Waking up this morning, I smile, Twenty four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion. Thich Nhat Hanh
As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life. Buddha
Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that…~ Sylvia Boorstein
To meditate with mindful breathing is to bring body and mind back to the present moment so that you do not miss your appointment with life.~ Thich Nhat Hanh
When we hug, our hearts connect and we know that we are not separate beings. Hugging with mindfulness and concentration can bring reconciliation, healing, understanding, and much happiness.~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of present-moment reality. Jon Kabat-Zinn
Close your eyes, Fall in love, Stay there.~ Rumi
The heart knows a hundred thousand ways to speak.~ Rumi
Love said to me, there is nothing that is not me. Be silent. ~ Rumi
You suppose you are the trouble.
But you are the cure.
You suppose that you are the lock on the door.
But you are the key that opens it.~ Rumi
Look as long as you can at the friend you love, no matter whether that friend is moving away from you or coming back toward you ~ Rumi
I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside.~ Rumi
I said: what about my eyes ?
He said: Keep them on the road.
I said: what about my passion ?
He said: Keep it burning.
I said: what about my heart ?
He said: Tell me what you hold inside it ?
I said: pain and sorrow..
He said: ..stay with it.
The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
~ Rumi
If words come out of the heart, they will enter the heart. ~ Rumi
We often disapprove of parts of our lives without really examining them –
it’s like never going into certain rooms of your house.
But meditation allows all the voices and all the images in the room.
When we open the invisible doors, we can come to rest in the life we have;
we can love it as it is instead of waiting for a shinier version.
– John Tarrant –
Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away
and become something better.
It’s about befriending who we are already.
– Pema Chodron –
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 –
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts,
the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach,
the core of their reality, the person that each one is in the eyes of the Divine.
If only they could all see themselves as they really are.
If only we could see each other that way all the time.
There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. …
I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.
– Thomas Merton –
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,”
a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings,
as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of a prison to us, restricting us to our personal desires
and to affection for only the few people nearest us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures
and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Nobody is able to achieve this completely,
but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation
and a foundation for inner security.
– Einstein –
You are whole and also part of larger and larger circles of wholeness you many not even know about. You are never alone. And you already belong. You belong to humanity. You belong to life. You belong to this moment, this breath. – Jon Kabat-Zinn –
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside, awakens.
– Carl Jung –
Enough.
These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.
This opening to the life
we have refused
again and again
until now.
Until now
– David Whyte –
Realize that this very body, with its aches and it pleasures…
is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive. Pema Chodron –
Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Victor Frankl
Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded.
It’s a relationship between equals.
Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others.
Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.– Pema Chodron –
