Best Mindfulness Quotes to Inspire, Uplift & Motivate You Every Day

“We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future, and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching.”

“Your mind chatter is important when it comes to what’s stopping you from making it.”

“So many people have so many opinions yet only few of their own.”

“Be mindful in planning your journey.”

“Finding meaning in one's work is critical in sustaining oneself in any career path.”

“Be simpler—and you’ll find the world coming closer to you.”

“Touch is our first language. Before we can see or speak, we experience the world through touch.”

“Now, imagine the opposite: a world where touch is sacred. Where every hug, every handshake, every gentle gesture carries meaning and care.”

“Touch is the first language we learn and the last one we forget.”

“Mindfulness won’t ensure you’ll win an argument with your sister. Mindfulness won’t enable you to bypass your feelings of anger or hurt either. But it may help you see the conflict in a new way, one that allows you to break through old patterns.”

“A great date isn’t about perfection; it’s about showing up as yourself and creating a space for genuine connection.”

“Sex needs to be an equal exchange, a shared creation. Both must feel that their experience matters; not as pretence, but in truth.”

“To meet another is also to meet ourselves, and beyond that, to meet the field that holds us both.”

“Listening is more than hearing sounds; it is the act of giving full attention to another being or to a moment. It involves suspending our own narrative long enough to truly receive what is offered. ... It is surprising how often we listen with the intent to respond rather than the intent to understand. We mentally prepare our reply while the other person is still speaking”

“Some people are weapons that will put you out of your mind, unless you put THEM out of your mind.”

“Try if you wish. But Zen comes of itself. True Zen shows in everyday living, CONSCIOUSNESS in action. More than any limited awareness, it opens every inner door to our infinite nature.”

“Meditation becomes a scientific path and method when there is a clear understanding of its do's and don'ts. Meditation is made into a science when the procedures are designed with predetermined results and a complete understanding of the causes and effects.”

“Come, look at this glittering world, like unto a royal chariot; the foolish are immersed in it, but the wise do not touch it.”

“Echoes of a time still”

“The mind always dwells on the unreal. It is lost in the maze of past and future. The past doesn't exist, and future is an illusion.”

“If you find your mind wandering away from your meditation, do not get frustrated. Simply bring your mind gently back to the technique. Trust yourself. With earnest effort you can master meditation.”

“The human race is amazing”

“this planet belongs to our children. we have borowed this planet from our children. we have caused a lot of damage to the planet.. but who are our children? they are our continuation, they are us. it means we have borrowed from ourselves... not much is left of ourselves... but with the practice we can do otherwise.”

“we trade our physical labor for the things we think are essential to our happiness and security. we have borrowed this planet from our children... mindfulness, going home to the present moment we know there so many wonders of life there are many conditions of happiness that are available.... we don't need to borrow anymore. the planet cannot take it anymore. our children cannot take it anymore. we cannot take it anymore. stop borrowing, because we don't need it.”

“Many are secure as human beings”

“As a cardiologist, I see the heart not just as a physical organ but as the center of our emotions, the seat of our soul, and the essence of our humanity. Healing and health transcend the physical to encompass habits of the mind and qualities of the spirit.”

“Gratitude is fertilizer for our dreams. The more we are grateful, the more the Universe gives us to be grateful for.”

“Stress is not a badge of honor, nor is it a requirement to get the job done.”

“Be happy with nothing because that nothing is everything.”

“You never see and perceive the world around you. You perceive only the form of what your consciousness allows you to perceive.”

“The reality around us will reflect our consciousness and present itself as we expect it to.”

“Wisdom has nothing to do with intelligence.”

“All that you see, perceive, and know around you is nothing but one of an infinite number of lenses through which you can perceive nothingness.”

“All that you see, perceive, and know, all that exists for you, is your own energy, and, therefore, you.”

“We need the reference points, systems, programs, and patterns—they save us a lot of time and energy every day and during our times of learning when we come to this reality.”

