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Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield Quotes

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Famous Jack Kornfield Quotes

“Compassion arises naturally as the quivering of the heart in the face of pain, ours and another's. True compassion is not limited by the separateness of pity, nor by the fear of being overwhelmed. When we come to rest in the great heart of compassion, we discover a capacity to bear witness to, suffer with, and hold dear with our own vulnerable heart the sorrows and beauties of the world.”

WorldHeartPainFacesSufferingCompassionBearsSorrowCapacityDearArisePityVulnerableWitnessOverwhelmedSeparatenessBeauty Of The WorldGreat HeartsBeing Overwhelmed
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“When the stories of our life no longer bind us, we discover within them something greater. We discover that within the very limitations of form, of our maleness and femaleness, of our parenthood and our childhood, of gravity on the earth and the changing of the seasons, is the freedom and harmony we have sought for so long. Our individual life is an expression of the whole mystery, and in it we can rest in the center of the movement, the center of all worlds.”

WorldLongWholeStoriesEarthFormLife IsIndividualGreaterOur LivesMysteryChildhoodMovementExpressionSeasonsHarmonyLimitationParenthoodGravityIndividual LifeMaleness
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“When we let go of our battles and open our heart to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice. Only in this moment can we discover that which is timeless. Only here can we find the love that we seek. Love in the past is simply memory, and love in the future is fantasy. 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.”

WorldHeartEndsMomentsRealityPastSpiritualUnderstandingMemoriesPracticeFantasyBattleLetting GoConnectionsAnd LovePresent MomentTimelessFinding PeaceSpiritual PracticeMemories And Love
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“Ours is a society of denial that conditions us to protect ourselves from any direct difficulty and discomfort. We expend enormous energy denying our insecurity, fighting pain, death and loss and hiding from the basic truths of the natural world and of our own nature.”

WorldPainSufferingFightingEnergyNaturalLossConditionsBuddhismProtectDirectDifficultyEnormousDenialInsecurityHidingNatural WorldDiscomfortDeath And LossPain Death
Book:A Path With Heart: The Classic Guide Through The Perils And Promises Of Spiritual Life
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“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.”

WorldMindKindMeanStatesFactsActionDesireCertainSufferingAbilitySituationExpressionLimitsFilledWestFollowingMythAttractionInwardBondageGraspingTrue FreedomFree ExpressionRepulsionAttraction And Repulsion
Author:Jack Kornfield
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“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
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“Grant that I have enough suffering that my heart really opens to the great compassion of this world, that I be given enough so that I don't wall myself off from the world, that it breaks down the heart and the separation and the ego and the fear, and it lets me touch the nectar, the milk of kindness itself, of something greater.”

WorldHeartEnoughSufferingGivenCompassionBreakKindnessGreaterThis WorldWallMy HeartEgoLet MeSeparationGrantsMilkBreaking DownNectar
Author:Jack Kornfield
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