[The Knowledge Project Ep. #156] Jack Kornfield: Finding Inner Calm

Shane: Let’s jump right in. You trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, Burma. What was the experience like and what memories stand out as transformational when you look back?

Jack: I went there right after university. I’d graduated from Dartmouth College. And it was during the Vietnam War, and I didn’t want to go in the military. It was still the draft. I didn’t either want to kill people or get killed. So I asked to go in the Peace Corps to a Buddhist country because I’d been studying all of that. They sent me to Thailand. I learned to speak Thai and Lao. And I found this great teacher and I said, “Can I come and learn from you?” And he said, “Sure. Do you want to come as a monk?” And I said, “All right.” It was a wild forest on the border of Thailand and Laos pretty far out in the middle of what was still then quite unmodernized world.