Quotes About Meditation

The Essential Discipline for Daily Use," written by the Buddhist monk Doc The from Bao Son pagoda

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.

When you use concentration to run away from yourself or your situation, it is wrong concentration. Sometimes we need to escape our problems for relief, but at some time we have to return to face them. Worldly concentration seeks to escape. Supramundane concentration aims at complete liberation.

The point of meditation is not to turn yourself into a battlefield, one side opposing the other. Conscious breathing soothes and calms the anger, and mindfulness penetrates it. Anger is just an energy, and all energies can be transformed. Meditation is the art of using one kind of energy to transform another.

We have a lamp inside us, the lamp of mindfulness, which we can light anytime. The oil of that lamp is our breathing, our steps, and our peaceful smile. We

Sitting and watching our breath is a wonderful practice, but it is not enough. For transformation to take place, we have to practice mindfulness all day long, not just on our meditation cushion. Mindfulness is the Buddha. Just as vegetation is sensitive to sunlight, mental formations are sensitive to mindfulness. Mindfulness is the energy that can embrace and transform all mental formations.

We have a seed of anger in us. We have a seed of compassion in us. The practice is to help the seed of compassion to grow and the seed of anger to shrink.

a retreat. These exercises can be called the food of joy. In the Dhyana School, there is the expression "meditation as the food of joy," which means that the feeling of joy arising from the practice of meditation nourishes and sustains us.

la práctica espiritual consiste más en reflexionar sobre las preguntas que en hallar respuestas.

Sit in order to sit. Stand in order to stand. There is no goal or aim in sitting.

Whenever we have fifteen free minutes, an hour or two, we have the habit of using our computers or cell phones, music, or conversations to forget and to run away from the reality of the elements that make up our beings.

When you're in bed and unable to sleep, the best thing to do is to go back to your breathing. Resting is almost as beneficial as sleeping, and you'll know that you're doing the best that you can. Bring peace to your breathing and your body so you can rest.

We sit as if we are sitting on a lotus flower, not on a heap of burning charcoal.

When you sit, keep your spinal column quite straight, while allowing your body to be relaxed. When your sitting posture is relaxed and stable, you can sit comfortably for a long time.

WHERE WILL WE BE Being angry in the historical dimension I close my eyes and look deeply: Three hundred years from now where will you be and where shall I be?

Don't make a great effort, or struggle, or fight as you sit. Let go of everything. This prevents backache, shoulder-ache, or headache. If you are able to find a cushion that fits your body well, you can sit for a long time without feeling tired.

Sometimes people say they don't know what to do when they are sitting. You only need to sit is an exhortation of the Soto Zen meditation school. It means that you should sit without waiting for a miracle, and that includes the miracle of enlightenment. If you always sit in expectation, you're not in the present moment. The present moment contains the whole of life.

In the Diamond Sutra the meditator is urged to throw away, to release, four notions in order to understand our own true nature and the true nature of reality: the notion of "self," the notion of "human being," the notion of "living beings," and the notion of "life span.

Cultivating a strong training in meditation and mindfulness is not an opiate to escape what's going on but a way for us to truly still the mind and look deeply, in order to see ourselves and the world clearly.

give your anger, your despair, your fear, a bath of mindfulness every day.

When you're in bed and unable to sleep, the best thing to do is to go back to your breathing.

Don't worry if you don't have hours to dedicate to sitting. A few moments of sitting and conscious breathing can bring great happiness.

To take hold of your mind, you must practice mindfulness of the mind. You must know how to observe and recognize the presence of every feeling and thought which arises in you.

My path is the path of stopping, the path of enjoying the present moment. It is a path where every step brings me back to my true home. It is a path that leads nowhere. I am on my way home. I arrive at every step.