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The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.

Jack Kornfield

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Jack Kornfield
Age: 79
Born: 1945
Born: July 16
Author
Psychologist
Writer
the United States of America
Problem
Discover
Love
Problems
Life
Principles
Wise
Wisdom
Spiritual
Spirituality
Place
Principle
Become
Basic

More quotes by Jack Kornfield

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Use whatever has come to awaken patience, understanding, and love.
Jack Kornfield
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The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?
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If we are engaged in actions that cause pain and conflict to ourselves and others, it is impossible for the mind to become settled, collected, and focused in meditation it is impossible for the heart to open.
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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.
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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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The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner's mind.
Jack Kornfield
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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.
Jack Kornfield
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The trouble is that you think you have time.
Jack Kornfield
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In the end, forgiveness simply means never putting another person out of our heart.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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With mindfulness, we are learning to observe in a new way, with balance and a powerful disidentification.
Jack Kornfield
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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.
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.
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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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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.
Jack Kornfield
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In any moment we can learn to let go of hatred and fear. We can rest in peace, love, and forgiveness. It is never too late. Yet to sustain love we need to develop practices that cultivate and strengthen the natural compassion within us.
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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Yet I knew that spiritual practice is impossible without great dedication, energy, and commitment.
Jack Kornfield