Week 2022-17: Thich Nhat Hanh - Collected Quotes

"You cannot transmit wisdom and insight to another person. The seed is already there. A good teacher touches the seed, allowing it to wake up, to sprout, and to grow." (Thich Nhat Hanh, "Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children", 2007)

"Are you able to understand the suffering in the other person?" (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"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." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Be yourself.
 Life is precious as it is.
All the elements for your happiness are already here.
There is no need to run, strive, search or struggle.
Just Be." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. 
Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment."" (Thich Nhat Hanh)"

"Eating mindfully is a most important practice of meditation. We can eat in a way that we restore the cookie of our childhood. The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Every path, every street in the world is your walking meditation path." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Everyone has a desire, but the desire to transform oneself, to transform one’s affliction, suffering, in order to get free and help other people, and change the world, that is a good desire." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our view about them." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Freedom is possible. One in-breath alone is enough to set you free - from your regrets about the past, your worries about the future, and your projects in the present. In that state of freedom, you will make better decisions. Next time you have to make a decision, be sure to breathe in and out first." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive - that you can touch the miracle of being alive ~ then that is a kind of enlightenment." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"If you know how to practice mindfulness you can generate peace and joy right here, right now. And you'll appreciate that and it will change you. In the beginning, you believe that if you cannot become number one, you cannot be happy, but if you practice mindfulness you will readily release that kind of idea. We need not fear that mindfulness might become only a means and not an end because in mindfulness the means and the end are the same thing. There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Listening is a very deep practice. [...].You have to empty yourself. You have to leave space in order to listen [...] especially to people we think are our enemies - the ones we believe are making our situation worse. When you have shown your capacity for listening and understanding, the other person will begin to listen to you, and you have a change to tell him or her of your pain, and it’s your turn to be healed. This is the practice of peace." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Looking deeply into the wrong perceptions, ideas, and notions that are at the base of our suffering is the most important practice in Buddhist meditation." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Many people think excitement is happiness.... But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Meditation is not meant to help us avoid problems or run away from difficulties. It is meant to allow positive healing to take place. To meditate is to learn how to stop - to stop being carried away by our regrets about the past, our anger or despair in the present, or our worries about the future." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Meditation is not passive sitting in silence. It is sitting in awareness, free from distraction, and realizing the clear understanding that arises from concentration." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Meditation is offering your genuine presence to yourself in every moment." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Meditation is, first of all, a tool for surveying our territory so we can know what is going on. With the energy of mindfulness, we can calm things down, understand them, and bring harmony back to the conflicting elements inside us." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Our own life has to be our message." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"People say that walking on water is a miracle, but to me, walking peacefully on earth is the real miracle.” (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don't suffer anymore." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Silence is something that comes from your heart, not from outside. Silence doesn't mean not talking and not doing things; it means that you are not disturbed inside. If you’re truly silent, then no matter what situation you find yourself in you can enjoy the silence." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"The first miracle brought about by mindfulness is your own presence, your real presence. With this energy dwelling in you, you become completely alive. When the energy of mindfulness is dwelling in you, Buddha is dwelling in you. The energy of mindfulness is the energy of Buddha. It is the equivalent of the Holy Spirit. Where the Holy Spirit is, there is also understanding, life, healing, and compassion."  (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"The moment of awakening may be marked by an outbursts of laughter, but this is not the laughter of someone who has won the lottery or some kind of victory. It is the laughter of one who, after searching for something for a long time, suddenly finds it in the pocket of their coat." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"The next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community; a community practising understanding and loving kindness, a community practising mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the earth." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"The source of love is deep in us and we can help others realise a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought, can reduce another person's suffering and bring that person joy." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"There are many ways to calm a negative energy without suppressing or fighting it. You recognize it, you smile to it, and you invite something nicer to come up and replace it; you read some inspiring words, you listen to a piece of beautiful music, you go somewhere in nature, or you do some walking meditation." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think about the past or responsibly plan for the future. The idea is simply to not allow yourself to get lost in regret about the past or worries about the future." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"We are all connected. When you touch one thing, you are touching everything. Whatever we do has an effect on others. Therefore, we must learn to live mindfully to touch the peace inside each of us. Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace. This collective mindfulness can bring positive change to our families, organizations, communities, nations and future generations." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"We're here to awaken from the illusion of separateness." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"When we look deeply into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos in it. Without clouds there could be no rain, and without rain there would be no flower." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"When you learn HOW to suffer, you suffer much less." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?" (Thich Nhat Hanh)"

