Quotes About Mindfulness

In simple presence with what is right here now, be it joyful or painful, an amazing freedom reveals itself. It cannot be described or explained in words. It is the freedom to be totally, effortlessly the way things are at this moment. ?—?Toni Packer

To reveal what is obvious, unavoidable, and never-not-here requires an approach that is not result-oriented, an approach that goes nowhere, an approach that is utterly useless and without purpose.

Unlike some who claim that a line in the sand was forever crossed on a particular date in time, no such final event has happened in Joan's story. And, in fact, true enlightenment is not concerned at all with "me" being enlightened.

The Holy Reality is already here, fully complete. And if you think otherwise, then simply stop, look and listen.

You're not going anywhere.

How complete, whole, undivided seeing comes about is a mystery. Any formulation or method we invent will eventually get in our way. It's as if everything we learn must be instantly left behind.

For some people, being a Zen monk is the perfect expression. For others, drinking beer and calling meditation hogwash is the perfect expression. Some teachers will tell you to sweep the floor mindfully, and others will tell you that your mindful sweeping is only a dream. Life is wonderfully playful and diverse.

The truth that many people never understand until it is too late is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer. — Thomas Merton

The great open secret of gratitude is that it is not dependent on external circumstance. It's like a setting or channel that we can switch to at any moment, no matter what's going on around us. It helps us connect to our basic right to be here, like the breath does.

By strengthening our compassion, we give fuel to our courage and determination.

After a while you tame your interior monsters, it's only natural. I don't mean that it ever stops; but it stops mattering.

a dog would be comfortably companionable and an uncomplicated distraction from the inside of his own head, and that one could safely say, out loud

Its been said that worry is like a rocking chair—it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7, KJV).

You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. LUKE 10:41–42

Be anxious about nothing. Be prayerful about everything. Be thankful for all things.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. VIRGINIA WOOLF, A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN

Something about you makes me feel like I can tell you things like that. You're so still. It's like, you'll just hear it." He smiled wryly. "I can't even hear what I'm thinking most of the time," he said, his brow wrinkling. "My brain's noisy.

It's good in some ways, not to have a language. It makes you see things. You turn your attention, not to babbling about yourself, broadcasting each and every thought to everyone within earshot-as people do- but to observing.

Always eat every meal as though it was your last.

You have to learn to love the small things in life, like a hot bath. You have to love the small things, when you have nothing else.

It is easy to forget how much you have, when your eyes are always fixed on what you have not.

Savor the little moments, son, that's my advice. They're what life is. All the little things that happen while you're waiting for something else.

A life of making isn't a series of shows, or projects, or productions, or things: it is an everyday practice. It is a practice of questions more than answers, of waiting to find what you need more often than knowing what you need to do. Waiting, like listening and meandering, is best when it is an active and not a passive state.