Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield (b. 1945) was trained as a
Buddhist monk in
Thailand,
Burma and
India and has taught
meditation worldwide since
1974.
After graduating from
Dartmouth College in 1967, he joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to the Public Health Service in northeast Thailand, which is home to several of the world's oldest Buddhist forest monasteries. Here he met the Buddhist master
Ajahn Chah, who became Kornfield's teacher for many years. Upon returning to the United States in 1972, Kornfield co-founded the
Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers
Sharon Salzberg and
Joseph Goldstein.
Kornfield has become one of the key teachers to introduce Theravada Buddhist practice to the West. For many years his work has focused on integrating and bringing alive the great Eastern spiritual teachings in an accessible way for Western students and Western society. His books, audio tapes and teachings have acted as an inspiration for countless Western students of Buddhism. Jack Kornfield holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. He is also a founding teacher of the
Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California, where he currently lives and teaches. His books include
Seeking the Heart of Wisdom,
A Still Forest Pool,
Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, the national bestseller
A Path with Heart and
After the Ecstasy the Laundry as well as a number of meditation and dharma audiotapes.
*Fronsdal,Gil (1998). Insight Meditation in the United States: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, in C.S.Prebish & K.K.Tanaka (1998),
The Faces of Buddhism in America, University of California Press. Also available on-line at: http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/articles/InsightintheUS.html.
