Quotes About What Meditation Is

#1. And meditation is nothing but enjoying your beautiful aloneness. Celebrating yourself; that's what meditation is all about.

Osho

#2. That's what meditation is. You just sit with yourself.

Daphne Zuniga

#3. If you've ever swum in the ocean, and you go underneath the waves, you know, you're kind of moved by the currents, but you're not being slapped around at the top of the water by the waves. And that's sort of what meditation is like.

Anderson Cooper

#4. To be alone and to be drunk with your own aloneness is what meditation is all about. Be in the world, but don't be of it.

Rajneesh

#5. It feels good. Kinda like when you have to shut your computer down, just sometimes when it goes crazy, you just shut it down and when you turn it on, it's okay again. That's what meditation is to me.

Ellen DeGeneres

#6. When one learns a different way of dealing with the situation, one no longer has to have a purpose. One is not on the way to somewhere. Or rather, one is on the way and one is also at the destination at the same time. That is really what meditation is for.

Chogyam Trungpa

#7. Miss the present and you live in boredom. BE in the present and you will be surprised that there is no boredom at all. Start by looking around a little more like a child. Be a child again! That's what meditation is all about: being a child again - a rebirth, being innocent again, not-knowing.

Rajneesh

#8. Doing a show is very similar to what meditation is supposed to be: being there and being present in that space and time.

Gift Of Gab

#9. Imagine a hot tub for the mind. That is what meditation is; it can bathe your mind in relaxing thoughts.

Eknath Easwaran

#10. The mind is constantly talking. If the inner talk can drop even for a single moment you will be able to have a glimpse of no-mind. That's what meditation is all about. The state of no-mind is the right state. It is your state.

Rajneesh

#11. What is meditation? Meditation is our conscious awareness of something vast and infinite within us. Meditation grants us Peace, Light and Bliss.

Sri Chinmoy

#12. Meditation is not a process of learning how to meditate; it is the very inquiry into what is meditation. To inquire into what is meditation, the mind must free itself from what it has learnt about meditation, and the freeing of the mind from what it has learnt is the beginning of meditation.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

#13. When you meditate, don't think about what is happening. Rather, let your awareness be seated in the tender warmth you feel in your body. If you do this, any meditation practice you do will be fruitful.

Gil Fronsdal

#14. If you want to know what you are here to do, how you can be more loving, or how to get through a difficult situation, my answer is always meditate. The difference between prayer and meditation is that when we pray, we are asking for something, and when we meditate, we are listening to the answer.

James Van Praagh

#15. We are going to alter the structure of our beings and also totally change what we are. This is the possibility and inevitability that meditation offers us.

Frederick Lenz

#16. A willingness to embrace and work with what is lies at the core of all meditation practice.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

#17. Do not base your life on the likings and dislikings or whims of others. What you are in life - whether you enjoy or suffer - it is your own responsibility. Be regular in your meditation and do not postpone for a later date your striving for God consciousness.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

#18. If I may take the risk of defining what a spiritual experience is, it is one in which pure awareness reveals itself to you as the maker of reality - where you suddenly discover through insight or meditation or a freak accident that your essential nature is spiritual, non-material.

Deepak Chopra

#19. Meditation is not about getting out of ourselves or achieving something better. It is about getting in touch with what you already are.

Pema Chodron

#20. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or do in a circumstance unexpected by other people: it is reflection, meditation.

Andrew Roberts

#21. Meditation is not what you do in the morning, that's practice. Meditation is the daily result of that practice.

Harbhajan Singh Yogi

#22. Despite 2000 years of evolution in modern times, we have still not managed to develop the intelligence to create a society that knows what love is. Our society is still not a civilization, it is still primitive and barbaric.

Swami Dhyan Giten

#23. The emphasis in meditation is very much on undistracted awareness: not thinking about things, not analyzing, not getting lost in the story, but just seeing the nature of what is happening in the mind. Careful, accurate observation of the moment's reality is the key to the whole process.

Joseph Goldstein

#24. Many people, including Buddhist monks, spend thousands of hours sitting in what they call meditation. In reality, what they're doing is thinking and ruminating upon their problems.

