Quotes on Mindfulness

But what after all, behind appearances, is this seeming mystery? We can see that it is the Consciousness which had lost itself returning again to itself, emerging out of its giant self-forgetfulness, slowly, painfully, as a Life that is would be sentient, half-sentient, dimly sentient, wholly sentient and finally struggles to be more than sentient, to be again divinely selfconscious, free, infinite, immortal.

If your relationship to the present moment is not right - nothing can ever be right in the future - because when the future comes - it's the present moment.

When the mind, one-pointed and fully focused, knows the supreme silence in the Heart, this is true learning.

Sati is life. Whenever we don't have sati, when we are heedless, it's as if we are dead.

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

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

In being with dying, we arrive at a natural crucible of what it means to love and be loved. And we can ask ourselves this: Knowing that death is inevitable, what is most precious today?

Life cannot be lived, and understood, simultaneously.

Wish I am free from barriers when I die, and Buddha will welcome me from far away.

How does one practice mindfulness? Sit in meditation. Be aware of only your breath.

When I was a young man, near the beginning of my life, I looked around with true mindfulness and saw that all things are subject to decay.

Of all footprints, that of the elephant is supreme. Similarly, of all mindfulness meditations, that on death is supreme.

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think.

Just as a mother would protect with her life her own son, her only son, so one should cultivate an unbounded mind towards all beings, and loving-kindness towards all the world. One should cultivate an unbounded mind, above and below and across, without obstruction, without enmity, without rivalry. Standing, or going, or seated, or lying down, as long as one is free from drowsiness, one should practice this mindfulness. This, they say, is the holy state here.

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.

The things we think about, brood on, dwell on, and exult over influence our life in a thousand ways. When we can actually choose the direction of our thoughts instead of just letting them run along the grooves of conditioned thinking, we become the masters of our own lives.

I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness - it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude.

Mindfulness meditation is the embrace of any and all mind states in awareness, without preferring one to another.

By breaking down our sense of self-importance, all we lose is a parasite that has long infected our minds. What we gain in return is freedom, openness of mind, spontaneity, simplicity, altruism: all qualities inherent in happiness.

Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don't struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.

If you have really attained wholeness, everything will flock to you.