Mindfulness Quotes

We all exist as part of a wonderful stream of life.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

A wave has a right to live her life as a wave, but she must also learn to live her life as water because she is not only a wave. She is also water. And water lives without the fear carried by the wave.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

What's the difference between people who see and seek gaps and those that see and seek bridges? The first stops and stays on the side. The second, crosses and reaches new worlds.As soon as your mind identifies the bridge, the gap is gone...but the bridge was always there...you just had to see it.There are holes in the ground, yet a bridge (which is there, but may take time to see) filled it. That's where asking better questions comes in. Where is the bridge so I can cross? There is one. Believing there is a bridge from where you are to where you want to go is 99% of the battle. The other 1% is to cross it.But do I have to build the bridge? Maybe. But everything is first created in the mind and then in the world. The bridge is there. See it. Cross it.

~ Richie Norton

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling, and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence. To observe it, we just sit on the bank of the river and identify each feeling as it surfaces, flows by, and disappears.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

[T]he flower is made of non-flower elements. We can describe the flower as being full of everything. There is nothing that is not present in the flower. We see sunshine, we see the rain, we see clouds, we see the earth, and we also see time and space in the flower.A flower, like everything else, is made entirely of non-flower elements. The whole cosmos has come together in order to help the flower manifest herself, The flower is full of everything except one thing: a separate self, a separate identity.The flower cannot be by herself alone. The flower has to inter-be with the sunshine, the cloud and everything in the cosmos. If we understand being in terms of inter-being, then we are much closer to the truth. Inter-being is not being and it is not non-being. Inter-being means being empty of a separate identity, empty of a separate self

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

I am a continuation like the rain is the continuation of the cloud.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Just because we do not perceive something, it is not correct to say it does not exist.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Life itself is possible. If a grain of corn is not impermanent, it can never be transformed into a stalk of corn. If the stalk were not impermanent, it could never provide us with the ear of corn we eat.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness is about focusing on the magic of the present moment. Rather than fretting about the past or worrying about the future, the aim is to experience life as it unfolds moment by moment. This simple practice is immensely powerful. As we rush through our lives, mindfulness encourages us to stop constantly striving for something new or better and to embrace acceptance and gratitude. This allows us to tap into the joy and wonder in our lives, and to listen to the wisdom of our hearts. This book will show you how to experience small but beautiful moments of mindfulness every day and so guide you along the path to finding more peace and contentment in your life.

~ Anna Barnes

Impermanence means that everything changes and that nothing remains the same in any consecutive moments. And although things change every moment, they still cannot be accurately described as the same or as different from what they were a moment ago.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Emptiness is not the opposite of existence. It is not nothingness or annihilation.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Direct experience is the only way.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

When you lose a loved one, you suffer. But if you know how to look deeply, you have a chance to realize that his or her nature is truly the nature of no birth, no death. There is manifestation and there is the cessation of manifestation in order to have another manifestation. You have to be very keen and very alert in order to recognize the new manifestations of just one person.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Many of us live like dead people because we live without awareness. We carry our dead bodies with us and circulate throughout the world. We are pulled into the past or we are pulled forward into the future or we are caught by our projects or our despair and anger. We are not truly alive, we are not inhabited by awareness of the miracle of being alive.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Nourish yourself every day with the wonderful things that life has to offer you. Nourish yourself in the present moment. Walk in the kingdom of God.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

We can only accept teachings that we have put into practice with our own awakened understanding and that we can see with our own experience to be true.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Don't chase after your thoughts as a shadow follows its object. Don't run after your thoughts. Find joy and peace in this very moment .

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

When a feeling or thought arises, your intention should not be to chase it away, even if by continuing to concentrate on the breath the feeling or thought passes naturally from the mind. The intention isn't to chase it away, hate it, worry about it, or be frightened by it. So what exactly should you be doing concerning such thoughts and feelings? Simply acknowledge their presence.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

...didn't need to waste so much time envisioning some vague horribleness awaiting me in my future.

~ Dan Harris

While practicing mindfulness, don't be dominated by the distinction between good and evil, thus creating a battle within oneself.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

A person who looks at the table and can see the universe is a person who can see the way.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

People normally cut reality into compartments, and so are unable to see the interdependence of all phenomena. To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one's perception of reality, a barrier which Buddhism calls the attachment to the false view of self.Attachment to the false view of self means belief in the presence of unchanging entities which exist on their own.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Whatever the tasks, do them slowly and with ease, in mindfulness. Don't do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

All we can do is everything we can do. (David Axelrod)

~ Dan Harris

If you don't waste your energy on variables you cannot influence, you can focus much more effectively on those you can. (Mark Epstein)

~ Dan Harris

If everything in this world was in constant decay, why expend so much energy gnashing my teeth over work?

~ Dan Harris

Turns out, it's pretty simple to win people over, especially in tense situations, if you're able to take their perspective and validate their feelings.

~ Dan Harris

In fact, when you're mindful, you actually feel irritation more keenly. However, once you unburden yourself from the delusion that people are deliberately trying to screw you, it's easier to stop getting carried away.

~ Dan Harris

Dalai Lama: If a scientist confirm nonexistence of something we believe, then we have to accept that.Dan Harris: So if scientists come up with something that contradicts your beliefs, you will change your beliefs?Dalai Lama: Oh yes. Yes.

~ Dan Harris

When you lurch from one thing to the next, constantly scheming, or reacting to incoming fire, the mind gets exhausted. You get sloppy and make bad decisions.

~ Dan Harris

Now I see that if one doesn't know how to die, one can hardly know how to live - because deathis a part of life.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

[A]ll the methods in the search for truth should be looked on as means rather than as ends in themselves or as absolute truth.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The meditation on interdependence is to help one penetrate reality in order to be one with it, not to become caught up in philosophical opinion or meditation methods. The raft is used to cross the river. It isn't to be carried around on your shoulders. The finger which points at the moon isn't the moon itself.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Meditation is not evasion, it is a serene encounter with reality.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh