Quotes About Mindfulness

do not understand why this sentence is in the past tense. The World still speaks to me every day.

One of the great pleasures of mental health (whatever that is) is how much less time I have to spend thinking about myself.

An observer can't tell if a person is silent and still because inner life has stalled or because inner life is transfixingly busy

En la vida hace falta tener generosidad: cultivar el pequeño carácter propio sin ver nada más de lo que hay alrededor significa seguir respirando pero estar ya muerto.

La comprensión exige silencio.

Te irritabas enormemente cuando te hacía notar que perder el tiempo no es en absoluto grave. Pero llegaste al máximo de la irritación cuando te dije que la vida no es una carrera, sino un tiro al blanco, lo que importa no es el ahorro de tiempo, sino la capacidad de encontrar una diana.

I have a new mantra, which I chant softly to myself: Oh My God Oh My God.

A thought is like an unripened fruit that is not yet eaten by anyone. Ripening the fruit means bringing a positive thought into action. Many good thoughts die because they are not brought into action, so your good thoughts should definitely be brought into action.

the autonomic

If individuals breathe through the right side, they said, they tend to become more active and aggressive, more alert and more oriented toward the external world. Breathing through the left side, on the other hand, produces a quieter, more passive psychological state, one more oriented toward the inner world.

Do one thing at a Time, and while doing it put your whole Soul into it to the exclusion of all else.

From a recording: If you're listening to this in your car and you find yourself in a beautiful feeling, roll down your window, pop the tape out of the tape player, and throw it out the window. Stay with the feeling, and it will teach you everything you need to know.

Mindfulness meditation doesn't change life. Life remains as fragile and unpredictable as ever. Meditation changes the heart's capacity to accept life as it is. It teaches the heart to be more accommodating, not by beating it into submission, but by making it clear that accommodation is a gratifying choice.

every single act we do has the potential of causing pain, and every single thing we do has consequences that echo way beyond what we can imagine. It doesn't mean we shouldn't act. It means we should act carefully. Everything matters [p. 41].

Pain is inevitable; lives come with pain. Suffering is not inevitable. If suffering is what happens when we struggle with our experience because of our inability to accept it, then suffering is an optional extra [p. 19].

May I meet this moment fully. May I meet it as a friend.

the moment in which the mind acknowledge 'This isn't what I wanted, but it's what I got' is the point at which suffering disappears. Sadness might remain present, but the mind ... is free to console, free to support the mind's acceptance of the situation, free to allow space for new possibilities to come into view. [p. 29]

May I feel contented and safe. May I feel protected and pleased. May my physical body support me with strength. May my life unfold smoothly with ease. [p. 71]

freedom of choice is possible. Life is going to unfold however it does: pleasant or unpleasant, disappointing or thrilling, expected or unexpected, all of the above! What a relief it would be to know that whatever wave comes along, we can ride it out with grace [p. 35].

you are in pain. Relax. Take a breath. Let's pay attention to what is happening. Then we'll figure out what to do. [p. 10]

Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.

The Buddha taught complete honesty, with the extra instruction that everything a person says should be truthful and helpful.

Heir to your own karma doesn't mean 'You get what you deserve.' I think it means 'You get what you get.' Bad things happen to good people. My happiness depending on my action means, to me, that it depends on my action of choosing compassion--for myself as well as for everyone else--rather than contention. [p.61]

life is difficult and painful, just by its very nature, not because we're doing it wrong [pp. 17-18].