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Meditation Quotes by Jon Kabat-Zinn

67 Meditation quotes by Jon Kabat-Zinn

All Meditation quotes Jon Kabat-Zinn’s page

Jon Kabat‑Zinn describes mindfulness as paying attention to each moment without judging it. He compares meditation to farming, saying the mind needs good soil and not a pushy effort. He also notes that true practice welcomes every feeling, leading to clearer thoughts and kinder actions.

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Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.

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The real meditation practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment to moment.

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You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.

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The real meditation is how you live your life.

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Simply put, mindfulness is moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness.

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Meditation is simply about being yourself and know about who that is.

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Mindfulness is so powerful that the fact that it comes out of Buddhism is irrelevant.

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“As you begin befriending your breath, you see immediately that unawareness is everywhere.”

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Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.

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So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.

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Meditation is really a non-doing. It is the only human endeavor I know of being where you already are.

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From the perspective of meditation, every state is a special state, every moment a special moment.

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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…

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“Meditation means cultivating a non-judging attitude toward what comes up in the mind, come what may.”

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

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One way to look at meditation is as a kind of intrapsychic technology that's been developed over thousands of years by traditions…

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Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full…

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“By grounding yourself in mindfulness early in the morning, you are reminding yourself that things are always changing, that good and bad…

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Meditation had never been tried before in a medical center, so we had no idea whether mainstream Americans would accept a clinic…

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Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It's not about Buddhism, but about paying attention. That's what all…

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“Life only unfolds in moments. The healing power of mindfulness lies in living each of those moments as fully as we can,…

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Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else,…

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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…

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I'll take transformational change any way it comes. One way to look at meditation is as a kind of intrapsychic technology that's…

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Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing something about who that is. It is about coming to realize that you are…

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In its outward manifestation, meditation appears to involve either stopping, by parking the body in a stillness that suspends activity, or giving…

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When we let go of wanting something else to happen in this moment, we are taking a profound step toward being able…

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As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than there is wrong, no matter how ill or how…

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Science is now documenting that it's not the objects of meditation that are important, it's the process of paying attention to them…

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Any really good scientist is as much an artist as a scientist. All the interesting stuff is found on the edge between…

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“Mindfulness has to do with waking up and living in harmony with oneself and with the world. It is examining who we…

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“[L]ive life as if each moment was important, as if each moment counted and could be worked with, even if it was…

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“There is really no natural limit to the practice of loving kindness in meditation or in one’s life. It is an ongoing,…

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“When it comes right down to it, the challenge of mindfulness is to realize that “this is it” Right now is my…

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“We tend to be particularly unaware that we are thinking virtually all the time. The incessant stream of thoughts flowing through our…

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Mindfulness is not about getting anywhere else.

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Most people think that to meditate, I should feel a particular special something, and if I don't, then I must be doing…

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There are a lot of different ways to talk about mindfulness, but what it really means is awareness.

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“Simply put, meditation is the path to clarity, compassion, and a path of wisdom leading to the eradication of suffering.”

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Mindfulness is a way of paying attention, on purpose and non-judgmentally, to what goes on in the present moment in your body,…

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More by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Karma is often wrongly confused with the notion of a fixed destiny. It is more like an accumulation of tendencies that can lock us…

Living in a chronic state of unawareness can cause us to miss much of what is most beautiful and meaningful in our lives.

Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that…

Paying attention and awareness are universal capacities of human beings.

“One practical way to do this is to look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your…

I thought it was a stroke of genius that Hans Selye used the word stress, because it's true that if you don't know how…

“dwell in stillness and to observe without reacting and without judging.”

Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice.

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.

Arriving someplace more desirable at some future time is an illusion. This is it.

“Give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is, and allow yourself to be exactly as you are.”

Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice. You might experiment with using…

Science gave me a cosmic religious feeling, and I would get the same feeling when I was dragged to the Met and the Museum…

Look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them… Without knowing it, we are…

“In fact, even if distraction does alleviate your pain or help to cope with it some of the time, bringing mindfulness to it can…