"When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer or more water or less sun. You never blame the lettuce." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Where mindfulness is, true life, solidity, freedom, and healing also manifest. We all have the ability to generate this energy of mindfulness. Do walking meditation, breathe mindfully, drink your tea mindfully, and cultivate this energy that dwells in you, that illuminates you, and makes life possible." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"You are like a candle. Imagine you are sending light out all around you. All your words, thoughts and actions are going in many directions. If you say something kind, your kind words go in many directions, and you yourself go with them. We are …transforming and continuing in a different form at every moment." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Be yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search or struggle. Just Be." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Week 2022-15: Adyashanti - Collected Quotes

"The unknown, our own true nature, has the capacity to wake itself up when you start to fall in love with letting go of all the mental structures you hold onto. Contemplate this: there is no such thing as a true belief." (Steven Gray [Adyashanti], "Emptiness Dancing" , 2004)

"The mind is something that happens within you. Thinking is something that happens within what you are. Thinking does not define what you are. Thinking doesn't define anything." (Adyashanti, "The Basic Teachings - Part 1: Principles of the Teaching", 2009)

"Perhaps the most important element of any spiritual teaching is what we bring to it, because this dictates what the teaching will reveal within ourselves." (Adyashanti, "Orientation to the Teaching", 2010)

"All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better or different, and to turn your attention inward to the awake silence that you are." (Adyashanti)

"And it is from the sacred that a new and fluid consciousness is born that wipes away the old and brings to life the flowering of a living and undivided expression of being. Such an expression is neither personal nor impersonal, neither spiritual nor worldly, but rather the flow and flowering of existence beyond all notions of self." (Adyashanti)

"Enlightenment is a destructive process. it has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." (Adyashanti)

"Meditation is a dress rehearsal for death." (Adyashanti)

"Meditation is a teaching which offers you the possibility of breaking free from the egoic consciousness and coming into a whole new realisation of who and what you truly are. And all this starts with the willingness to question. To pause for just a moment and realise that maybe you aren't who you imagine yourself to be." (Adyashanti)

"One must be willing to stand alone - in the unknown, with no reference to authority or the past or any of one's conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete nakedness, innocence, and humility." (Adyashanti)

"Our potential is something that can flower only when we are no longer caught within the influence and limitations of the known. Beyond the realm of the mind, beyond the limitations of humanity’s conditioned consciousness, lies that which can be called the sacred." (Adyashanti)

"True Meditation is the space in which everything gets revealed, everything gets seen, everything gets experienced. And as such, it lets go of itself. We don't even let go. It lets go of itself." (Adyashanti)

"Until the whole world is free to agree with you or disagree with you, until you have given the freedom to everyone to like you or not like you, to love you or hate you, to see things as you see them, or to see things differently - until you have given the whole world its freedom - you'll never have your freedom." (Adyashanti)

"We realize - often quite suddenly - that our sense of self, which has been formed and constructed out of our ideas, beliefs and images, is not really who we are. It doesn't define us, it has no center. [...] The way they perceive the world suddenly changes, and they find themselves without any sense of separation between themselves and the rest of the world." (Adyashanti)

"When you rest in quietness and your image of yourself fades, and your image of the world fades, and your ideas of others fade, what's left? A brightness, a radiant emptiness that is simply what you are." (Adyashanti)

Week 2022-14: Jon Kabat-Zinn - Collected Quotes

"If we are honest with ourselves, most of us will have to admit that we live out our lives in an ocean of fear." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Full Catastrophe Living", 1990)

"Acknowledging that sometimes, often at very crucial times, you really have no idea where you are going or even where the path lies. At the same time, you can very well know something about where you are now (even if it is knowing that you are lost, confused, enraged or without hope)." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"But you cannot have harmony without a commitment to ethical behavior. It's the fence that keeps out the goats that will eat all the young shoots in your garden." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"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, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"From the perspective of meditation, every state is a special state, every moment a special moment." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Just watch this moment, without trying to change it at all. What is happening? What do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear?" (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Meditation is not about feeling a certain way. It's about feeling the way you feel." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing something about who that is. It is about coming to realize that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely, the path that is your life. Meditation may help us see that this path we call our life has direction; that it is always unfolding, moment by moment; and that what happens now, in this moment, influences what happens next." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"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, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Meditation means learning how to get out of this current, sit by its bank and listen to it, learn from it, and then use its energies to guide us." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Perhaps the most 'spiritual' thing any of us can do is simply to look through our own eyes, see with eyes of wholeness, and act with integrity and kindness." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Perhaps ultimately, spiritual simply means experiencing wholeness and interconnectedness directly, a seeing that individuality and the totality are interwoven, that nothing is separate or extraneous. If you see in this way, then everything becomes spiritual in its deepest sense. Doing science is spiritual. So is washing the dishes." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"See for yourself whether letting go when a part of you really wants to hold on doesn't bring a deeper satisfaction than clinging." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Stillness, insight, and wisdom arise only when we can settle into being complete in this moment, without having to seek or hold on to or reject anything." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"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, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them, in the intrinsic stickiness of wanting, of liking and disliking." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"We call the effort to cultivate our ability to be in the present moment 'practice' or 'meditation practice'." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"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, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life", 1994)

"Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting", 1997)

"Healing is a coming to terms with things as they are, rather than struggling to force them to be as they once were, or as we would like them to be, to feel secure or to have what we sometimes think of as our own way." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness", 2007)

"It is indeed a radical act of love just to sit down and be quiet for a time by yourself." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness", 2007)

"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)

"The real meditation is how you live your life." (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

"When we let go of wanting something else to happen in this moment, we are taking a profound step toward being able to encounter what is here now. If we hope to go anywhere or develop ourselves in any way, we can only step from where we are standing. If we don't really know where we are standing—a knowing that comes directly from the cultivation of mindfulness - we may only go in circles, for all our efforts and expectations. So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all." (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

"You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf" (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

Week 2022-13: Alan Watts - Collected Quotes

"At times almost all of us envy the animals. They suffer and die, but do not seem to make a 'problem' of it." (Alan Watts)

"Breathing is important in the practice of meditation because it is the faculty in us that is simultaneously voluntary and involuntary. You can feel that you are breathing, and equally you can feel that it is breathing you. So it is a sort of bridge between the voluntary world and the involuntary world - a place where they are one." (Alan Watts)

"Buddha's doctrine: Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are essentially impermanent... this frustration of the desire to possess is the immediate cause of suffering." (Alan Watts)

"Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes them tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know." (Alan Watts)

"I had a discussion with a great master in Japan, and we were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English, and he said, 'That's a waste of time. If you really understand Zen, you can use any book. You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in Wonderland. You could use the dictionary, because the sound of the rain needs no translation." (Alan Watts)

"I have realized that the past and the future are real illusions, that they exist only in the present, which is what there is and all that there is." (Alan Watts)

"I simply feel that a human being must always recognize that he is qualitatively more than any system of thought he can imagine, and therefore he should never label himself. He degrades himself when he does." (Alan Watts)

"If we live, we live; if we die, we die; if we suffer, we suffer; if we are terrified, we are terrified. There is no problem about it." (Alan Watts)

"Imagine a multidimensional spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dewdrop contains the reflection of all the other dewdrops. And, in each reflected dewdrop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image." (Alan Watts)

"It has been said that the highest wisdom lies in detachment, or, in words of Chuang-tzu: 'The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror; it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives, but does not keep.' In short, it is to be detached from both past and future and to live in the eternal NOW. For in truth neither past nor future have any existence apart from this NOW; by themselves they are illusions. Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal. For the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it persists for ever." (Alan Watts)

"Life is not a problem to be solved, 
nor a question to be answered. 
 Life is a mystery to be experienced." (Alan Watts)

"Our sense of individualismthat each of us is alone and separateis a culturally implanted hallucination." (Alan Watts)

"The art of meditation is neither mindless 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)

"The future is a concept - it doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now. That’s one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now." (Alan Watts)

"The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around; the real, deep down you is the whole universe." (Alan Watts)

"The transformation of consciousness undertaken in Taoism and Zen is more like the correction of faulty perception or the curing of a disease. It is not an acquisitive process of learning more and more facts or greater and greater skills, but rather than unlearning of wrong habits and opinions. As Lao-tzu said, ‘The scholar gains every day, but the Taoist loses every day.'" (Alan Watts)

"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)

"This - the immediate, everyday, and present experience—is IT, the entire and ultimate point for the existence of a universe." (Alan Watts)

"Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence." (Alan Watts)

"To discover the ultimate Reality of life- the Absolute, the eternal, God - you must cease to try to grasp it in the forms of idols. These idols are not just crude images. [...] They are our beliefs, our cherished preconceptions of the truth, which block the unreserved opening of mind, and heart to reality. The legitimate use of images is to express the truth, not to possess it." (Alan Watts)

"To go out of your mind once a day is tremendously important, because by going out of your mind you come to your senses. And if you stay in your mind all of the time, you are over rational, in other words you are like a very rigid bridge which because it has no give; no craziness in it, is going to be blown down by the first hurricane.” (Alan Watts)

"You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean." (Alan Watts)

The way an ecologist describes human behavior is that an action - what you do - is what the whole universe is doing at the place you call here and now. You are something that the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing. [...] The Real You is not a puppet which life pushes around; the real, deep down You IS the Whole Universe." (Alan Watts)

"Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be." (Alan Watts)