Quotes About Mindfulness

W]hat purpose does it serve to deny actual experience in order to run with an idea instead?

To see doesn't mean to initiate a programme of inaction. … To act or not to act is not the question. The question is whether or not we're awake. (…) [T]o … see what's happening in each moment, and base our actions on what we see, not on what we think.

There is no Mystery. You already know Reality. You only need to stop talking to yourself, and learn to wordlessly pay attention.

H]ow can something cease to exist that has no solid existence in the first place?

H]ow can there be experience without a self to have that experience? We don't need … an explanation, … that's all the self is: an explanation of experience.

The moment that we hold some solidified idea about Reality- rather than relying on direct perception of the world- we inevitably give rise to anxiety and fear.

A buddha recognizes that anything put into speech is never completely reliable.

Most of the time, … we … are at best only partially engaged in the moment. … [O]ften [we are] lost in thought or reverie – barely here at all. (…) How often we miss the moment simply because we're not here. We tune out much of the world – and much of ourselves as well[.]

Throughout most of our lives, we're so caught up in this and that, rushing through these wonderful distractions and stages, that we don't (or can't) take the time to settle into the mellow light that's always there and to let freshness suffuse the frame. Thus we miss this simple matter of just doing and living fully.

even refer to?

There is only … eternal arising and ceasing – but … no thing that comes or goes.

Don't worry about figuring out anything. It is not necessary to figure anything out, or to theorize, or even look out there. You need only to look at your assumptions, your unexamined beliefs.

this desire to hold on, to somehow stop change in its tracks, is the greatest source of woe and horror and trouble in our lives.

good' crystallised … breeds arrogance and hostility

How can a hard and fast view of a world that is never hard and fast possibly be accurate?

All we ever find is the arising and ceasing of the world as it has come to be now. When you snap your fingers, it's already gone. All that persists is thus. Thus is not an object of mind but Mind Itself.

T]houghts will arise. Don't be bothered by them. Don't think they're bad or that you shouldn't be having them. … If you leave them alone, they'll depart of their own accord. This is how to 'cease all movements of the conscious mind.' You cannot do it by the direct application of your will.

When we just see … , the concept of non-existence doesn't occur. Our belief in non-existence arises only as a result of holding the notion of existence in the first place.

Ignorance is not the inability to see, but the act of ignoring what is really going on in favour of what we imagine.

We habitually act out of … thoughts and assumptions – most of which we're only vaguely aware of – rather than out of full engagement with the moment.

S]elfless action, action done while free of a sense of self. Action in which you don't see yourself as separate from other things.

When we talk about others, we should be very careful to observe our motive—especially if we're talking about a person who isn't present.

To a buddha … there's no habitual overlaying of perceptual experience with concepts, … ideas, … beliefs, notions, pre-formed habits of thought, that are used to explain existence.

The buddha-dharma … is about directly seeing Truth, prior to forming any ideas about it. It is about responding to each particular situation as it comes … , not according to some … program of dos and don'ts.