Jack Kornfield Practice Quotations

Spiritual practice should not be confused with grim duty. It is the laughter of the Dalai Lama and the wonder born with every child.

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.

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

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.

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.

All of spiritual practice is a matter of relationship: to ourselves, to others, to life's situations.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Where we tended to be judgmental, we became more judgmental of ourselves in our spiritual practice.

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.

Meditation practice is neither holding on nor avoiding; it is a settling back into the moment, opening to what is there.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.