Joan Halifax

Whether or not enlightenment is possible at the moment of death, the practices that prepare one for this possibility also bring one…

— Joan Halifax

We believe that it takes a strong back and a soft front to face the world.

— Joan Halifax

“Mountain’s realization comes through the details of the breath, mountain appears in each step. Mountain then lives inside our bones, inside our…

— Joan Halifax

When we walk slowly, the world can fully appear. Not only are the creatures not frightened away by our haste or aggression,…

— Joan Halifax

I believe that women and girls today have to partner in a powerful way with men - with their fathers, with their…

— Joan Halifax

No single answer can hold the truth of a good heart.

— Joan Halifax

Kaz came to Switzerland where I was teaching to share with me [Heart Sutra] wondrous insight. There he and I worked on…

— Joan Halifax

Most of us are shrinking in the face of psycho-social and physical poisons, of the toxins of our world. But compassion, the…

— Joan Halifax

Catastrophe is the essence of the spiritual path, a series of breakdowns allowing us to discover the threads that weave all of…

— Joan Halifax

We in the "developed" world seem to have many auditory strategies that insulate us from the presence of silence, simplicity, and solitude.…

— Joan Halifax

When I first was exposed to Buddhism in the mid-1960s, I said it was so practical and utterly pragmatic. That's what attracted…

— Joan Halifax

The Shobogenzo is an enormous work that captures the vastness of Dogen's realization. Kaz, over many years, threaded the beads of these…

— Joan Halifax

“Conceptual knowledge is so valued in our world. Yet in many cultures wisdom is equated not with knowledge but with an open…

— Joan Halifax

Don't ever think compassion is weak. Compassion is about strength.

— Joan Halifax

My work has been in the field of engaged Buddhism. That is my own practice, which began in 1965 that formed the…

— Joan Halifax

“Everybody has a geography that can be used for change that is why we travel to far off places. Whether we know…

— Joan Halifax

Kaz's wilder work captures the great beauty of the human heart and the natural world.

— Joan Halifax

Since we are already Buddhas, happy and suffering Buddhas, wise and confused Buddhas, we are already Buddha.

— Joan Halifax

For me, Buddhism is a psychology and a philosophy that provides a means, upayas, for working with the mind.

— Joan Halifax

Death can come at any moment. You could die this afternoon; you could die tomorrow morning; you could die on your way…

— Joan Halifax

I've worked in the prison system, on death row and maximum security. I did that work for six years. I've worked with…

— Joan Halifax

“Mountains have long been a geography for pilgrimage, place where people have been humbled and strengthened, they are symbols of the sacred…

— Joan Halifax

“This stuff of a past not worthily lived is also medicine.”

— Joan Halifax

When we have disorderly lives, it makes it difficult for our minds to be orderly and for us to be at ease…

— Joan Halifax

All beings, including each one of us, enemy and friend alike, exist in patterns of mutuality, interconnectedness, co-responsibility and ultimately in unity.

— Joan Halifax