Frederick Lenz

#25. Metta sees truly that our integrity is inviolate, no matter what our life situation may be. We do not need to fear anything. We are whole: our deepest happiness is intrinsic to the nature of our minds, and it is not damaged through uncertainty and change.

Sharon Salzberg

#26. So what is a good meditator? The one who meditates.

Allan Lokos

#27. Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy.

Lou Reed

#28. Repose is the secret of all contemplation and meditation, the secret of getting in tune with that aspect of life which is the essence of all things. When one is not accustomed to take repose, one does not know what is behind one's being.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

#29. I wouldn't make it through the day without singing. It is my solace and my meditation and my release. It lets me know how I'm processing things, what I'm processing, if I'm out of touch in some area.

Bellamy Young

#30. Through meditation, you can calm the mind and develop what is important to you.

Harbhajan Singh Yogi

#31. For me, first, it's finding quiet in my life - and I do that through yoga and meditation. It's also been a matter of changing the way I eat, because I think what we eat can inform who we are; food is a chemical and a drug to a certain extent.

Mariel Hemingway

#32. What acts as a far more effective circumstance for generating compassion and what, in fact, rouses us from our comfortable meditation seat is actually seeing or hearing others - encountering others directly, not just conceptually in our imagination.

Dalai Lama

#33. The life of meditation and religious study is absolutely no guarantee of peak moments. Most people involved in religious study and meditation are downright bored, and they're as stuck in what they do as everyone else is.

Frederick Lenz

#34. Meditation is, first of all, a tool for surveying our territory so we can know what is going on. With the energy of mindfulness, we can calm things down, understand them, and bring harmony back to the conflicting elements inside us.

Nhat Hanh

#35. Suffering is normal. Pain is normal, it is part of life ... What is its texture, the weight of our suffering? What is its meaning? Begin by touching it, by coming close to it, accepting it: Hello, suffering, I am here with you. I am beside you, one with you, I am you. I am suffering.

A.M. Homes

#36. We are what we think about and meditate on. Look around people! America is a buffet of violence; a total immersion.

Bryant McGill

#37. Meditation is to be aware of what is going on: in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world.

Thich Nhat Hanh

#38. Remember what people used to say about meditation? Now everyone is doing it.

Shirley Maclaine

#39. If you determine your course With force or speed, You miss the way of the dharma. Quietly consider What is right and what is wrong. Receiving all opinions equally, Without haste, wisely, Observe the dharma.

Gautama Buddha

#40. PlayStation 3 is another form of meditation. Come on, when you're on set, all day? That's what I do in my trailer, I just play PlayStation 3.

Steve Zahn

#41. Meditation, then, is not so much a part of this or that particular religion, but rather part of the universal spiritual culture of all humankind
an effort to bring awareness to bear on all aspects of life. It is, in other words, part of what has been called the perennial philosophy.

Ken Wilber

#42. One of the reasons many of us avoid meditation is that we think of it as work - and work we may not do perfectly. What if we didn't have to do it perfectly? What if we didn't have to "do" it at all? What if we could rest - and let God do the rest?

Julia Cameron

#43. You are not what you seem to be. You are one of God's endless dreams in search of wakefulness. Meditation is wakefulness.

Frederick Lenz

#44. Meditation is the way in which we come to feel our basic inseparability from the whole universe, and what that requires is that we shut up.

Alan Watts

#45. Pain is what gives rise to meditation

Haruki Murakami

#46. What is the meaning of life? It is too great a phenomenon to fit into any meaning.

Jaggi Vasudev

#47. The period of meditation is a time when we go back to the source. We go back to what we were before we were born.

Frederick Lenz

#48. It's like, imagine the ripples on top of an ocean. And I'm in a rowboat, reactively dealing with the waves and water coming into my boat. What I need to do is dive into the deeper solace, the calmness beneath the surface.

Mehmet Oz

#49. In the process of meditation, fetters are undone; internal blocks of suffering such as resentment, fear, anger, despair, and hatred are transformed; relationships with humans and nature become easier; freedom and joy can penetrate us. We become aware of what is inside and around us;

Thich Nhat Hanh

#50. Religion exists not because of God or for God; it is because of marriage. Marriage creates so much misery that one has to meditate; meditation is a byproduct. Without marriage, who will bother to meditate? For what? You will be already blissful!

