Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield is an American meditation teacher and clinical psychologist who trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India. He co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and later founded Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and was still teaching at Spirit Rock in 2026.

Peace Corps and the Mekong valley

Kornfield was born in 1945. He graduated from Dartmouth College in Asian Studies in 1967, then joined the Peace Corps and worked on tropical medicine teams in the Mekong River valley.

A monk under Ajahn Chah

He trained as a monk under Ajahn Chah in Thailand and Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma, in monasteries in Thailand, India and Burma. Spirit Rock's lineage page says that by 1969 a few Western monks were living at Ajahn Chah's monastery, Wat Pah Pong, and that Kornfield was one of the first.

Spirit Rock calls Ajahn Chah "Jack Kornfield's root teacher". His own biography also names Maha Ghosananda, Kalu Rinpoche, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and Dipa Ma among his teachers. With Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg he travelled often to Calcutta to learn from Dipa Ma.

Co-founding the Insight Meditation Society

In 1975 Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg decided to start a meditation retreat centre. The IMS Retreat Center, in a former Catholic novitiate in Barre, Massachusetts, opened on 14 February 1976. In 1979 Mahasi Sayadaw gave teaching authorisation at IMS to four American students: Salzberg, Goldstein, Kornfield and Jacqueline Mandell.

Spirit Rock

Kornfield later founded Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, West Marin County, on 411 acres of oak woodland. Sources differ on the year. Spirit Rock's own site says it was founded by Kornfield in 1986; Buddho.org gives 1987.

Spirit Rock draws on several lineages. Its lineage page says practice there is "particularly influenced by the Thai Forest Saṅgha style of Ajahn Chah", while Mahasi Sayadaw's noting method remains the foundational approach. It follows the four foundations of mindfulness as the sequence of practice (see the four foundations of mindfulness). The centre holds silent residential retreats lasting from one day to two months, as well as drop-in groups, online courses and multi-year trainings.

Spirit Rock also calls Insight Meditation "a modern creation" and "one of many reinventions in Buddhist history". The wider movement is described on the Insight Meditation in the West page.

Psychology and books

Kornfield holds a PhD in clinical psychology. His website says his books have been translated into 20 languages and have sold more than a million copies.

His early book Living Buddhist Masters (1977) was later republished as Living Dharma. With Paul Breiter he compiled A Still Forest Pool (1985), a collection of Ajahn Chah's teachings, and with Joseph Goldstein he wrote Seeking the Heart of Wisdom (1987). A Path with Heart followed in 1993.

Teaching in 2026

He was still teaching at Spirit Rock in 2026. The centre published a talk of his recorded on 27 July 2026 and listed a programme with him for 22 November 2026.