Ep. 248 – Sacred Effort

Exploring how to direct energy in a wise way, Jack shares how embracing Sacred Effort nourishes joy, ease, beauty, equanimity, mindfulness, and loving kindness in your life.

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"Right Effort, or Wise Energy, most fundamentally is the effort to pay attention, the effort to be present, awake, and see what is true in front of us. Out of all the kinds of efforts we can make, the most fundamental wise effort in spiritual life is to be where we are and see it clearly, to be conscious, or mindful." – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

• Directing the energy of your life to be awake, aware, and present
• Seeing the Eightfold Path as a lotus or mandala
• Carlos Castaneda, impeccability, and becoming a spiritual warrior
• How to wake yourself up from sleepwalking through your life
• Having a full heart, deep attention, and clear seeing
• The two levels of spiritual friends and spiritual practice
• Using suffering to develop a wise heart
• Remembering death and impermanence
• What Jack taught his daughter about death
• Bowing to our difficult emotions and moving on
• Disentangling ourselves from greed, fear, and obsession
• Nourishing equanimity, ease, joy, beauty, and loving kindness
• Tending each moment as if you were planting a seed
• Balance and the Buddha stringing the lute
• Ramana Maharshi and the wisdom of letting go
• Making your life and activity an expression of the Tao

"The teaching of Right Effort or Wise Effort is a reminder of our nobility. It is a reminder of the human inspiration of spirit not just to get through our lives, but to honor it, to respect it, to be present for it, to delight in it." – Jack Kornfield

"Unclench the heart, steady yourself, and be present for things as they are, and then your activity becomes an expression of your awakening, it becomes a vehicle for the Tao." – Jack Kornfield

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

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