Quotes About Mindfulness

But as long as you have some fixed idea or are caught by some habitual way of doing things, you cannot appreciate things in their true sense.

We must make some effort, but we must forget ourselves in the effort we make... So it is necessary for us to encourage ourselves and to make an effort up to the last moment, when all effort disappears.

But if sound did not already exist before you clapped, you could not make the sound. Before you make it there is sound. Because there is sound, you can make it, and you can hear it. Sound is everywhere.

When we practice zazen we just practice zazen, without any gaining idea. When we talk about something we just talk about something, ...without trying to express some intellectual, one-sided idea. And we listen without trying to figure or some intellectual understanding, without trying to understand from just a one-sided view.

Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, "I know what Zen is," or "I have attained enlightenment." This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner. Be very very careful about this point.

So try always to keep the right posture, not only when you practice zazen, but in all your activities. Take the right posture when you are driving your car, and when you are reading. If you read in a slumped position, you cannot stay awake long. Try. You will discover how important it is to keep the right posture. This is the true teaching.

When we do something with a quite simple, clear mind, we have no notion or shadows, and our activity is strong and straightforward. But when we do something with a complicated mind, in relation to other things or people, or society, our activity becomes very complex.

When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything. Without air, we cannot breathe.

Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough.

Enlightenment is not some good feeling or some particular state of mind. The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment. If you cannot be satisfied with the state of mind you have in zazen, it means your mind is still wandering about. Our body and mind should not be wobbling or wandering about. In this posture there is no need to talk about the right state of mind. You already have it. This is the conclusion of Buddhism.

So when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated on your breathing. This kind of activity is the fundamental activity of the universal being. Without this experience, this practice, it is impossible to attain absolute freedom.

In the zazen posture, your mind and body have great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.

You and I are just swinging doors.

So we should be concentrated with our full mind and body on what we do; and we should be faithful, subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and especially to our feelings.

Most people have a double or triple notion in one activity. There is a saying, "To catch two birds with one stone." That is what people usually try to do. Because they want to catch too many birds they find it difficult to be concentrated on one activity, and they may end up not catching any birds at all!

Bowing helps to eliminate our self-centered ideas... The result is not the point; it is the effort to improve ourselves that is valuable... whether or not it is possible is not the point... Before you determine to do it, you have difficulty, but once you start to do it, you have none.

When you do something, if you fix your mind on the activity with some confidence, the quality of your state of mind is the activity itself. When you are concentrated on the quality of your being, you are prepared to the activity.

A perfect moment can not be captured, just focus on living it.

Life is like a glass of water... one may change its colour or flavour , but its all not worth it if you start spilling it around.

Temper is like Blood...... you only see it when you lose it!!!

Remember the time to relax is when you don't have time to relax.

To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.

They have never found that area within themselves where they can be peaceful with who they are, what they are, and where they are. In

Boredom helps one to make decisions.