Meditation Quotes

400+ Sourced quotes

Any daily activity can be used as an opportunity for meditation.

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Is there a poem that never reaches words And one that chaffers the time away?
Is the poem both peculiar and general?
There's a meditation there, in which there seems To be an evasion, a thing not apprehended or
Not apprehended well. Does the poet
Evade us, as in a senseless element?

Wallace Stevens

Mindfulness is both a state of being and a daily spiritual practice, a form of meditation.

A virtuous youth and frugal manhood always create a Pisgah for the veteran in righteousness, from which he may calmly survey the stars, and read his " title clear to mansions in the skies," while yet in the flesh he can soar on the wings of meditation above the clouds, and catch glimpses of the heavenly world that lies in the placid and everlasting orient before him.

Elias Lyman Magoon

When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being—and a normal one, at that?

Elizabeth Gilbert

Our whole life is a meditation of our last decision - the only decision that matters.

Meditation is not about stopping thoughts, but recognizing that we are more than our thoughts and our feelings.

Arianna Huffington

Seek in reading and thou shalt find in meditation; knock in prayer and it shall be opened in contemplation.

John of the Cross

Although the insights we can have in meditation tell us nothing about the origins of the universe, they do confirm some well-established truths about the human mind: Our conventional sense of self is an illusion; positive emotions, such as compassion and patience, are teachable skills; and the way we think directly influences our experience of the world.

Meditation is not supposed to be the fabrication or the reinforcement of some particular state, but simply the cultivation of the awareness of whatever is arising in the mind.

Thrangu Rinpoche

A garment that is double dyed, dipped again and again, will retain the color a great while; so a truth which is the subject of meditation.

Our life is an endless journey; it is like a broad highway that extends infinitely into the distance. The practice of meditation provides a vehicle to travel on that road. Our journey consists of constant ups and downs...

Chögyam Trungpa

Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance beween spirit and humility.

Thought shattering itself against its own nothingness is the explosion of meditation.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Meditation
practice begins by sitting down and assuming your seat cross-legged on
the ground. You begin to feel that by simply being on the spot, your
life can become workable and even wonderful. You realize that you are
capable of sitting like a king or queen on a throne. The regalness of
that situation shows you the... dignity that comes from being still and
simple.

Chögyam Trungpa

That which is known as "meditation" is the act of sustaining an object of meditation and specific subjective aspects by repeatedly focusing your mind upon a virtuous object of meditation. The purpose of this is as follows. From beginningless time you have been under the control of your mind; your mind has not been under your control. Furthermore, your mind tended to be obscured by the afflictions and so forth.

Have faith in the beauty of satsang, service, and meditation—not because somebody is telling you that there is an experience that exists, but to experience for yourself the experience that exists, and then have faith in it. Then you start going, and you keep on going. The effort you personally have to make is to do satsang, service, and meditation. And there's an experience behind it. You're not just doing it blindly, but there is an experience behind it.

Use the previous techniques in rotation. It will prevent your meditation experience from becoming stale.

Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.

Meditation is the movement of love. It isn't the love of the one or of the many. It is like water that anyone can drink out of any jar.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

There is no end to the petals of the inner rose. Continue to unfold set after set of petals until you have completed your meditation session.

When people say that meditation makes them calm, they are often referring to this stability of the mind. A stable mind creates the foundation for a happier and more contented person.

The very aim of meditation is firstly subjugation of the mind, so that it can no longer be an obstacle to a clear vision of the Supreme cliché. Secondly, it is the full silencing of that mind, so that consciousness becomes similar to the mirror-like surface of a quiet lake or pool. I can see the real Reflection of Truth in it then, but not otherwise.

The parlor may have its charms, but the Japanese toilet truly is a place of spiritual repose. It always stands apart from the main building, at the end of a corridor, in a grove fragrant with leaves and moss. No words can describe that sensation as one sits in the dim light, basking in the faint glow reflected from the shoji, lost in meditation or gazing out at the garden.

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

Meditation upon death does not teach one how to die; it does not make the departure more easy, but ease is not what I seek. Beloved boy, so willful and brooding, your sacrifice will have enriched not my life but my death.... Centuries as yet unborn within the dark womb of time would pass by thousands over that tomb without restoring life to him, but likewise without adding to his death, and without changing the fact that he had been.

Marguerite Yourcenar