Jack Kornfield Quotes

... everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

buddhist attitude

Wisdom knows what feelings are present without being lost in them.

buddhist wisdom feelings

Thoughts are often one-sided and untrue. Learn to be mindful of thought instead of being lost in it.

buddhist mindfulness thinking

Our ideas of self are created by identification. The less we cling to ideas of self, the freer and happier we will be.

buddhist the self

See the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.

buddhist

Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

buddhist compassion universalism

When we shift attention from experience to the spacious consciousness that knows, wisdom arises.

buddhist wisdom experience

Recognize the mental states that fill consciousness. Shift from unhealthy states to healthy ones.

buddhist attitude

In popular Western culture we are taught that the way to achieve happiness is to change our external environment to fit our wishes. But this strategy doesn't work. In every life, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame keep showing up, no matter how hard we struggle to have only pleasure, gain, and praise. Buddhist psychology offers a different approach to happiness, teaching that states of consciousness are far more crucial than outer circumstances.

buddhist happiness