“Belief systems are very easy to get stuck into, and the more of us who share them, the easier it is.”

“The world cannot be saved—nothing and no one can be saved, and nor should they be. The world will always fall back into balance on its own, according to the level of consciousness of the people around it.”

“The fear of death, the fear of losing the reality around us, was the force that could make this world real for us.”

“In our dual world, it is not possible for just one side to disappear. When one pole disappears, the opposite pole also disappears, and the system maintained by the two poles collapses.”

“The past is not a finished, done, and closed chapter of our existence; it is very much alive and active. We live it in every moment. We create it in our present.”

“Religion does not come from God; it is a pattern, a special product of the mind.”

“Your consciousness and energy always strive for freedom and a constant flow. They don’t like to be stuck on either side. When they do, the energy balances the experience, usually freeing itself from the control of one pole with great passion and drama.”

“If you really transcend the mind, you don’t feel anything. There is only emptiness for you. Everything that you have experienced so far has existed and become known to you within your mind so, beyond that, there is the void of the unknown. You can’t even comprehend it, you have no senses, no emotions, no standards, and no colors; that world is empty according to your mind.”

“Authenticity is awareness. It is accepting full responsibility for myself, my choices, and my creations.”

“That is why you looked up at the stars bitterly at night, searching for yourself; that is why you woke up at dawn from your dreams; that is why you had the feeling of helplessness and of something lacking; that is why you felt hopeless and broken; that is why you felt like crying when you were alone, and that is why you couldn’t fit into any group in your life. Despite all the pain and bitterness, it is the most natural feeling you have ever felt. Your own voice kept calling you home. Not letting you lose yourself forever.”

“the song of a bird, the warm rays of the sun, a cup of hot tea—are manifestations of the dharmakaya. We, too, are of the same nature as these wonders of the universe. We do not have to walk in space or on water to experience a miracle; the real miracle is to be awake in the present moment. Walking on the green Earth, we realize the wonder of being alive. When we make steps like this, the sun of the dharmakaya will shine.”

“Walking on the Earth”

“Turning on the Water”

“Looking at Your Empty Bowl”

“Before taking care of Thay, take care of yourself. Taking care of yourself is taking care of Thay. Taking care of sisters, those around you, is taking care of Thay. -Thay while recoving from stroke, recounted by Mongolia Grove sister”

“Do self-enquiry, stop identifying with the body and try to be aware of the self, which is your real nature.”

“When we constantly meditate on another's faults, it is because we are neglecting our own unhealed wounds.”

“There really is a last turtle, and it finally lets Zen touch the ground.”

“Our thoughts are not roadblocks to our meditation, they are the divine expression of the universe and the building blocks of infinite possibilities available to us in every moment.”

“I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever I go. So there it is, with all its beautiful purposelessness, and it has become very familiar to me though I do not know "what it is." Or even if it is an "it." Not to be foolish and multiply words, I'll say simply that it seems to me that Zen is the very atmosphere of the Gospels, and the Gospels are bursting with it. It is the proper climate for any monk, no matter what kind of monk he may be. If I could not breathe Zen I would probably die of spiritual asphyxiation.”

“This body is not me.”

“If the bodhisattvas live during a time of armed conflict,”

“Devote the mind to confusion and we know only too well, if we´re honest, that it will become a dark master of confusion, adept in its addictions, subtle and perversely supple in its slaveries. Devote it in meditation to the task of freeing itself from illusion, and we will find that, with time, patience, discipline, and the right training, our mind will begin to unknot itself and know its essential bliss and clarity.”

“Meditation did not relieve me of my anxiety so much as flesh it out. It took my anxious response to the world, about which I felt a lot of confusion and shame, and let me understand it more completely. Perhaps the best way to phrase it is to say that meditation showed me that the other side of anxiety is desire. They exist in relationship to each other, not independently.”

