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. Jack Kornfield More Quotes by Jack Kornfield More Quotes From Jack Kornfield Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of mind. Jack Kornfield buddhist teaching mind What would we have to hold in compassion to be at peace right now? What would we have to let go of to be at peace right now? Jack Kornfield compassion spiritual letting-go A second quality of mature sirituality is kindness. It is based on a fundamental notion of self-acceptance. Jack Kornfield compassion acceptance kindness It is the place of feeling that binds us or frees us. Jack Kornfield feelings 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. Jack Kornfield confused light reality Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it. Jack Kornfield acceptance self spiritual 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. Jack Kornfield good-friend essentials art What brings the karmic result from the patterns of our actions is not our action alone. As we intend and then act, we create [our] karma: so another key to understanding the creation of karma is becoming aware of intention. The heart is our garden, and along with each action there is an intention that is planted like a seed. The result of the patterns of our karma is the fruit of these seeds. Jack Kornfield karma garden heart If you put a spoonful of salt in a cup of water it tastes very salty. If you put a spoonful of salt in a lake of fresh water the taste is still pure and clear. Peace comes when our hearts are open like the sky, vast as the ocean. Jack Kornfield ocean lakes heart Buddhists were actually the first cognitive-behavioral therapists. Jack Kornfield buddhist therapists firsts True emptiness is not empty, but contains all things. The mysterious and pregnant void creates and reflects all possibilities. From it arises our individuality, which can be discovered and developed, although never possessed or fixed. Jack Kornfield void emptiness individuality 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 buddhist heart lying Our ideas of self are created by identification. The less we cling to ideas of self, the freer and happier we will be. Jack Kornfield ego self ideas Your happiness and suffering depend on your actions and not on my wishes for you. Jack Kornfield suffering wish action Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate. Jack Kornfield hate joy Indifference is a misguided way of defending ourselves. Jack Kornfield misguided indifference way 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. Jack Kornfield childhood expression long Though outer events may be difficult, the key to our happiness is how our mind responds to them. Jack Kornfield events keys mind We as human beings have the amazing capacity to be reborn at breakfast everyday and say, “This is a new day.” Jack Kornfield everyday breakfast new-day To live in this precious animal body on this earth is as great a part of spiritual life as anything else. Jack Kornfield body spiritual animal
