Quotes About Mindfulness

We just need to live a simple, authentic life. Our true person, our true self, doesn't need a particular job or position. Our true self doesn't need money, fame, or status. Our true self doesn't need to do anything. We just live our life deeply in the present moment.

Forgetfulness is the darkness, mindfulness is the light.

When you turn on the television, it may not be because there's a fascinating program you want to see; it's because you're afraid of being alone with yourself.

The individual consciousness also has toxins. The hells, hungry ghost, and animal realms are in us. If we want them to appear, they can appear right away. We only need to press a button and Pandora's box will open. If we sit there and allow the negative thinking connected to past experiences to come up, we are eating the toxic matter of consciousness. Many of us sit and think, and the more we think, the more angry, upset and in despair we become.

We are not noble by birth. We are noble only by virtue of the way we think, speak, and act.

When you work with your computer for three or four hours, you are totally lost. It's like eating french fries. You shouldn't eat french fries all day, and you shouldn't be on the computer all day.

Our own life is the instrument with which we experiment with the truth.

When a farmer uses a kind of fertilizer that does not have any effect, he has to change the fertilizer. The same is true for us. If, after several months, the practice we are doing has not brought about any transformation and healing, we have to reconsider the situation.

As a practitioner, you can create holiness. Holiness cannot be bestowed on us by someone else. ... We are a saint when we can produce holiness.

A person who looks at the table and can see the universe is a person who can see the way.

For many people, it [suffering] starts already at a very young age. So what don't schools teach our young people the way to manage suffering?

We need to stop and ask, "Can I realize my deepest aspiration if I pursue this path?" "What is really preventing me from taking the path I most deeply desire?" DEVELOPING

Make the practice pleasant, that is what I beg you to do.

Someday, with no effort at all, you will understand. You only have to allow yourself to be there, to touch deeply each thing you encounter, to walk mindfully, and to help others with the whole of your being. This is the practice of non-practice.

If we focus exclusively on pursuing happiness, we may regard suffering as something to be ignored or resisted. We think of it as something that gets in the way of happiness. But the art of happiness is also and at the same time the art of knowing how to suffer well. If we know how to use our suffering, we can transform it and suffer much less. Knowing how to suffer well is essential to realizing true happiness.

We are not passive. To be passive means to be pulled, pushed, and swayed by circumstances or the people around us.

Standing in line at a grocery store or a restaurant, or waiting for the time to eat, we don't need to waste our time. We don't need to "wait" for one second. Instead, we can enjoy breathing in and out for our nourishment and healing. We can use that time to notice that we will soon be able to have food, and we can be happy and grateful during that time. Instead of waiting, we can generate joy.

True happiness isn't found in success, money, fame, or power. True happiness should be found in the here and the now. With that kind of insight you can truly relax.

You have to train yourself, to learn how to go home to the present moment, to the here and now

Buddhist meditation has two aspects — shamatha and vipashyana. We tend to stress the importance of vipashyana ("looking deeply") because it can bring us insight and liberate us from suffering and afflictions. But the practice of shamatha ("stopping") is fundamental. If we cannot stop, we cannot have insight.

We must begin to live fully and truly, every moment of our daily lives.

The first function of meditation — shamatha — is to stop.

Now I see that if one doesn't know how to die, one can hardly know how to live - because death is a part of life.

In the past, we probably did suffer from one thing or another. It may even have felt like a kind of hell. If we remember that suffering, not letting ourselves get carried away by it, we can use it to remind ourselves, How lucky I am right now. I'm not in that situation. I can be happy.