Quotes on Mindfulness

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.

I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.

Two thoughts cannot coexist at the same time: if the clear light of mindfulness is present, there is no room for mental twilight.

Fain would we remain barbarians, if our claim to civilization were to be based on the gruesome glory of war.

If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments.

In your present-moment awareness, awaken to your innocence, your trust, your love, your eternal being.

Be mindful of the words that you use and the actions that you live and who you are and how it is you use your power. Keep clear at all times that you are what you say you are.

Suppose you read about a pill that you could take once a day to reduce anxiety and increase your contentment. Would you take it? Suppose further that the pill has a great variety of side effects, all of them good: increased self-esteem, empathy, and trust; it even improves memory. Suppose, finally, that the pill is all natural and costs nothing. Now would you take it? The pill exists. It is meditation.

It is true that we are called to create a better world. But we are first of all called to a more immediate and exalted task: that of creating our own lives.

There is no better means of attainment to the spiritual life Than by continually beginning again.

All experience and phenomena are understood to be a dream, this should not be just an intellectual understanding, but a vivid and lucid experience...Genuine integration of this point produces a profound change in the individual's response to the world. Grasping and aversion is greatly diminished, and the emotional tangles that once seemed so compelling are experienced as the tug of dream stories, and no more.

The development of our minds and our destination in future lives is in our hands. No one else can help us. It is very important that we each take responsibility for ourselves. Sustain mindfulness 24 hours a day. Thank you. That is all.

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.

Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.

We cannot build the future by avenging the past.

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different.

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand.