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All of spiritual practice is a matter of relationship: to ourselves, to others, to life's situations.

Jack Kornfield

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Jack Kornfield
Age: 79
Born: 1945
Born: July 16
Author
Psychologist
Writer
the United States of America
Situations
Relationship
Situation
Practice
Spiritual
Others
Matter
Life

More quotes by Jack Kornfield

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When our identity expands to include everything, we find a peace with the dance of the world. The ocean of life rises and falls within us - birth and death, joy and pain, it is all ours, and our heart is full and empty, large enough to embrace it all.
Jack Kornfield
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Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.
Jack Kornfield
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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.
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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It does not matter whether you have religion or are an agnostic believe in nothing, You can only appreciate (without knowing or understanding) the mysteries of life.
Jack Kornfield
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Life without forgiveness is unbearable.
Jack Kornfield
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As we follow a genuine path of practice, our sufferings may seem to increase because we no longer hide from them or from ourselves. When we do not follow the old habits of fantasy and escape, we are left facing the actual problems and contradictions of our life.
Jack Kornfield
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Whenever we forgive, in small ways at home, or in great ways between nations, we free ourselves from the past.
Jack Kornfield
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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.
Jack Kornfield
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The work of your heart, the work of taking time, to listen, to help, is also your gift to the whole of the world
Jack Kornfield
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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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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
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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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Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.
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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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
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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.
Jack Kornfield
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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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To become mindful … present … is really the invitation to work with the joys and the sorrows of the world, and to do so with this gift, this capacity of loving awareness, of attention that actually can be present for the whole dance.
Jack Kornfield
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Everything has a beginning and an ending. Make peace with that and all will be well...In life we cannot avoid change, we cannot avoid loss. Freedom and happiness are found in the flexibility and ease with which we move through change.
Jack Kornfield