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
To live in this precious animal body on this earth is as great a part of spiritual life as anything else.
There is beauty to be found in the changing of the earth’s seasons, and an inner grace in honouring the cycles of life.
We can always begin again.
Beneath the sophistication of Buddhist psychology lies the simplicity of compassion. We can touch into this compassion whenever the mind is quiet, whenever we allow the heart to open.
Buddhists were actually the first cognitive-behavioral therapists.
Weigh the true advantages of forgiveness and resentment to the heart. Then choose.
Even the most exalted states and the most exceptional spiritual accomplishments are unimportant if we cannot be happy in the most basic and ordinary ways, if we cannot touch one another and the life we have been given with our hearts.
The light around someone who speaks truth, who consistently acts with compassion for all, even in great difficulty, is visible to all around them.
Wherever you are is the perfect place to awaken. This moment is the exact place to practice compassion and loving awareness. You have all the ingredients to breathe and find freedom just where you are.
To live life is to make a succession of errors. Understanding this can bring us great ease and forgiveness for ourselves and others.
Even Socrates, who lived a very frugal and simple life, loved to go to the market. When his students asked about this, he replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.
To open deeply, as genuine spiritual life requires, we need tremendous courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit.
We need to learn how to honor and use a practice for as long as it serves us—which in most cases is a very long time—but to look at it as just that, a vehicle, a raft to help us cross through the waters of doubt, confusion, desire, and fear.
The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.