|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
||
| —Judy Waters | ||
|
||
| So writes Jack Kornfield, celebrated Buddhist teacher, writer and psychologist, in the introduction to his new book The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology. The book is a magical blend of autobiography, case studies, travelogue and philosophical treatise. It’s a deeply moving journey into a new way of seeing, of working with the challenges, the suffering and the healing journeys of our individual and collective selves. Science of Mind caught up with Kornfield at Spirit Rock, his retreat center in Marin County, California. | ||
Science of Mind You came from a family background that was filled with hostility and violence; from there studied at Dartmouth; and then you went on this amazing journey of your life. What inspired that first step? Kornfield I think everybody has inside them a kind of call. I was deeply drawn to the spiritual life, and read about Zen and different forms of Buddhist practice. I studied them in the university. Because the pain I had in my family was difficult, when I heard teachings that said that you don’t have to be caught by the pain of your past, you can be free from your past and the mind can free itself, I was enormously inspired and interested. That took me to Southeast Asia, to Thailand. I went in the Peace Corps first. I asked them to send me to a Buddhist country so I could study in a monastery, because I’d been studying Buddhism at Dartmouth. I found this wonderful meditation master, Ajahn Chah, who, when I originally went, had a small monastery way out in the jungle; only one other Westerner had been there. Chah wasn’t very well known at the time, but he was wonderful; when he died twenty-five years later, a million people went to his funeral, including the king and queen of Thailand. He became a voice of wisdom for a good many people in that country. He was just a remarkable person. So I was lucky in Thailand, and then again in Burma, to study with several of the Buddhist masters who were the most respected of their generation. What was it that made you want to bring Buddhism to the West? I didn’t plan to bring Buddhism to the West—that happened. I was trying to understand my own life—my own suffering and sadness, and spiritual interest— and the possibility of deep connection with the universe. Having learned beautiful things in the monastery, and transformative practices, when I was leaving, my teacher said, “Well, are you going to teach this to others? Teach people the practices of compassion and loving kindness so that they discover it, that it’s possible for them. Teach people the practice of forgiveness. Teach people the practices of letting go of fear and confusion and grasping and anger so that their hearts can be free.” So when I came back, I went to graduate school in Clinical Psychology, in part so I could understand those trainings and what I had learned from a Western perspective. And then people started to invite me to teach what I had learned in the monastery. Everything unfolded from that. This was in the 1970s. |
||
| www.spiritrock.org |
|
To
read further, pick up your copy of Science of Mind Magazine United
Church of Religious Science Web Design
and Graphics Copyright © 2003
Marty Bunch Art Originals
|
