Best 1901 quotes in «mindfulness quotes» category

The world of improv is a portal into mindfulness and magic.

The world would have us fill every space and occupy every corner of the mind. Yoga asks us to become empty; to come to the practice in openness and to allow the practice to remove our notions of good and bad,rich and poor, health and disease; to sit and simply witness without shame, without guilt, and without judgment. Yoga allows us to let go of everything and hold on to nothing. It allows us to let go of our preconceptions about who or what God is, what it means to live a spiritual life, and how to achieve enlightenment. Whether slowly or in an instant, yoga empties us. What remains is a silence that surpasses understanding,is beyond words, and gives us the eyes to witness the suffering of the world, the ears to hear the world calling out for compassion, and the heart to answer that call.

The worlds high on doing and distracting and as result we need to keep doing and it doesn’t really matter what we are doing, as long as it is distracting.

They'll come a time - in fact many times - when all the tools & techniques will fail you or desert you. Then - at last - is the moment to trust, use & follow your heart

Things cannot stay the same because they are influenced by everything else, everything that is not itself.

Things always happen as they should and when they should. Our intuition provides us with guidance on our true purpose. These messages come from the heart. We can only hear them when we're silent not through a cluttered mind.

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

Things sometimes go our way and sometimes they don’t. All we can do is apply ourselves to our profession, giving our very best effort but emotionally letting go of the outcome. Why? Because if we obsess about an outcome, we cannot possibly honour the present moment.

Think of the old cliché about the mind being 'an excellent servant but a terrible master'. This, like many clichés, so lame & banal on the surface, actually expresses a great & terrible truth.

Think of the universe as a single, huge organism. Its vastness is a perceptual, projected reality; even though “out there” you may be seeing a big football stadium filled with thousands of people, the real phenomenon is a small electrical impulse inside your brain that you, the nonlocal being, interpret as a football game. Yoga Vasishta, an ancient Vedic text, says, “The world is like a huge city, reflected in a mirror. So too, the universe is a huge reflection of yourself in your own consciousness.

Think pleasantly; Think of how beautiful you are. Think of the families you are blessed with. Think of the dreams you have to achieve.

This inability to just do nothing is a direct result of our habit of externalisation. As children we are never taught in schools, or in social settings, to look within ourselves for answers. Whether it is that our answers are found in some sort of religion, or another person, or in something else, we start to make this common practice. We are indecisive in life looking to friends, family, counsellors, teachers, and even strangers for advice. We are never taught or, better yet, shown how to look after our number one relationship in life, which is the relationship with one’s self.

This is today! What will tomorrow bring? Life arrives and departs on its own schedule, not ours; it's time to travel light, and be ready to go wherever it takes us.

This is why, to be happy [...] we need to take some time each day to sit down, look into ourselves, and identify the kind of energy that’s motivating us and where it is pushing us.

This love meditation is adapted from the Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa, a 5th century C.E. systematization of the Buddha's teaching. We begin by practicing the love meditation on ourselves ("May I"). Until we are able to love and take care of ourselves, we cannot be much help to others. After that, we practice them on others ("May he/she/they") - first on someone we like, then on someone neutral to us, and finally on someone who makes us suffer. May I be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May I be safe and free from injury. May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety. May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of of understanding and love. May I be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself. May I learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving, and delusion in myself. May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day. May I be able to live fresh, solid, and free. May I be free from attachment and aversion, but not indifferent. Love is not just the intention to love, but the capacity to reduce suffering, and offer peace and happiness. The practice of love increases our forbearance, our capacity to be patient and embrace difficulties and pain. Forbearance does mean that we try to suppress pain.

This present moment is the moment that matters the most because you are in it, and, as I said, if you value being alive, then you value the moment you are most alive in, which is right now.

Those with inner peace do not battle themselves. Nor do they wage war with others

Though it may seem counter intuitive to our inner perfectionist, recognizing our mistakes as valuable lessons (not failures) helps us lay the groundwork for later success.

Thoughts are the input and output of the mental process. Making thoughts is what the brain is built for—like the heart beats, the mind thinks.

Though we are emotional beings, we are not our emotions. Remember this the next time you find yourself struggling.

Three quick breaths triggered the responses: he fell into the floating awareness... focusing the consciousness... aortal dilation... avoiding the unfocused mechanism of consciousness... to be conscious by choice... blood enriched and swift-flooding the overload regions... one does not obtain food-safety freedom by instinct alone... animal consciousness does not extend beyond the given moment nor into the idea that its victims may become extinct... the animal destroys and does not produce... animal pleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the perceptual... the human requires a background grid through which to see his universe... focused consciousness by choice, this forms your grid... bodily integrity follows nerve-blood flow according to the deepest awareness of cell needs... all things/cells/beings are impermanent... strive for flow-permanence within...

Through it all, we attempt to bring balance to the present moment, understanding that in patience lies wisdom, knowing that what will come next will be determined in large measure by how we are now.

Through practising body scan awareness meditation, we can greatly reduce the detrimental effects of stress and make our working lives pleasant and enjoyable.

Time and time again, technology, along with advances in neuroscience and even genetics, seems to be validating things our ancestors knew all along by revealing exactly what happens physiologically during meditation and how regular practice can improve our bodies and minds.

Time is an illusion created by the ego for the sole purpose of denying the unbreakable bond between cause and effect. Mindfulness joins the mind with the present moment, where the illusion of time dissolves without effort, where cause and effect are correctly seen as unbroken, unbreakable, and inseparable.

Time is valuable in life. You can show someone how much you appreciate them by giving your time. A good amount of time goes by each day. Spending time with the ones you love shows them how much you care.

