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Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.

Jack Kornfield

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Jack Kornfield
Age: 79
Born: 1945
Born: July 16
Author
Psychologist
Writer
the United States of America
Meditation
Control
Peace
Illusions
Surrender
Requires
Illusion

More quotes by Jack Kornfield

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Acceptance does not mean inaction. We may need to respond, strongly at times...From a peaceful center we can respond instead of react. Unconscious reactions create problems. Considered responses bring peace. With a peaceful heart whatever happens can be met with wisdom...Peace is not weak it is unshakable.
Jack Kornfield
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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.
Jack Kornfield
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Meet this transient world with neither grasping nor fear, trust the unfolding of life, and you will attain true serenity.
Jack Kornfield
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In this there is no judgment and no blame, for we seek not to perfect the world but to perfect our love for what is on this earth.
Jack Kornfield
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We must look at our life without sentimentality, exaggeration or idealism. Does what we are choosing reflect what we most deeply value?
Jack Kornfield
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One of the essential tasks for living a wise life is letting go. Letting go is the path to freedom. It is only by letting go of the hopes, the fears, the pain, the past, the stories that have a hold on us that we can quiet our mind and open our heart.
Jack Kornfield
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Two qualities are at the root of all meditation development: right effort and right aim—arousing effort to aim the mind toward the object.
Jack Kornfield
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The emotional wisdom of the heart is simple. When we accept our human feelings, a remarkable transformation occurs. Tenderness and wisdom arise naturally and spontaneously. Where we once sought strength over others, now our strength becomes our own where we once sought to defend ourselves, we laugh.
Jack Kornfield
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It is hard to imagine a world without forgiveness. Without forgiveness life would be unbearable. Without forgiveness our lives are chained, forced to carry the sufferings of the past and repeat them with no release.
Jack Kornfield
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The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.
Jack Kornfield
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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.
Jack Kornfield
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For most of us, generosity is a quality that must be developed. We have to respect that it will grow gradually otherwise our spirituality can become idealistic and imitative, acting out the image of generosity before it has become genuine.
Jack Kornfield
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The independence and rebelliousness of our adolescence offer us yet another quality essential to our practice the insistence that we find out the truth for ourselves, accepting no one's word above our own experience.
Jack Kornfield
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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.
Jack Kornfield
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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
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This life is a test-it is only a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received further instructions on where to go and what to do. Remember, this life is only a test.
Jack Kornfield
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Life without forgiveness is unbearable.
Jack Kornfield
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Skill in concentrating and steadying the mind is the basis for all types of meditation.
Jack Kornfield
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There are no holy places and no holy people, only holy moments, only moments of wisdom.
Jack Kornfield
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What we seek is what we are.
Jack Kornfield