Quotes About Mindfulness

I am convinced that happiness is not possible unless it is based on freedom.

If you know how to make good use of the mud, you can grow beautiful lotuses. If you know how to make good use of suffering, you can produce happiness. We do need some suffering to make happiness possible. And most of us have enough suffering inside and around us to be able to do that. We don't have to create more.

You have to practice going back to your wounded child every day. You have to embrace him or her tenderly, like a big brother or a big sister.

When I look at the full moon, I breathe in and out deeply and say, Full moon, I know you are there, and I am very happy. I do the same with the morning star. When you contemplate a beautiful sunset, if you are really there, you will recognize and appreciate it deeply. Whenever you are truly there, you can recognize and appreciate the presence of the other, whether that is full moon, the North Star, the magnolia flowers, or the person you love...

Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life.

It is often said that the Buddha's teaching is only a raft to help you cross the river, a finger pointing to the moon. Don't mistake the finger for the moon. The raft is not the shore. If we cling to the raft, if we cling to the finger, we miss everything.

The most basic precept of all is to be aware of what we do, what we are, each minute . Every other precept will follow from that.

The greatest gift we can offer anyone is our true presence.

The only way to ease our fear and be truly happy is to acknowledge our fear and look deeply at its source.

What are you ruminating on? Old suffering?

A few years ago, I asked some children, What is the purpose of eating breakfast? One boy replied, To get energy for the day. Another said, The purpose of eating breakfast is to eat breakfast. I think the second child is more correct.

Your body is not just yours. It is a gift and a responsibility.

What we need are people who are capable [...] of not taking sides so that they can embrace the whole of reality.

Live in a way that encourages deep happiness in yourself and others. You can vow to bring joy to one person in the morning and to help relieve the suffering of one person in the afternoon. Ask yourself, "Who can I make smile this morning?" This is the art of creating happiness.

A wave has a right to live her life as a wave, but she must also learn to live her life as water because she is not only a wave. She is also water. And water lives without the fear carried by the wave.

Our suffering is impermanent, and that is why we can transform it. And because happiness is impermanent, that is why we have to nourish it.

When you have trouble sleeping, follow your breathing in and breathing out. Bring your awareness to the different parts of your body in turn, and allow them to relax.

To be in the here and the now—solid and fully alive—is a very positive contribution to our collective situation.

What you read and write can help you heal, so be thoughtful about what you consume.

Many of us slog through life without conscious awareness or intention. We set ourselves a course and we barrel ahead, without stopping to ask whether this path is fulfilling our most important goals. That's partly because many of us believe that happiness is not possible in the here and now. We think we need to struggle now so that we will be happy in the future. So we postpone happiness and try to run into the future and attain the conditions of happiness that we don't have now.

My aim is not to give you knowledge. My aim is to help you break free from your views.

Flowers decompose, but knowing this does not prevent us from loving flowers. In fact, we are able to love them more because we know how to treasure them while they are still alive. If we learn to look at a flower in a way that impermanence is revealed to us, when it dies, we will not suffer. Impermanence is more than an idea. It is a practice to help us touch reality.

Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your perceptions need you, your feeling needs you. The wounded child in you needs you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it.

One day my left hand was holding a nail and my right hand a hammer. I was trying to hang a picture and I was not very mindful. Instead of pounding on the nail I pounded on the finger. Right away my right hand put the hammer down and took care of my left hand as if she were taking care of herself.