Name: Jack Kornfield

Tradition(s)/Lineage(s): primarily, Ajahn Chaa (Thai Forest tradition) & Mahasi Sayadaw (of Burma)

Contact info/home base: www.jackkornfield.org & www.spiritrock.org

Context of your contact with them: I have spent close to 2 months on retreat with Jack, as has my wife, and have interviewed with him a couple of times. My wife has had more personal contact with him, having interviewed with him at least a dozen times. My review is based on both of our personal interviews with him, his written material, his talks while on retreat, and his answers to public questions.

Strengths: Jack has a vast knowledge of the traditional Buddhist meditative path, having spent many years as a monk and on intensive retreat. His scholarly understanding of the path seems extremely solid, and his ability to integrate contemplative experience with theory is unparalled so far as I've seen. He also has a vast understanding of the human psychological side of things, and though he distinguishes between content and process, is able to switch between what he calls the "personal and universal" with extraordinary ease. I think this actually makes him an even better teacher than those who don't know how to engage with the psychological hang-ups that might be easily dealt with, and thereby allow someone to begin focusing on insight.

His style of teaching is very open and allowing, and he makes room for many practices/traditions/experiences in his teaching. That being said his interview style is very direct and technical at times, with extremely specific questions that dig into the bare sensate descriptions of experience, and focus the practitioner back onto the investigation of the moment, however it's arising. He also will often do guided meditations in which he verbally guides one into a process of open, accepting, and penetrating investigation. When I've done this process with him, I've often learned more about how to mediatate then with days of instruction and learning through trial and error.

In addition I would also mention that he often teaches with some of the most high-caliber teachers out there, especially Trudy Goodman. Especially on that annual month-long course, at Spirit Rock, that he often teaches, he appears to pick some of the deepest teachers in the insight tradition to join him, and it makes an incredible difference even if you aren't interviewing with Jack.

Finally, i would say that it seems clear that he has a significant amount of knowledge about the insight territory (from beginning to end), concentration states, as well as the powers and other psychic phenomonon.

Weaknesses: Though I don't think these qualify as "personal weaknesses" two things that you may have to deal with if you sit with Jack are that his retreats are often quite full, and sometimes difficult to get into if you don't register ahead of time, and that his personal time is often quite difficult to obtain. That seems to go hand-in-hand with his widespread popularity. That being said, it is amazing that he is both extremely popular and also extremely deep. That type of combination, in any field, seems extraordinary rare.

I would also mention that the style of his teaching is fairly loose and open. Though a specific technique of vipassana is taught on his retreats, it is not the Mahasi noting method per say, though it includes many elements of it. If you are all about the Mahasi method, you can absolutely do it with him, but don't expect everyone else around you to be doing the same. That being said, I think this perceived weakness can become a strength for those working on higher paths, whose practices are naturally becoming more open, and one can learn a lot about right effort including the ability to be a bit more open in the practice.

Issues of money, loyalty, power, taboos, religiosity, access, language, exploitation, etc: None that I've been exposed to, besides the issue of access being somewhat limited.

Overall impression: If you are going for stream-entry or any of the higher paths, I would highly recommend sitting with Jack. Of all of the teachers I've been exposed to, sat with, or learned from I have been most impressed with Jack. His years of intensive practice, sitting with some of the most skilled teachers of the 20th century, and the decades of teaching and personal integration, have almost certainly helped him become one of the most skilled teachers of our time. He is the real deal.

Worthy of recommendation on the Dharma Overground (i.e. are they into open, practical, empowering, straightforward dharma)? Asolutely, I would give him the highest recommendation possible. He teaches the most straightforward, empowering, realistic dharma of any teacher on the "insight circuit" that I've ever sat with. And if you don't have the opportunity to sit with him, I'd still highly recommend A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. He is one of the few teachers I know, besides Daniel, who is actively taking on the limited emotional range and limited possible action models of enlightenment.