Jack Kornfield Quotes

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.

Life without forgiveness is unbearable.

Use whatever has come to awaken patience, understanding, and love.

Whenever we forgive, in small ways at home, or in great ways between nations, we free ourselves from the past.

The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.

The grief we carry is part of the grief of the world. Hold it gently. Let it be honored. You do not have to keep it in anymore. You can let go into the heart of compassion; you can weep.

To meditate is to discover new possibilities, to awaken the capacities of us has to live more wisely, more lovingly, more compassionately, and more fully.

Whatever we cultivate in times of ease, we gather as strength for times of change.

When we let go of our battles and open our hearts to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice.

Only in the reality of the present can we love, can we awaken, can we find peace and understanding and connection with ourselves and the world.

I used to think that to become free you had to practice like a samurai warrior, but now I understand that you have to practice like a devoted mother of a newborn child. It takes the same energy but has a completely different quality. It's compassion and presence rather than having to defeat the enemy in battle.

The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.

In our charade with ourselves we pretend that our war is not really war. We have changed the name of the War Department to the Defense Department and call a whole class of nuclear missiles Peace Keepers!

When the stories of our life no longer bind us, we discover within them something greater. We discover that within the very limitations of form, of our maleness and femaleness, of our parenthood and our childhood, of gravity on the earth and the changing of the seasons, is the freedom and harmony we have sought for so long. Our individual life is an expression of the whole mystery, and in it we can rest in the center of the movement, the center of all worlds.

Anger shows us precisely where we are stuck, where our limits are, where we cling to beliefs and fears.

Expressing gratitude to our benefactors is a natural form of love. In fact, some people find loving kindness for themselves so hard, they begin their practice with a benefactor. This too is fine. The rule in loving kindness practice is to follow the way that most easily opens your heart.

Whatever your difficulties - a devastated heart, financial loss, feeling assaulted by the conflicts around you, or a seemingly hopeless illness - you can always remember that you are free in every moment to set the compass of your heart to your highest intentions. In fact, the two things that you are always free to do - despite your circumstances - are to be present and to be willing to love.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

When we take the one seat on our meditation cushion we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, happiness.

Spiritual life doesn't make you a good person; you ARE a good person, you are a holy being when you are born. What spiritual life does is remind us that this is who we really are.

We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.

Beneath the sophistication of Buddhist psychology lies the simplicity of compassion. We can touch into this compassion whenever the mind is quiet, whenever we allow the heart to open.

In the end, forgiveness simply means never putting another person out of our heart.

Let go of the battle. Breathe quietly and let it be. Let your body relax and your heart soften. Open to whatever you experience without fighting.

It is possible to speak with our heart directly. Most ancient cultures know this. We can actually converse with our heart as if it were a good friend. In modern life we have become so busy with our daily affairs and thoughts that we have lost this essential art of taking time to converse with our heart.

Every individual has a unique contribution.

As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine.

It is the basic principle of spiritual life that we learn the deepest things in unknown territory. Often it is when we feel most confused inwardly and are in the midst of our greatest difficulties that something new will open. We awaken most easily to the mystery of life through our weakest side. The areas of our greatest strength, where we are the most competent and clearest, tend to keep us away from the mystery.

Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

Have respect for yourself, and patience and compassion. With these, you can handle anything.

The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

We need courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit. But the place for this warrior strength is in the heart. We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy-mate rial or spiritual. We need a warrior’s heart that lets us face our lives directly, our pains and limitations, our joys and possibilities.

The light around someone who speaks truth, who consistently acts with compassion for all, even in great difficulty, is visible to all around them.

When repeated difficulties do arise, our first spiritual approach is to acknowledge what is present, naming, softly saying 'sadness, sadness', or 'remembering, remembering', or whatever.

Though outer events may be difficult, the key to our happiness is how our mind responds to them.

The ends do not justify the means. If our actions will bring harm to others, even in the service of some 'good,' they are almost certainly deluded. If our actions do not come from a kind heart, from loving courage and compassion, they are deluded. If they are based on a distinction between 'us' and 'them,' they stem from delusion. Only to the extent that we act from the wisdom of no separation, understanding how we are woven together, will our intention bring benefit.

We must look at our life without sentimentality, exaggeration or idealism. Does what we are choosing reflect what we most deeply value?

It is our commitment to wholeness that matters, the willingness to unfold in every deep aspect of our being.

There are many ways up the mountain and each of us must choose a practice that feels true to our heart.

We must especially learn the art of directing mindfulness into the closed areas of our life.

If you want to love, take the time to listen to your heart. In most ancient and wise cultures it is a regular practice for people to talk to their heart. There are rituals, stories, and meditative skills in every spiritual tradition that awaken the voice of the heart. To live wisely, this practice is essential, because our heart is the source of our connection to and intimacy with all of life. And life is love. This mysterious quality of love is all around us, as real as gravity... Yet how often we forget about love.

In this there is no judgment and no blame, for we seek not to perfect the world but to perfect our love for what is on this earth.

Live in joy, luminosity, and peace even among the troubles of the world. Remember who you are.

The questions asked at the end of lie are very simple ones: Did I love well? Did I love the people around me, my community, the earth, in a deep way? And perhaps, Did I live fully? Did I offer myself to life?

It does not matter whether you have religion or are an agnostic believe in nothing, You can only appreciate (without knowing or understanding) the mysteries of life.

Through practice, gently and gradually we can collect ourselves and learn how to be more fully with what we do.

There are no holy places and no holy people, only holy moments, only moments of wisdom.

With mindfulness, we are learning to observe in a new way, with balance and a powerful disidentification.