To a yogi, the breath is the anchor that keeps the mind in the eternal now. Just as an anchored boat still shifts with the wind and moves with the current, so too will the mind continue to be affected by things beyond its control. Like the anchored boat, the mind will never drift too far from its mooring once it is anchored in the breath.

To be mindful entails examining the path we are traveling & making choices that alleviate suffering & bring happiness to ourselves & those around us.

To celebrate someone else’s life, we need to find a way to look at it straight on, not from above with judgment or from below with envy.

Today is the winter solstice. The planet tilts just so to its star, lists and holds circling in a fixed tension between veering and longing, and spins helpless, exalted, in and out of that fleet blazing touch. Last night Orion vaulted and spread all over the sky, pagan and lunatic, his shoulder and knee on fire, his sword three suns at the ready-for what? I won’t see this year again, not again so innocent; and longing wrapped round my throat like a scarf. “For the Heavenly Father desires that we should see,” says Ruysbroeck, “and that is why He is ever saying to our inmost spirit one deep unfathomable word and nothing else.” But what is the word? Is this mystery or coyness? A cast-iron bell hung from the arch of my rib cage; when I stirred, it rang, or it tolled, a long syllable pulsing ripples up my lungs and down the gritty sap inside my bones, and I couldn’t make it out; I felt the voiced vowel like a sigh or a note but I couldn’t catch the consonant that shaped it into sense.

Todo lo que está por venir es incierto. Vive el presente, y advierte que el mayor de los poetas, como inflamado de algún divino oráculo, cantó aquel saludable verso: «El mejor día de todos los mortales es el primero que huye.» ¿Cómo te detienes? (dice) ¿Cómo tardas? El tiempo huye si no le ocupas; y aunque le ocupes, huye; y así, se ha de contrastar su celeridad con la presteza de aprovecharle, cogiendo con prisa el agua como de arroyo rápido que en pasando la corriente queda seco. También es muy a propósito para condenar los pensamientos prolongados, que no llaman buena a la edad sino al día.

To find signals in data, we must learn to reduce the noise - not just the noise that resides in the data, but also the noise that resides in us. It is nearly impossible for noisy minds to perceive anything but noise in data.

To go beyond the mind and reconnect with the deeper reality of Being, very different qualities are needed: surrender, nonjudgment, an openness that allows life to be instead of resisting it[.]

To "know" reality you cannot stand outside it and define it; you must enter into it, be it, and feel it.

To listen to the silence, wherever you are, is an easy and direct way of becoming present. Even if there is noise, there is always some silence underneath and in between the sounds.

to know your true value in a state brings forth good intentions and value into that which is Now for you. And this is an honest way to live - healthy, wealthy, well-being, all day every and day. So be it. A good sentence to state is: I am healthy, wealthy, well-being.

To lose yourself in the mystery of such emphatic questions trying to discover their unbearable answers about your deceived identity, that is the greatest challenge of your existence. (Excerpted from Acceptance, chapter Resilience)

Too much time is wasted listening to the noise of the mind - and too little is spent living from the love and power of the heart.

To pay attention is to attend to something, to be present. We attend because the world isn't cold and empty but filled with the presence of God. Every moment, every encounter, is meaningful and numinous. All ground is holy ground.

To receive loving kindness, think of someone who loves you and cares about you. It could be anyone in your life, past or present. Imagine that person on your right, sending you love, and feel the warmth and goodwill coming from him or her.

To relinquish judgment does not mean that you do not recognize dysfunction and unconsciousness when you see it. It means "being the knowing" rather than "being the reaction'' and the judge. You will then either be totally free of reaction or you may react and still be the knowing, the space in which the reaction is watched and allowed to be. Instead of fighting the darkness, you bring in the light. Instead of reacting to delusion, you see the delusion yet at the same time look through it. Being the knowing creates a clear space of loving presence that allows all things and all people to be as they are.

To still your mind , first still your tongue.

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.

To truly love ourselves, we must challenge our beliefs that we need to be different or better.

Traffic is more of the in between time where we think more about where we are going than where we are at the moment.

True compassion is undirected & holds no conceptual focus. That kind of genuine, true compassion is only possible after realizing emptiness.

True spiritual virtues can have no opposite, but they can wear masks and costumes. Joy often masquerades as anger; innocence often dresses up as guilt; love pretends to be fear. At the end of the day, we discover that we don’t need to be fearful of these internal monsters—we simply need to unmask them.

True salvation is fulfillment, peace, life in all its fullness. It is to be who you are, to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of Being that depends on nothing outside itself. It is felt not as a passing experience but as an abiding presence. In theistic language, it is to "know God" - not as something outside you but as your own innermost essence. True salvation is to know yourself as an inseparable part of the timeless and formless One Life from which all that exists derives its being

Turn your life moments into a unique art of existence.

Two monks were once travelling together down a wet and muddy road. The rain was torrential, making it almost impossible to walk along the path. As the two men were trudging along, a beautiful girl dressed in silk appeared. She was unable to cross the path and looked distressed. “Let me help you”, said the older monk. He picked her up and carried her over the mud. His younger male companion did not utter a word that night until they reached their lodging temple. Then after hours of restrained conversation, the younger monk exclaimed: “We monks do not touch females; it is too tempting for us and can create a bad outcome”. The older monk looked into the younger monks eyes and said, “I left the girl on the road. Are you still carrying her?” This ancient Zen story illustrates beautifully how so many of us are trapped in the habit of constantly “re-living” the past in our minds, thus dishonouring the present moment. The young monk wasted hours distressing himself with judgment, speculation, anxiety, resentment and ultimately self-perpetuated unhappiness as a direct result of not being mindful.