Sitting still and embracing stillness is easier said than done. Meditation is a way to transform our minds, develop focus, and tune our emotional bodies. With regular practice, the habits and patterns of the mind become clear and we are able to develop a more positive way of “being”. The following quotes are dedicated to inspiring a sustained meditation practice.
1. When the rain rushes into a house with a broken roof, craving rushes into an unmeditated mind. -Buddha
2. At the end of the day, I can make a fuss completely insane. Through meditation, I can keep them from making a fuss. – Ringo Starr
3. Sleep is the best meditation. – Dalai Lama
4. To understand infinity, the mind must be very calm and still. — Jidu Krishnamurti
5. Meditation is not a way to calm the mind. It’s a way of getting into a stillness that already exists. – Deepak Chopra
6. When your attention is in the present moment, awareness is there. It’s like waking up from a dream, thinking about a dream, dreaming of past lives, and dreaming of the future. Such clarity, such simplicity. There is no room for creating problems. This is the moment. — Eckhart Toll
7. Inside you is a stillness and a sanctuary where you can always withdraw and be yourself. – anonymous
There is a stillness and a sanctuary within you where you can always draw back and be yourself. – anonymous
8. Throwing his mind into chaos, if we’re honest, we know all too well that he’s going to be a dark master of chaos, good at indulging, cunning and stubborn to enslave. Focusing on the task of freeing ourselves from illusions during meditation, we will find that with time, patience, discipline, and the right training, our mind will begin to unravel itself and realize the bliss and clarity of its essence. ——Sogyal Rinpoche
9. Don’t hate the arising of thought or stop the arising of thought. Just know that our original mind is beyond thoughts, so no matter what, you will never have thoughts. Enlighten the original mind, no need to enlighten again. — Zen Master Panxi Yangzhai
10. Go inward every day and find your inner strength so the world doesn’t blow out your candle. – Katherine Dunham
11. Your goal is not to fight the heart, but to witness the heart. – Swami Muktananda
12. Mindfulness helps us to better discern the difference between what is happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what is happening that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as our full and enduring self. – Sharon Salzberg
13. Meditation is the dissolution of thought into eternal consciousness or pure awareness without objectification, knowledge without thought, merging of the finite and the infinite. — Voltaire
14. If we can know who we really are, there is no better antidote for all pain than this. This is at the heart of all spiritual practice. — Kalu Rinpoche
15. Meditation is one of the ways spiritual people stay awake. —Thomas Merton
Meditation is one of the ways spiritual people stay awake. —Thomas Merton
16. When we rise through meditation to a place that connects us to spirit, we activate something within us that is eternal and infinite in life and death. When we experience this eternal part of ourselves, we no longer doubt its existence. Therefore, meditation is the method of knowing and seeing the eternal, indestructible, essential center of our being. – Rudolf Steiner
17. Meditation is the pursuit of nothingness. It’s like ultimate relaxation. It’s better than the best sleep you’ve ever had. It’s a peace of mind. – Hugh Jackman
18. The quieter you are, the more you can hear. – anonymous
19. The meaning of meditation is that you become more and more like yourself. — David Lynch
20. I meditate so that I can flood my entire being with the powerful force of peace. – Sri Chinmoy
21. Touch your inner space, it is nothing, silent and empty like heaven; it is the heaven within you. Once you settle into your inner heaven, you come home, and your behavior, your behavior becomes very mature. Then everything you do has elegance. Then everything you do is poetry in itself. The poetry of your life; your walking becomes dance, your silence becomes music. — Oscar
22. Be still and the soul will speak. – Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
23. The soul loves meditation because its greatest joy lies in contact with spirit. – Paramhamsa Yogananda
The soul loves meditation because its greatest joy lies in contact with spirit. – Paramhamsa Yogananda
24. Meditation is the secret of spiritual life and intellectual growth. – James Allen
25. Meditation will not transport you to another world, but it will reveal the deepest and most impressive aspects of the world you already live in. Calmly contemplating these dimensions and using them in the service of compassion and kindness is the right way to make rapid progress in meditation and in life. ——Zen Master Xingyun
26. Meditation is a process of enlightenment, believing in the fundamental goodness of what we have and who we are, and realizing what we already have regardless of wisdom. We can live in a way that makes us more aware of who we are and what we do, rather than trying to improve, change or get rid of who we are or what we do. The point is to wake up and become more aware, more curious, more curious about yourself. — Pema Choudron