Quotes About Mindfulness

We are in nirv??a. The only problem is that we are not able to return to it.

if we are free of the past, free of the future, we can touch the kingdom of God, the Pure Land of the Buddha, with every step.

Usually when anger manifests, we want to confront the person we think is the source of our anger. We're more interested in setting that person straight than in taking care of the more urgent matter, which is our own anger. We are like the person whose house is on fire who goes chasing after the arsonist instead of going home to put out the fire.

Whether the object of your love is your heart, your in-breath, your physical body, or your baby, whether it is your son, your daughter, or your partner, your declaration of love is always the same. It is: "Dear one, I am here for you.

Are you sure of your perceptions?" he asked us. I urge you to write this phrase down on a card and put it up on the wall of your room: "Are you sure of your perceptions?" There is a river of perceptions in you. You should sit down on the bank of this river and contemplate your perceptions.

Walk slowly, but not so slowly that you draw too much attention to yourself. This is a kind of invisible practice. Enjoy nature and your own serenity without making others uncomfortable or making a show of it.

Happiness is available. Please help yourself to it. All of us have the capacity of transforming neutral feelings into pleasant feelings, very pleasant feelings that can last a long time.

When we're first learning sitting meditation, it can be useful to count our breaths. Count one for the first in- and out-breath. Count two for the second, and so on. If your mind wanders and you lose count, go back to one and begin again. This exercise helps develop concentration. You may think counting to ten is easy, but counting to ten while breathing mindfully takes a lot of focus.

Your thoughts can make you and the world around you suffer more or suffer less.

You don't need to be perfect. What's important is that you have a path to follow, a path of love. If we get lost in a forest and we don't have a compass at night, we can look at the North Star in order to go north, to get out. Your purpose is to get out of the forest, it's not to arrive at the North Star.

Hold onto your anger and use it as compost for your garden.

When people in intimate relationships have mindfulness, concentration, and insight, their relationships have an element of holiness. Sexual intimacy shouldn't occur before there is communion, understanding, and sharing on the emotional and spiritual level.

You can take one step with each in-breath and one step with each out-breath.

Darling, I know you are there. Your presence is precious to me." If you do not express this while you are together, when she passes away or has an accident, you will only cry, because before the accident happened, you did not know how to be truly happy together.

Right Livelihood (samyag ajiva), you have to find a way to earn your living without transgressing your ideals of love and compassion.

The raft is used to cross the river. It isn't to be carried around on your shoulders. The finger which points at the moon isn't the moon itself.

The five remembrances are: 1.  I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape growing old. 2.  I am of the nature to have ill health. I cannot escape having ill health. 3.  I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape death. 4.  All that is dear to me, and everyone I love, are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. 5.  I inherit the results of my acts of body, speech, and mind. My actions are my continuation

We drink and eat all the time, but we usually ingest only our ideas, projects, worries, and anxiety. We do not really eat our bread or drink our beverage. If we allow ourselves to touch our bread deeply, we become reborn, because our bread is life itself. Eating it deeply, we touch the sun, the clouds, the earth, and everything in the cosmos. We touch life, and we touch the Kingdom of God.

Let us instead really live these moments that are given to us.

Open all the doors. Don't commit yourself to just one idea of happiness. Remove the idea of happiness that you have, and then happiness can come, this afternoon.

Sometimes we act without intention, but that is also action. "Habit energy" is pushing us; it pushes us to do things without our being aware. Sometimes we do something without knowing we're doing it. Even when we don't want to do something, we still do it. Sometimes we say, "I didn't want to do it, but it's stronger than me, it pushed me." So that is a seed, a habit energy, that may have come from many generations in the past.

Happiness depends first of all on having the deep desire for happiness, and then on having a spiritual path to follow.

When you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.

Therefore, in order to take care of you, I have to take care of myself.