Quotes from Jon Kabat-Zinn

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.

I started the Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979. The idea of bringing Buddhist meditation without the Buddhism into the mainstream of medicine was tantamount to the Visigoths being at the gates about to tear down the citadel of Western civilization.

Writing can be an incredible mindfulness practice.

When you have children, you realize how easy it is to not see them fully, and perhaps miss all those early years. If you are not careful, you can be too absorbed in work, and they will be only too happy to tell you about it later. Being a parent is one of greatest mindfulness practices of all.

You are only here now; you're only alive in this moment.

Maybe the fear is that we are less than we think we are, when the actuality of it is that we are much much more.

It is what makes us human, what distinguishes us from other animals. We can be aware of being aware.

I'm challenging everybody on every side of every divide to be more who they are, to cultivate their capacity for awareness.

I was very much a tough New York street kid. I went to a school where you had to learn how to get along with everybody or fight with everybody, and I did my fair share of both.

If we are honest with ourselves, most of us will have to admit that we live out our lives in an ocean of fear.

He who dies before he dies does not die when he dies.

All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.

Most people don't realize that the mind constantly chatters. And yet, that chatter winds up being the force that drives us much of the day in terms of what we do, what we react to, and how we feel.

If we hope to go anywhere or develop ourselves in any way, we can only step from where we are standing. If we don't really know where we are standing... We may only go in circles.

Too much of the education system orients students toward becoming better thinkers, but there is almost no focus on our capacity to pay attention and cultivate awareness.

One way to look at meditation is as a kind of intrapsychic technology that's been developed over thousands of years by traditions that know a lot about the mind/body connection.

It is indeed a radical act of love just to sit down and be quiet for a time by yourself.

Perhaps we just need little reminders from time to time that we are already dignified, deserving, worthy.

Look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them.... Without knowing it, we are coloring everything, putting our spin on it all.

The real meditation is how you live your life.

Nourishing the soul is the process of drinking at the life stream, coming back to one's true self, embracing the whole of one's experience - good, bad, or ugly; painful or exalted; dull or boring.

You can bring together the body's various systems to fine tune the body and mind in order to navigate life's ups and downs in a way that minimizes stress and maximizes well-being and satisfaction.

The mind that has not been developed or trained is very scattered. That's the normal state of affairs, but it leaves us out of touch with a great deal in life, including our bodies.

Breathing is central to every aspect of meditation training. It's a wonderful place to focus in training the mind to be calm and concentrated.