Quotes About Practice

One cannot become a practitioner of Zen just by imitating the way of eating, sitting, or dressing of Chinese or Japanese practitioners. Zen is life, Zen does not imitate. If Zen is to fully take root in the West, it must acquire a Western form, different from Oriental Zen.

mindfulness means reclaiming attention Nonthinking is an art, and like any art, it requires patience and practice. Reclaiming your attention and bringing your mind and body back together for even just ten breaths can be very difficult at first. But with continued practice, you can reclaim your ability to be present and learn just to be.

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.

Mara personifies the inner hindrances to the practice, the opposite of the Buddha nature in each person.

we had practiced watering the positive seeds in him every day, he would not be the way he is today.

When anger comes up in us, we should begin to practice mindful breathing right away: "Breathing in, I know that anger is in me. Breathing out, I am taking good care of my anger." We behave exactly like a mother: "Breathing in, I know that my child is crying. Breathing out, I will take good care of my child." This is the practice of compassion.

When we practice in a community, there are more people to support us but also more opportunities for frustration and anger. Loving speech and deep listening are key to community building.

Doing things with mindfulness means you perform each action with clear awareness of what's happening and of what you're doing in the present moment, and you feel happy as you do it. Mindfulness is the capacity to shine the light of awareness onto what's going on here and now. Mindfulness is the heart of meditation practice.

Writing a letter is a form of meditation practice.

My temple followed the Zen tradition; therefore every one of us from the highest monk to the newest member equally followed the principle of no work, no food.

Buddhism is not a collection of views. It is a practice to help us eliminate wrong views.

We all worked, but we didn't work all day. There was time for us to study the sutras, practice writing, listen to the teachings given by our teacher, chant, and meditate. Most important was meditation. My teacher taught that meditation was the door to understanding, and the career of monks and nuns.

Do we really want to realize our greatest aspiration? If we truly want to accomplish our aspirations, then why would we go along a path that goes against them, and leaves us without enough energy to practice and help ourselves and others?

We need to practice mindfulness daily in order to fulfill our aspiration. We need to patiently pursue our aspiration, but we don't lose the present moment, we enjoy the present moment and we use it to realize our deepest desire

It is because of the practice of meditation--stopping, calming, and looking deeply--that I have been able to nourish and protect the sources of my spiritual energy and continue this work.

The practice community is not a refuge for souls saddened by disappointment.

To practice as monks is to train ourselves in mindfulness and awakening, to first free ourselves from suffering and then to help others do the same.

Your good intentions are not enough; you have to be artful. We may be filled with goodwill; we may be motivated by the desire to make the other person happy; but out of our clumsiness, we make them unhappy. Walking, eating, breathing, talking, and working are all opportunities to practice creating happiness inside you and around you. Mindful living is an art, and each of us has to train to be an artist.

When you begin to practice mindfulness, you begin as a part-time Buddha. Slowly you become a full-time Buddha. Sometimes you are a Buddha; sometimes you fall back; and then, with steady practice, you become a Buddha once again. Buddhahood is within reach because, like the Buddha, you're a human being. You can become a Buddha whenever you like. Buddha is available in the here and now, anytime, anywhere.

After this interlude, invite again the muffled sound of the bell before enouncing the words of the next two lines with their key words. They will again be succeeded by a full sound of the bell, a silent period, and so on until the end of the exercise.

Transforming the past is possible, thanks to meditation practice.

Happiness is a habit. It's

To succeed in the practice, we must stop trying to prove that everything is suffering. In fact, we must stop trying to prove anything. If we touch the truth of suffering with our mindfulness, we will be able to recognize and identify our specific suffering, its specific causes, and the way to remove those causes and end our suffering.

Image teaching" uses words and ideas. "Substance teaching" communicates by the way you live.