Jack Kornfield Quotes

Forgiveness changes the way we remember.

First, forgive. Second, forget by choosing not to dwell on that which is forgiven and in the past. We have no right to keep in front of us what God has put behind Him.

It is hard to imagine a world without forgiveness. Without forgiveness life would be unbearable. Without forgiveness our lives are chained, forced to carry the sufferings of the past and repeat them with no release.

Forgiveness is the key to the heart's shackles.

In the end, forgiveness simply means never putting another person out of our heart.

Love doesn't erase the past, but it makes the future different.

Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory.

The belief that we can be done with our past is a myth.

If we can still love those who have made us suffer, we love them all the more.

When I talk about forgiveness, I mean letting go, not excusing the other person or reconciling with them or condoning the behavior. Just letting go of your own suffering.

Forgiving presupposes remembering.

There is power in forgiveness.

Forgiving the past means remembering the love there, and releasing all the rest as the illusion that it really was.

Forgiveness is a gift to yourself. It frees you from the past, past experiences, and past relationships. It allows you to live in the present time. When you forgive yourself and forgive others, you are indeed free.

Forgiveness allows us to live in the sunlight of the present, not the darkness of the past. Forgiveness alone, of all our human actions, opens up the world to the miracle of infinite possibility.

The weight is off my shoulders. I don't live in the past anymore. I look forward, instead of back.

Learn to forgive fully and completely. If you want health, wealth, and happiness, you can't afford the luxury of lugging around all those unforgiven, unforgotten past events. Let them go.

The past can't be changed, can it? It can just be forgiven.

Forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. Forgiveness indeed heals memories . . .

Love forgets wrongs so that there is hope for the future.

Having looked the past in the eye, having asked for forgiveness and having made amends, let us shut the door on the past—not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us.

You can always forgive, you just can't really forget.

It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering before they will relinquish resistance and accept - before they will forgive.

The past was gone. Nothing could change what had already been. Looking back at it, letting its wounds fester, indulging in regret was just a different, slower way to die. The living moved forward.

Forgetting is something that time takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision.