Quotessence
Home / Authors / Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllHeartSpiritualWayPracticeCompassionSufferingWorldIfsLetting GoMindMomentsOur LivesMeditationPainUnderstandingNeedsDoeBuddhismMatterPast

Famous Jack Kornfield Quotes

“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.”

PeopleWayHeartHardFactsFormNaturalPracticeKindnessFineGratitudeLoving KindnessExpressing GratitudeBenefactorsForms Of LoveNatural Forms
Book:The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West
Create image

“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
Create image

“Indifference pretends to create peace, but it is based on not caring, a silent resignation. It is a movement away, a separation fed by a subtle fear of the heart. We pull back, believing that what happens to others is not our concern. Our courage leaves us. Indifference is a misguided way of defending ourselves.”

WayBelieveHeartHappensMovementConcernSilentCaringSeparationIndifferenceSubtleFedsResignationMisguidedNot Caring
Book:The Art Of Forgiveness, Loving Kindness And Peace
Create image

“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
Create image

“The unawakened mind tends to make war against the way things are. To follow a path with heart, we must understand the whole process of making war within ourselves and without, how it begins and how it ends. War’s roots are in ignorance. Without understanding we can easily become frightened by life’s fleeting changes, the inevitable losses, disappointments, the insecurity of our aging and death. Misunderstanding leads us to fight against life, running from pain or grasping at security and pleasures that by their nature can never be satisfying.”

WayMindHeartWarEndsWholeRunningPainFightingProcessUnderstandingLossPleasurePathSecurityIgnoranceRootsAgingDisappointmentInevitableInsecurityFrightenedSatisfyingMisunderstandingFleetingGrasping
Author:Jack Kornfield
Create image

“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
Create image

“Forgiveness does not mean that we have to continue to relate to those who have done us harm. In some cases the best practice may be to end our connection, to never speak to or be with a harmful person again. Sometimes in the process of forgiveness a person who hurts or betrayed us may wish to make amends, but even this does not require us to put ourselves in the way of further harm.”

WayMayMeanPersonsDoeEndsSometimesDoneSpeakWishProcessHurtPracticeCasesConnectionsHarmRelateBetrayedAmendsBest Practices
Author:Jack Kornfield
Create image

“The longing for initiation is universal and for modern youth, it is a desperate need. When nothing is offered in the way of spiritual initiation to prove one's entry into the world of men and women, initiation happens instead in the road or the street, in cars at high speed, with drugs, with dangerous sex, with weapons. However troubling, this behavior is rooted in a fundamental truth; a need to grow.”

MenWorldWayNeedsHappensSpiritualSexGrowsStreetsModernDangerousCarYouthDrugProveBehaviorWeaponsMen And WomenUniversalFundamentalsLongingSpeedDesperateRootedEntryInitiationHigh SpeedModern Youth
Author:Jack Kornfield
Create image

“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
Create image