Rajneesh

#51. Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.

Richard Gere

#52. Seek what you know as the highest. It does not matter whether it is going to happen or not - living with a vision itself is a very elevating process.

Jaggi Vasudev

#53. Meditation means keeping one mind. You must understand - what is life? What is death? If you keep one mind, there is no life, no death. Then if you die tomorrow, no problem; if you die in five minutes, no problem.

Seung Sahn

#54. After doing a juice cleanse, I'm motivated to eat healthier and not emotionally. Cleansing is like my meditation. It makes me stop, focus and think about what I'm putting into my body. I'm making a commitment to my health and hitting the reset button.

Salma Hayek

#55. What will carry us into living freedom is not the holding of attention so much as the holding of appreciation.

Adyashanti

#56. You should always feel, no matter how many times you've meditated before, that this is your first meditation. You have no idea what will happen or what won't happen.

Frederick Lenz

#57. Meditation is to the soul what the mirror is to the body.

Newton Gatambia

#58. Real happiness is something most people never know. What we experience in deep meditation, that ecstasy is beyond what human beings call happiness

Frederick Lenz

#59. If you know how to keep yourself pleasant within, irrespective of what is happening around you, Ultimate Liberation cannot be denied to you.

Jaggi Vasudev

#60. The moment you function in the world without being concerned about what is happening to life around you, you are a Criminal.

Jaggi Vasudev

#61. Because all actions and expressions
stem from the mind, it is vital to know the
mind as well as decide in what way we'll use it. Everyone has heard of psychosomatic illness, and most of us acknowledge that psychosomatic sicknesses can and do occur. But what
about psychosomatic wellness?

H.E. Davey

#62. I think [Transcendental Meditation] is what people need. They don't need high minded talk, they need results.

Paul McCartney

#63. The good news is that you don't have to stop thoughts completely to meditate. It takes a long time to stop thought impeccably. What you need is to detach yourself from thought.

Frederick Lenz

#64. Along with my spiritual practices of meditation, affirmative prayer, and visioning, what catalyzes my sense of aliveness is putting those practices into action by being of service to others.

Michael Beckwith

#65. On a whitely cloudy day I get sad, almost afraid,
And I begin to meditate about problems I make up.

Alberto Caeiro

#66. Spiritual dignity says that I don't have to compete with anyone; I don't have to do what my friends do. All I have to do is be myself and be dignified in my meditation and my lifestyle.

Frederick Lenz

#67. All relaxation does is allow the truth to be felt. The mind is cleared, like a dirty window wiped clean, and the magnitude of what we might ordinarily take for granted inspires tears.

Jay Michaelson

#68. Even though there are so many teachings, so many meditations, so many instructions, the basic point of it all is just to learn to be extremely honest and also wholehearted about what exists in your mind - thoughts, emotions bodily sensations, the whole thing that adds up to what we call "me" or "I".

Pema Chodron

#69. The mind is more powerful than anything. So, during the birth I wasn't thinking about the pain. I was in a meditation state. I was concentrating the whole time, thinking, 'Oh my God, it's time. I am going to meet my baby. What is he going to look like?'

Gisele Bundchen

#70. In meditation, it is difficult, if not impossible, for most people to become devoid of all mental thoughts, so what we want to do is fill the mind with those thoughts that induce positive feelings of peace, relaxation or happiness.

Tim McCarthy

#71. Don't hate the arising of thoughts or stop the thoughts that do arise. Simply realize that our original mind, right from the start, is beyond thought, so that no matter what, you never get involved with thoughts. Illuminate original mind, and no other understanding is necessary.

Bankei Yotaku

#72. Meditation is doing what you are doing - whether you are doing formal meditation or child care.

Norman Fischer

#73. Becoming aware of the dearness in what might otherwise be regarded as mundane is the ultimate form of insight.

L.M. Browning

#74. What a miracle, that all we have to do to be beautifully loving creatures is just relax and allow.

Jay Michaelson

#75. My live show is almost like a meditation. An emotional apex - that's what I want it to feel like.

