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

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.

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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 .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}