Quotes About Mindfulness

Zazen is the elimination of distance between subject and object.

Bearing witness is not something to be done only at Auschwitz. When we bear witness to the unfolding of our daily lives, not shrinking from any situation that arises, we learn. We open to what is. And in that process, a healing arises.

Think! How the hell are you gonna think and hit at the same time?

When I lived in South Africa, someone told me what the longest road in Africa is. It's not the road from Cairo to Capetown, it's the way from your head to your heart, and from there to the here and now.

Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.

Sitting. Sitting is the hardest, Mr Ui. Yes, some people can walk, and some people can stand; but show me the man who knows how to sit.

Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is at their heels.

A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.

To teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do.

The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about others things.

Thus thinking and thus practising, you will find this sense grow within you, this sense of calm and of strength and of serenity, so that you will feel as though you were in a place of peace, no matter what the storm in the outer world, and you will see and feel the storm and yet not be shaken by it.

For all the practical purposes of Yoga, the man, the working, conscious man, is so much of him as he cannot separate from the matter enclosing him, or with which he is connected. Only that is body which the man is able to put aside and say: "This is not I, but mine."

That is one reason for thinking hard—in order to think better. And the harder you think, the more will your thinking instrument improve.

In concentration, the consciousness is held to a single image; the whole attention of the Knower is fixed on a single point, without wavering or swerving.

There is no life without consciousness; there is no consciousness without life.

When I'm alone in nature as I am now, I marvel that I ever let a day go by when I'm not in nature as I am now. But the truth is, not only days but whole months go by between immersions. How can that be, when I feel so recharged here?

But there's a blessing in everything if we open our eyes.

Life will offer us amazing opportunities, but we've got to be wide-awake to recognize them.

Proficiency is not benevolence. There is an art to being present.

Never eat while doing something else, because you won't get the satisfaction from your food and you'll be more likely to overeat.

I do yoga so that I can stay flexible enough to kick my own arse if necessary.

When I stopped to pay attention to where my breathing was deep and settled, the truth began to emerge from the mist.

My little bit of earth in the front garden is one of the places that I find my bearings. The rhythm of my day begins with a cup of coffee and a little bit of weeding or dreaming.

Happiness isn't about smiling all the time, loving all the time, or getting everything you want. It's about living and experiencing everything this life has to offer you, truly and authentically.