Dharma Combat

Where Spiritual Giants Duke It Out

Jack Kornfield
Taking Hits

General Criticisms:

When Kornfeld refers to "meditation" being this or that, he assumes that everyone understands he's talking about the Vispassana meditation that he was schooled in, or at least some other type of generally agreed-upon practice. In fact, the word "meditation" is one of the more broadly confusing terms, referencing multitudes of various practices out there, from chanting to inner quiet to dancing to stillness to doing nothing to concentrative . . .

Further, in a "greatest strength is greatest weakness" type of situation, he is also criticised by individuals for blurring the lines between psychology/psychological issues and meditation or spiritual issues.

 

Hal Blacker:

In an excerpt from Hal Blacker in "What Is Enlightenment?," Volume 5, Number 1 - "Kornfield, Ram Dass, and Harvey . . . appear to be casting doubt on the possibility of anyone going beyond a limited, divided and neurotic condition. Yet isn't the very aspiration to transcend these aspects of ourselves that cause so much suffering the reason we became interested in spirituality in the first place?"

 

Dharma Combat

Spiritual Arena