Yes, there are troubles in the world. There's war and hatred, there's sickness and difficulty. And there is also an undying spirit, an inviolable consciousness that is born in each of us. It is who we are, and it's everything and it's nothing.
Jack KornfieldWhenever we forgive, in small ways at home, or in great ways between nations, we free ourselves from the past.
Jack KornfieldSince death will take us anyway, why live our life in fear? Why not die in our old ways and be free to live?
Jack Kornfield...Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe cave. It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any separation.
Jack KornfieldThe independence and rebelliousness of our adolescence offer us yet another quality essential to our practice; the insistence that we find out the truth for ourselves, accepting no one's word above our own experience.
Jack KornfieldThe unawakened mind tends to make war against the way things are. To follow a path with heart, we must understand the whole process of making war within ourselves and without, how it begins and how it ends. Warโs roots are in ignorance. Without understanding we can easily become frightened by lifeโs fleeting changes, the inevitable losses, disappointments, the insecurity of our aging and death. Misunderstanding leads us to fight against life, running from pain or grasping at security and pleasures that by their nature can never be satisfying.
Jack Kornfield