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

Jack Kornfield Quotes

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

— Jack Kornfield

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

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

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

— Jack Kornfield

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

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

— Jack Kornfield

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

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

Love says, ‘I am everything.’ Wisdom says, ‘I am nothing.’ Between these two my life flows.

— Jack Kornfield

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Jack Kornfield

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
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