There are several different kinds of painful feelings that we might experience, and learning to distinguish and relate to these feelings of discomfort or pain is an important part of meditation practice, because it is one of the very first things that we open to as our practice develops.
Jack KornfieldWe need a repeated discipline, a genuine training, in order to let go of our old habits of mind and to find and sustain a new way of seeing.
Jack KornfieldWe have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.
Jack KornfieldIndifference pretends to create peace, but it is based on not caring, a silent resignation. It is a movement away, a separation fed by a subtle fear of the heart. We pull back, believing that what happens to others is not our concern. Our courage leaves us. Indifference is a misguided way of defending ourselves.
Jack KornfieldTo let go in the deepest recesses of the heart, to release all struggle and wanting, leads us to that knowing which is timeless.
Jack KornfieldFinding a way to extend forgiveness to ourselves is one of our most essential tasks. Just as others have been caught in suffering, so have we. If we look honestly at our life, we can see the sorrows and pain that have led to our own wrongdoing. In this we can finally extend forgiveness to ourselves; we can hold the pain we have caused in compassion. Without such mercy, we will live our own life in exile.
Jack Kornfield