Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Jack Kornfield on Ten Percent Happier Live | Bonus Episode

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

In times like these, we need practical, actionable ways of coping with stress, fear, and anxiety. Hence my new project -- Ten Percent Happier Live. Every weekday, we'll offer a free live sanity break, featuring some of the world's best meditation teachers, streaming from our homes to yours. We'll start with a five minute meditation, and then take questions from the audience. Today we're posting a bonus episode to the podcast feed from my session on Friday, March 20th with meditation teacher and author Jack Kornfield. Join us at www.tenpercent.com/live at 3pm ET every weekday.  How to access Ten Percent Happier Live:  Website: www.tenpercent.com/live In the Ten Percent Happier App: https://10percenthappier.app.link/TenPercentHappierLIVE YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb3AWCFuxotrXmgqUHQdwyg Organizations in need of support:   Placer Food Bank: http://placerfoodbank.org/  Feeding America: https://www.feedingamerica.org/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before we jump into today's show, many of us want to live healthier lives, but keep bumping our heads up against the same obstacles over and over again. But what if there was a different way to relate to this gap between what you want to do and what you actually do? What if you could find intrinsic motivation for habit change that will make you happier instead of sending you into a shame spiral? Learn how to form healthy habits without kicking your own ass unnecessarily by taking our healthy habits course over on the 10% happier app. It's taught by the Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonical and the Great Meditation Teacher Alexis

Santos to access the course. Just download the 10% happier app wherever you get your apps or by visiting 10% calm. All one word spelled out. Okay on with the show. For ABC, to baby. This is Kiki Palmer on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcast. From ABC, this is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hey guys, popping into your podcast feed with a quick bonus episode. As I've mentioned on recent episodes during this pandemic, we're trying to do as much as possible free so that we can help you cope. One of the things we've launched is every weekday, live guided meditations on YouTube. We're calling it 10% happier live. And we've been able to sign up some amazing meditation teachers, incredible meditation teachers for the next few weeks, and we're going to keep just going and going as long as we can be of service.

And I wanted to give you a quick taste of what we're doing. On Friday, we got Jack Cornfield and incredible teachers written many, many books and founded two very prominent meditation centers, IMS, Insight Meditation Society, and followed by Spirit Rock to come on and guide a quick meditation. The format of the show is we do five minutes, we do a little bit of chat, and then we do five minutes of meditation, and then we do questions from viewers. So, we'll be doing this weekdays, as I said, three Eastern noon Pacific for the foreseeable future. This is a good way for you guys to taste test what we're doing and then come join us live. It's at you can find us

at 10% dot com slash live 10% dot com slash live that's T E N P E R C E N T dot com slash live. We'll put the link in the show notes. The other way you can find us is on the app under the courses tab or just go to YouTube and search for 10% happier. So here we go with Jack Cornfield. Okay, let's kick this thing off. Happy Friday everybody. We're reaching the end of our first week of this little experiment we launched on Monday to do daily guided live meditations right here on the interwebs. We're still figuring out some of our tech stuff and we really appreciate you guys rolling with it. At the end of this, if you could

do a favor and click on the survey and tell us what you like and what you don't like, that would be great. Toby is not here today. We get a lot of requests for Toby, but our meditation teacher today is a my word, not his, a giant in the field. His name is Jack Hornfield. And there he is, beaming in to us from the San Francisco area. Jack, thanks so much for joining us. Oh, I'm pleased to join. And I think the service and the support that you're offering to a really big community

is critical at this time. So thank you, too. Thank you. I wanna ask you a question that you and I were chatting right before we went live here. You know, I've been having a lot of conversations with people and hearing that, you know, I was talking to the great radio host,

Chris, to tip it yesterday. And she referred to this as a species moment that it's in some ways going to be a reset on our global reset on modern life. And I just wonder, I mean, you can make pessimistic, prognostications, optimistic ones. Where are you in terms of your thinking about how this is going to affect how we live? Well, it is a species moment in that we are having to realize in a deeper way our interconnectedness and it doesn't matter how much you try to isolate yourself in the country or how much

money you have or so forth. It's yes, it will affect the vulnerable and the poor and the homeless and so forth. Immediately, but it's not going to stop there. If I understand right, some of the ministers in Iran have already died. It's going to happen to us all. And we have to realize this. So I believe and hope that we're going

to be able to take a pause, the 99% of us that kept through this, and hopefully reset our values and say, what really matters? How do we care for one another and for the earth? So I'll have an optimistic view at the moment that that could happen and hope that it does. I hope you're right. Just just for the uninitiated who are unfamiliar with your work before we dive into the meditation Can you just describe? I know you've been you've been at this meditation thing for coming up on 55 years. Can you just describe your background briefly so people know? Sure, so I trained as a Buddhist monk in

monasteries of Thailand and Burma in India and I also trained I got a PhD in clinical psychology and I've been bringing Eastern and Western psychology together and psychology and I've been bringing Eastern and Western psychology together and together with colleagues like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzburg, have been some of the group that introduced mindfulness practice to the West. Yes, the pioneers who really made a massive contribution to the world, I believe, the sine qua non of my meditation career, the fact that you guys went over to Asia, learned these practices and came back and taught them in a way that made it comprehensible and attractive to this culture.

