Most of us have spent our lives caught up in plans, expectations, ambitions for the future; in regrets, guilt or shame about the past. To come into the present is to stop the war.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of being present and letting go of past regrets and future anxieties.
Jack Kornfield's quote highlights the tendency of many individuals to be consumed by their thoughts regarding the past and the future, which can lead to inner conflict and distress. By encouraging a focus on the present moment, Kornfield suggests that one can find peace and cessation of this inner turmoil, fostering a deeper sense of well-being and acceptance.
In practice
During a meditation retreat, this quote can be used to encourage participants to focus on their breath and let go of distractions.
We need courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit. But the place for this warrior strength is in the heart. We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy-mate rial or spiritual. We need a warrior’s heart that lets us face our lives directly, our pains and limitations, our joys and possibilities.
The questions asked at the end of lie are very simple ones: Did I love well? Did I love the people around me, my community, the earth, in a deep way? And perhaps, Did I live fully? Did I offer myself to life?
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.
According to Buddhist scriptures, compassion is the "quivering of the pure heart" when we have allowed ourselves to be touched by the pain of life.
Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.
When we struggle to change ourselves we, in fact, only continue the patterns of self-judgement and aggression. We keep the war against ourselves alive.
If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Give so much to the improvement of yourself, that you don’t have time to criticize others.
Life is tough pilgrim, it is even tougher if you're stupid
The Voice There is a voice inside of you That whispers all day long, "I feel this is right for me, I know that this is wrong." No teacher, preacher, parent, friend Or wise man can decide What's right for you--just listen to The voice that speaks inside.
It came to me…that I didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world at that moment, that what I was feeling at that moment justified all I had been through, because all I had been through was my being there. I was experiencing…a new self-acceptance, a sense that I had to be this mind and this body, its vices and its virtues, and that I had no other chance or choice.
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