Jack Kornfield (b.1945) is an American Buddhist monk-turned-psychologist and writer famous for his skillful synthesis of modern psychology into timeless Buddhist teachings.
Born into a Jewish family, Kornfield completed Asian Studies at Dartmouth and became a Peace Corps volunteer in the Mekong River Valley of rural Thailand. After his stint with the Peace Corps, he joined the renowned Theravāda meditation master Ajahn Chah’s monastery and entered monastic life under Chah’s supervision. In 1977, he earned a PhD in clinical psychology from Saybrook University.
Kornfield has taught globally since 1974. He is one of the principal teachers to present Buddhist mindfulness practices to the West. He has written more than a dozen books including A Path With Heart (1993,) After the Ecstasy, the Laundry (2001,) and The Wise Heart (2008.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jack Kornfield
One of the great blessings I see in people who have committed themselves to a Buddhist practice is that their capacity for both joy and for dealing with the sorrows and the pain of life grows. Practice opens the door for both.
—Jack Kornfield
To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one.
—Jack Kornfield
Topics: Life and Living
We pay attention with respect and interest, not in order to manipulate, but to understand what is true. And seeing what is true, the heart becomes free.
—Jack Kornfield
Topics: Mindfulness, Awareness
You are consciousness incarnated in the human body, but not limited by it. Consciousness is the clear space of knowing, as vast as the open sky. Rest in consciousness, in loving awareness. Let vastness be your home.
—Jack Kornfield
It’s not within anyone’s power to save the world, but it is within your power to add whatever you can with a loving and caring and peaceful heart.
—Jack Kornfield
No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we can always set our compass to our highest intentions in the present moment.
—Jack Kornfield
Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgement of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small. Gratitude is the confidence in life itself. In it, we feel how the same forces that pushes grass through cracks in the sidewalk invigorates our own life.
—Jack Kornfield
As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home.
—Jack Kornfield
Develop a mind that is vast like space, where experiences both pleasant and unpleasant can appear and disappear without conflict, struggle or harm. Rest in a mind like vast sky.
—Jack Kornfield
Topics: Awareness, Mindfulness
When we come into the present, we begin to feel the life around us again, but we also encounter whatever we have been avoiding. We must have the courage to face whatever is present—our pain, our desires, our grief, our loss, our secret hopes our love—everything that moves us most deeply.
—Jack Kornfield
Topics: The Present, Present
A second quality of mature spirituality is kindness. It is based on a fundamental notion of self-acceptance….
—Jack Kornfield
Topics: Kindness
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