Jack Kornfield Quotes

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

Your happiness and suffering depend on your actions and not on my wishes for you.

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

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.

Meet this transient world with neither grasping nor fear, trust the unfolding of life, and you will attain true serenity.

We can always begin again.

To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one.

Meditation practice is neither holding on nor avoiding; it is a settling back into the moment, opening to what is there.

According to Buddhist scriptures, compassion is the "quivering of the pure heart" when we have allowed ourselves to be touched by the pain of life.

Knowledge and achievements matter little if we do not yet know how to touch the heart of another and be touched.

Train your mind the same way you’d train a puppy: Be patient, be consistent, and have some fun along the way.

Weigh the true advantages of forgiveness and resentment to the heart. Then choose.

The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner's mind.

You awaken your True spirit by way of the broken heart: ragged, vulnerable, fierce and finally compassionate. Chris trod this rough way and shows honestly how it can be done.

This life is a test-it is only a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received further instructions on where to go and what to do. Remember, this life is only a test.

The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit.

Refraining from false speech: speech from the heart. Undertake for one week not to gossip (positively or negatively) or speak about anyone you know who is not present with you (any third party).

When we struggle to change ourselves we, in fact, only continue the patterns of self-judgement and aggression. We keep the war against ourselves alive.

No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.

To see the preciousness of all things, we must bring our full attention to life

Love is based on our capacity to trust in a reality beyond fear, to trust a timeless truth bigger than all our difficulties.

The person who betrayed you is sunning themselves on a beach in Hawaii and you're knotted up in hatred. Who is suffering?

The quieting of our mind is a political act.

Forgiveness is primarily for our own sake, so that we no longer carry the burden of resentment. But to forgive does not mean we will allow injustice again.

To begin to meditate is to look into our lives with interest in kindness and discover how to be wakeful and free.

All of spiritual practice is a matter of relationship: to ourselves, to others, to life's situations.

Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of mind.

Samadhi doesn’t just come of itself; it takes practice.

Meditation is a vehicle for opening to the truth of this impermanence on deeper and deeper levels.

The words of the Buddha offer this truth: ∼ Hatred never ceases by hatred but by love alone is healed.

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

Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.

To live life is to make a succession of errors. Understanding this can bring us great ease and forgiveness for ourselves and others.

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.

As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home.

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.

A second quality of mature sirituality is kindness. It is based on a fundamental notion of self-acceptance.

Everybody needs to take some time, in some way, to quiet themselves and really listen to their heart.

We each need to make our lion's roar - to persevere with unshakable courage when faced with all manner of doubts and sorrows and fears - to declare our right to awaken.

Indifference is a misguided way of defending ourselves.

You need a community. They remind you when you forget, and you remind them when they forget.

We are awakened to the profound realization that the true path to liberation is to let go of everything.

We don't know all the reasons that propel us on a spiritual journey, but somehow our life compels us to go.

What would we have to hold in compassion to be at peace right now? What would we have to let go of to be at peace right now?

Buddhists were actually the first cognitive-behavioral therapists.

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.

Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate.

Our ideas of self are created by identification. The less we cling to ideas of self, the freer and happier we will be.

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

To live in this precious animal body on this earth is as great a part of spiritual life as anything else.