Quotes About Awareness

Thoughts will run us around in circles if we buy into them, but really they are like dream images. They are like an illusion—not really all that solid. They are, as we say, just thinking.

Meditation is about seeing clearly the body that we have, the mind that we have, the domestic situation that we have, the job that we have, and the people who are in our lives.

This very moment is the perfect teacher.

being right on the spot nails us. It nails us right to the point of time and space that we are in. When we stop there and don't act out, don't repress, don't blame it on anyone else, and also don't blame it on ourselves, then we meet with an open-ended question that has no conceptual answer.

We don't need that kind of encouragement, because dissociating from fear is what we do naturally.

That's what we're going to discover again and again and again. Nothing is what we thought.

The meditation technique itself cultivate precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go - qualities that are innate within us.

Reaching our limit is not some kind of punishment. It's actually a sign of health that, when we meet the place where we are about to die, we feel fear and trembling. A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us.

A fresh attitude starts to happen when we look to see that yesterday was yesterday, and now it is gone; today is today and now it is new. It is like that—every hour, every minute is changing. If we stop observing change, then we stop seeing everything as new. —DZIGAR KONGTRUL RINPOCHE

Bodhichitta exists on two levels. First there is unconditional bodhichitta, an immediate experience that is refreshingly free of concept, opinion, and our usual all-caught-upness.

we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize that this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go either way.

Second there is relative bodhichitta, our ability to keep our hearts and minds open to suffering without shutting down.

Chögyam Trungpa had an image for our tendency to obscure the openness of our being; he called it "putting makeup on space." We can aspire to experience the space without the makeup. Staying open and receptive for even a short time starts to interrupt our deep-seated resistance to feeling what we're feeling, to staying present where we are.

You begin to have the clarity to see injustice happening, but you can also see that injustice, by its very definition, is harming everybody involved. It's harming the people who are being oppressed or abused, and it's harming those who are oppressing and abusing.

The first noble truth says that it's part of being human to feel discomfort

if there's never any pause—we will never be able to relax.

by acknowledging whatever arises without judgment, letting the thoughts simply dissolve, and then going back to the openness of this very moment.

instructions, in their simplest form, have three basic steps: Be fully present. Feel your heart. And engage the next moment without an agenda.

How we stay in the middle between indulging and repressing is by acknowledging whatever arises without judgment, letting the thoughts simply dissolve, and then going back to the openness of this very moment.

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.

The essence of the fourth noble truth is that we can use everything we do to help us to realize that we're part of the energy that creates everything.

We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment.

ACCORDING TO THE BUDDHA, the lives of all beings are marked by three characteristics: impermanence, egolessness, and suffering or dissatisfaction. Recognizing these qualities to be real and true in our own experience helps us to relax with things as they are.

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