Ep. 331 – Meet the Moment Fully, Meet It as a Friend: Loving Awareness, Aging, and Connection with Sylvia Boorstein

Jack Kornfield and Sylvia Boorstein explore how loving awareness helps us meet each moment as a friend, soften into aging and impermanence, and rediscover connection through simple acts of generosity and love.

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This week on Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield shares:

• Meeting each moment fully and as a friend by relaxing the body, quieting reactivity, and bringing kindness to whatever arises
• Sylvia’s honest and humorous reflections on aging, mortality, losing independence, and adapting to life in a senior living community
• Transforming crankiness and loneliness
• How small acts of generosity—sharing figs, holding a stranger’s hand, or simply noticing another person—can transform crankiness, fear, and loneliness
• Bringing mindfulness and loving-kindness together, staying amazed by life’s impermanence, and recognizing love as our deepest response to being alive

This episode was originally recorded for a special Spirit Rock Monday Night Meditation and Talk in July 2026 celebrating Sylvia Boorstein’s 90th Birthday. Watch the next one at SpiritRock.org

About Sylvia Boorstein:

Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has taught Dharma and mindfulness since 1985. A psychologist, author, and gifted storyteller, she makes Buddhist teachings accessible by emphasizing that everyday life is mindfulness practice. Her work integrates meditation, kindness, engaged citizenship, and social activism. Learn more about Sylvia at SylviaBoorstein.com.

“May I meet this moment fully means: Here I am. I’m awake. What’s going on? And may I meet it as a friend means: May I meet it with my body relaxed, my mind relaxed, and be able to really see what’s happening—not pushing it away. May I meet this moment fully. May I meet it as a friend” –Sylvia Boorstein

About Jack Kornfield:

Jack Kornfield, PhD trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, India, and Burma. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He is one of the key teachers to introduce mindfulness practice to the West, has taught internationally since 1974, and is the author of 16 books which have sold 2 million copies. Stay connected with Jack and explore his latest offerings at JackKornfield.com. Sign up for his free weekly email teachings, explore his transformational online courses, access his complete course library through the All Access Pass, or join his monthly livestreams and online community. Jack’s latest book, All In This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World is out now!

“Incarnation has praise and blaming, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, light and dark—and it’s always changing. Then the heart becomes at ease and says, ‘Oh, here we are. Isn’t this amazing?’ The deepest resp