Quotes About Practice

Less desire is the willingness to be lonely without resolution when everything in us yearns for something to cheer us up and change our mood. Practicing this kind of loneliness is a way of sowing seeds so that fundamental restlessness decreases.

If we emphasized only precision, our meditation might become quite harsh and militant. (...). One thing that is very helpful is to cultivate an overall sense of relaxation while you are doing the meditation.

An interesting practice that combines mindfulness and refraining is just to notice your physical movements when you feel uncomfortable.

However, in this technique, because your eyes are open and because the gaze in not a tight gaze and because the whole emphasis of the practice is one of openess, even though you're mindful of the out-breath, you're not shutting out all other things that are going on.

Everyday we could think about the aggression in the world. In New York, Los Angelos, Halifax, Taiwain, Beiruit, Kuwait, Somalia, Iraq. Everywhere. All over the world, everybody always strikes out at the enemy. And the pain escalates forever. Everyday we could reflect on this and ask ourselves, Am I going to add to the aggression in the world? Everyday, at the moment when things get edgy, we could just ask ourselves, Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?

But the instruction that the awareness is only twenty-five percent really brings home the idea that it's not a concentration practice - there's a very light touch on the berath as it goes out.

In sitting meditation, our practice is to watch our thoughts arise, label them "thinking," and return to the breath.

The old joke is that a Buddhist is someone who is either meditating or feeling guilty about not meditating.

The path of the bodhisattva-warrior WHEREVER we are, we can train as a warrior. The practices of meditation, loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are our tools.

When we practice discipline with flexibility, we become less moralistic and more tolerant.

But in this meditation technique, we are with the out-breath; there's no particular instruction about what to do until the next out-breath.

Every day we could think about the aggression in the world, in New York, Los Angeles, Halifax, Taiwan, Beirut, Kuwait, Somalia, Iraq, everywhere. All over the world, everybody always strikes out at the enemy, and the pain escalates forever. Every day we could reflect on this and ask ourselves, "Am I going to add to the aggression in the world?" Every day, at the moment when things get edgy, we can just ask ourselves, "Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?

We would practice as if a big snake had just landed in our lap.

All over the world, everybody always strikes out at the enemy, and the pain escalates forever. Every day we could reflect on this and ask ourselves, Am I going to add to the aggression in the world? Every day, at the moment when things get edgy, we can just ask ourselves, Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?

The trick then is to practice gentleness and letting go. We can learn to meet whatever arises with curiosity and not make it such a big deal. Instead of struggling against the force of confusion, we could meet it and relax.

The path of meditation isn't always a linear path. It's not like you begin to open, and you open more and more and you settle more and more, and then all of a sudden the confining box is gone forever. There are setbacks. Change happens, even in our practice. This is a fundamental truth. Everything is always changing because it's alive and dynamic.

When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience our fear of pain. Compassion practice is daring.

It helps to remember that our practice is not about accomplishing anything—not about winning or losing—but about ceasing to struggle and relaxing as it is. That is what we are doing when we sit down to meditate. That attitude spreads into the rest of our lives.

It's a gradual awakening, and it's cumulative, but that's actually what happens. We don't sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we'll be more awake in our lives.

The kinds of discoveries that are made through practice have nothing to do with believing in anything. They have much more to do with having the courage to die, the courage to die continually.

Tonglen practice has to do with cultivating fearlessness. When you do this practice for some time, you experience your heart as more open.

The Cistercian monks were known for their practice of eviction.

but, for most, the practice of religion was determined by custom and regulated by authority.

Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice.