73 Great Jack Kornfield Quotes [#11 & #38 are My Favorites]

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1. If we cannot be happy in spite of our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice?

2. Most people discover that when hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with their own pain.

3. Equanimity arises when we accept the way things are.

4. In this world there are two great sources of strength. One rests with those who are not afraid to kill. The other rests with those who are not afraid to love.

5. Be mindful of intention. Intention is the seed that creates our future.

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

7. 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.

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

9. The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is to release the images and conditions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit.

10. When we feel anger toward someone, we can consider that he or she is a being just like us, who has faced much suffering in life.

11. The trouble is, you think you have time.

12. Have respect for yourself, and patience and compassion. With these, you can handle anything.

13. True love is not for the faint-hearted.

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

15. To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one.

16. Indifference is a misguided way of defending ourselves.

17. We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.

18. With mindfulness, we are learning to observe in a new way, with balance and a powerful disidentification.

19. The wholeness and freedom we seek is our true nature, who we really are.

20. Spiritual life doesn’t make you a good person; you ARE a good person, you are a holy being when you are born. What spiritual life does is remind us that this is who we really are.

21. To see the preciousness of all things, we must bring our full attention to life.

22. The courageous heart is the one that is unafraid to open itself to the world.

23. Our life is shaped and determined by our thoughts. Usually we are only half conscious of the way thoughts direct our life; we are lost in thoughts as if they are reality. We take our own mental creations quite seriously, endorsing them without reservation.

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

25. The entire teaching of Buddhism can be summed up in this way: Nothing is worth holding on to.

26. We don’t know all the reasons that propel us on a spiritual journey, but somehow our life compels us to go.

27. Those who are awake live in a state of constant amazement.

28. To open deeply, as genuine spiritual life requires, we need tremendous courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit.

29. Great pain, when it is honored from the heart, opens into great understanding.

30. What we seek is what we are.

31. Everybody needs to take some time. In some way, to quiet themselves and really listen to their heart.

32. When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.

33. Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of mind.

34. Whatever we cultivate in times of ease, we gather as strength for times of change.

35. Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.

36. We can always begin again.

37. Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind?

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

39. There is no higher happiness than peace.

40. The world is full of pain, uncertainty, and injustice. But in this vulnerable human life, every loss is an opportunity either to shut out the world or to stand up with dignity and let the heart respond.

41. Meet this transient world with neither grasping nor fear, trust the unfolding of life, and you will attain true serenity.

42. Through practice, gently and gradually we can collect ourselves and learn how to be more fully with what we do.

43. Though outer events may be difficult, the key to our happiness is how our mind responds to them.

44. Have respect for yourself, and patience and compassion. With these, you can handle anything.

45. Train your mind the same way you’d train a puppy: Be patient, be consistent, and have some fun along the way.

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

47. Like a sandcastle, all is temporary. Build it, tend it, enjoy it. And when time comes let it go.

48. In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?

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

50. True love and prayer are learned in the hour when love becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.

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

52. Within each of us there is a silence as vast as the universe. We long for it. We can return to it.

53. There are no holy places and no holy people, only holy moments, only moments of wisdom.

54. Whenever we forgive, in small ways at home, or in great ways between nations, we free ourselves from the past.

55. 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.

56. Since death will take us anyway, why live our life in fear? Why not die in our old ways and be free to live?

57. Every individual has a unique contribution

58. In the end, forgiveness simply means never putting another person out of our heart.

59. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.

60. The task is not to perfect yourself, it’s to perfect your love.

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

62. 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.

63. Knowledge and achievements matter little if we do not yet know how to touch the heart of another and be touched.

64. When we let go of our battles and open our hearts to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice.

65. There is a web of life into which we are born, from which we can never fall.

66. To live life is to make a succession of errors. Understanding this can bring us great ease and forgiveness for ourselves and others.

67. 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.

68. This life is a test-it is only a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received further instructions on where to go and what to do. Remember, this life is only a test.

69. We are awakened to the profound realization that the true path to liberation is to let go of everything.

70. Compassion for ourselves gives rise to the power to transform resentment into forgiveness, hatred into friendliness, and fear into respect for all beings.

71. It is not enough to know that love and forgiveness are possible. We have to find ways to bring them to life.

72. If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

73. Do not doubt your own basic goodness. In spite of all confusion and fear, you are born with a heart that knows what is just, loving, and beautiful