Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfieldis a bestselling American author and teacher in the vipassana movement in American Theravada Buddhism. He trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India, first as a student of the Thai forest master Ajahn Chah and Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. He has taught meditation worldwide since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist Mindfulness practice to the West. In 1975, he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with Sharon Salzberg and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionReligious Leader
Date of Birth16 July 1945
CountryUnited States of America
In Buddhist practice, the outward and inward aspects of taking the one seat meet on our meditation cushion.
Without integrity and conscience we lose our freedom.
To meditate is to discover new possibilities, to awaken the capacities of us has to live more wisely, more lovingly, more compassionately, and more fully.
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.
We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy—material or spiritual.
Yet I knew that spiritual practice is impossible without great dedication, energy, and commitment.
Where we tended to be judgmental, we became more judgmental of ourselves in our spiritual practice.
Expressing gratitude to our benefactors is a natural form of love. In fact, some people find loving kindness for themselves so hard, they begin their practice with a benefactor. This too is fine. The rule in loving kindness practice is to follow the way that most easily opens your heart.
Anger shows us precisely where we are stuck, where our limits are, where we cling to beliefs and fears.
To let go in the deepest recesses of the heart, to release all struggle and wanting, leads us to that knowing which is timeless.
As we step out of the way new things are born.
Every individual in the world has a unique contribution.
The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but organically, through understanding an gradual training.
Meditation practice is neither holding on nor avoiding; it is a settling back into the moment, opening to what is there.