Jack Kornfield is a teacher in the vipassana

Vipassana

Vipassanā or vipaśyanā in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the true nature of reality. A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi . Vipassana is one of the world's most ancient techniques of meditation, the inception of which is attributed to Gautama Buddha...

 movement of American Theravada

Theravada

Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...

 Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

. He trained as a Buddhist monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

 in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Burma and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, including as a student of the Thai monk Ajahn Chah

Ajahn Chah

Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition....

. He has taught meditation

Meditation

Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....

 worldwide since around 1974.

Biography

After graduating from Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 in 1967, Kornfield joined the Peace Corps

Peace Corps

The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...

 and was assigned to the Public Health Service in northeast Thailand, which is home to 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

Insight Meditation Society

The Insight Meditation Society is a non-profit organization for study of Buddhism located in Barre, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1975, by Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein, and is rooted in the Theravada tradition. IMS meditation practices are based on the teachings of the...

 in Barre, Massachusetts

Barre, Massachusetts

Barre is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,398 at the 2010 census.-History:Originally called the Northwest District of Rutland, it was first settled in 1720. The town was incorporated on June 17, 1774, as Hutchinson after Thomas Hutchinson, colonial...

, with Sharon Salzberg

Sharon Salzberg

Sharon Salzberg is a New York Times Best selling author and influential teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in West. She co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein, in 1974...

 and Joseph Goldstein

Joseph Goldstein

Joseph Goldstein is one of the first American vipassana teachers , co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society with Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg, contemporary author of numerous popular books on Buddhism , resident guiding teacher at IMS, and leader of retreats worldwide on insight and...

.

Kornfield holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology

Clinical psychology

Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...

 from Saybrook Institute. He is also a founding teacher of the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California

Woodacre, California

Woodacre is an unincorporated town and census-designated place located in the San Geronimo Valley in Marin County, California. Woodacre is located south-southwest of Novato, and 8 miles northwest of San Rafael, the nearest incorporated town is Fairfax, 4 miles east-southeast. Woodacre has the...

, where he currently lives.

Teachings

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

Books published

His books include

Kornfield lectures were featured by Joe Frank

Joe Frank

Joe Frank is an American radio personality, known best for his often philosophical, humorous, surrealist, and sometimes absurd monologues and radio dramas.-Early life:...

 on his radio series "The Other Side."

External links

• Jack Kornfield audio from the DIY Dharma website
• The Eightfold Path for the Householder http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/ritepath.pdf from the Urban Dharma website