Quotes About Meditation

Of course, we can't just drop our notion of self as we would remove a garment. It's a rather compelling illusion. … [However, o]nce it's seen that the 'I' cannot be found the mind is free[.]

Your breath is a unique object to meditation because it resides right at the boundary between inside and outside, between you and the outside world.

W]hen you practise right meditation, you 'cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self.

the sense we generally have that it [self] exists somewhere inside us, if not in our bodies, then at least in our minds.

There is no Mystery. You already know Reality. You only need to stop talking to yourself, and learn to wordlessly pay attention.

even refer to?

All we ever find is the arising and ceasing of the world as it has come to be now. When you snap your fingers, it's already gone. All that persists is thus. Thus is not an object of mind but Mind Itself.

T]houghts will arise. Don't be bothered by them. Don't think they're bad or that you shouldn't be having them. … If you leave them alone, they'll depart of their own accord. This is how to 'cease all movements of the conscious mind.' You cannot do it by the direct application of your will.

If we're human, we habitually conceptualise our experience, thus conceiving a self. … [T]his self 1) is unlocatable, 2) contradicts direct experience, 3) is … impossible[.]

Or is it that I think too much?

There are few takers for the quiet heart.

The Zen master Seng-Ts'an was fond of saying "If you work on your mind with your mind, how can you avoid great confusion?

When was the last time you sat for an hour of pure, unadulterated thinking?

The absurdly talented George Bernard Shaw—a world-class writer and a founder of the London School of Economics—noted this thought deficit many years ago. "Few people think more than two or three times a year," Shaw reportedly said. "I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." We too try to think once.

Members of this school insist that the only way to find an opening to our underground world is to seek out a quiet and secluded spot. Close your eyes. Concentrate your attention inward. Descend.

As with any form of mental self-improvement, you must learn to turn your gaze inward, concentrate on processes that usually run automatically, and try to wrest control of them so that you can apply them more mindfully.

There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then, there's another way: a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity.

My desire is that my Lord would give me broader and deeper thoughts, to feed myself with wondering at His love.

Love is seeing God in the person next to us, and meditation is seeing God within us.

If the mind loves solitude, it has thereby acquired a loftier character, and it becomes still more noble when the taste is indulged in.

I love silence. But I usually only listen to that when I'm sleeping.

It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.

Meditation is a tool to shake yourself awake. A way to discover what you love. A practice to return yourself to your body when the mind medleys threaten to usurp your sanity.

But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloisters pale, And love the high embowed roof, With antique pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight; Casting a dim religious light.