Jack Kornfield

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Jack Kornfield (born 1945) is a teacher in the vipassana movement of American Theravada Buddhism.^[1] He trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India, including as a student of the Thai monk Ajahn Chah. He has taught meditation worldwide since around 1974.

[edit] Biography

After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1967, Kornfield joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to the Public Health Service in northeast Thailand, where there are several Buddhist forest monasteries. Here he met Ajahn Chah, who became his teacher. Upon returning to the United States in 1972, Kornfield co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein.

Kornfield holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Saybrook Institute.^[2] He is also a founding teacher of the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California, where he currently lives.

Kornfield's work has focused on integrating Eastern spiritual teachings in an accessible way for Western students.^[3]

His books include

Kornfield, Jack; Breiter, Paul (1 September 1985). A still forest pool: the insight meditation of Achaan Chah. Quest Books. ISBN 9780835605977. http://books.google.com/books?id=orfpaVQsAK8C. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
Feldman, Christina; Kornfield, Jack (1991). Stories of the spirit, stories of the heart: parables of the spiritual path from around the world. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 9780062503213. http://books.google.com/books?id=6RQRAQAAIAAJ. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
Kornfield, Jack (1 June 1993). A path with heart: a guide through the perils and promises of spiritual life. Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553372113. http://books.google.com/books?id=yf-npAo-_dEC. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
Goldstein, Joseph; Kornfield, Jack (29 August 1995). The Path of Insight Meditation. Shambhala. ISBN 9781570620690. http://books.google.com/books?id=bnMOAAAACAAJ. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
Goldstein, Joseph; Kornfield, Jack (6 March 2001). Seeking the heart of wisdom: the path of insight meditation. Shambhala. ISBN 9781570628054. http://books.google.com/books?id=LTGbPwAACAAJ. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
Kornfield, Jack (2 October 2001). After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 9780553378290. http://books.google.com/books?id=OLwDoC1czP8C. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

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

^ Elliott, William (1 March 1996). Tying rocks to clouds: meetings and conversations with wise and spiritual people. Image Books. p. 215. ISBN 9780385481915. http://books.google.com/books?id=qmjXAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 6 June 2011. "So before my interview with Jack Kornfield, who is a well-known Vipassana meditation teacher, I was concerned about not"
^ Palmer, Helen (28 December 1998). Inner knowing: consciousness, creativity, insight, and intuition. J.P. Tarcher/Putnam. p. 202. ISBN 9780874779363. http://books.google.com/books?id=I4rWAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 6 June 2011. "Regardless of its level of complexity, every practice relies on steadiness of concentration. Jack Kornfield, psychologist and meditation teacher, describes the practice thatforms a cornerstone of ..."
^ Grof, Stanislav (June 2006). When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Reality. Sounds True. p. 235. ISBN 9781591794202. http://books.google.com/books?id=QQ6iFjoBDkEC&pg=PA235. Retrieved 6 June 2011. "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, ..."

Fronsdal,Gil (1998). Insight Meditation in the United States: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, in Prebish, Charles S.; Tanaka, Kenneth Kenʼichi (22 December 1998). The faces of Buddhism in America. University of California Press. pp. 163–. ISBN 9780520213012. http://books.google.com/books?id=5h8AokRoGjYC. Retrieved 6 June 2011. Also available on-line at: http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/articles/InsightintheUS.html.

and, most recently, Meditation for Beginners.