Inspiring Quotes from the Work of Ralph Waldo Emerson--Link
Inspiring Quotes from the Work of Henry David Thoreau--Link
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If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” ~ Dalai Lama
“Wherever you go, there you are.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.” ~Robin S. Sharma
“Your actions are your only true belongings.” ~ Allan Lokos
“The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” ~Sharon Salzberg
“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” ~Pema Chodron
“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
“The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favorable.” ~Matthieu Ricard
”Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
“A mind set in its ways is wasted.” ~ Eric Schmidt
“Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance.” ~ Amit Ray
“How you look at it is pretty much how you’ll see it.” ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru
“When you bow, you should just bow; when you sit, you should just sit; when you eat, you should just eat.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki
“Step outside for a while – calm your mind. It is better to hug a tree than to bang your head against a wall continually.” ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru
“Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.” ~ Amit Ray
“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
“One who is patient glows with an inner radiance.” ~ Allan Lokos
“Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts.”
~ Pema Chödrön
“We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.” ~Jack Kornfield
“Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ~ Amit Ray
“Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” ~Dalai Lama
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ~Amit Ray
“Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.” ~ Jack Kornfield
“The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.”
~ Thích Nhất Hạnh
“Respond; don’t react. Listen; don’t talk. Think; don’t assume.” ~Raji Lukkoor
“You cannot control the results, only your actions.” ~ Allan Lokos
“Don’t believe everything you think. Thoughts are just that – thoughts.” ~Allan Lokos
“There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.” ~Tara Brach
“What would it be like if I could accept life – accept this moment – exactly as it is?” ~ Tara Brach
“Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life.” ~Marcus Aurelius
“The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh
“If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” ~Rabbi Harold Kushner
“Don’t let life harden your heart.” ~ Pema Chödrön
“When I’m hungry, I eat what I love. When I’m bored, I do something I love. When I’m lonely, I connect with someone I love. When I feel sad, I remember that I am loved.” ~ Michelle May
“In this moment, there is plenty of time. In this moment, you are precisely as you should be. In this moment, there is infinite possibility.” ~Victoria Moran
“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
“In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived. How well we have loved. How well we have learned to let go” ~ Jack Kornfield
“There’s only one reason why you’re not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it’s because you’re thinking or focusing on what you don’t have…. But, right now you have everything you need to be in bliss.” ~Anthony de Mello
“You only lose what you cling to.” ~ Buddha
“Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.” ~ Buddha
“Our life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think.” ~ Buddha
“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” ~ Buddha
“Nothing is forever except change.” ~ Buddha
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” ~ Buddha
“Be where you are, otherwise you will miss your life.” ~ Buddha
“Our own worst enemy cannot harm us as much as our unwise thoughts. No one can help us as much as our own compassionate thoughts.” ~Buddha
The quotes above were excerpted from thecounselingteacher.com.
