Quotes About Mindfulness

Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for– to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world (from, 'Mindful')

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.

Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. (from The Messenger)

I would like people to remember of me, how inexhaustible was her mindfulness.

Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell others.

But mostly I just stand in the dark field, in the middle of the world, breathing

Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

I don't want you just to sit down at the table. I don't want you just to eat, and be content. I want you to walk out into the fields where the water is shining, and the rice has risen. I want you to stand there, far from the white tablecloth. I want you to fill your hands with the mud, like a blessing.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done?

I don't want to lose a single thread from the intricate brocade of this happiness .I want to remember everything.

I walk in the world to love it.

Going to Walden is not so easy a thing As a green visit. It is the slow and difficult Trick of living, and finding it where you are.

I did think, let's go about this slowly. This is important. This should take some really deep thought. We should take small thoughtful steps. But, bless us, we didn't.

Emerson, I am trying to live, as you said we must, the examined life. But there are days I wish there was less in my head to examine, not to speak of the busy heart. How would it be to be Percy, I wonder, not thinking, not weighing anything, just running forward.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.

And what has consciousness come to anyway, so far, that is better than these light-filled bodies?

Today Today I'm flying low and I'm not saying a word. I'm letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep. The world goes on as it must, the bees in the garden rumbling a little, the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten. And so forth. But I'm taking the day off. Quiet as a feather. I hardly move though really I'm traveling a terrific distance. Stillness. One of the doors into the temple.

in this world I am as rich as I need to be.

What good does it do to lie all day in the sun loving what's easy? It never grew easy, but at least I grew peaceful:

I'd seen their hoofprints in the deep needles and knew they ended the long night under the pines... I was thinking: so this is how you swim inward, so this is how you flow outward, so this is how you pray. (from poem, Five A.M. in the Pinewoods)

Look, I want to love this world as though it's the last chance I'm ever going to get to be alive and know it.

For me it was important to be alone; solitude was a prerequisite to being openly and joyfully susceptible and responsive to the world of leaves, light, birdsong, flowers, flowing water.

Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done?