In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived How well we have loved How well we have learned to let go.
Catalog
Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield (born July 16, 1945) is 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 Joseph Goldstein, and subsequently in 1987, Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Kornfield has organized teacher training and led international gatherings of Buddhist teachers including the Dalai Lama and has worked as a peacemaker and activist. 2Biography Kornfield is one of four boys born to Jewish parents. After graduating from Dartmouth College in Asian Studies in 1967, Kornfield joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Thailand. There he met and became a monk under the renowned forest master Ajahn Chah, and later practiced with Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma and Dipa Ma. Upon returning to the United States, Kornfield co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein in 1975. In 1974 he became a founding faculty member of Naropa Buddhist Universit
Once we see that everything is impermanent and ungraspable and that we create a huge amount of suffering if we are attached to things staying the same, we realize that relaxing and letting go is a wiser way to live. Letting go does not mean not caring about things. It means caring about them in a…
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.
Letting go is not the same as aversion, struggling to get rid of something. We cannot genuinely let go of what we resist. What we resist and fear secretly follows us even as we push it away. To let go of fear or trauma, we need to acknowledge just how it is. We need to feel it fully and accept that…
What we practice becomes habit. Societies can repeat destructive collective habits of racism, hatred, and revenge.
We can plan, we can care for, tend and respond. But we cannot control. This is a fierce teaching.
When we act from the wisdom of no separation, understanding how we're woven together, our intentions bring benefits.
In our hardships, we discover the courage not to succumb, not to retreat, but not to strike out in fear and anger.
How can we mindfully navigate this life? Can we foster a sense of interconnection with all life on this earth?
When we consider loving well and living fully, we can see the ways our attachments and fears have limited us.
Even when we give in to despair some secret part of us knows that there must be another way.
The unfolding of the human heart is artful and mysterious. Freedom is in the journey itself.
We can be complacent and let our lives disappear in a dream, or we can become aware.
To heal in difficult times bring a tender, healing energy to all that is sick or torn, what is broken or lost.
When we awaken the Buddha within, we awaken a force that can bring compassion to the whole of the world.
To live in this world wisely, we need to release unhealthy desire and learn to hold healthy desire lightly.
The mind will not become quiet upon command. Instead, what most people experience is the inner waterfall, a cascading stream of thoughts.
Sitting mindfully with our sorrows and fears, or with those of another, is an act of courage. It is not easy.
Happiness and love come naturally in letting go of fear.