Quote

When repeated difficulties do arise, our first spiritual approach is to acknowledge what is present, naming, softly saying 'sadness, sadness', or 'remembering, remembering', or whatever.

Jack Kornfield

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Jack Kornfield
Age: 79
Born: 1945
Born: July 16
Author
Psychologist
Writer
the United States of America
Whatever
Arise
Spiritual
Sadness
Remember
Buddhism
Naming
Firsts
Difficulty
Softly
First
Approach
Repeated
Present
Remembering
Saying
Difficulties
Suffering
Acknowledge

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We do not have to improve ourselves we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.
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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.
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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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How did we get into this funny-looking body that has a hole at one end in which we regularly stuff dead plants and animals? It's bizarre that we got here, incarnated into this world with these bodies.
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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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The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.
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The best of modern therapy is much like a process of shared meditation, where therapist and client sit together, learning to pay close attention to those aspects and dimensions of the self that the client may be unable to touch on his or her own.
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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.
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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.
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When we come into the present, we begin to feel the life around us again, but we also encounter whatever we have been avoiding. We must have the courage to face whatever is present - our pain, our desires, our grief, our loss, our secret hopes our love - everything that moves us most deeply.
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Use whatever has come to awaken patience, understanding, and love.
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Whenever we forgive, in small ways at home, or in great ways between nations, we free ourselves from the past.
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Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate.
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There are many good forms of meditation practice. A good meditation practice is any one that develops awareness or mindfulness of our body and our sense, of our mind and heart.
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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.
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Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind?
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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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The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.
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Yet I knew that spiritual practice is impossible without great dedication, energy, and commitment.
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We don't know all the reasons that propel us on a spiritual journey, but somehow our life compels us to go.
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