Gallant

#76. The emphasis in tantra is not what you find yourself doing, it's on meditation.

Frederick Lenz

#77. One has to know what it is to be alone, what it is to meditate, what it is to die; and the implications of solitude, of meditation, of death, can be known only by seeking them out. These implications cannot be taught, they must be learned.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

#78. What we are doing is taking an occult energy; it's amplifying in the chakras and the hands. Then we are neutralizing it and spreading it through the being.

Frederick Lenz

#79. Correct meditation means correctly understanding your situation moment by moment - what are you doing now? Only do it! Then, each action is complete; each action is enough. Then no thinking, so each moment I can perceive everything just like this.

Seung Sahn

#80. We don't think about pilgrimage in this country. We don't think about meditation. The idea of taking a six-week walk is totally foreign to most Americans. But it's probably exactly what we need.

Emilio Estevez

#81. In meditation what you are trying to do is simply get rid of your own junk. You are trying to move all the confusion out of your mind, all the heaviness, all the emotional upsets, all the impressions that you have picked up since your last meditation.

Frederick Lenz

#82. Meditation is just being delighted in your own presence ... where you are not doing anything. The moment doing enters, you become tense; anxiety enters immediately. How to do? What to do? How to succeed? How not to fail? You have already moved into the future.

Rajneesh

#83. What value is there to reading one, three, or more chapters of Scripture only to find that after you've finished, you can't recall a thing you've read? It's better to read a small amount of Scripture and meditate on it than to read an extensive section without meditation.

Donald S. Whitney

#84. Mindfulness is the capacity to shine the light of awareness onto what's going on here and now. Mindfulness is the heart of meditation practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh

#85. A primary goal of the spiritual life is to learn to quiet the mind through prayer and meditation, through spiritual practice, so that we can hear what in both Judaism and Christianity, is called the small, still voice within.

Marianne Williamson

#86. But prayer and meditation aren't only in the realm of religion. I'd say neither is God, for that matter, brother Matt. What it's about is finding a peaceful center, even when we think that life is totally whack!

Daniel D. Maurer

#87. We can all learn to conquer hatred through love -drawing on the power released through the practice of meditation to throw all our weight, all our energy, and all our will on the side of what is patient, forgiving, and selfless in ourselves and others.

Eknath Easwaran

#88. Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It's not about Buddhism, but about paying attention. That's what all meditation is, no matter what tradition or particular technique is used.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

#89. Only in the present is your mind free to do what it does best - solve problems.

Bryant McGill

#90. Meditation is not about what's happening, it is about how we're relating to what's happening.

Sharon Salzberg

#91. Reading texts is no substitute for meditation and practicing Zen. If you read a book about a place, and you want to go there, you don't keep reading the book. You have to travel. That's what practice is about. Traveling. Walking the path.

Bill Porter

#92. This is a standard meditation instruction that you can embody in the entirety of your life: do not act out and do not repress. See what happens if you don't do either of those things.

Pema Chodron

#93. If you are willing to experience anything directly and immediately, whether good or bad, joyous or hateful,
you will recognize that what you are running from does not exist,
and what you are running toward is already here.

Gangaji

#94. You are actually doing something. You are getting into this process without making sure that what you're doing is okay. Things are actually taking place, almost of their own accord, very simply and directly. That is meditation.

Chogyam Trungpa

#95. True wisdom is being able to say 'it is what it is' with a smile of celebratory wonder on your face.

Eric Micha'el Leventhal

#96. Meditation practice is neither holding on nor avoiding; it is a settling back into the moment, opening to what is there.

Jack Kornfield

#97. Meditation on a passage of scripture ... led a young boy into a grove of trees to commune with his heavenly Father. That is what opened the heavens in this dispensation

Ezra Taft Benson

#98. Mindfulness meditation should be more than just watching what you are doing. What you really need to watch is your motivation.

Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

#99. When you are free of form and not confused, you are focused. To be free of form externally is 'Zen.' Not to be confused internally is 'meditation.' External Zen and internal meditation, this is what we mean by 'Zen meditation.

Bill Porter

#100. What we need is peace of mind. We can gain that only through the control of our mind.

Mata Amritanandamayi