On Wednesday, February 21, IMS Online kicks off a groundbreaking series of conversations with practitioners and teachers who have been seeding the Dharma in the U.S. for decades.
Fireside Chats with Sharon Salzberg will feature IMS’s co-founder as the host of informal live talks about practice with members of IMS’s sangha.
The hour-long glimpses into the struggles and rewards of a life dedicated to the Dharma will cover subjects like the highs and lows these practitioners have experienced on the mat, how their teachers have influenced them, the challenges they’ve faced in navigating contemporary life, and some of the strategies they’ve discovered to meet those challenges.
The first guest in the series will be another IMS co-founder and a friend of Sharon’s for 50+ years, Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry and co-founder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, California.
This conversation is expected to be wide-ranging, in-depth, and personal, given that Sharon and Jack met as teachers and practitioners at Naropa University in the early 1970s and guided IMS through its early days together.
The impetus for the series arose from a public dialogue between Sharon and Sylvia Boorstein that felt to Sharon as though she was chatting with a good friend in her living room by a fire, drinking tea, relaxed and intimate. The Fireside Chats series, which will be recorded every month or two for the next year with a variety of guests, are designed to recreate that atmosphere.
The audience will also have the chance to ask questions of Jack and Sharon. So if you’ve ever been curious about how IMS came to be, how Sharon and Jack became two of its guiding lights, how they practice, or what they’ve experienced as meditators, founders, authors, or teachers, the upcoming event is a must-see.
And if you can’t attend the live event, you can watch the recording for 90 days.
A Fireside Chat with Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
2:30 – 4:00 PM ET
Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg is a pioneer in the field of meditation, a world-renowned teacher and New York Times bestselling author. She has played a pivotal role in bringing meditation and mindfulness to mainstream American culture since 1974. Sharon is co-founder of IMS and has authored 12 books. Acclaimed for her relatable teaching style, Sharon offers a secular, modern approach to Buddhist teachings. Sharon is the host of the podcast, The Metta Hour, with 100+ episodes featuring interviews with the top leaders and voices in the meditation and mindfulness movement. Learn more at www.sharonsalzberg.com.
Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield 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 as well as Spirit Rock Meditation Center. 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 that have sold 2 million copies. Alice Walker once called him one of the great spiritual teachers of our time. Learn more at www.jackkornfield.com.
