Talk:Jack Kornfield

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POV and references

Given that the article starts Jack Kornfield (born 1945) is one of the pre-eminent and most popular teachers it should be checked for POV.

References are few: there are links to the homepages of Saybrook University and Spirit Rock gentre: the latter is clearly connected with him - he teaches there and there's a link to a piece by him on the front page, but it would be better to have a link that says directly that he was a founder. As it is, he's clearly important to the centre, but isn't described as a founder on the front page nor does it explicitly say so in the article linked from there. There is a link to a book hosted at the Insight Meditation Centre, but as the site is owned by an organisation founded by the subject of the article, which may not be WP:RS.Autarch (talk) 18:38, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Education

Jack Kornfield has a PhD in Clinical Psychology, but I'm not sure from where. If this information can be found, it should be included in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.100.173.160 (talk) 22:37, 2 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Jack's Birthday

I found Jack's birth day. July 16th.

Found here (9/19/2011): http://www.cheryltancaktiong.com/spiritrock/july.html#jack — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.244.247.35 (talk) 04:24, 19 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

He has also appeared in a number of Joe Frank's radio programs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.147.104.159 (talk) 01:03, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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Teachings

The problem goes beyond the insertion of a blatant ad. This section has very little substance.

The first paragraph looks like OR because the cited reference only refers to Kornfield as part of a string of acknowledgments (and "accessible" only appears twice in the book, both in reference to the work of author Grof, not Kornfield). The term "Eastern Psychology" seems not to be in the book entirely.

The second paragraph has notable content, but seems more like a platitude about the presumed endpoint of self-development, rather than a concrete teaching.

The third paragraph merely indicates that teachings occurred.

We could merge Insight Meditation Society (IMS) into this section, like what was done to Arica School / Oscar Ichazo in 2021 and to Diamond Approach / AH Almaas in 2020 (both with little or no discussion). However, I think that is the wrong approach, because it reduces a whole organization to its founder (or one of its founders), feeding the notion of rock star guru. Perhaps the best example of the importance of keeping such pages distinct is Fourth Way / George Gurdjieef.

Here I want to call attention to WP:SELFPUB specifically WP:ABOUTSELF. Some editors have in good faith zealously gutted bio pages by denying this type of source. But for celebrities, an interview (or "profile" as Lions Roar published about Kornfield) is typically a summary of what the "self" is recounting to the writer or interviewer, sometimes accurately, sometimes honestly but with a bad memory. So the fact that a separate publisher can be found doesn't really mean a third-party description has been found.

For example, does Sharon Stone have an IQ of 154? Her page cites a CBS fluff piece from 2011 that names her among other high-IQ celebrities (including Bart Simpson's daughter Lisa). This same fluff piece deigns to add one more sentence about her: She entered college when she was 16. No source is provided by CBS for either statement. Her WP page, however, says she started college on a scholarship at age 15, citing an interview she gave to Inside the Actors Studio in 1999. Was it 15 or was it 16?

Kornfield's account of meeting Ajahn Chah is from his own book. Hard to verify the event independently. Even his graduation from Dartmouth is probably based on a similar source, because alumni records are generally confidential. So we let it stand. However, WP:ABOUTSELF cautions "not based primarily on such sources" after describing milder limitations on this type of content. Martindo (talk) 06:53, 18 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]