Quotes About Awareness

being around animals, I am always reminded that the only real moment in life is now.

BaÅŸkalar?yla -hatta kar??na ç?kan tek insanla- sanki her ÅŸey o an baÅŸlayacak ve biraz sonra bitecekmiÅŸ gibi yaÅŸamal?s?n.

Bir ÅŸeyden, onu görmezlikten gelerek deÄŸil, ancak onu yaÅŸayarak kurtulabiliriz.

Per capire le cose bisogna studiare, non le sciocchezze che insegnavano a scuola a noialtri, ma com'è che si legge il giornale, com'è fatto un mestiere, chi comanda nel mondo. Si dovrebbe studiare per saper fare a meno di quelli che studiano. Per non farsi fregare da loro.

Aveva già allora quegli occhi forati, da gatto, e quando aveva detto una cosa finiva: 'Se sbaglio, correggimi'. Fu così che cominciai a capire che non si parla solamente per parlare, per dire 'ho fatto questo' 'ho fatto quello' 'ho mangiato e bevuto', ma si parla per farsi un'idea, per capire come va questo mondo. Non ci avevo mai pensato prima.

If you are involved with the intensity of crescendo situations, with the intensity of tragedy, you might begin to see the humor of these situations as well. As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music.

The path of truth is profound—and so are the obstacles and possibilities for self-deception.

The idea is not to regard the spiritual path as something very luxurious and pleasurable but to see it as just facing the facts of life.

We cannot be truly peaceful unless we have the invincible quality of peace within us; a feeble or temporary peacefulness could always be disturbed. If we try to be kind and peaceful in a naive way, encountering a different or unexpected situation might interfere with our awareness of peace because that peace has no strength in it, has no character. So peace must be stable, deeprooted, and solid.

Warriorship is a continual journey. To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine in every moment of your life.

Where does fear come from? It comes from basic bewilderment. Where does basic bewilderment come from? It comes from being unable to harmonize or synchronize mind and body.

when we appreciate reality, it can actually work on us.

The practice of meditation is to see the transparency of this shield. But we cannot immediately start dealing with the basic ignorance itself; that would be like trying to push a wall down all at once. If we want to take this wall down, we must take it down brick by brick; we start with immediately available material, a stepping-stone. So the practice of meditation starts with the emotions and thoughts, particularly with the thought process.

There are many, many details of action involved in the simplicity and sharpness of being in this very moment, here, now.

Self-deception is a constant problem as we progress along a spiritual path. Ego is always trying to achieve spirituality. It is rather like wanting to witness your own funeral.

A sense of knowing, or seeing, always happens. If you are willing to acknowledge its existence, there is the potential of being wakeful, open, and precisely there constantly. This is not based on being a sharp person, a smart person, or a very careful person. Rather, it is about being a person who can actually be—by yourself, very simply.

The practice of meditation is not so much concerned with the hypothetical attainment of enlightenment, but with leading a good life. In order to learn how to lead a good life, a spotless life, you need continual awareness that relates with life constantly, directly, and very simply.

The sitting practice of meditation is regarded as one of the most profound and fundamental disciplines you could ever achieve. By doing this practice, you find that you become less crazy. You begin to develop more humor, more relaxation, and ultimately, more mindfulness.

Usually our feelings of being exploited and other complaints of that nature are merely the squealing of ego and nothing more.

We have to relate with our mental gossip and our emotions simply and directly, without philosophy. We have to use the existing material, which is ego's hang-ups and credentials and deceptions, as a starting point. Then we begin to realize that in order to do this we must actually use some kind of feeble credentials. Token credentials are necessary. Without them we cannot begin. So we practice meditation using simple techniques; the breath is our feeble credential.

It is important to see that the main point of any spiritual practice is to step out of the bureaucracy of ego.

Unfortunately there are many kinds of psychotherapy and many psychotherapists involved with trying to prove themselves and their own theories rather than working with what is. In fact they find it very frightening to work with what is.

When we speak of "ignorance" we do not mean stupidity at all. In a sense, ignorance is very intelligent, but it is a completely two-way intelligence. That is to say, one purely reacts to one's projections rather than just seeing what is. There is no situation of "letting be" at all, because one is ignoring what one is all the time. That is the basic definition of ignorance.

However, nobody is going to do it for you. You have to begin by yourself, so maybe you should be startled. You should be shocked when you realize that you have been trapped and imprisoned, because then you might do something about it. You have been too naive. You have enjoyed your samsaric life too much. You should have been shocked a long time ago!