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-ZINNFrom the point of view of the meditative traditions the entire society is suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
More Jon Kabat-Zinn Quotes
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Breathing is central to every aspect of meditation training. It’s a wonderful place to focus in training the mind to be calm and concentrated.
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When awareness embraces the senses, it enlivens them.
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Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that.
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Dying without actually fully living, without waking up to our lives while we have the chance, is an ongoing and significant risk.
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See for yourself whether letting go when a part of you really wants to hold on doesn’t bring a deeper satisfaction than clinging.
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When you’re walking, just walk. When you’re eating, just eat. Not in front of the TV, not with the newspaper. It turns out, that’s huge.
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This is something called “walking meditation.” The goal is to learn to be aware of each and every movement and feeling. I know it seems ridiculous, but it does change the way you experience walking.
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The real meditation is how you live your life.
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Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.
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The awareness is not part of the darkness or the pain; it holds the pain, and knows it, so it has to be more fundamental, and closer to what is healthy and strong and golden within you.
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Voluntary simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more.
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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?
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The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.
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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.
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Writing can be an incredible mindfulness practice.
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