Quotes About Meditation

Sometimes things occur beneath the surface that will eventually explode, and by then it is too late to deal with them, so the only recourse is to divorce or fight or even kill each other. To meditate is to be aware of what is going on in yourself, your feelings, your body, your perceptions, your family. The second technique is to recall, and the more details which the community has, the easier it is to help.

When we feel anger, irritation, or indignation arising in us, we pause. We stop and come back to our breathing straight away. We do not say or do anything when we are inhabited by this kind of energy, so we don't escalate the conflict. We wait until we're calm again. Being able to pause is the greatest gift. It gives us the opportunity to bring more love and compassion into the world rather than more anger and suffering.

Aprende el arte de cultivar la alegría.

If we practice for five or ten minutes every day, we'll naturally remember how to practice when we most need it, and we can survive the onslaught of a strong emotion very easily.

Drinking tea or coffee can be one of our daily pleasures if we partake of it fully.

Knowledge is the first obstacle of the mind that a meditator should be able to remove. We should not be too sure of anything.

There is a saying: If a tiger comes down off his mountain and goes to the lowlands, he will be caught by humans and killed. It means if a practitioner leaves his or her Sangha, it becomes difficult to continue the practice. Taking refuge in the Sangha is not a matter of devotion. It is a matter of practice.

When you get free from views and words, reality reveals itself to you and that is Nirvana.

EVERY OBJECT of the mind is itself mind.

When restless sexual desire arises, we pay attention to it with enough understanding and enough love that it dissipates and does not grow.

Meditation consists of generating three kinds of energy: mindfulness, concentration, and insight. These three energies give us power to nourish happiness and take care of our suffering. Suffering may be there. But with the energy of mindfulness, concentration, and insight, we can embrace and take care of that suffering and nourish happiness at the same time.

The Buddha teaches that change requires insight, and insight cannot begin until we stop and focus our attention on what is happening right in front of us. This stopping, or shamatha, allows us to rest the body and the mind. When we have calmed ourselves, we can then go on to look deeply into our current situation. We need to step off our frantic life treadmills, to stop unconsciously doing the same things over and over again that have allowed our weight to creep up.

Each time we practice sitting meditation, walking meditation, awareness of breathing, loving speech, deep listening, or any other mindfulness practice, our roots are growing stronger and deeper and we are gaining more solidity and strength.

Listen Bhikkhus, just as a buffalo boy recognizes each of his own buffaloes, a bhikkhu recognizes each of the essential elements of his own body. Just as a buffalo boy knows the characteristics and tendencies of each buffalo, a bhikkhu knows which actions of body, speech, and mind are worthy and which are not. Just as a buffalo boy scrubs his animals clean, a bhikkhu must cleanse his mind and body of desires, attachments, anger, and aversions.

If monks and nuns do not cherish their time of practice, they will have nothing to offer the world.

With mindful awareness, we can look into the nature of our suffering and find out what kind of food we have been supplying to keep it alive. When we find the source of nourishment for our suffering, we can cut off that supply, and our suffering will fade.

Whether you can see the Buddha or not depends on you, on the state of your being.

The way out is in.

Nirvana means pacifying, silencing, or extinguishing the fire of suffering. Nirvana teaches that we already are what we want to become. We don't have to run after anything anymore. We only need to return to ourselves and touch our true nature. When we do, we have real peace and joy.

It is only when we stop that we can encounter life.

Chopping wood is meditation. Carrying water is meditation. Be mindful 24 hours a day, not just during the one hour you may allot for formal meditation or reading scripture and reciting prayers. Each act must be carried out in mindfulness. Each act is a rite, a ceremony. Raising your cup of tea to your mouth is a rite. Does the word rite seems too solemn ? I use that word in order to jolt you into the realization of the life-and-death matter of awareness.

Waking up this morning I smile. I have twenty-four hours to live. I vow to live them deeply and learn to look at the beings around me with the eyes of compassion.

In Buddhism we talk about a bodhisattva called Avalokiteshvara, the one who has the ability to listen and to understand the suffering of others. If we evoke his name, it is in order to learn to listen.

You wash your hands, you dress yourself, you perform everyday actions as before; but now you are aware of all your actions, words, and thoughts.