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Portrait of Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield

(1945) Psychotherapist United States

324 quotes in 1225 categories

Jack Kornfield’s 324 quotes offer gentle guidance toward mindfulness and compassion, inviting readers to pause, breathe, and connect with deeper awareness. His calm, grounded tone makes each insight a soothing companion for daily practice.

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Jack Kornfield is a psychotherapist from the United States, best known for Jesus and Buddha.

Quick Facts About Jack Kornfield

Born: July 16, 1945
Nationality: United States
Profession: Psychotherapist
Notable works: Jesus and Buddha

About Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield is an American psychologist, writer, 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 mindfulness meditation worldwide since 1974. In 1975, he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, and subsequently in 1987, Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Kornfield has worked as a peacemaker and activist, organized teacher training, and led international gatherings of Buddhist teachers including the Dalai Lama.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Jack Kornfield

What we seek is what we are.

Seek

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Every individual has a unique contribution.

Contribution

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Samadhi doesn’t just come of itself; it takes practice.

Meditation

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May you know the beauty of your own true nature.

Beauty

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

Hard

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Indifference is a misguided way of defending ourselves.

Defending

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The trouble is that you think you have time.

Funny procrastination

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The waves do keep coming, so learn to surf.

Surf

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

Inspirational

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To live in this precious animal body on this earth is as great a part of spiritual life as anything else.

Animal

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Every individual in the world has a unique contribution.

Contribution

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“Accumulated knots in the fabric of our body, previously undetected, begin to reveal themselves as we open.”

Knots

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The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner's mind.

Beginner

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The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

Courageous

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Of course, you play the game of life because you got to be incarnated.

Courses

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

Birth

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When we feel anger toward someone, we can consider that they are a being just like us, who has faced much suffering…

Anger

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“When we feel anger toward someone, we can consider that he or she is a being just like us, who has faced…

Anger

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The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears,…

Clinging

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You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter…

Faces

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

Afraid

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In my experience, psychotherapy at its best is like dual meditation - it's like a container in which you can be compassionate…

Best

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Two qualities are at the root of all meditation development: right effort and right aim—arousing effort to aim the mind toward the…

Aim

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Spiritual life doesn't make you a good person; you ARE a good person, you are a holy being when you are born.…

Born

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A bulging portfolio of spiritual experiences matters little if it does not have the power to sustain us through the inevitable moments…

Achievement

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Nirvana manifests as ease, as love, as connectedness, as generosity, as clarity, as unshakable freedom. This isn’t watering down nirvana. This is…

Clarity

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Once we see that everything is impermanent and ungraspable and that we create a huge amount of suffering if we are attached…

Amount

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The near enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, “I will love this person because I need them.”…

Attachment

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The emotional wisdom of the heart is simple. When we accept our human feelings, a remarkable transformation occurs. Tenderness and wisdom arise…

Accepting

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“We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with Soul…

Ethics

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“if a yogi is so well blessed with karma to be one who can tread the pleasant path, one who can gain…

Karma

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“Letting go is a central theme in spiritual practice, as we see the preciousness and brevity of life. When letting go is…

Brevity of life

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“In this way, our life may appear as a series of mistakes. One could call them “problems” or “challenges,” but in some…

Life

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“Eternity is here, always alive in the present moment. Mindfulness invites us to return to now, the present moment, instead of being…

Human life

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Within the mystery of life there is the infinite darkness of the night sky lit by distant orbs of fire, the cobbled…

Agnostic

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If you want to love, take the time to listen to your heart. In most ancient and wise cultures it is a…

Ancient

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“The Third Precept, to refrain from sexual misconduct, reminds us not to act out of sexual desire in such a way as…

Art of living

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“There are many ways that I have hurt and harmed others, have betrayed or abandoned them, caused them suffering, knowingly or unknowingly,…

Forgiveness

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When the stories of our life no longer bind us, we discover within them something greater. We discover that within the very…

Childhood

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In the West, there's a myth that freedom means free expression-that to follow all desires wherever they take one is true freedom.…

Ability

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Jack Kornfield by topic

Heart (67) Life (63) Religion (42) Time (40) Spiritual (38) Compassion (38) Love (37) Meditation (36) Way (32) Practice (32) Suffering (28) Inspirational (28) World (27) Psychology (26) Buddhism (26) Mind (23) Peace (22) Moments (22) Letting go (22) Pain (21) Ifs (21) Understanding (20) Forgiveness (19) Needs (17) Fear (16)