Quotes from Jack Kornfield

We must look at ourselves over and over again in order to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it means to allow our hearts to open.

To bow to the fact of our life's sorrows and betrayals is to accept them; and from this deep gesture we discover that all life is workable. As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine.

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.

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.

As the Buddha said, "People with opinions just go around bothering one another.

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

Every individual has a unique contribution.

Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.

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!

The words of the Buddha offer this truth: ? Hatred never ceases by hatred but by love alone is healed.

The unawakened mind tends to make war against the way things are.

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

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

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.

As desire abates, generosity is born. When we are connected and present, what else is there to do but give?

Attention to the human body brings healing and regeneration. Through awareness of the body we remember who we really are.

As you become more intimate with your suffering, your heart grows tender.

Being on a spiritual path does not prevent you from facing times of darkness. But it teaches you how to use the darkness as a tool to grow.

Love in the past is a memory. Love in the future is a fantasy. To be really alive, love – or any other experience – must take place in the present.

Most of us have spent our lives caught up in plans, expectations, ambitions for the future; in regrets, guilt or shame about the past. To come into the present is to stop the war.

The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?

The present moment is really all that we have. The only place you can really love another person is in the present.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.

To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own.