Mindfulness

“Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pulling of the strings. Confine yourself to the present.”

“All phenomena are preceded by the mind. The mind is their master; they are produced by the mind. If one speaks or acts with a corrupted mind, suffering follows, as the wheel of the cart follows the ox's hoof.”

“As rain leaks into an ill-thatched house, so passion enters an uncultivated mind. As rain does not leak into a well-thatched house, so passion does not enter a cultivated mind.”

“Good friends, in this teaching of mine, from ancient times up to the present, all have established no-thought as the main doctrine, non-form as the substance, and non-abiding as the basis.”

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away.”

“Zazen is the gateway of total repose and bliss. The body and mind of all buddhas are the body and mind of all beings. Zazen is neither a technique nor a method. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease.”

“Radical acceptance is the courage to let things be as they are. It is not resignation. It is the willingness to see clearly what is happening, without the veil of judgment, and to respond from that clarity.”

“The trance of unworthiness is the feeling that something is wrong with me, that I am not enough. It is a trance because it is not the truth — it is a spell cast by conditioning, by fear, by forgetting who we are.”

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”

“Wherever you go, there you are. You can't get away from yourself, no matter how hard you try, no matter how many places you travel to, no matter how many new beginnings you manufacture.”

“You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

“Failure is a secret ingredient of a wise life. It is the thing that teaches us what we need to know, if we can stay with it instead of running away.”

“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be constantly in no-man's-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh.”

“The essence of meditation is not about staying with the breath forever. It is about beginning again. That moment of noticing you've wandered and choosing to return — that is the practice.”

“Our happiness does not stand alone, nor does it come from being alone. It is inextricably linked with the happiness of others.”

“You are not your mind. You are the awareness that is aware of the mind. The moment you realize this, you have stepped out of the mind's grip.”

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.”

“Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.”

“A special transmission outside the scriptures; no dependence on words and letters; direct pointing at the mind of man; seeing into one's nature and attaining Buddhahood.”

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“Time is not separate from you, and you are not separate from time. You must realize that time is you, and you are time.”

“Attain the utmost in emptiness; hold fast to the utmost in stillness. The ten thousand things rise together, and I watch their return.”