Beneath the sophistication of Buddhist psychology lies the simplicity of compassion. We can touch into this compassion whenever the mind is quiet, whenever we allow the heart to open. Jack Kornfield More Quotes by Jack Kornfield More Quotes From Jack Kornfield We must look at ourselves over and over again in order to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it means to allow our hearts to open. Jack Kornfield heart order mean The purpose of spiritual life is not to create some special state of mind. A state of mind is always temporary. The purpose is to work directly with the most primary elements of our body and our mind, to see the ways we get trapped by our fears, desires, and anger, to learn directly our capacity for freedom. Jack Kornfield special spiritual mind There are no holy places and no holy people, only holy moments, only moments of wisdom. Jack Kornfield holy-places holiness people Most people discover that when hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with their own pain. Jack Kornfield pain hate inspirational Do not doubt your own basic goodness. In spite of all confusion and fear, you are born with a heart that knows what is just, loving, and beautiful. Jack Kornfield confusion heart beautiful Letting go is not the same as aversion, struggling to get rid of something. We cannot genuinely let go of what we resist. What we resist and fear secretly follows us even as we push it away. To let go of fear or trauma, we need to acknowledge just how it is. We need to feel it fully and accept that it is so. It is as it is. Letting go begins with letting be. Jack Kornfield struggle letting-go needs ...Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe cave. It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any separation. Jack Kornfield spiritual kindness heart Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows. Jack Kornfield our-lives flow two 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. Jack Kornfield pain disappointment running When we have for so long been judged by everyone we meet, just to look into the eyes of another who does not judge us can be extraordinarily healing. Jack Kornfield eye healing inspirational In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us. Jack Kornfield important spiritual letting-go Since death will take us anyway, why live our life in fear? Why not die in our old ways and be free to live? Jack Kornfield why-not dies way The trouble is that you think you have time. Jack Kornfield procrastination trouble thinking Every facet, every department of your mind, is to be programmed by you. And unless you assume your rightful responsibility, and begin to program your own mind, the world will program it for you. Jack Kornfield responsibility mind world The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner's mind. Jack Kornfield goal practice mind 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. Jack Kornfield pain compassion suffering To bow to the fact of our life's sorrows and betrayals is to accept them; and from this deep gesture we discover that all life is workable. As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine. Jack Kornfield betrayal compassion heart To see the preciousness of all things, we must bring our full attention to life Jack Kornfield all-things attention Within each of us there is a silence as vast as the universe. We long for it. We can return to it. Jack Kornfield silence spiritual long Even Socrates, who lived a very frugal and simple life, loved to go to the market. When his students asked about this, he replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without. Jack Kornfield simplicity students simple
