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meditationSHIFT: quotes on mindfulness, meditation, happiness, and the present moment
From authors to scientists, philosophers to emperors, monks to cartoonists, actors to athletes - it's amazing to see the wide range of people and backgrounds that embrace mindfulness, meditation, and living in the present moment.
We will start with one of our favorite quotes from Alan Watts:
We will start with one of our favorite quotes from Alan Watts:
Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the present moment.
Read more quotes below.
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"Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor."
- Thích Nhat Hanh |
"If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath."
- Amit Ray |
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"Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone."
- Louis L'Amour |
"We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are."
- Bill Watterson |
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"Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t)."
- James Baraz |
"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
- Bruce Lee |
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"When the mind goes beyond the thought of ‘the me,’ the experiencer, the observer, the thinker, then there is a possibility of a happiness that is incorruptible."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti |
"The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing."
- Jon Kabat-Zinn |
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"Don't believe everything you think. Thoughts are just that - thoughts."
- Allan Lokos |
"Water if you don’t stir it will become clear; the mind left unaltered will find its own natural peace."
- Unknown |
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"All of man's difficulties are caused by his inability to sit, quietly, in a room by himself."
- Blaise Pascal |
"Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality."
- Robin S. Sharma |
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"Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don’t struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality."
- Pema Chodron |
"The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favourable."
- Matthieu Ricard |
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"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
- Marcus Aurelius |
"With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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"Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It's like the ultimate rest. It's better than the best sleep you've ever had. It's a quieting of the mind. It sharpens everything, especially your appreciation of your surroundings. It keeps life fresh."
- Hugh Jackman |
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"Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there - buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day."
- Deepak Chopra |
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"Come back to square one, just the minimum bare bones. Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance, that everything is changing all the time—that is the basic message."
- Pema Chodron |
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"If you let your mind steer the ship, it will take you where it wants to go."
- meditationSHIFT |
"The habit of spending nearly every waking moment lost in thought leaves us at the mercy of whatever our thoughts happen to be. Meditation is a way of breaking this spell."
- Sam Harris |
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"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this."
- Henry David Thoreau |
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"Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now."
- Eckhart Tolle |
"You can spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway to the future, but all it will ever be is what’s happening here, the decisions we make in this moment."
- Jim Carrey |
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"Mindfulness helps us freeze the frame so that we can become aware of our sensations and experiences as they are, without the distorting coloration of socially conditioned responses or habitual reactions."
- Henepola Gunaratana |
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"When we question our thoughts, we see that the craziness was never in the world, but in us."
- Byron Katie |
"There is a big difference between a tiger that is going to eat you in your mind, and an actual tiger that is going to eat you. You may laugh at that sentence, but most people go through life without realizing the difference, and they carry around the stress, anxiety, and worry that comes as a result."
- meditationSHIFT |
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"Meditation calms and heals the system and connects you to your natural state. Anyone in this state will tell you that life becomes smoother. You become a person of real equanimity. Problems iron out easier, people become more helpful and rewarding towards you. You start to get a real sense of the flow of the universe. There is no past. There is no future.
The only reality is this moment. You cease worrying and take each event in your life (good or bad all the same) as a lesson on your own journey." - mrbundle, reddit |
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"Most of us spend our time seeking happiness and security without acknowledging the underlying purpose of our search. Each of us is looking for a path back to the present: We are trying to find good enough reasons to be satisfied now.
Acknowledging that this is the structure of the game we are playing allows us to play it differently. How we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the character of our experience and, therefore, the quality of our lives." - Sam Harris, Waking Up |
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"The world’s problems are, by and large, human problems—the unavoidable consequence of egoic sleepwalking. If we care to look, all the signs are present to suggest that we are not only sleepwalking, but at times borderline insane as well. "
- Adyashanti |
"Sooner or later, all of us get tired of the voice in our heads. The constant chatter, the judging, the regret, the fear, the questioning - all of your problems can be traced back to that voice that drones on incessantly.
Your mind spins this constant narrative - it plays those same old stories on a continuous loop in your head. If you don't break free from it, you will continue to suffer." - meditationSHIFT |
Not a quote, but a short video from Dan Harris (ABC News) with a good description of what meditation does for you:
"The goal of meditation isn't to control your thoughts, it's to stop letting your thoughts control you." - meditationSHIFT
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“Not to be able to stop thinking is an affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it."
- EckhartTolle |
What's next?
Common questions we're asked:
Our 15-day meditation challenge - "Your inner narrative" - answers these questions and more.
- How do I just “let things be”?
- “Your thoughts about the situation cause you to suffer more than the situation itself” — what does that even mean?
- How do I get proper instruction in meditation and mindfulness?
Our 15-day meditation challenge - "Your inner narrative" - answers these questions and more.
