Quotes About Meditation

And as she had learned to do, while she pondered on large things, she acted on small ones.

So Wang Lung sat, and so his age came on him day by day and year by year, and he slept fitfully in the sun as his father had done, and he said to himself that his life was done and he was satisfied with it.

and comforted by his greater wisdom he fell asleep again deeply in the darkness and the stillness.

Buddhist sutra, the Tripitaka.

If you would only stop thinking, you would be much happier.

So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn't sit for even one, that's the journey of the warrior. (68)

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.

It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately filling up the space. By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as well as fundamental spaciousness.

One of the main discoveries of meditation is seeing how we continually run away from the present moment, how we avoid being here just as we are.

Meditation practice is not about later, when you get it all together and you're this person you really respect.

As the twelfth-century Tibetian yogi Milarepa said when he heard of his student Gampopa's peak experiences, 'They are neither good nor bad. Keep meditating.'

Meditation takes us just as we are, with our confusion and our sanity. This complete acceptance of ourselves as we are is called maitri, or unconditional friendliness, a simple, direct relationship with the way we are.

It's very helpful to realize that being here, sitting in meditation, doing simple everyday things like working, walking outside, talking with people, bathing, using the toilet, and eating, is actually all that we need to be fully awake, fully alive, fully human.

Pointing directly at your own heart, you find Buddha.

Always meditate on whatever provokes resentment

Meditation is a totally nonviolent, nonaggressive occupation.

Bodhichitta is our heart—our wounded, softened heart. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die. This love is bodhichitta. It is gentle and warm; it is clear and sharp; it is open and spacious. The awakened heart of bodhichitta is the basic goodness of all beings.

When thoughts come up, touch them very lightly, like a feather touching a bubble. Let the whole thing be soft and gentle, but at the same time precise.

We don't sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we'll be more awake in our lives.

Leonard Cohen once said about the benefits of many years of meditation, "The less there was of me, the happier I got." Letting

We would like to believe that when things are still and calm, that's the real stuff, and when things are messy, confused, and chaotic, we've done something wrong, or more usually someone else has done something to ruin our beautiful meditation. As someone once said about a loud, bossy woman, "What is that woman doing in my sacred world?

While we are sitting in meditation, we are simply exploring humanity and all of creation in the form of ourselves.

Tonglen means taking in and sending out. This meditation practice is designed to help ordinary people like ourselves connect with the openness and softness of our hearts. Instead of shielding and protecting our soft spot, with tonglen we could let ourselves feel what it is to be human.