James

“We often think we know things when in fact it's only our imagination taking us further and further away from what is actually happening. What we imagine then seems very real to us. Soon we're caught up in our imaginary longings and loathings. But if you're here - truly present - you realize there's nothing to run from or to go after. You can stay calm...Just be with this moment and see what's going on. (9)”
― Steve Hagen, Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs – A Clear, Engaging Zen Guide for Spiritual Inquiry and Practice

“Meditation begins now, right here. It can't begin someplace else or at some other time. To paraphrase the great Zen master Dogen, "If you want to practice awareness, then practice awareness without delay." If you wish to know a mind that is tranquil and clear, sane and peaceful, you must take it up now. If you wish to free yourself from the frantic television mind that runs our lives, begin with the intention to be present now.

Nobody can bring awareness to your life but you.

Meditation is not a self-help program--a way to better ourselves so we can get what we want. Nor is it a way to relax before jumping back into busyness. It's not something to do once in awhile, either, whenever you happen to feel like it.

Instead, meditation is a practice that saturates your life and in time can be brought into every activity. It is the transformation of mind from bondage to freedom.

In practicing meditation, we go nowhere other than right here where we now stand, where we now sit, where we now live and breathe. In meditation we return to where we already are--this shifting, changing ever-present now.

If you wish to take up meditation, it must be now or never.”
― Steve Hagen, Meditation Now or Never: A Practical Guide to Getting Unstuck and Deepening Your Practice with Simple, Accessible Techniques

“We're never called on to do what hurts. We just do what hurts out of ignorance and habit. Once we see what we're doing, we can stop.”
― Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain & Simple: The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day

“See confusion as confusion. Acknowledge suffering as suffering. Feel pain and sorrow and divisiveness. Experience anger or fear or shock for what they are. But you don't have to think of them as evil - as intrinsically bad, as needing to be destroyed or driven from our midst. On the contrary, they need to be absorbed, healed, made whole. (15)”
― Steve Hagen, Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs – A Clear, Engaging Zen Guide for Spiritual Inquiry and Practice