Quotes About Awareness

The individual consciousness also has toxins. The hells, hungry ghost, and animal realms are in us. If we want them to appear, they can appear right away. We only need to press a button and Pandora's box will open. If we sit there and allow the negative thinking connected to past experiences to come up, we are eating the toxic matter of consciousness. Many of us sit and think, and the more we think, the more angry, upset and in despair we become.

If one's perceptions were accurate, reality revealed itself with ease; but if one's perceptions were erroneous, reality was veiled. People were caught in endless suffering because of their erroneous perceptions: they believed that which is impermanent is permanent, that which is without self contains self, that which has no birth and death has birth and death, and they divided that which is inseparable into parts.

Our own life is the instrument with which we experiment with the truth.

The way we perceive the world around us depends entirely on our way of looking at it.

When a farmer uses a kind of fertilizer that does not have any effect, he has to change the fertilizer. The same is true for us. If, after several months, the practice we are doing has not brought about any transformation and healing, we have to reconsider the situation.

A person who looks at the table and can see the universe is a person who can see the way.

Make the practice pleasant, that is what I beg you to do.

Someday, with no effort at all, you will understand. You only have to allow yourself to be there, to touch deeply each thing you encounter, to walk mindfully, and to help others with the whole of your being. This is the practice of non-practice.

We are not passive. To be passive means to be pulled, pushed, and swayed by circumstances or the people around us.

True happiness isn't found in success, money, fame, or power. True happiness should be found in the here and the now. With that kind of insight you can truly relax.

You have to train yourself, to learn how to go home to the present moment, to the here and now

Buddhist meditation has two aspects — shamatha and vipashyana. We tend to stress the importance of vipashyana ("looking deeply") because it can bring us insight and liberate us from suffering and afflictions. But the practice of shamatha ("stopping") is fundamental. If we cannot stop, we cannot have insight.

We must begin to live fully and truly, every moment of our daily lives.

The first function of meditation — shamatha — is to stop.

Enlightenment is when the wave realizes that it is the ocean.

Meditation means being aware of what is going on – in our bodies, in our feelings, in our minds, and in the world. Each day thousands of children die of hunger. … Yet the sunrise is beautiful, and the rose that blossomed this morning along the wall is a miracle. Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects of life.

Meditation practice is also a kind of food because it nourishes us.

Mindfulness makes you and the other person happy and free. The other person may be caught in her worries, anger, and forgetfulness, but with mindfulness you can save her and yourself.

We have to learn to build safety with our in-breath and our out-breath. We have to learn to build safety with our steps, with our way of acting and reacting, with our words and our efforts to build communication.

The fear, the anger and the despair is born on the ground of wrong perception.

In this food I see clearly the presence of the entire universe supporting my existence.

Each morning when we wake up to life we see that we have a gift of twenty-four brand new hours. If

We must look death in the face, recognize and accept it, just as we look at and accept life.

I think, therefore I am really not there.