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Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield Quotes

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Jack Kornfield is an American author and meditation teacher, born in 1945. His works mainly focus on Buddhist meditation and spiritual growth, which have won him a wide audience.

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All Heart Spiritual Way Practice Compassion Suffering World Ifs Letting Go Mind Moments Our Lives Meditation Pain Understanding Needs Doe Buddhism Matter Past

Famous Jack Kornfield Quotes

“If we are engaged in actions that cause pain and conflict to ourselves and others, it is impossible for the mind to become settled, collected, and focused in meditation; it is impossible for the heart to open.”

Ifs Mind Heart Action Pain Causes Meditation Impossible Conflict Focused Engaged

Book:Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

Source: Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

“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.”

Ifs Want Important Play Grows Meditation Minutes Discipline Skills Training Perseverance Piano Here And There Systematic Playing Piano

Author:Jack Kornfield

“In sitting on the meditation cushion and assuming the meditation posture, we connect ourselves with the present moment in this body and on this earth.”

Moments Body Earth Meditation Sitting Assuming Present Moment Posture Cushions

Book:A Path With Heart: The Classic Guide Through The Perils And Promises Of Spiritual Life

Source: A Path With Heart: The Classic Guide Through The Perils And Promises Of Spiritual Life

“No amount of meditation, yoga, diet, and reflection will make all of our problems go away, but we can transform our difficulties into our practice until little by little they guide us on our way.”

Way Littles Problem Practice Meditation Amount Reflection Yoga Difficulty Guides Diets Going Away

Author:Jack Kornfield

“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.”

Firsts Kind Important Different Feelings Might Pain Practice Meditation Painful Relate Different Kinds Discomfort Meditation Practice Experience And Learning Painful Feelings

Author:Jack Kornfield

“Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.”

Meditation Illusion Surrender Illusion Of Control

Author:Jack Kornfield

“It only take a few minutes of meditation to directly realize we are a river of sensations, feelings, thoughts, perceptions. How can we navigate this evanescent river of life wisely? With mindful awareness and love it becomes clear. You can fight against the river of change, or use its wisdom to teach you how to graciously move and create and flow with the full measure of joy and sorrow, gain and loss, praise and blame that make up every human incarnation.”

“The best of modern therapy is much like a process of shared meditation, where therapist and client sit together, learning to pay close attention to those aspects and dimensions of the self that the client may be unable to touch on his or her own.”

Inspirational May Self Together Process Pay Attention Meditation Modern Aspect Therapy Dimensions Clients Therapists

Author:Jack Kornfield

“In Buddhist practice, the outward and inward aspects of taking the one seat meet on our meditation cushion.”

Practice Meditation Aspect Buddhist Seats Inward Cushions

Author:Jack Kornfield

“To learn to concentrate we must choose a prayer or meditation and follow this path with commitment and steadiness, a willingness to work with our practice day after day, no matter what arises.”

Matter Prayer Practice Path Meditation Commitment No Matter What Arise Willingness Steadiness

Book:Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are

Source: Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are

“The focusing of attention on the breath is perhaps the most universal of the many hundreds of meditation subjects used worldwide.”

Used Attention Meditation Subjects Universal Breaths

Book:Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are

Source: Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are

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

Mind Body Meditation Quiet Breathing Concentration Great Power

Author:Jack Kornfield

“To understand ourselves and our life is the point of insight meditation: to understand and to be free.”

Life Is Our Lives Meditation Insight

Book:Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

Source: Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

“Skill in concentrating and steadying the mind is the basis for all types of meditation.”

Mind Meditation Type Skills Bases Concentrating

Book:Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

Source: Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

“There are many good forms of meditation practice. A good meditation practice is any one that develops awareness or mindfulness of our body and our sense, of our mind and heart.”

Mind Heart Body Form Practice Meditation Awareness Mindfulness Heart And Mind Meditation Practice

Book:Meditation for Beginners: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition

Source: Meditation for Beginners: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition

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

Moments Practice Meditation Opening Settling Avoiding Holding On Meditation Practice

Book:Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

Source: Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

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

Levels Meditation Deeper Opening Vehicle Impermanence

Book:Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

Source: Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

“Two qualities are at the root of all meditation development: right effort and right aim—arousing effort to aim the mind toward the object.”

Mind Two Effort Quality Meditation Objects Development Roots Aim

Book:Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

Source: Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

“One day Mara, the Buddhist god of ignorance and evil, was traveling through the villages of India with his attendants. He saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up in wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Mara's attendants asked what that was and Mara replied, "A piece of truth." "Doesn't this bother you when someone finds a piece of the truth, O evil one?" his attendants asked. "No," Mara replied. "Right after this they usually make a belief out of it."”

Men Faces Evil Belief Wonder Saws Pieces Meditation Fronts Ignorance He Man Walking One Day India Buddhist Bother Village Lit Walking Meditation

Author:Jack Kornfield

“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.”

Desire Space Meditation Loneliness Regret Sorrow All Things Shame Seats Frustration Compassionate Cushions Monasteries

Author:Jack Kornfield