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 understand ourselves and our life is the point of insight meditation: to understand and to be free.
When we feel anger toward someone, we can consider that they are a being just like us, who has faced much suffering in life.
The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.
There is a web of life into which we are born, from which we can never fall.
To live life is to make a succession of errors. Understanding this can bring us great ease and forgiveness for ourselves and others.
To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one.
Love creates a communion with life. Love expands us, connects us, sweetens us, ennobles us. Love springs up in tender concern, it blossoms into caring action. It makes beauty out of all we touch. In any moment we can step beyond our small self and embrace each other as beloved parts of a whole.
There is beauty to be found in the changing of the earth’s seasons, and an inner grace in honouring the cycles of life.
Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind?
Buddhism talks about the possibility of transforming greed, hatred, and delusion. But sometimes need turns into greed.
Sense the blessings of the earth in the perfect arc of a ripe tangerine, the taste of warm, fresh bread, the circling flight of birds, the lavender color of the sky shining in a late afternoon rain puddle, the million times we pass other beings in our cars and shops and out among the trees without crashing, conflict, or harm.
Westerners, more than most Asians, are prone to feelings of fear, self-hatred, and unworthiness.
Spiritual practice should not be confused with grim duty. It is the laughter of the Dalai Lama and the wonder born with every child.
Nobody knows why they were born or where they come from.