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Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield Quotes

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Famous Jack Kornfield Quotes

“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.”

IfsWantMindPersonsMomentsHelpingProblemEyeEarthTogetherRememberLyingNightStarsClearSeaFieldsStudentsSummerSolveGravityWant UMagnetLooking DownSummer Nights
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“Finding 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.”

IfsWayLooksHas BeensPainSufferingCompassionOur LivesSorrowEssentialsFindingsTasksMercyCaughtHonestlyExileWrongdoing
Book:Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are
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“The near enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, “I will love this person because I need them.” Or, “I’ll love you if you’ll love me back. I’ll love you, but only if you will be the way I want.” This isn’t love at all - it is attachment - and attachment is rigid, it is very different from love.”

IfsWayWantNeedsPersonsDifferentLove IsEnemyLove YouAttachmentMasquerade
Book:Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are
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“Meditation takes discipline, just like learning how to play piano. If you want to learn how to play the piano, it takes more than a few minutes a day, once a while, here and there. If you really want to learn any important skill, whether it is playing piano or meditation, it grows with perseverance, patience, and systematic training.”

IfsWantImportantPlayGrowsMeditationMinutesDisciplineSkillsTrainingPerseverancePianoHere And ThereSystematicPlaying Piano
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“We can step out of our small sense of self and awaken to this reality. One of the reasons people get confused about freedom, enlightenment, and liberation is because this awakened consciousness has different facets or different dimensions, a bit like a crystal. If you hold this luminous crystal up to the light and turn it, it will take a beam of white light and refract it into the many colors of the spectrum.”

PeopleIfsDifferentSelfReasonRealityLightTurnsBitsWhiteConsciousnessStepsColorEnlightenmentLiberationConfusedDimensionsCrystalsSpectrumAwakenedSense Of SelfBeamLuminousFacetsWhite LightDifferent Dimensions
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“A bulging portfolio of spiritual experiences matters little if it does not have the power to sustain us through the inevitable moments of grief, loss, and change. Knowledge and achievements matter little if we do not yet know how to touch the heart of another and be touched. Wisdom is alive only as long as it is lived, understanding is liberating only as long as it is applied.”

IfsKnowsHeartLittlesLongDoeMatterMomentsSpiritualSpiritSpiritualityUnderstandingLossGriefKnow HowAliveAchievementInevitableTouchedLiberatingPortfoliosSpiritual ExperienceGrief Loss
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“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.”

PeopleIfsWantHeartRealSoulStoriesSpiritualLife IsCultureVoiceForgetLove IsQualityPracticeWiseSourceSkillsEssentialsTraditionConnectionsAncientMysteriousIntimacyRitualGravityListen To Your Heart
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“In deep self-acceptance grows a compassionate understanding. As one Zen master said when I asked if he ever gets angry, 'Of course I get angry, but then a few minutes later I say to myself, 'What's the use of this,' and I let it go.'”

IfsSaidSelfUseCoursesGrowsUnderstandingCompassionMinutesAcceptanceMastersLetting GoAngrySelf AcceptanceCompassionateLet It GoZen Master
Book:Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are
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“Once we see that everything is impermanent and ungraspable and that we create a huge amount of suffering if we are attached to things staying the same, we realize that relaxing and letting go is a wiser way to live. Letting go does not mean not caring about things. It means caring about them in a flexible and wise way.”

IfsWayMeanDoeSufferingRealizingWiseHugeAmountLetting GoCaringStayingWiserFlexibleWay To LiveImpermanenceSamenessNot Caring
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself and yourself alone one question. This question is one that only a very old man asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I was Young. And my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I do understand it. I will tell you what it is: does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good. If it doesn't, it is of no use.”

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Author:Jack Kornfield
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“If you can sit quietly after difficult news; if in financial downturns you remain perfectly calm; if you can see your neighbors travel to fantastic places without a twinge of jealousy; if you can happily eat whatever is put on your plate; you can fall asleep after a day of running around without a drink or a pill; if you can always find contentment just where you are: you are probably a dog.”

IfsRunningFallDifficultDogDrinkNewsCalmFinancialNeighborFantasticContentmentWhere You ArePlatesPillsDownturn
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“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.”

IfsKnowsHeartArtCultureLostSpeakModernEssentialsBusyAffairAncientTake TimeGood FriendModern LifeConverses
Book:A Path With Heart: The Classic Guide Through The Perils And Promises Of Spiritual Life
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“Even the most exalted states and the most exceptional spiritual accomplishments are unimportant if we cannot be happy in the most basic and ordinary ways, if we cannot touch one another and the life we have been given with our hearts.”

IfsWayHeartHas BeensStatesSpiritualGivenOrdinaryAccomplishmentExceptionalUnimportantExalted
Book:A Path With Heart: The Classic Guide Through The Perils And Promises Of Spiritual Life
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“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.”

IfsHeartKindMeanEndsActionTogetherUnderstandingCompassionBenefitsIntentionHarmSeparationDistinctionDelusionJustifyStemOur ActionsWovenDeludedKind Heart
Author:Jack Kornfield
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