Jack Kornfield Quotes - Page 8

When we feel anger toward someone, we can consider that they are a being just like us, who has faced much suffering in life.

No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we can always set our compass to our highest intentions in the present moment

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

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.

When I sit with students, I do not just want to help them solve their problems. I want to find a moment with each person where their mind stops and their eyes open. I want us to be together as if we were lying in a field on the underside of the earth on a clear summer night, held only by the magnet of gravity, looking down into a bottomless sea of stars. I want us to remember together the beauty all around us.

In the West, there's a myth that freedom means free expression-that to follow all desires wherever they take one is true freedom. In fact, as one serves the mind, one sees that following desires, attractions, and repulsions is not at all freedom, but is a kind of bondage. A mind filled with desires and grasping inevitably entails great suffering. Freedom is not to be gained through the ability to perform certain external actions. True freedom is an inward state of being. Once it is attained, no situation in the world can bind one or limit one's freedom.

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.

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

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.

Religion and philosophy have their value, but in the end all we can do is open to mystery and live a path with heart

We need to learn how to honor and use a practice for as long as it serves us—which in most cases is a very long time—but to look at it as just that, a vehicle, a raft to help us cross through the waters of doubt, confusion, desire, and fear.

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?

What brings the karmic result from the patterns of our actions is not our action alone. As we intend and then act, we create [our] karma: so another key to understanding the creation of karma is becoming aware of intention. The heart is our garden, and along with each action there is an intention that is planted like a seed. The result of the patterns of our karma is the fruit of these seeds.

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

Those who are Awake live in a state of constant amazement.

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

Strength of the Heart comes from knowing that the pain that we each must bear is part of the greater pain shared by all that lives. It is not just 'our' pain, but 'the' pain and realizing this awakens our universal compassion

Within the mystery of life there is the infinite darkness of the night sky lit by distant orbs of fire, the cobbled skin of an orange that releases its fragrance to our touch, the unfathomable depths of the eyes of our lover. No creation story, no religious system can fully describe or explain this richness and depth. Mystery is so every-present that no one can know for certain what will happen one hour from now. “ 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.

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

In a society that almost demands life at double time, speed and addictions numb us to our own experience. In such a society, it is almost impossible to settle into our bodies or stay connected with our hearts, let alone connect with one another or the earth where we live.

How well we have learned to let go

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

Breathing meditation can quiet the mind, open the body, and develop a great power of concentration.

There is no higher happiness than peace.

The wholeness and freedom we seek is our true nature, who we really are.