“...when he kneels at other times and prays or meditates or tries to achieve a Big-Picture spiritual understanding of God as he can understand Him, he feels Nothing — not nothing, but”

“As meditation deepens, compulsions, cravings, and fits of emotions begin to lose their power to dictate our behavior. We see clearly that choices are possible: we can say yes, or we can say no.”

“Teaching English is (as professorial jobs go) unusually labor-intensive and draining. To do it well, you have to spend a lot of time coaching students individually on their writing and thinking. Strangely enough, I still had a lot of energy for this student-oriented part of the job. Rather, it was _books_ that no longer interested me, drama and fiction in particular. It was as though a priest, in midcareer, had come to doubt the reality of transubstantiation. I could still engage with poems and expository prose, but most fiction seemed the product of extremities I no longer wished to visit. So many years of Zen training had reiterated, 'Don't get lost in the drama of life,' and here I had to stand around in a classroom defending Oedipus.”

“To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come and clean away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver.”

“People turn to meditation because they want to make good decisions, break bad habits & bounce back better from disappointments.”

“Unlike the West, the “true self” is not created over time but discovered, which is why Daoist and Zen writings may refer to it as “original nature.” Our original nature is a primordial melody, and to hear it, one must silence all the extraneous noise.”

“Why they always look so serious in Yoga? You make serious face like this, you scare away good energy. To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver. Practice tonight at hotel. Not to hurry, not to try too hard. Too serious, you make you sick. You can calling the good energy with a smile.”

“Silence is not always peace. Sometimes, it is the place where truth is waiting to be heard.”

“By being submerged again and again, one progressively takes upon himself or herself the scent, we could say, of the perfume of Presence. This happens, though one is often not aware; others may notice this, even when the one on this path of submerging is not aware of how subtly he or she is taking on the likeness of loving Beingness. Indeed, one becomes less aware of changes through meditation the more this process continues, becoming less attached to results and less self-conscious about his or her spiritual practice. One may even come to think of meditation as not meditation, rather simply going through a process, for example, of sitting quietly and receptively for a time each day.”

“There is nothing passive about mindfulness. One might even say that it expresses a specific kind of passion—a passion for discerning what is subjectively real in every moment. It is a mode of cognition that is, above all, undistracted, accepting, and (ultimately) nonconceptual. Being mindful is not a matter of thinking more clearly about experience; it is the act of experiencing more clearly, including the arising of thoughts themselves. Mindfulness is a vivid awareness of whatever is appearing in one’s mind or body—thoughts, sensations, moods—without grasping at the pleasant or recoiling from the unpleasant.”

“I am not like any of them. I am disillusioned with spirituality. I am far too well-read to devote myself to a cause. Don’t you get it? I don’t have the dedication and can’t submit myself. I am far too intelligent, proud, and egotistical to meditate. I am far too arrogant to relent, far too damaged to commit myself. All I can do is think and philosophise. All I have is the awareness of my condition, my misery.”

“Zen is a present state of mind where one honors the task they are partaking of, even if the task is sitting still and doing nothing. Zen is engrained in the Japanese way of life. You can see it everywhere: when a sushi chef delicately slices a piece of raw fish, when a retired man watches an autumn leaf fall from a tree in the park, when a mother prepares and places a cup of tea before her child. When actions and thoughts are done with mindfulness, being fully present in the moment, the person performing the action or thought gives honor to the food, an idea, a task, a person, etc.”

“The soil in which the meditative mind can begin is the soil of everyday life, the strife, the pain, and the fleeting joy. It must begin there, and bring order, and from there move endlessly. But if you are concerned only with making order, then that very order will bring about its own limitation, and the mind will be its prisoner. In all this movement you must somehow begin from the other end, from the other shore, and not always be concerned with this shore or how to cross the river. You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim. And the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is.”