Additional Mindfulness Quotes
- “Living 24 hours with mindfulness is more worthwhile than living 100 years without it.”- The Buddha
- “Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.”- Sylvia Boorstein
- “Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.”- Thich Nhat Hanh
- Mindfulness can help people of any age. That’s because we become what we think.” Goldie Hawn
- “Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing.”- Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “In today’s rush, we all think too much — seek too much — want too much — and forget about the joy of just being.”- Eckhart Tolle
- “Each morning we’re born again of yesterday nothing remains what’s left began today.”- Palladas
- “Being mindful means that we suspend judgment for a time, set aside our immediate goals for the future, and take in the present moment as it is rather than as we would like it to be.” – Mark Williams
- “Each step along the Buddha’s path to happiness requires practicing mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.” – Henepola Gunaratana
- “Mindfulness isn’t difficult; we just need to remember to do it.” – Sharon Salzberg,
- “Every time we become aware of a thought, as opposed to being lost in a thought, we experience that opening of the mind.”- Joseph Goldstein
- “Concentration is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice. Your mindfulness will only be as robust as the capacity of your mind to be calm and stable. Without calmness, the mirror of mindfulness will have an agitated and choppy surface and will not be able to reflect things with any accuracy.”- Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “The greatest communication is usually how we are rather than what we say.”- Joseph Goldstein
- “Meditation is essentially training our attention so that we can be more aware— not only of our own inner workings but also of what’s happening around us in the here & now.”- Sharon Salzberg
- “Writing can be an incredible mindfulness practice.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “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
- “Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life.”- Marcus Aurelius
- “Use every distraction as an object of meditation and they cease to be distractions.”- Mingyur Rinpoche
- “Now is the future that you promised yourself last year, last month, last week. Now is the only moment you’ll ever really have. Mindfulness is about waking up to this.”- Mark Williams
- “Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.”- Ramana Maharshi
- “If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!”- Thich Nhat Hanh
- “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”- Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.”- Shunryu Suzuki
- “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”- Amit Ray
- “Practice is this life, and realization is this life, and this life is revealed right here and now.”- Maezumi Roshi
- “Emotion arises at the place where mind & body meet. It is the body’s reaction to mind.”- Eckhart Tolle
- “Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow, death comes.”- The Buddha,
- “As I noticed feelings and thoughts appear and disappear, it became increasingly clear that they were just coming and going on their own. . . . There was no sense of a self owning them.”- Tara Brach
- “Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.”- 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
- “Knowledge does not mean mastering a great quantity of different information, but understanding the nature of mind. This knowledge can penetrate each one of our thoughts and illuminate each one of our perceptions.”- Matthieu Ricard
- “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “As long as we have practiced neither concentration nor mindfulness, the ego takes itself for granted and remains its usual normal size, as big as the people around one will allow.”- Ayya Khema
- “Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.”- Huang Po
- “Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.”- Mother Teresa,
- “If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion.”- Linji Yixuan
- “We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.”- Jack Kornfield
- “Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense.”- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
- “Guilt, regret, resentment, sadness & all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past & not enough presence.”- Eckhart Tolle
- “Meditation is to be aware of what is going on: in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world.”- Thich Nhat Hanh
- “It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.”- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
- “Mindfulness, the Root of Happiness”- Joseph Goldstein
- “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking out new landscapes but in having new eyes.”- Marcel Proust
- “I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away.”- Pema Chödrön
- “Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”- Thich Nhat Hanh
- “This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”- Alan Watts
- “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”- Thich Nhat Hanh
- “Pure awareness transcends thinking. It allows you to step outside the chattering negative self-talk and your reactive impulses and emotions. It allows you to look at the world once again with open eyes. And when you do so, a sense of wonder and quiet contentment begins to reappear in your life.”- Mark Williams
- “The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.”- Tara Brach
- “The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”- Henry Miller
- “Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the small uncaring ways.”- Stephen Vincent Benet,
- “The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.”- Alan Watts
- “What is it about our expectations, plans, or ideas that hold such sway over us? It is as if we’ve written a script for a play of our lives that runs about a month ahead of actual life; if reality varies from what we’ve created in our minds we disengage or pout.”- Holly Sprink
- “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”- Robin S. Sharma
