Photo Essay: Meditation and Words of Inspiration
1. We could say that meditation doesnt have a reason or doesnt have a purpose. In this respect its unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we dont do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. Alan Watts Photo by iandeth
2. Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books. William Cowper Photo by mrhayata
3. Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace. The Bhagavad Gita Photo by vramak
4. Every moment there is a possibility to be total. Whatsoever you are doing, be absorbed in it so utterly that the mind thinks nothing, is just there, is just a presence. And more and more totality will be coming. And the taste of totality will make you more and more capable of being total. And try to see when you are not total. Those are the moments which have to be dropped slowly, slowly. When you are not total, whenever you are in the headthinking, brooding, calculating, cunning, cleveryou are not total. Slowly, slowly slip out of those moments. It is just an old habit. Habits die hard. But they die certainlyif one persists, they die. Osho Photo by gtall1
5. Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. Buddha Photo my mtungate
6. Whatever forms of meditation you practice, the most important point is to apply mindfulness continuously, and make a sustained effort. It is unrealistic to expect results from meditation within a short period of time. What is required is continuous sustained effort. Dalai Lama Photo by juandesant
7. Whatsoever experience comes to you, let it happen, and then go on dropping it. Go on cleaning your mind continuously; go on dying to the past so you remain in the present, herenow, as if just born, just a babe. Osho Photo by il_morta
8. You are never alone or helpless. The force that guides the stars guides you too. Shrii Shrii Anandamurti Photo by peterme
9. As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves. Mahatma Gandhi Photo by iandeth
10. This is universal. Yo! u sit an d observe your breath. You cant say this is Hindu breath or Christian breath or Muslim breath. Charles Johnson Phot by mykaul
11. Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, God, I love you and looked to the sky and really meant it. I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other. To the children and the innocent its all the same. Jack Kerouac Photo by Sarah Gossett
12. I cannot tell if what the world considers happiness is happiness or not. All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it, I see them carried away headlong, grim and obsessed, in the general onrush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or to change their direction. All the while they claim to be just on the point of attaining happiness. Chuang-tzu Photo by mudeth
13. The heart Sutra teaches that form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. Many people dont know what that meanseven some long time students of meditation. But there is a very easy way to see this in our every day lives. For example, here is a wooden chair. It is brown. You sit in the chair, and it holds you up. You can place things on it. B! ut then you light the chair on fire, then leave. When you come back later, the chair is no longer there! This thing that seemed so solid and strong and real is now just a pile of cinder and ash which the wind blows around. This example shows how the chair is empty: It has no independent existence. Over a long or short time, the chair will eventually change and become something other than it appears. So, the brown chair is complete emptiness. But though it always has the quality of emptiness, this emptiness is form: you can sit in the chair, and it will hold you up. Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. Zen Master Seun Sahn Photo by spisharam
14. Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you Sheng-yen Photo by bulinna
15. Develop the mind of equilibrium.
You will always be getting praise and blame,
but do not let either affect the poise of the mind:
follow the calmness, the absence of pride. Sutta Nipata Photo by nasrulekrum
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