Jack Kornfield

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

Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.

Let go of the battle. Breathe quietly and let it be. Let your body relax and your heart soften. Open to whatever you experience without fighting.

Love creates a communion with life. Love expands us, connects us, sweetens us, ennobles us.Love springs up in tender concern, it blossoms into caring action. It makes beauty out of all we touch. In any moment we can step beyond our small self and embrace each other as beloved parts of a whole.

If you put a spoonful of saltin a cup of waterit tastes very salty.If you put a spoonful of saltin a lake of fresh waterthe taste is still pure and clear.Peace comes when our hearts areopen like the sky,vast as the ocean.

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home.

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.

In our charade with ourselves we pretend that our war is not really war. We have changed the name of the War Department to the Defense Department and call a whole class of nuclear missiles Peace Keepers!

Attachment is conditional, offers love only to certain people in certain ways; it is exclusive. Love, in the sense of metta, used by Buddha, is a universal, nondiscriminating feeling of caring and connectedness.

When we let go of our battles and open our heart to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice. Only in this moment can we discover that which is timeless. Only here can we find the love that we seek. Love in the past is simply memory, and love in the future is fantasy. Only in the reality of the present can we love, can we awaken, can we find peace and understanding and connection with ourselves and the world.

In the end, just three things matter:How well we have livedHow well we have lovedHow well we have learned to let go

In the endthese things matter most:How well did you love?How fully did you live?How deeply did you let go?

Sense the blessings of the earth in the perfect arc of a ripe tangerine, the taste of warm, fresh bread, the circling flight of birds, the lavender color of the sky shining in a late afternoon rain puddle, the million times we pass other beings in our cars and shops and out among the trees without crashing, conflict, or harm.

The words of the Buddha offer this truth: _ Hatred never ceases by hatred but by love alone is healed.

Built on the foundation of concentration is the third aspect of the Buddha__ path of awakening: clarity of vision and the development of wisdom.

The path of awakening begins with a step the Buddha called right understanding.

Acceptance is not passivity. It is a courageous step in the process of transformation.