- “Mindfulness, also called wise attention, helps us see what we’re adding to our experiences, not only during meditation sessions but also elsewhere.”- Sharon Salzberg
- “My experience is that many things are not as bad as I thought they would be.”- Mary Doria Russell
- “Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different than they are.”- Allan Lokos
- “To diminish the suffering of pain, we need to make a crucial distinction between the pain of pain, and the pain we create by our thoughts about the pain. Fear, anger, guilt, loneliness and helplessness are all mental and emotional responses that can intensify pain.”- Howard Cutler
- “No one has ever been angry at another human being we’re only angry at our story of them.”- Byron Katie
- “Mindful and creative, a child who has neither a past, nor examples to follow, nor value judgments, simply lives, speaks and plays in freedom.”- Arnaud Desjardins
- “Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”- Chuang
- “I’m a praying atheist. When I hear an ambulance siren, I ask for a blessing for those people in trouble, knowing that no one’s listening. I think it’s just a habit of mindfulness.” – Geraldine Brooks
- “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
- “When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it.”- Eckhart Tolle
- “Every problem perceived to be ‘out there’ is really nothing more than a misperception within your own thinking.”- Byron Katie
- “The standard way of reducing stress in our culture is to put as much energy as possible into trying to arrive at a moment that matches our preferences. This ensures that we feel some level of stress until we get there (assuming we ever will) and worse, it makes the present moment into an unacceptable place to be.”- David Cain
- “Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.”- Tara Brach
- “We must be willing to encounter darkness and despair when they come up and face them, over and over again if need be, without running away or numbing ourselves in the thousands of ways we conjure up to avoid the unavoidable.”- Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.”- Jim Carrey
- “The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.”- Pema Chodron
- “All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how. It is out of ignorance that any of us cause suffering, for ourselves or for others”- Sharon Salzberg
- “We often have very little empathy for our own thoughts and feelings and frequently try to suppress them by dismissing them as weaknesses.”- Mark Williams
- “Somehow I always seem to forget the most powerful tool I have in my parenting arsenal: myself. My presence.”- Carla Naumburg
- “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” – Pema Chodron
- “If you clean the floor with love, you have given the world an invisible painting.” – Osho
- “You have a treasure within you that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “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
- “Mindfulness is a quality that’s always there. It’s an illusion that there’s a meditation and post-meditation period, which I always find amusing, because you’re either mindful or you’re not.” – Richard Gere
- “Mindfulness has helped me succeed in almost every dimension of my life. By stopping regularly to look inward and become aware of my mental state, I stay connected to the source of my actions and thoughts and can guide them with considerably more intention.” – Dustin
- “Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It’s not about Buddhism, but about paying attention. That’s what all meditation is, no matter what tradition or particular technique is used.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “Buddhist mindfulness is about the present, but I also think it’s about being real. Being awake to everything. Feeling like nothing can hurt you if you can look it straight on.” – Krista Tippett
- “Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone.”- Louis L’Amour
- “Mindfulness means being aware of how you’re deploying your attention and making decisions about it, and not letting the tweet or the buzzing of your BlackBerry call your attention.” – Howard Rheing
- “It takes a little bit of mindfulness and a little bit of attention to others to be a good listener, which helps cultivate emotional nurturing and engagement.” – Deepak Chopra
- “If you are doing mindfulness meditation, you are doing it with your ability to attend to the moment.” – Daniel Goleman
- “I’ve always been interested in mindfulness and alternative ways of seeing the world.” Finn Jones
- “We start out with the hope that in the future we will feel better, but if we are to practice mindfulness, it will mean accepting ourselves just as we find ourselves in the present moment, giving up the whole enterprise of self-improvement.” – Nigel Wellings
- “When you climb a mountain, you do it step by step; what is important is the step you are taking now.” – Sayadaw U Tejaniya
- “Start where you are. This is very important. Meditation practice is not about later, when you get it all together and you’re this person you really respect…. Just where you are–that’s the place to start.” – Pema Chodron
- “Do you know that [right now] you are reading? Yes? Good! That’s awareness. How much energy did that require? Was it tiring or difficult? No? So, you can meditate.” – Sayadaw U Tejaniya
- “It’s sometimes almost a startling, even horrifying, awareness that comes into being, of just how chaotic [our] minds are– how habitual and obsessive [our] thinking can be, and how difficult, how challenging, it is just to feel at ease in silence, in simplicity, in aloneness.” – Christina Feldman
- “Everything that occurs is not only usable and workable but is actually the path itself. We can use everything that happens to us as the means for waking up.” – 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
- “Don’t feel guilty. We have no control over our feelings. Emotions are spontaneous things that arise.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
- “We withdraw from our experience of the present moment. We pull away from the raw feelings of fear and shame by incessantly telling ourselves stories about what is happening in our life.”- Tara Brach
