Quotes About Mindfulness

When you practice building a home in yourself, you become more and more beautiful. You radiate your inner peace, warmth, and joy.

When we recognize that our suffering is based on images instead of current reality, then living happily in the present moment becomes possible right away.

our afflictions, such as craving, anger

The Buddha's Four Noble Truths are: there is suffering; there is a course of action that generates suffering; suffering ceases (i.e., there is happiness); and there is a course of action leading to the cessation of suffering (the arising of happiness).

The Kingdom of God is a treasure. Once you have touched that treasure, you know that the things you previously considered to be conditions for your happiness are just obstacles.

Master Linji used language that was particularly harsh and strong to remind the monks in clear terms that the only role of a practitioner is to live simply, as an ordinary person, and not to put on airs. This is still a fundamental challenge for us today.

We move about life in our own corpse because we are not touching life in depth. We live a kind of artificial life, with lots of plans, lots of worries and anger. Never are we able to establish ourselves in the here and now and live our lives deeply. We have to wake up! We have to make it possible for the moment of awareness to manifest. This is the practice that will save us—this is the revolution.

Love can bring us happiness and peace as long as we love in such a way that we don't make a net to confine ourselves and others. We can tell the correct way to love because, when we love correctly, we don't create more suffering.

To practice the Four Noble Truths, you yourself have to touch deeply the things that bring you peace and joy. When you do, you realize that walking on the Earth is a miracle, washing the dishes is a miracle, and practicing with a community of friends is a miracle. The greatest miracle is to be alive.

People often ask if it is difficult to be a celibate monk or nun, but to practice mindfulness as a monastic is in many ways easier than to practice as a layperson. To refrain from sexual activity altogether is much easier than to have a healthy sexual relationship.

Things are dynamic and living, while our concepts of them are static and poor.

Accustomed as we are to being constantly occupied, if these occupations should happen to be taken from us, we find ourselves empty and abandoned. We then refuse to confront ourself and instead go off in search of friends, to mix in with the crowd, to listen to the radio or to the television, to get rid of this impression of emptiness.

We ride on the wave of birth and death, and we are free from birth and death.

Breathing in, I know I'm alive." Your eyes still work: "Breathing in, I'm aware of my eyes. Breathing out, I smile to my eyes.

Part of the beauty of the monastic life lies in the ability to live simply with few desires and to consume only what you need.

The horse is our habit energy pulling us along, and we are powerless. We are always running, and it has become a habit. We struggle all the time, even during our sleep. We are at war within ourselves, and we can easily start a war with others.

When desire stops, there is no more fear. We are then truly free, peaceful, and happy.

No birth and no death; no being and no nonbeing; no coming and no going; no same and no different

We have to practice continuously and not just superficially. It can't be done half-heartedly. We have to be determined to grasp our mind. A period of continuous diligent practice will surely lead to transformation

As practitioners of meditation, we should never accept anything on blind faith, regarding it as absolute, unchanging truth. We should investigate and observe reality with mindfulness and concentration, so our understanding and faith can deepen day by day.

Much of our thinking is unnecessary.

Si sólo te fijas en tu sufrimiento, perderás el paraíso. No ignores tu sufrimiento, pero no te olvides tampoco de disfrutar de las maravillas de la vida, en beneficio tuyo y en el de todos los seres.

If you dwell only in your suffering, you will miss paradise.

Whenever you find yourself judging your partner, go back to your in-breath and out-breath and ask, How can I see this differently? Can I look more deeply to better understand her suffering and her difficulties?