Quotes About Awareness

All concepts, including those of "unity" and of duality, are foreign to experience which can be described as non-conceptual.

Don't ignore your suffering, but don't forget to enjoy the wonders of life, for your sake and for the benefit of many beings.

But if you take the time to still the activities of body and mind and look deeply, you may see that you are dying right this very moment. You think that you will die in a few years, or twenty years, or thirty years. That's not true. You are dying now. You have been dying all the time. It's actually very pleasant to die, which is also to live.

It is not words or concepts that are important. What is important is our insight into the nature of reality and our way of responding to reality.

When our mind is carried away by strong pain, it helps to go back to our relaxed and peaceful in-breath and out-breath. Eventually, when our painful feeling comes back, we accept it as it is instead of letting it carry us away and make us more agitated.

The survival of humankind depends on our ability to stop rushing.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.

In; out. Deep; slow. Calm; ease. Smile; release.

With nonattachment, we see both being and nonbeing as creations of our mind, and we ride the wave of birth and death. We don't mind birth. We don't mind death. [...] Reality transcends both birth and death.

We must be conscious of each breath, each movement, every thought and feeling, everything which has any relation to ourselves.

Our food comes from this beautiful planet. The Earth is inside us, in each morsel of food, in the air we breathe, in the water that we drink and that flows through us. Enjoy being part of the Earth and eat in such a way that allows you to be aware that each bite is deepening your connection to the planet.

The awakened man lives in the world of things like everyone else. When he sees a rose he knows that it is a rose, like everyone else, But the difference is that he is neither conditioned nor imprisoned by concepts. Concepts now become marvelous skillful means in his possession.

It is not by virtue of moral conduct that one can realize Wisdom, but by maintaining body and mind in the permanent Awareness of Being.

Mindful eating nourishes awareness in us. We needn't be afraid of not having the TV, radio, newspaper, or a complicated conversation while we eat. It is wonderful just to be completely present with our food and those eating with us.

Looking deeply can become a way of life. We can practice conscious breathing to help us be in touch with things and look deeply at their impermanent nature. This practice will keep us from complaining that everything is impermanent. Impermanence is what makes transformation possible. Thanks to impermanence, we can change suffering into joy.

To see things in their interdependent relational mature is to perceive their nature of non-identity. Put another way, it is to recognize their existence, even when they are not present.

When a leaf falls, we can sing Happy Continuation. When we have awakened understanding, birth is a continuation and death is a continuation, birth is an appearance and death is an appearance. People also appear to be born, grow old, and die.

When a scientist works in his laboratory, he does not smoke, he does not eat sweets, and does not listen to the radio. He abstains not because he thinks that these things are sins, but because he knows that they impede the perfect concentration of his mind on the object of his study. It is much the same in Zen Discipline : the observance of this discipline must help the practitioner to live in Awareness of Being; it does not lead to moral objectives.

We can only dispel our mutual isolation when we practice mindfulness and are able to truly come home to ourselves and each other.

May I be able to live fresh, solid, and free.

We should not try to escape from our pain. We should look at it directly. Looking at suffering deeply, we will have deep insight into its nature, and the path of transformation and healing will present itself to us.

Zen Wisdom cannot be obtained by the intellect: study, hypothesis, analysis, synthesis. The practitioner of Zen must use all of his entire being as an instrument of realization; the intellect is only one part of his being, and a part that often pulls him away from living reality, the very object of Zen.

When the Buddha gave a talk to a large gathering of businessmen, the core of his message to them was, "It is possible to live happily right in the present moment.

If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not "washing the dishes to wash the dishes." What's more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either.