Yeah, we knew it had transformed us and we hoped it would be a benefit to others. The other thing that we've all done is we've trained a lot of other teachers, which is very satisfying. I'm still doing that on my website, tacquanfield.com. You can see there's a global teacher training. We now have almost 2,000 people in it who want to learn how to offer mindfulness and compassion practices to others so that it actually, it's not owned by anybody, but it's made available in schools and clinics wherever people can use it.

Yeah, it's been a great initiative, which I know you've run with a partner who's another giant in this field of Tatar Brock of life. She's been on my podcast. I'd love to have her on this web, uh, web thing we're doing now. So let's, uh, let's get down to business. If you don't mind, would you, would you be willing to guide us in guide us in a quick meditation? Yes, with pleasure. So for those of you who are listening, and in this case, I imagine not driving, so that's a good thing for this practice. Center yourself, make sure you're seated in it, let your eyes close, or if not, let them be downcast. And begin to tune in in this present moment to the experience here and now. This is a practice of trusting in awareness and compassion. passion. And as you tune in, you might take a deeper breath or two to release any obvious tension that you can. And then bring your attention. We'll call it a mindful loving awareness to your body.

And without any judgment, simply notice the state of your body just now. There might be areas of tightness or tension, warm or cool, might be contraction, heaviness, lightness. And as you bring a mindful loving awareness to your body, allow things to be as they are. And bring in the quality of kindness or compassion. Your body is doing the best it can at this point. You can almost thank it. And notice that as you hold it with loving awareness and compassion, the fears and tensions that are carried in the body can begin to soften and release. You can steady yourself And now shift your tension and bring the same

mindful loving awareness to your heart and notice what feelings are present. Does we get quiet in this time of the pandemic of the coronavirus? There are naturally so grief, anticipation, anger, feelings of helplessness, all those kinds along with many others. And since what's present now in your own heart, those of course along with care and love. And bring the spirit of compassion and loving awareness as if you could hold a frightened child to hold all the emotions that are present. And notice what happens when you bring a loving and compassionate awareness to all the feelings that are present. Like the body, they begin to soften. And there comes, instead, a sense of greater peace and stability. And gradually you can begin to sense a trust in awareness that you are the awareness knowing

what's happening in your body, in your heart, in your mind. And you can trust that awareness itself is filled of mindful loving awareness and compassion is big enough to hold all of the experiences that you can hold these with a steadiness and a calm and a kind or compassionate and generous spirit. You are accessing a greater inner strength beyond the feelings and thoughts and sensations in the body. You can thank your body for trying to protect you. You can thank your body for trying to protect you. You can thank your heart and your emotions, the fears and confusion. Thank you for trying to protect me. I'm okay for now.

And as you thank them and hold in compassion, you trust more and more deeply your capacity to be present and wise and loving and strong through it all. Now, keeping the sense of steadiness and trust and awareness itself, let your eyes open and know that the same quality of inner strength that we need in this time can be tapped into whenever you need. Thank you very much, Jack. Pleasure. So we're we've already got some questions coming in from people who are watching,

this one's from James William. Do you have a recommended month for us in this time of unsureness? You can use a mantra or a repetitive phrase, and there is good in English as they might be in another language, whether it's in Sanskrit or Burmese or Tibetan. And I would recommend the simple mantras that teachers like Zen Master Tiknodhahn use, a mantra like calm and kind with each breath as a reminder of how we can live and as an invitation for those very qualities of heart and mind to be present. You know, on this issue of kindness, which you hit in a big way in the guided meditation, bringing a sort of a clear awareness of whatever's going on for us internally but also a sense of warmth

friendliness. You have a student who I've become quite close with who's become one of my teachers spring washroom who are hoping to get on this livestream and I did a one-on-one retreat with her and really the big lesson that I and I've been writing about that retreat that I learned from that is that you can and I really went there again when I was listening to your meditation that I have all sorts of things coming up during this time. Some of them are embarrassing, you know, selfish concerns about what's going to happen to me and all of this. And I don't really like that they're coming up, but just that reminder of you can see it clearly and with a sense of friendliness

that those voices that might be embarrassing to you or they're just trying to protect you, maybe unskilledfully. That's right, they are trying to protect you. And you start to see the natural response in our vulnerability that all these things, you know, how do I take care of myself? What about my money? What about my children? What about my own? And then you start to trust that awareness can hold your whole humanity.

We're in this together. And you realize that it's not just you, that everybody has at this time fears confusion, uncertainty, and that with mindful loving awareness, we can tolerate all of that and know that that's not who you are. The other thing to add is that we did our own inner practice, but this affects those around us, asbastra Tiktok Han said, when the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked, all would be lost. But if even one person on the boat remained centered and calm, it was enough. It showed the way for everyone to survive. And this is a famous passage, but it means that intending ourselves and making the space

to hold our own vulnerability, our fears, our follies, our humanity, we begin to trust this deeper capacity to be present for one another, and we affect all those around us. Yeah, the story that come up from several teachers from one, at least one other teacher this week and I it lands well for me. Let me just get some, see if I can sneak in a few more questions from our viewers. Audrey asks, how do we handle our fear in this very scary time when people are telling us don't worry it'll be fine? You will hear Audrey all these voices on one end of the spectrum you will hear denial because it's hard to tolerate the uncertainty or the potential suffering especially for those who are vulnerable but also people we love and care about as well as ourselves.

So when people can't tolerate it, they tend to go into denial or pretend that it's not happening. Especially so when you're young and you feel like you're invulnerable and you know immortal. But it's not true of course, so that's one end. But it's not true, of course. So that's one end. At the other end, instead of denial, people can get lost in the fears. And we actually don't know how this will play out. If we're fortunate, someone will come up with a medicine that works sooner rather than later, or a vaccine. 99% of us are also going to survive through

this anyway. And today is the first full day of spring. I think yesterday was Mark the turning. There is a vitality in life force that wants to realize that animates you that's part of who we are. We're the living system. And yes, we've gone through hard times before and we know how to do this, but to catastrophize in a way shuts down your body and your nervous system and your endocrine. And instead to say, I know how to be steady through this. I know how to be loving.

And we know how to get through this. A question coming in on a similar note from MC, you alluded to the reset this will prompt, can you please elaborate on how we can use this crisis to become more present? Well there are two parts to becoming present, one which was the meditation that we just did, in which you actually become present for your body, your feelings, your states of mind, and open what the neurodefinesis call open the window of tolerance so that you can trust the heart of compassion as big enough, the field of awareness as big enough to hold all this and to be steady and calm and wise in the midst of it all.

And to do that regularly is really important because you'll get washed over by the fears of others and the news and so forth. Turn it off, sit down, center yourself, realize, I know how to do this. I have, we as human beings have these inner resources. And then as we do that, they become part of the global reset. If there are enough of us who realize our interdependence, who cultivate a compassion and steadiness in this time, then when we get through this wave of virus,

we can look at one another with new loving eyes and say, all right, how do we, how now shall we live? It's like someone who's had a near death experience, okay, I better look again and see what matters to me and what matters is, dude, did I love well, did I bring my gifts to the earth, did I care for those around me? And that is really how the reset will happen. I really see that in, I spent a couple of years following me in a hospice. And I really, you really see that.

I mean, it's the cliche at the end of life. Nobody's saying, I wish I had spent more time at the office, but if you spend time in a hospice, nobody is saying that. They're all talking about the quality of their relationships. Jack, in closing, I just want to say a few things to the audience and then one final thing to you. To the audience, I want to say thank you for being with us all week and we'll be back next week and the week after and as long as this crisis continues and perhaps beyond Monday,

we have the great teacher Joanne Hardy also from the left coast like Jack. We've also posted a bunch of free content for people who are suffering during this time. If you go to 10%.com, you can click a link to what we're calling the Corona Virus Sanity Guide. We've posted a bunch of free meditations and little mini talks from all search of teachers and experts.

We've also, we're go, the podcast is going to twice weekly, so we just posted something on parenting in a pandemic on Wednesday, and today we posted something on what was it on, oh yeah, working from home, which has become a quite challenging for many of us, and we've got many more episodes coming. And as I mentioned at the top, if you've got 30 seconds to fill out the survey, we'd love that. The final thing I want to say is on Fridays, we're going to highlight and try to get us all together to support a good cause. One of the big problems we're seeing all over the country right now in the middle of this pandemic is that food banks have

been hit really hard. So I just want to highlight a national effort you can sign up to help and then also a local effort you can sign up to help. The local one is in Placer County, California. There's a food bank there that has been hit really hard right now because not only are they running out of food, but all of their volunteers are over the age of 65 and can no longer work. So they're looking for a lot of help. It's playserfoodbank.org. Approach this from a more national standpoint. There's a great organization called Feeding America. They've got a COVID-19 Response Fund.

Just go to FeedingAmerica.org. And you'll be able to click around to get right to the place where you can donate to the COVID-19 relief fund. 10% happier will be making a donation as well to feeding America. This is going to be an ongoing issue with the food banks, so let's keep them in mind. Jack, I just want to say, in closing to you, thank you very much. This is a bit to put in the TV terms when we get a great interview, we call it a good get. So in meditation, in the meditation world, you're a great get.

So thank you very much for bringing to do this. We're virtually holding hands together in this as human beings. And we're also teaching one mother, supporting one another, that we can trust how to get through this with a good heart and with the kind of wisdom that all of us have within us. So thank you. Jack, thank you very much. And thanks everybody for watching. We'll see you right back here on Monday. Hey, hey, prime members. You can listen to 10% happier early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with 1-3-plus in Apple Podcasts.

Before you go, do us a solid and tell us all about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just going to end up on Page Six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellasai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wondery's new podcast, Dis and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud from the buildup, why it happened,

and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feud say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out in personal as Brittany and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Brittany's fans form the free Brittany movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship. Jamie Lynn's lack of public support.

It angered some fans. A lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling parents, but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Britney. That's it's upon anyone who failed to fight for Brittany.