Quote

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

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Jack Kornfield
Age: 79
Born: 1945
Born: July 16
Author
Psychologist
Writer
the United States of America
Mean
Hearts
Heart
Open
Love
Learn
Means
Order
Closed
Look
Discover
Looks
Kept
Must
Allow

More quotes by Jack Kornfield

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When we struggle to change ourselves we, in fact, only continue the patterns of self-judgement and aggression. We keep the war against ourselves alive.
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Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of mind.
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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.
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It is not enough to know that love and forgiveness are possible. We have to find ways to bring them to life.
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Whatever you believe cosmologically, we all know the tears of the world. We each carry a certain measure of those tears in our hearts.
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The path of awakening begins with a step the Buddha called right understanding.
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It is true that the heart has its seasons, just as a flower opens to the sunlight and closes to the night. We need to be respectful of those rhythms. But we can't close down for long. It is our true nature to have an open heart.
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We can struggle with what is. We can judge and blame others or ourselves. Or we can accept what cannot be changed. Peace comes from an honorable and open heart accepting what is true. Do we want to remain stuck? Or to release the fearful sense of self and rest kindly where we are?
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You are the mystery incarnating itself, and it's beautiful when you remember. It's also painful and awesome and it contains unbearable beauty and unfathomable pain - the ocean of tears and galaxy of bliss. I don't say that lightly, but it's what we have.
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To live life is to make a succession of errors. Understanding this can bring us great ease and forgiveness for ourselves and others.
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Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate.
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The light around someone who speaks truth, who consistently acts with compassion for all, even in great difficulty, is visible to all around them.
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Yes, there are troubles in the world. There's war and hatred, there's sickness and difficulty. And there is also an undying spirit, an inviolable consciousness that is born in each of us. It is who we are, and it's everything and it's nothing.
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With growing awareness, you can see where you're caught or where you suffer or where you create suffering. You can then turn toward the difficulties that arise in your life with compassion, bow, and say, these too are part of human incarnation.
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Wherever you are is the perfect place to awaken. This moment is the exact place to practice compassion and loving awareness. You have all the ingredients to breathe and find freedom just where you are.
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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?
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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.
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With mindfulness, we are learning to observe in a new way, with balance and a powerful disidentification.
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When we let go of yearning for the future, preoccupation with the past, and strategies to protect the present, there is nowhere left to go but where we are. To connect with the present moment is to begin to appreciate the beauty of true simplicity.
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We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy—material or spiritual.
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