Jack Kornfield - Practice Quotes

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Forgiveness does not mean that we have to continue to relate to those who have done us harm. In some cases the best practice may be to end our connection, to never speak to or be with a harmful person again. Sometimes in the process of forgiveness a person who hurts or betrayed us may wish to make amends, but even this does not require us to put ourselves in the way of further harm.

Jack Kornfield
No amount of meditation, yoga, diet, and reflection will make all of our problems go away, but we can transform our difficulties into our practice until little by little they guide us on our way.

Jack Kornfield
An honorable spiritual practice recognizes the losses we have suffered, tells our story, and sheds our tears to free us from the past.

Jack Kornfield
In all practices and traditions of freedom, we find the heart's task to be quite simple. Life offers us just what it offers, and our task is to bow to it, to meet it with understanding and compassion.

Jack Kornfield
The Sufis have a saying: "Praise Allah, and tie your camel to a post." This brings together both parts of practice: pray, yes, but also make sure that you do what is necessary in the world.

Jack Kornfield
There are several different kinds of painful feelings that we might experience, and learning to distinguish and relate to these feelings of discomfort or pain is an important part of meditation practice, because it is one of the very first things that we open to as our practice develops.

Jack Kornfield
A factor that greatly supports the opening of energy in practice is exercise and care of the physical body.

Jack Kornfield
There are many good forms of meditation practice. A good meditation practice is any one that develops awareness or mindfulness of our body and our sense, of our mind and heart.

Jack Kornfield
We can bring our spiritual practice into the streets, into our communities, when we see each realm as a temple, as a place to discover that which is sacred.

Jack Kornfield
The independence and rebelliousness of our adolescence offer us yet another quality essential to our practice; the insistence that we find out the truth for ourselves, accepting no one's word above our own experience.

Jack Kornfield
As we follow a genuine path of practice, our sufferings may seem to increase because we no longer hide from them or from ourselves. When we do not follow the old habits of fantasy and escape, we are left facing the actual problems and contradictions of our life.

Jack Kornfield
The first level of practice is illuminated by the qualities of courage and renunciation.

Jack Kornfield
To learn to concentrate we must choose a prayer or meditation and follow this path with commitment and steadiness, a willingness to work with our practice day after day, no matter what arises.

Jack Kornfield
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.

Jack Kornfield
In Buddhist practice, the outward and inward aspects of taking the one seat meet on our meditation cushion.

Jack Kornfield
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.

Jack Kornfield
There are many ways up the mountain and each of us must choose a practice that feels true to our heart.

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

Jack Kornfield
Yet I knew that spiritual practice is impossible without great dedication, energy, and commitment.

Jack Kornfield