Quotes by Jack Kornfield

“When we let go of our battles and open our heart to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice. Only in this moment can ...”

“Attachment is conditional, offers love only to certain people in certain ways; it is exclusive. Love, in the sense of metta, used by Buddha, is a universal, nondiscriminating feeling of caring and ...”

“Your happiness and suffering depend on your actions and not on my wishes for you.”

“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.”

“If you put a spoonful of saltin a cup of waterit tastes very salty.If you put a spoonful of saltin a lake of fresh waterthe taste is still pure and clear.Peace comes when our hearts areopen like th...”

“There is no higher happiness than peace.”

“Love creates a communion with life. Love expands us, connects us, sweetens us, ennobles us.Love springs up in tender concern, it blossoms into caring action. It makes beauty out of all we touch. In...”

“In the endthese things matter most:How well did you love?How fully did you live?How deeply did you let go?”

“In the end, just three things matter:How well we have livedHow well we have lovedHow well we have learned to let go”

“Let go of the battle. Breathe quietly and let it be. Let your body relax and your heart soften. Open to whatever you experience without fighting.”

“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 Ke...”

“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.”

“Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.”

“As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home.”

“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.”

“Breathing meditation can quiet the mind, open the body, and develop a great power of concentration.”

“The focusing of attention on the breath is perhaps the most universal of the many hundreds of meditation subjects used worldwide.”

“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.”

“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.”

“To understand ourselves and our life is the point of insight meditation: to understand and to be free.”