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The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.

Jack Kornfield

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Practice of Forgiveness

Topic: Love, Compassion, & Kindness

The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.

Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield was born in 1945 into a Jewish family with a scientific and academically inclined background. His educational journey led him to Dartmouth College where he majored in Asian studies, graduating in 1967. This academic focus paved the way for his later explorations into Eastern philosophies and practices. Following his graduation, Kornfield joined the Peace Corps, which took him to Thailand. There, his life took a transformative turn as he met and trained under revered Buddhist masters such as Ajahn Chah in Thailand and Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. His time in Asia deeply influenced his path, shaping him into a dedicated practitioner and teacher of Vipassana meditation.

In 1975, after returning to the United States, Jack Kornfield co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, alongside Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. This center became one of the first to introduce and solidify Vipassana meditation practices in the West. His commitment to spreading mindfulness continued to deepen, and in 1987, he also helped establish the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Both institutions have been pivotal in bringing Eastern meditation techniques to a Western audience, fostering a bridge between the two cultures through mindfulness and meditation teachings.

Beyond his roles as a meditation teacher and center founder, Jack Kornfield has made significant contributions to the integration of Eastern and Western psychological practices. He obtained a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Saybrook Institute, which equipped him with a unique perspective on mental health that blends traditional Western therapies with Eastern spiritual practices. Kornfield has authored several influential books, taught at various institutions, and led international gatherings with other renowned teachers, including the Dalai Lama. His work not only continues to influence new generations of meditation practitioners but also contributes to the broader dialogue on mental health and spiritual fulfillment.

Buddhism
The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace

Kornfield, Jack. The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace. Reprint edition, Bantam, April 29, 2008.

Jack Kornfield


Theme: Forgiving

About This Jack Kornfield Quotation [Commentary]

Jack Kornfield teaches that “the practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.” His words present forgiveness as a practice—something we engage in intentionally, not a fleeting emotion or moment of sentiment. By naming it our “most important contribution,” Kornfield places forgiveness at the heart of human responsibility. It becomes a direct way to participate in the healing of the world, not only by addressing what is broken in our personal lives, but by helping repair the wider human fabric through acts of release and mercy.

Kornfield is clear that this practice is not about ignoring pain. In his teaching, forgiveness follows the honest recognition of hurt. He encourages us to acknowledge suffering and give it the space it deserves, because authentic forgiveness arises from truth, not denial. Kornfield writes that “you can grieve and forgive at the same time,” making space for emotional clarity alongside the choice to release resentment. This approach respects both the heart’s vulnerability and its strength, and allows forgiveness to take root without being rushed or forced.

When we forgive, we do more than unburden ourselves. We help create conditions for healing that reach beyond our own experience. Kornfield’s guidance makes it clear that to forgive is to serve. “The practice of forgiveness,” in his words, becomes a disciplined response to harm that shifts the pattern of hurt. It offers a way to stop repeating cycles of blame and retaliation. Through this simple yet difficult act, we take part in something larger than ourselves—a shared healing that begins with the heart and moves outward into the world.

The principles of forgiveness

One of the interesting things about forgiveness is that you find it in all different traditions. There are African indigenous practices of forgiveness. There is of course the Christian teachings of turning the other cheek and Jesus’ teachings of forgiveness. There is the mercy of Allah in Islam.

What’s unique about Buddhism—because Buddhism is more a science of mind than a religion, although it functions as a religion for some people—is that it offers practices in trainings. It doesn’t say just “turn the other cheek” or “remember the mercy of Allah,” but it offers a thousand different trainings: trainings in mindfulness, in compassion, in forgiveness, in lovingkindness, in compassion for those who are different than you, and so on.

In this way, Buddhist psychology shows an ancient understanding of “neuroplasticity,” the idea that our neurosystem is always changing, even to the very end of life. So many of the modern neuroscience studies that researchers like Richard Davidson are doing, using fMRI machines and the like, validate this idea of neuroplasticity. Indeed, in Buddhism, the teaching in three words is: “Not Always So.” Things are always changing.

The Buddha was a list maker: the Eightfold Path, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, the Four Nobel Truths. Similarly, here are 12 principles connected with the process of forgiveness.

One: Understand what forgiveness is and what it is not. As I mentioned earlier, it’s not condoning, it’s not a papering over, it’s not for the other person, it’s not sentimental.

Two: Sense the suffering in yourself, of still holding onto this lack of forgiveness for yourself or for another. Start to feel that it’s not compassionate; that you have this great suffering that’s not in your own best interest. So you actually sense the weight of not forgiving.

Three: Reflect on the benefits of a loving heart. [Buddhist texts say]: Your dreams become sweeter, you waken more easily, men and women will love you, angels and devils will love you. If you lose things they will be returned. People will welcome you everywhere when you are forgiving and loving. Your thoughts become pleasant. Animals will sense this and love you. Elephants will bow as you go by—try it at the zoo!

Four: Discover that it is not necessary to be loyal to your suffering. This is a big one. W are so loyal to our suffering, focusing on the trauma and the betrayal of “what happened to me.” OK, it happened. It was horrible. But is that what defines you? “Live in joy” says the Buddha. Look at the Dali Lama, who bears the weight of the oppression in Tibet and the loss of his culture, and yet he’s also a very happy and joyful person. He says, ‘They have taken so much. They have destroyed temples, burned our texts, disrobed our monks and nuns, limited our culture and destroyed it in so many ways. Why should I also let them take my joy and peace of mind?’

Five: Understand that forgiveness is a process. There’s a story of a man who wrote to the IRS, “I haven’t been able to sleep knowing that I cheated on my taxes. Since I failed to fully disclose my earnings last year on my return, I’ve enclosed a bank check for $2,000 dollars. If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send the rest.” It’s a training, it’s a process, layer by layer—that is how the body and the psyche work.

Six: Set your intention. There is a whole complex and profound teaching in Buddhist psychology about the power of both short-term and long-term intention. When you set your intention, it sets the compass of your heart and your psyche. By having that intention, you make obstacles become surmountable because you know where you are going. whether it is in business, a relationship, a love affair, a creative activity, or in the work of the heart. Setting your intention is really important and powerful.

Seven: Learn the inner and outer forms of forgiveness. There are meditation practices for the inner forms, but for the outer forms, there are also certain kinds of confessions and making amends.

Eight: Start the easiest way, with whatever opens your heart. Maybe it’s your dog and maybe it’s the Dali Lama and maybe it’s your child which is the thing or person that you most love and can forgive. Then you bring in someone who is a little more difficult to forgive. Only when the heart is all the way open do you take on something difficult.

Nine: Be willing to grieve. And grief, as Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has spelled out, consists of bargaining, loss, fear, and anger. You have to be willing to go through this process in some honorable way, as I’m sure Nelson Mandela did. Indeed, he has described how [before he could forgive his captors] he was outraged and angry and hurt and all the things that anyone would feel. So be willing to grieve, and then to let go.

Ten: Forgiveness includes all the dimensions of our life. Forgiveness is work of the body. It’s work of the emotions. It’s work of the mind. And it’s interpersonal work done through our relationships.

Eleven: Forgiveness involves a shift of identity. There is in us an undying capacity for love and freedom that is untouched by what happens to you. To come back to this true nature is the work of forgiveness.

Twelve: Forgiveness involves perspective. We are in this drama in life that is so much bigger than our ‘little stories.’ When we can open this perspective, we see it is not just your hurt, but the hurt of humanity. Everyone who loves is hurt in some way. Everyone who enters the marketplace gets betrayed. The loss is not just your pain, it is the pain of being alive. Then you feel connected to everyone in this vastness.

—Jack Kornfield: 12 Principles of Forgiveness, August 2011 [greatergood.berkeley.edu/video/item/12_principles_of_forgiveness.] And [greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_ancient_heart_of_forgiveness].

Resources

  • Jack Kornfield: 12 Principles of Forgiveness, August 2011
  • Forgiveness Defined, Greater Good Magazine
  • Wise Heart: A profile of Jack Kornfield, Lion's Roar
  • I’ve Been Thinking … The Heart of Forgiveness, Maria Shriver Blog
  • What Does It Actually Mean to Forgive? By Robert Enright | July 7, 2025
  • The Ancient Heart of Forgiveness Jack Kornfield shares extraordinary stories of forgiveness

Related Quotes

  • I Will Not Remember - Isaiah, The Book of Isaiah
  • The Attribute of the Strong - Mohandas K. Gandhi,
  • Great Forgiveness Is Possible - Sun Myung Moon,
  • Without Forgiveness - Desmond Tutu, Without Forgiveness There Is No Future
  • Practice of Forgiveness - Jack Kornfield, The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace
  • The Hard Road of Forgiveness - Kent Nerburn, Calm Surrender
  • Forgive Again and Again - Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

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