Quotes from Joseph Goldstein

Generosity, morality, respect, service, listening to the Dharma, and meditation—these are actions for the good. Each one is a practice that can be cultivated and further refined, becoming the causes for our own happiness and the happiness of others.

When we can settle back into the moment, realizing that past and future are simply thoughts in the present, then we free ourselves from the bondage of "time.

To realize that boredom does not come from the object of our attention but rather from the quality of our attention is truly a transforming insight.

this quintessential Zen statement: "There is no right and no wrong, but right is right and wrong is wrong.

HAVING DEVELOPED SOME CONFIDENCE AND FAITH IN THE possibility of awakening, we are now faced with a very pragmatic question, "What do I do?" The Buddha responded to this question with incisive and disarming simplicity: "Do no harm, act for the good, purify the mind. This is the teaching of all the Buddhas.

A healthy self and an empty self are not contradictory; it just appears so because we use the same language to describe two different things. The whole path of meditation is about understanding that the self as an unchanging entity is a fiction, an illusory mental construct.

If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will have complete peace. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end.6 39 Right Thought Lovingkindness

The expression of emptiness is love, because emptiness means "emptiness of self." When there is no self, there is no other. That duality is created by the idea of self, of I, of ego. When there's no self, there is a unity, a communion. And without the thought of "I'm loving someone," love becomes the natural expression of that oneness.

This is not a breathing exercise; it is an exercise in awareness.

We do not know when any seed will come to fruition. We can experience the karmic results of our actions in this lifetime, in the next life, or at any time in the future. But our present actions influence which karmic seeds have the opportunity to come to fruition.

Nothing at all can prevent the universal process of birth, growth, decay, and death.

That which is impermanent is inherently unreliable and unsatisfying. And that which is unreliable and unsatisfying cannot truly be considered to be I or Mine.

And one abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world.

There is no right and no wrong, but right is right and wrong is wrong.

Better than one hundred years lived without seeing the arising and passing of things / Is one day lived seeing their arising and passing."2 What does this say about what we value and work for in our lives, and about the liberating effect of seeing directly, in the moment, the truth of change?

This is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of nibb?na—namely the four foundations of mindfulness.

Buddhism is a clever way to enjoy life. Happiness is available. Please help yourselves to it.

Actions rooted in greed, hatred, or ignorance bring unpleasant results.

meditate upon thoughts is simply to be aware, as thoughts arise, that the mind is thinking, without getting involved in the content: not going off on a train of association, not analyzing the thought and why it came, but merely to be aware that at the particular moment "thinking" is happening

Mind is the forerunner of all things. Speak or act with an impure mind, suffering follows as the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox.     Mind is the forerunner of all things. Speak or act with peaceful mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never leaves.

So many problems in the world—political and economic tensions and hostilities—are related to the thought, "This is my nation, my country." In understanding that the concept is only the product of our own thought processes, we can begin to free ourselves from that attachment.

We rarely see that "past" and "future" are happening right now. All that there is, is an unfolding of present moments. We have created these concepts to serve a useful purpose, but by taking the ideas to be the reality, by not understanding that they are merely the product of our own thought processes, we find ourselves burdened by worries and regrets about the past and anxieties of anticipation about what has not yet happened.

Actually, ownership is a thought process independent of the actual relationship that exists between us and objects in the world. Freeing ourselves from attachment to "ownership" frees us from our enslavement to objects.

And in the context of the five aggregates, sa?k?r? refers specifically to all the mental factors that arise in different combinations with each moment of consciousness, except feeling and perception, which were singled out as aggregates because of their unique importance.