Quotes from Sakyong Mipham

Every moment of our life is important.

To protect this earth is to protect the very spirit of life

Your life and your practice should not be separate. You bring your practice into experience. You bring it about.

After you run, there's a sense of accomplishment; you feel like your life is meaningful. It's a moment of clarity.

I think Shambhala can be a very strong force as a social example of how you can try to live a life balanced in terms of both the spiritual and the secular.

Many people think spirituality has nothing to do with success or accomplishing - that it's something you do with removal, with leaving the world.

Certain teachers have tremendous amounts of experience. They are articulate, and they give wonderful discourse. But at some point along the road, they themselves learned from and studied a book.

For a lot of us, the opposite of auspicious coincidence is obstacles. Life usually is a mixture of both, but as we begin to exhibit exertion, more and more auspiciousness happens.

Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don't even notice it.

Whatever we do lays a seed in our deepest consciousness, and one day that seed will grow.

Gentleness can be developed with simple thoughts. First, appreciate who you are and make friends with yourself. Look at what you can do, and don't allow what you cannot do to oppress you. Rather, regard it as a future adventure. The practice of meditation allows for this development to take place.

Articulating and expanding your motivation when you wake up in the morning has the power to change your whole day.

Past events are already gone, and the future is yet to happen. It is only in the present that we can be in our life. The present is the joystick, controlling the moment, and thus the direction our life takes. Being with the breath is the most effective way of being in the present. It completely connects us with reality.

when we are brave enough to be in the present, we have the power to transform the world.

Meditation and running are essentially addressing these two kinds of pain. Of course, we cannot run all day and all night, and it is difficult to meditate all day and all night. However, when we include these two disciplines in our daily routine, we are making our body and mind more livable.

The exertion it takes to get back in shape when we are out of shape is arguably more than it takes to stay in shape...

In the tradition of warriorship, to celebrate moment to moment is called discipline. Discipline is not a sense of oppression or being punished; it is freedom from our own self-perpetuating laziness.

The breath is like the waves in the ocean that help circulate the water so that it does not become stagnant.

We embody our worries. When stress is the basic state of mind, even good things stress us out.

When the mind is totally present, it is relaxed, nimble, and sensitive. It feels lighter and clearer. It notices everything, but it is not distracted by anything. It is the feeling of knowing exactly where you are and what you are doing.

When I came to the West and heard about knights slaying dragons, I was shocked. In Tibet, the dragon symbolizes incomprehensible profundity.

Heaven is the natural spaciousness of our mind before we make it small with self-protection.

According to the Chinese system of medicine, stagnation is the cause of many illnesses.

Our minds become more supple as we develop ourselves on the meditation seat. Each time we acknowledge a fantasy or thought, we're softening up our mind by becoming less bound to concepts and emotions. Following the technique fosters curiosity instead of dullness, appreciation instead of disheartenment, and imagination instead of limitation.