The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West
my only life, I would also want to live with mindfulness, so as not to miss anything. And I would want to live with generosity and compassion because they bring happiness here and now and because I will not be able to keep anything in the end.” “Just so,” acknowledged the Buddha. Eliciting the same answers to those two questions, the Buddha demonst
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About reincarnation. What it can ease and how the Buddha explained it does not need to be something to believe in to find enlightenment
As the Persian mystic Rumi instructs us, “When you go to a garden, do you look at thorns or flowers? Spend more time with roses and jasmine.” André Gide, the French novelist and philosopher, enjoins us: “Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a mor
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on the face of any man or woman and see that they are your sister or brother. Until then it is still night.”
Jack Kornfield • The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West
Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I calm my mind. May I be balanced. May I be at peace.
Jack Kornfield • The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West
The most effective way to direct our karma is to clarify our motivation and set an intention.
Jack Kornfield • The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West
Of course, stories have value. As a teacher and storyteller, I have come to respect their evocative power,
Jack Kornfield • The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West
“What is thought?” ask the Buddhist texts. “Thought is your friend. Thought is your enemy. No one can harm you as much as unwise thought. No one can help you more than wise thought. Not even the most loving parent.” Our life is shaped and determined by our thoughts.
Jack Kornfield • The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West
Great quote
where all the opposites exist. T. S. Eliot calls this the “still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;/Neither from nor towards;… neither arrest nor movement.” The sage Shantideva calls the middle way “complete non-referential ease.” The Perfect Wisdom Text describes it as “realization of suchness beyond attainment of good or bad
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One of my Indian teachers, Anagarika Munindra, taught us about dozens of kinds of silence: the silence of the mind and the silence of the heart, the silence of deep absorption, the silence of vast equanimity, the silence of non-perception, and the silence of the void.