“Samadhi is the journey from individual to collective consciousness. The steps of Samadhi are the steps towards reaching the collective consciousness. In meditation, the more we radiate love, compassion, peace, harmony and tranquility, the more is our contribution towards the collective consciousness. The more we positively contribute towards the collective consciousness the more is our progress in Samadhi.”

“We think that if we just meditated enough or jogged enough or ate perfect food, everything would be perfect. But from the point of view of someone who is awake, that’s death. Seeking security or perfection, rejoicing in feeling confirmed and whole, self contained and comfortable, is some kind of death. It doesn’t have any fresh air. There’s no room for something to come in and interrupt all that. We are killing the moment by controlling our experience.”

“What you are looking for is already in you...You already are everything you are seeking.”

“But before examining this point [the third Meditation: 'the Existence of God'] more carefully and investigating other truths which may be derived from it, I should like to pause here and spend some time in the contemplation of God; to reflect on his attributes, and to gaze with wonder and adoration on the beauty of this immense light, so far as the eye of my darkened intellect can bear it. For just as we believe through faith that the supreme happiness of the next life consists solely in the contemplation of the divine majesty, so experience tells us that this same contemplation, albeit much less perfect, enables us to know the greatest joy of which we are capable of in this life.”

“Everyone is ready for the end of the day, ten-minute group meditation. The meditation is like the iciest beer you have ever
had after a hard day’s work.”

“He showed me a sketch he'd drawn once during meditation. It was an androgynous human figure, standing up, hands clasped in prayer. But this figure had four legs, and no head. Where the head should have been, there was only a wild foliage of ferns and flowers. There was a small, smiling face drawn over the heart.”

“In a world where hate is more profitable than love, anger more valuable than care, and rage the fastest rising stock — be a farmer. Nurture the land. Grow something better.”

“Western civilization places so much emphasis on the idea of hope that we sacrifice the present moment. Hope is for the future. It cannot help us discover joy, peace, or enlightenment in the present moment.”

“And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.”

“Life is a tired miracle — still a miracle.”

“Beachcomber by Stewart Stafford”

“Neuroplasticity means you can forge new paths, healthier, more helpful ones, by intentionally thinking differently, responding more mindfully, and making choices that align with your values.”

“Your brain is a learning machine, constantly rewiring itself based on where you focus, how you react, and what you repeat.”

“Simply noticing isn’t passive. It’s the first active move in rewiring your brain.”

“Embrace the Journey, Not Just the Destination”

“I am both an idealist and a realist, because my heart has hope and my mind is aware.”

“Sometimes healing is not the moment everything changes. Sometimes it is the quiet decision to remain gentle with yourself while change is still unfolding.”

“Be Happy, Don't Tell Anyone (Sonnet)”

“Your happiness doesn't need anybody's stamp of approval.”

“Happily everafter is a disney myth,”

“O modern human, Stop running between yesterday and tomorrow. Come back to the present moment, it is the soul’s local time and the only true reality. Everything else is an illusion and a time difference that disturbs the clarity of your spirit.” —Motea Alsamawi”

“Turn off notifications for a day, log out for a while, go for a walk in the real world, mindfully appreciate the taste of your coffee for a change, unplug.”

“It's a funny world we live in,”

“Let's be a little happier every day.”

“Gratitude opens the heart to the richness already present, and contentment lets us find peace in the simple moments we often overlook.”

“Life's like a gym membership - you don't know your strength until you're thrown into the weight room! So, when life serves up its toughest challenges, put on your superhero cape and show those obstacles who's boss! After all, who knew you had a knack for turning setbacks into comebacks with a side of sass? Keep flexing those resilience muscles, because you never know what feats of strength you'll conquer next. When life throws you a curveball, knock it out with your wit and charm!”

“A heart filled with gratitude leaves no space for bitterness. When we focus on what we have instead of what we lack, we realise that joy is not found in abundance, but in appreciation.”

“Happiness is not found in chasing the next moment but in appreciating the one you are living. Life’s greatest joy is not in reaching the destination, but in learning to dance through the journey.”