Top 280 Jack Kornfield Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 6 of 6

251. “As long as you are trying to be something other than what you actually are, your mind wears itself out. But if you say, ‘This is what I am, it is a fact that I am going to investigate and understand,’ then you can go beyond.”

— Jack Kornfield

252. “If you expect your life to be up and down, your mind will be much more peaceful.”

— Jack Kornfield

253. “Be rigorously mindful of the awareness of touch. We should be rigorously, ardently, intensively mindful. Do not rest when tired, scratch when itched, nor shift when cramped. We should keep our bodies and minds absolutely still and strive till the end. The uncomfortable truly is the norm; the comfortable will set us adrift on the current of illusion.”

— Jack Kornfield

254. “To learn to concentrate we must choose a prayer or meditation and follow this path with commitment and steadiness, a willingness to work with our practice day after day, no matter what arises.”

— Jack Kornfield

255. “Samadhi doesn’t just come of itself; it takes practice.”

— Jack Kornfield

256. “Do not scratch when itched, nor shift when cramped, nor pause when tired.”

— Jack Kornfield

257. “And as to me, I know of nothing else but miracles. WALT WHITMAN.”

— Jack Kornfield

258. “If this day in the lifetime of a hundred years is lost, will you ever touch it with your hands again? The.”

— Jack Kornfield

259. “To protect the separate self, we push certain things away, while to bolster it we hold on to other things and identify with them. A.”

— Jack Kornfield

260. “In our charade with ourselves we pretend that our war is not really war. We have changed the name of the War Department to the Defense Department and call a whole class of nuclear missiles Peace Keepers!”

— Jack Kornfield

261. “A factor that greatly supports the opening of energy in practice is exercise and care of the physical body.”

— Jack Kornfield

262. “Where we tended to be judgmental, we became more judgmental of ourselves in our spiritual practice.”

— Jack Kornfield

263. “George Washington Carver explained, “Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.” Mindfulness is this kind.”

— Jack Kornfield

264. “Accumulated knots in the fabric of our body, previously undetected, begin to reveal themselves as we open.”

— Jack Kornfield

265. “Anger, blame, conflict, and resentment arise from our fear. When we are afraid, our body tightens, our heart is constricted, our mind is possessed. We cannot live wisely.”

— Jack Kornfield

266. “We’ve done this as human beings before. We’re survivors. We have generations of ancestors behind us cheering us on, and saying, ‘Yep, we’ve lived through some tough stuff too.”

— Jack Kornfield

267. “Forgiveness is a vow not to carry bitterness into the future... to decide to give up hope for a better past.”

— Jack Kornfield

268. “The Joy of Being Alive Now and then it’s good to pause in your pursuit of happiness, and just be happy. – GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE.”

— Jack Kornfield

269. “Even Napoleon Bonaparte understood this when, at the end of his life, he stated, “Do you know what astonished me most in the world? The inability of force to create anything. In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the spirit.”

— Jack Kornfield

270. “Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, he who conquers himself is the greatest warrior.”

— Jack Kornfield

271. “Mindfulness and fearless presence bring true protection. When we meet the world with recognition, acceptance, investigation, and non-identification, we discover that wherever we are, freedom is possible, just as the rain falls on and nurtures all things equally.”

— Jack Kornfield

272. “Letting go is a central theme in spiritual practice, as we see the preciousness and brevity of life. When letting go is called for, if we have not learned to do so, we suffer greatly, and when we get to the end of our life, we may have what is called a crash course. Sooner or later we have to learn to let go and allow the changing mystery of life to move through us without our fearing it, without holding and grasping. I.”

— Jack Kornfield

273. “You can’t change it all, but your freedom empowers you to contribute to the world, and your love gives you the way to do so.”

— Jack Kornfield

274. “Fear is the membrane between what we know and something new. It tells us we are about to open to something bigger than the world we usually experience.”

— Jack Kornfield

275. “Mindfulness and fearless presence bring true protection.”

— Jack Kornfield

276. “The place where we can most directly open to the mystery of life is in what we don’t do well, in the places of our struggles and vulnerability. These places always require surrender and letting go: When we let ourselves become vulnerable, new things can be born in us. In risking the unknown we gain a sense of life itself. And most remarkably, that which we have sought is often just here, buried under the problem and the weakness itself.”

— Jack Kornfield

277. “Trying to hold onto “how it was” will only create suffering and disappointment, because life is a river and everything changes.”

— Jack Kornfield

278. “There are two kinds of difficulties. Some are clearly problems to solve, situations that call for compassionate action and direct response. Many more are problems we create for ourselves by struggling to make life different than it is or by becoming so caught up in our own point of view that we lose sight of a larger, wiser perspective. Usually.”

— Jack Kornfield

279. “Notice when you are open, how others relax their own defensiveness. Let yourself be curious, loving, and concerned. Learn to see in new ways. It’s never too late to open your heart and mind.”

— Jack Kornfield

280. “What is man,” said Chief Seattle, “without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man.”

— Jack Kornfield

281. “True maturation on the spiritual path requires that we discover the depth of our wounds. As Achaan Chah put it, “If you haven’t cried a number of times, your meditation hasn’t really begun.” A.”

— Jack Kornfield

282. “No matter what the world around you wants, there is only one person you can be true to, and that is yourself.”

— Jack Kornfield

283. “Gandhi, who exemplified inherent virtue for modern times, stated, “Let then our first act every morning be to make the following resolve for the day: ‘I shall not fear anyone on earth. I shall fear only God. I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.”

— Jack Kornfield

284. “Genuine spiritual practice requires us to learn how to stop the war. This is a first step, but actually it must be practiced over and over until it becomes our way of being. The inner stillness of a person who truly “is peace” brings peace to the whole interconnected web of life, both inner and outer. To stop the war, we need to begin with ourselves.”

— Jack Kornfield

285. “The way to work with desire in meditation is the same way we worked with body sensations. It is not very useful to suppress it, because when you do it comes out in some other way. On the other hand, you do not want to act on it either. If you are like me and you acted on all of your desires, they would lock you up. So you do not want to suppress your desires, and you also do not want to act all of them out.”

— Jack Kornfield

286. “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.”

— Jack Kornfield