Quotes from Sylvia Boorstein

Mindfulness, the aware, balanced acceptance of present experience, is at the heart of what the Buddha taught. This book is meant to be a basic Buddhist primer, but no one should be daunted. It's easier than you think [p. 4]

It is possible to cultivate a mind so spacious that it can be passionate and awake and responsive and involved and care about things, and noty struggle [p. 23]

Fear doesn't frighten me as much as it used to. I know it's from clinging, and I know it will pass [p. 29].

Sometimes I think the only thing worth saying is "I love you.

Being trapped by fear is a form of delusion. Either I can do something or I can't. If I truly can't ... I don't do it. If I truly can, and it wold be a wholesome thing to do, I push myself [p. 39].

if anger arises in the mind in response to an outside event, it's helpful to look for either the saddening or frightening aspect of that event and then take whatever measures we can to address the sadness or the fear. Knowing that negativity or aversion is a transient energy never means to ignore it. It means to see it clearly, always, and work with it wisely [p. 85].

Life is easier without imperatives.

Hatred will never cease by hatred, Only love will erase hatred, This is the eternal law.

He did not confuse compassion with passivity.

Everybody manages one way or another; everyone who is alive and reading this book has managed.

We don't get a choice about what hand we are dealt in this life.

Here is an exercise in advanced Right Speech. Starting tomorrow when you wake up, don't gossip. See what happens if you just give up making comments about anyone not present. Listen carefully to the voice in your mind as it is getting ready to make a comment, and think to yourself, "Why am I saying this?" Awareness of intention is the best clue for knowing whether the remark you are about to make is Right Speech. Is

Often, it is the thought that pain will never end that makes it seem unbearable.

Knowing the truth brings happiness.

I have become more passionate, not less. When I am delighted, which is often, I am ecstatic. When I am sad, I cry easily. Nothing is a big deal. It's whatever it is, and then it's something else.

The first is about spiritual living. I think it's plain. Ordinary people do it, and they don't even know they are doing it. In the middle of plain lives, with regular joys and griefs, they live with grace and kindness and are happy.

Don't just do something, sit there!

Because a grumpy mood that seems to come out of the blue is so inexplicable, I think we go around looking for something to feel annoyed about, some external circumstance to dislike in order to discharge that energy. Even

not doing anything to change experience but rather discovering that experience is bearable.

Here is the instruction: Only connect. Wherever you are, right now, pay attention. Forever.

And here is the eternal wisdom: There are always challenges. You plan for one thing, and something else often happens. The long view—is this a desirable thing or an undesirable thing?—is rarely immediately apparent. Immediate emotional responses are just that. Noticing them, and reflecting, is always a good idea. And the cause of suffering—always—is struggling with challenge rather than responding with sound judgment and kindness.

I would not ask you to do this practice, to undertake this path of liberation from the habits of suffering mind, unless it were a feasible path.

The next-to-last sentence that the Buddha is reported to have spoken as he was dying, before his final sentence of encouragement to his community, was "Transient are all conditioned things.

We talked about how feeling a little better made her feel much better