awareness
    

People are at their most mindful when they are at play.  If we find
ways of enjoying our work blurring the lines between
work and play the gains will be greater.

Ellen Langer

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Mindfulness makes our eyes, our heart, our non-toothache, the moon,
and the trees deep and beautiful.  And when we touch our suffering
with mindfulness, we begin to transform it.  Mindfulness is like a mother
holding her baby in her arms and caring for her baby’s pain.  When our
pain is held by mindfulness it loses some of its strength. . . . Mindfulness
recognizes what is there, and concentration allows you to be deeply
present with whatever it is.  Concentration is the ground of happiness.
If you live twenty-four hours a day in mindfulness
and concentration, one day is a lot.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way;
on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Try to be mindful, and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will
become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool. All kinds
of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will
clearly see the nature of all things. You will see many strange and
wonderful things come and go, but you will be still.

Ajahn Chah

   awareness

Mindfulness of oneself cultivates wisdom.
Mindfulness of others cultivates compassion.

Stonepeace

Mindfulness is knowing what you are experiencing while you are
experiencing it.  It is a moment-to-moment awareness, has the
quality of being in the now, a sense of freedom, of perspective,
of being connected, not judging.

Guy Armstrong

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

Do we ever question the need to brush our teeth?  Or say, "today I do not have
time for brushing teeth?"  Can we go a week without brushing?  What that would
be like?  Please imagine it right now.  How will the mouth and teeth feel?  Do we
believe if we brush teeth we will never need a dentist?  And how about putting in
a comparable amount of time, energy and regular practice to keep the mind clear,
fresh, and refreshed?  Or regularly brushing and clearing the mind from harmful
residue?  I view Mindfulness as a way of maintaining mental hygiene the same way
brushing is needed for dental hygiene.  And, from time to time, we may even
need professional help for best results.

Rezvan Ameli

Was there ever a time when you felt suddenly alive?  It was like the doors
of the world opened for a minute and you could see directly into life.
You were able to touch life directly and were not lost in your fears
and worries.  This experience may not have been during a big event like
performing in a play or playing in a championship game; it may have been while
walking in the woods or talking to a friend.  All of a sudden you felt alive, awake.
This quality of waking up, or penetrating into life, we could call mindfulness.
Mindfulness simply means being aware, being present.  When you are breathing
and know that you are breathing, that is mindfulness of breathing.

Soren Gordhamer

Living mindlessly . . . takes an enormous toll.  What we get from each
moment depends on the attention we give it, and the quality of our
experience reflects the quality of our awareness.

Roger Walsh

Life is a dance.  Mindfulness is witnessing that dance.

Amit Ray

A few years ago, I sat on my son's bedroom floor folding some baby clothes
that he'd outgrown.  I could feel the sadness and regret creeping in, but
I wanted so badly to feel OK about the passage of time.  I quickened my pace
to push the pain away.  I wanted the moment to be over.  Suddenly, though,
I looked up and notices a very blue sky staring down through the window.  Just
feel it, I said to myself, as I slowed down, trying to focus on the task in front of me.
I held a shirt close to my face and inhaled as deeply as I could.  My heart seemed to
crack and fill up at the same time as feelings of hope and loss collided right there in
a pile of little boy's old clothes.  When I finally got up to leave the room, I wasn't
sad anymore.  Instead, I thought about the miraculous growth of a child, whose
shirt size is less about loss and more about the gift of life itself.

I don't know if you can live inside each and every moment.  But when you can, try
to stop, look, and listen long enough to be right where you are, not in your past,
not in your future.  Just right in the middle of a split second in time.

Leslie Levine

While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means
one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes.
At first glance, that might seem a little silly.  Why put so much stress on a simple
thing?  But that’s precisely the point.  The fact that I am standing there and washing
these bowls is a wondrous reality.  I am completely myself, following my breath,
conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions.  There’s
no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped
here and there on the waves.

Thich Nhat Hanh

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

I'm a simple person; I belong to an era different from the one you
belong to:  if something's white, I say it's white; if it's black, I say
black.  The ability to resolve problems comes from everyday
experience, from seeing things as they really are and not the way
someone else says they should be.  As soon as we begin to jettison
the ballast, to eliminate whatever doesn't belong to us, whatever
comes from outside, we're already on the right track.

Susanna Tamaro

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
Wherever You Go, There You Are

awareness

When we perform an act mindfully--be it meditating, vacuuming
or playing Scrabble with a child--we nourish ourselves, as well.
Rather than scattering our concentration on a dozen things at
once, we focus.  We slow down.  We give ourselves time to calm
down from the inside out and the luxury of saying:  Nothing is
more important right now than this moment, this deed.  We
may not get as much done by day's end, but we can feel more
peaceful and satisfied with the work itself.  That's a good way
to think of it:  Mindfulness is quality time for the soul.

Shana Aborn

Today, walking along the beach, I spotted a rock, slick and shiny.
It attracted my attention, and I picked it up.  But on closer inspection
it turned out to be shiny because it was wet.  As it dried, the rock
became ordinary.  It was just a rock.  I was disappointed at first, and
I almost threw it away.  But the rock had been wonderfully smoothed
by the sand and the waves.  Although it was merely a plain rock
ground smooth by the elements, it turned out to be worth keeping,
even treasuring.
   I found another rock as I walked the beach today.  It, too, had been
ground down and polished by reality.  It had no sharp edges
anymore.  When I walk too fast I miss these small, smooth rocks
that so fascinate me.  They are my cousins, somehow, models of what
I would like to become.  But here I am now.

David K. Reynolds

Willingly greeting our fears and weaknesses with openness, acceptance,
and respect is one of the hardest tasks mindfulness asks of us and one
of the most freeing practices we can undertake.  Sitting in stillness with
our sorrow and shame, our fear and judgment laid bare is an act of courage.

Sue Patton Thoele

Many people pass through these things each day of their lives on their way to
work, or driving in the country, and never notice the birds, or the clouds
floating across the sky, or the flowers by the roadside.  They are too
preoccupied with business matters or with personal problems to notice
anything outside themselves.  They travel through life as if it were a dark
tunnel.  This is unfortunate.

Joseph F. Girzone
Never Alone

Carefully observe the natural laws in operation in the world around
you, and live by them.  From following them, you will learn the morality
of modesty, moderation, compassion, and consideration (not just one
society’s rules and regulations), the wisdom of seeing things as they
are (not of merely collecting “facts” about them), and the happiness of
being in harmony with the Way (which has nothing to do with self-
righteous “spiritual” obsessions and fanaticism).  And you will live
lightly, spontaneously, and effortlessly.

Benjamin Hoff
The Te of Piglet

quotations - contents - welcome page - obstacles
the people behind the words - our current e-zine - articles and excerpts
Daily Meditations, Year One - Year Two - Year Three - Year Four
     
Sign up for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign up for your free daily meditation

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
It's Easier Than You Think

Mindfulness in its most general sense is about waking up from a life
on automatic, and being sensitive to novelty in our everyday experience.

Daniel J. Siegel