Quotes by Jack Kornfield

“If grief or anger arises,Let there be grief or anger.This is the Buddha in all forms,Sun Buddha, Moon Buddha, Happy Buddha, Sad Buddha.It is the universe offering all thingsto awaken and open our heart.”

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

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

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

There is no higher happiness than peace.

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 we discover that which is timeless. Only here can we find the love that we seek. Love in the past is simply memory, and love in the future is fantasy. 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.

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 connectedness.

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!

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.

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

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 the sky,vast as the ocean.

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 any moment we can step beyond our small self and embrace each other as beloved parts of a whole.

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.

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.