Top 280 Jack Kornfield Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “According to Buddhist scriptures, compassion is the “quivering of the pure heart” when we have allowed ourselves to be touched by the pain of life.”

— Jack Kornfield

152. “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

153. “The way I treat my body is not disconnected from the way I treat my family or the commitment I have to peace on our earth.”

— Jack Kornfield

154. “No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we can always set our compass to our highest intentions in the present moment.”

— Jack Kornfield

155. “It is the place of feeling that binds us or frees us.”

— Jack Kornfield

156. “As Albert Camus wrote, “We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. But our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and others.”

— Jack Kornfield

157. “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?”

— Jack Kornfield

158. “As we encounter new experiences with a mindful and wise attention, we discover that one of three things will happen to our new experience: it will go away, it will stay the same, or it will get more intense. whatever happens does not really matter.”

— Jack Kornfield

159. “We must look at our life without sentimentality, exaggeration or idealism. Does what we are choosing reflect what we most deeply value?”

— Jack Kornfield

160. “Anger shows us precisely where we are stuck, where our limits are, where we cling to beliefs and fears.”

— Jack Kornfield

161. “Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of mind.”

— Jack Kornfield

162. “Everybody needs to take some time, in some way, to quiet themselves and really listen to their heart.”

— Jack Kornfield

163. “You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.”

— Jack Kornfield

164. “Only in the reality of the present can we love, can we awaken, can we find peace and understanding and connection with ourselves and the world.”

— Jack Kornfield

165. “We each need to make our lion’s roar – to persevere with unshakable courage when faced with all manner of doubts and sorrows and fears – to declare our right to awaken.”

— Jack Kornfield

166. “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

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

— Jack Kornfield

168. “To let go in the deepest recesses of the heart, to release all struggle and wanting, leads us to that knowing which is timeless.”

— Jack Kornfield

169. “One famous Zen master actually described spiritual practice as “one mistake after another,” which is to say, one opportunity after another to learn. It is from “difficulties, mistakes, and errors” that we actually learn. To live life is to make a succession of errors. Understanding this can bring us great ease and forgiveness for ourselves and others – we are at ease with the difficulties of life.”

— Jack Kornfield

170. “To see the preciousness of all things, we must bring our full attention to life.”

— Jack Kornfield

171. “The problem with the “wanting mind” is that even if you get what you think you want, it does not stop. It says, “All right, I have got the nice car, but now I need more money.” It is always something that we do not have in the present moment – something that we want to obtain in order to satisfy our longing.”

— Jack Kornfield

172. “Ours is a society of denial that conditions us to protect ourselves from any direct difficulty and discomfort. We expend enormous energy denying our insecurity, fighting pain, death and loss and hiding from the basic truths of the natural world and of our own nature.”

— Jack Kornfield

173. “Meditation is not a process of getting rid of something, but one of opening and understanding. When.”

— Jack Kornfield

174. “In sitting on the meditation cushion and assuming the meditation posture, we connect ourselves with the present moment in this body and on this earth.”

— Jack Kornfield

175. “Right before anger arises, there is often a sense of hurt or fear or loss. When you can feel that, you can notice how little compassion or kindness you have for yourself and others. When we feel fear or when we feel pain or when we feel hurt, our response is often anger, but what is most healing is to acknowledge the anger and to notice what causes it, and to hold that in our attention.”

— Jack Kornfield

176. “Meditation is a vehicle for opening to the truth of this impermanence on deeper and deeper levels.”

— Jack Kornfield

177. “The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.”

— Jack Kornfield

178. “O Nobly Born, now there is born in you exceeding compassion for all those living creatures who have forgotten their true nature. – Mahamudra text of Tibetan yogi Longchenpa.”

— Jack Kornfield

179. “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

180. “We can bring our spiritual practice into the streets, into our communities, when we see each realm as a temple, as a place to discover that which is sacred.”

— Jack Kornfield

181. “The human mind has absolute freedom within its true nature. You can attain your freedom intuitively. Do not work for freedom, rather allow the practice itself to be liberation. When you wish to rest, move your body slowly and stand up quietly. Practice this meditation in the morning or in the evening, or at any leisure time during the day. You will soon realize that your mental burdens are dropping away one by one, and that you are gaining an intuitive power hitherto unnoticed.”

— Jack Kornfield

182. “The root of the problem is that everyone has to first discover the root of anger and hatred inside themselves before they can understand how it operates in the outside world.”

— Jack Kornfield

183. “All of spiritual practice is a matter of relationship: to ourselves, to others, to life’s situations.”

— Jack Kornfield

184. “The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.”

— Jack Kornfield

185. “A second quality of mature sirituality is kindness. It is based on a fundamental notion of self-acceptance...”

— Jack Kornfield

186. “You awaken your True spirit by way of the broken heart: ragged, vulnerable, fierce and finally compassionate. Chris trod this rough way and shows honestly how it can be done.”

— Jack Kornfield

187. “True emptiness is not empty, but contains all things. The mysterious and pregnant void creates and reflects all possibilities. From it arises our individuality, which can be discovered and developed, although never possessed or fixed.”

— Jack Kornfield

188. “No amount of meditation, yoga, diet, and reflection will make all of our problems go away, but we can transform our difficulties into our practice until little by little they guide us on our way.”

— Jack Kornfield

189. “We must especially learn the art of directing mindfulness into the closed areas of our life.”

— Jack Kornfield

190. “Our belief in a limited and impoverished identity is such a strong habit that without it we are afraid we wouldn’t know how to be.”

— Jack Kornfield

191. “The truth is that things change whether we want them to or not. Becoming attached to things as they are or pushing things away that we do not like does not stop them from changing. It only leads to further suffering.”

— Jack Kornfield

192. “The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but organically, through understanding an gradual training.”

— Jack Kornfield

193. “The suffering and happiness in our world, both individual and collective, depend on our consciousness.”

— Jack Kornfield

194. “We don’t know all the reasons that propel us on a spiritual journey, but somehow our life compels us to go.”

— Jack Kornfield

195. “Without being aware of it, you take many things as being your identity: your body, your race, your beliefs, your thoughts.”

— Jack Kornfield

196. “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.”

— Jack Kornfield

197. “Without integrity and conscience we lose our freedom.”

— Jack Kornfield

198. “Spiritual practice is not a mindless repetition of ritual or prayer. It works through consciously realizing the law of cause and effect. Perhaps we can sense the potential of awakening in ourselves, but we must also see that it doesn’t happen by itself. How we act, how we relate to ourselves, to our bodies, to the people around us, to our work, creates the kind of world we live in, creates our very freedom.”

— Jack Kornfield

199. “As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine.”

— Jack Kornfield

200. “As the Buddha said, “People with opinions just go around bothering one another.”

— Jack Kornfield