview with Jack Kornfield, who is a well-known Vipassana meditation teacher, I was concerned about not.
  2. Web site: About . Jack Kornfield . August 20, 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150812111948/http://www.jackkornfield.com/bio-new-jack-kornfield/ . August 12, 2015 . mdy-all .
  3. Web site: Finding My Religion / Buddhist teacher and author Jack Kornfield on mindfulness, happiness and his own spiritual journey . . November 28, 2005 . September 11, 2015.
  4. Web site: FINDING MY RELIGION / Buddhist teacher and author Jack Kornfield on mindfulness, happiness and his own spiritual journey. November 28, 2005.
  5. Web site: Silberman . Steve . Wise Heart: A profile of Jack Kornfield . September 1, 2010 . September 10, 2015.
  6. Book: Kornfield, Jack. The Wise Heart. registration. Bantam Books. 76. 2008. 9780553382334.
  7. Book: Palmer, Helen . Inner knowing: consciousness, creativity, insight, and intuition . June 6, 2011 . December 28, 1998 . J.P. Tarcher/Putnam . 978-0-87477-936-3 . 202 . Regardless of its level of complexity, every practice relies on steadiness of concentration. Jack Kornfield, psychologist and meditation teacher, describes the practice that forms a cornerstone of ….
  8. Web site: Dharma teachers Trudy Goodman and Jack Kornfield to tie the knot. Lion's Roar. April 20, 2016. April 20, 2016.
  9. Web site: About InsightLA. InsightLA. April 20, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160808060647/https://www.insightla.org/about/. August 8, 2016. dead.
  10. Book: Grof, Stanislav . Stanislav Grof . When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Reality . June 6, 2011 . June 2006 . Sounds True . 978-1-59179-420-2 . 235 . Coleader of the workshop was Jack Kornfield, dear friend, psychologist, Vipassana teacher, and Buddhist monk, who taught participants the principles of insight meditation, gave lectures on Buddhism, offered personal darshans, ….
  11. Book: Kornfield, Jack . After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path . . 2001 . xix . 9780553378290 . registration .

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