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Meditation Quotes

    “During the recording of her album Interiors, the musician Rosanne Cash posted a simple sign over the doorway of the studio.  ‘Abandon Thought, All ye Who Enter Here.’  Not because she wanted a bunch of unthinking idiots working with her, but because she wanted everyone involved—included herself—to go deeper than whatever was on the surface of their minds.  She wanted them to be present, connected to the music, and not lost in their heads.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 43)

      “Yes, thinking is essential.  Expert knowledge is undoubtedly key to the success of any leader or athlete or artist.  The problem is that, unthinkingly, we think too much.  The ‘wild and whirling words’ of our subconscious get going and suddenly there’s no room for our training (or anything else).  We’re overloaded, overwhelmed, and distracted… by our own mind!” ~ Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 42)

      Pico Iyer Quote on Rethinking Travel and Exploring ‘Nowhere’

        “In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating that going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still. You can go on vacation to Hawaii or New Orleans three months from now, and you’ll have a tremendous time, I’m sure. But if you want to come back feeling new – alive and full of fresh hope and in love with the world – I think the place to visit may be Nowhere.”

        Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

        Beyond the Quote (101/365)

        In his book, The Art of Stillness, Pico Iyer writes about an unconventional approach to adventure that involves, not traveling to New Orleans or Hawaii, but to “Nowhere.”  And yes, that’s exactly what he means.  Rather than taking the time to venture off to far and distant lands, he makes an argument for the opposite—adventuring to nowhere in particular and taking that time to turn inward.  This idea may not be what people want to hear—after all, who would want to give up the idea of going to Hawaii… to go Nowhere?  But, when you look a little closer at the dynamics of far and distant travel, the notion of “Nowhere” may begin to make more sense.

        Read More »Pico Iyer Quote on Rethinking Travel and Exploring ‘Nowhere’

          “Being present demands all of us.  It’s not nothing.  It may be the hardest thing in the world.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 25)

          Stillness Is The Key [Book]

            Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday

            By: Ryan Holiday

            From this Book:  66 Quotes

            Book Overview:  All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness–to be steady while the world spins around you.  In this book, he outlines a path for achieving this ancient, but urgently necessary way of living. Drawing on a wide range of history’s greatest thinkers, from Confucius to Seneca, Marcus Aurelius to Thich Nhat Hanh, John Stuart Mill to Nietzsche, he argues that stillness is not mere inactivity, but the doorway to self-mastery, discipline, and focus.  More than ever, people are overwhelmed. They face obstacles and egos and competition. Stillness Is the Key offers a simple but inspiring antidote to the stress of 24/7 news and social media. The stillness that we all seek is the path to meaning, contentment, and excellence in a world that needs more of it than ever.

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            Not enough time to read/listen to the whole book? Check out the 18 minute Blinkist version of Stillness Is The Key and get the key insights here for free.

            Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

            Joseph Jaworski Quote on Beautiful Settings and How They Can Drive You Out Of Yourself

              “Part of the magic of the experience lay in the sheer beauty of the setting: the breathtaking sight of the high mountains, the sweep of the sky, the panorama of the great valley. The beauty drives you out of the self for a moment – so that for this time, the self is not.”

              Joseph Jaworski, Synchronicity

              Beyond the Quote (55/365)

              This is (at least in strong part) why we are so drawn to beautiful destinations.  The sheer beauty of the settings that we travel to pull us out of ourselves—and for that time, the self is not.  It’s an incredible escape that is so cherished because our “monkey minds” drive us crazy.  I’m sure you might be able to relate.  You know the feeling of being unsettled, restless, confused, indecisive?  That’s the monkey mind.  It’s our inner critic and the part of our mind that is most connected to the ego.  The monkey mind insists on being heard, is relentlessly talkative, is constantly pointing to all of our flaws and mistakes, and contends to keep us distracted from doing any kind of deep work all of the time.  It’s exhausting and it’s what makes us want a vacation so damn bad.

              Read More »Joseph Jaworski Quote on Beautiful Settings and How They Can Drive You Out Of Yourself

              Mark Divine Quote on The Art Of Positive Thinking

                “The art of positive self-talk is simply paying attention to your inner dialogue and directing it toward positive, performance-based language.  Most people don’t take the time to sit back and witness their own thoughts, which is an essential step toward realizing that our thoughts are not who we are.  They don’t control us.  They’re just thoughts.  The only power they have is what we give them—what we feed them.  Once you create that mental distance between you and your thoughts, you can start to tame and manage them.”

                Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                Beyond the Quote (28/365)

                The difference between false-positivity and performance-based positivity is in the types of actions each inspire you to take.  In the first, you put a happy face on, you mask your emotions, and you distract yourself from the real problems with positive thinking—it’s a diversion and is nothing more than an avoidance strategy that leads to inaction.  In the second, positivity is looked at as a strategy that can be deployed and used to best deal with tough situations or emotions that are at hand.  Because if we’re going to deal with the situation(s) regardless (given that you’re not going to bury your head in the sand) we might as well do it from a place where we are mentally at our best.

                Read More »Mark Divine Quote on The Art Of Positive Thinking

                  “Beginning meditation practice is an excellent opportunity to contemplate how we spend our time.  How much of what we do is important and truly necessary?  One of the obstacles to meditation is being pulled in too many directions.  What drains us; what nourishes us?  Are there activities we can postpone or eliminate?  It will be helpful to ask questions like these at the outset.  Awareness lays the ground for a strong commitment to practice.  Taming our mind isn’t a hobby or an extracurricular activity—it’s the most important thing we could be doing.  It can even help streamline a pressured situation because it gives us clarity, peace, and fortitude.  So while we may need to simplify our life in order to meditate, a benefit of meditation is that it will make our life simpler.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 216)

                    “To meet our basic goodness, we meditate.  Through peaceful abiding, we learn to rest fearlessly in our natural state.  We see what an enlightened being sees: basic goodness is the ground of being, the nature of everything; it’s an indestructible continuum, a diamond hologram with infinite facets.  Through contemplation we discover that, like the reflection of a jewel in the sunlight, it is empty.  In continuing to contemplate, we see that this emptiness is vibrant and dynamic—a playful display of thoughts, emotions, and perceptions.  This is luminosity.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 198)

                      “I’ve said before that our bewildered mind is like a wild horse.  I have a very high regard for horses.  When I was in high school, I spent some time working on a ranch in West Texas.  A stallion in the distance on the high plains is a powerful sight to behold.  We don’t tame such a strong majestic creature by beating the spirit out of it.  Instead, we work with its raw power and turn that energy in a certain direction.  Where do we want to take that horse?  Where do we want to go riding?  We want to make a real journey.  We want to ride in the meadows of compassion, the gardens of awakened heart, the fields of wisdom.  This is the essence of the practice of contemplation: we learn to direct the energy of our mind toward enlightenment.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 132)

                        “The point of awareness—and the point of meditation, for that matter—is to know what’s happening.  We have to be awake.  Otherwise we fall into lethargy, which is one step away from sleep.  Without awareness, meditation will lead nowhere.  In the first stages of peaceful abiding, awareness acts as a spy who watches us meditate, alerting mindfulness to bring us back to the breath when we stray.  For a while it might be clumsy and intrusive, because as beginners we need to be watching constantly.  But as we practice, awareness continues to develop.  The mind becomes more stable, and our ability to know what’s happening becomes stronger.  Awareness becomes the sheriff who can sense that our mind is about to become distracted and remedy the situation before it even occurs.  We don’t see the sheriff running around everywhere; we just know he’s there.  Because we have more confidence, awareness no longer feels intrusive.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 107)

                          “Obviously, meditation can sometimes be difficult.  We may want to run away from practice, run from the cushion, even run from the word ‘meditation.’  We can run as far as we like, but what we’ll discover is that there is no better environment than meditation in which to build the stability, clarity, and strength of our mind.  At the same time, the difficulty of making it to the cushion, the difficulty of staying with the technique, the difficulty of abandoning discursiveness, isn’t going to disappear.  In procrastinating, we’re avoiding the one thing that really is going to make a difference in our lives.  Meditation stabilizes us in our inherent power as humans.  It introduces the possibility of living our lives in a continually conscious, confident, and balanced state of mind.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 91)

                            “Like weeding a garden, dealing with obstacles is an ongoing aspect of meditation.  Working with these challenges on the cushion is another way we build confidence and courage to go further.  We can be grateful for obstacles, because they push us forward in our practice.  After a while it is even possible to feel a spark of delight when we see an obstacle coming up, because we know it’s an opportunity to keep sharpening our minds.  The more obstacles we face, the more confidence we feel to deal with them.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 86)

                              “Meditation cannot be purchased, love cannot be purchased, friendship cannot be purchased, gratitude cannot be purchased—but nobody is concerned with these things.  Everything else, the whole world of things, can be purchased.  So every child starts climbing the ladder of ambitions, and he knows if he has money, then everything is possible.  The society breeds the idea of ambition, of being powerful, of being rich.  It is an absolutely wrong society.  It creates psychologically sick, insane people.  And when they have reached the goal that the society and the educational system have given to them, they find themselves at a dead end.  The road ends; there is nothing beyond.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition

                                “A meditator is neither a man nor a woman, because meditation has nothing to do with your body; neither does it have anything to do with your mind.  In meditation, you are simply and purely consciousness, and consciousness is neither male nor female.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition