Breath by Breath Quotes

“The cultivation of mindfulness is ultimately a matter of life and death, not in a scary way, but in the sense that we are always at risk, in every moment, for missing what is deepest and richest in our lives, the texture of the tapestry itself. We might say (every pun intended) that the richness lies right beneath our noses in any and every moment.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“It is good to sit a little longer than you want to so you see the part of your mind that resists practice,”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“It’s actually wonderful to see that you’re nobody and that all the fear you’ve had all your life was in relation to this self you thought you had.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“We see that fear isn’t something we own or have any control over. We’ve been living as if we do, as if we should be able not to feel it. But all we can do is meet it skillfully.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“The act of breathing begins our life as we come out of the womb; in our last moment, when we cease breathing, our life is over. It only makes sense that the breath should also have a profound influence on all the moments in between.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Sometimes, especially when people are new to the practice, they say they’re bored with watching the breathing. I try to use this story to awaken their interest, but occasionally I have to resort to more extreme measures. One new meditator kept coming to interviews with a chronic lament, “The breath is so boring.” Finally I asked him if he’d ever heard of Brooklyn yoga. He said no. I told him to close his mouth tight and close off both nostrils with his fingers. We sat that way for some time until, finally, he let go of his nose and gasped for air. “Was that breath boring?” I said.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“No two breaths are the same; no two moments are the same. Each one is our life. Each one is infinitely deep and complete in itself. The challenge here is to embody and live this awareness, to work with the automatic habits of mind that would turn us into automatons and betray our genius, to walk our own path, as Larry is continually encouraging the reader to do, to find our own way, breath by breath, to taste silence and discover liberation within each and any breath.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“The way to get from point A to point B is really to be at A.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“An ancient teaching from India points to this truth. There was a conference of all the human faculties, all the senses, which in the Indian tradition are six: the five senses plus the mind. As at many meetings, they first had to decide who would be in charge. Sight popped up and put in its bid, creating beautiful images that had everyone enraptured. Smell arose and created powerful and haunting aromas that left everyone tingling with anticipation. But taste could top that, with astounding and delectable flavors from all the world’s cuisines. Hearing created exquisite harmonies that brought everyone to tears, and the body brought on physical sensations that had everyone in ecstasy, and the mind spun out intellectual theories that took on beauty by the depths of the truths they expressed. Along came the breath—not even one of the senses!—and said it wanted to be in charge. All it could present was the simple in-and-out breath, not terribly impressive in the face of everything else. No one even noticed it. The other senses got into a tremendous argument about which one of them would be chosen. The breath in its disappointment began walking away. And the images began to fade, the tastes lost their savor, the sounds diminished. . . . “Wait,” the senses called out. “Come back. You can lead. We need you.” And the breath came back and took its proper place.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“We live in illusion And the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this You see that you are nothing. And being nothing, You are everything. That is all.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Sometimes the breath is very fine, like silk or satin; it enters and exits freely. How wonderful just to be breathing! At other times it is coarse, more like burlap; it fights its way in and out. Sometimes the breath is so deep and smooth that it affects the whole body, relaxing us profoundly. Other times it’s so short and pinched, hurried and agitated, that our minds and bodies are like that, restless and uncomfortable.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Mindfulness is unbiased. It is not for or against anything, just like a mirror, which does not judge what it reflects. Mindfulness has no goal other than the seeing itself. It doesn’t try to add to what’s happening or subtract from it, to improve it in any way.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Mindfulness is often likened to a mirror; it simply reflects what is there. It is not a process of thinking; it is preconceptual, before thought. One can be mindful of thought. There is all the difference in the world between thinking and knowing that thought is happening, as thoughts chase each other through the mind and the process is mirrored back to us.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Basically, though, there is just one teaching—the Four Noble Truths—and all of the Buddha’s other teachings fit within that framework: there is suffering; there is a cause for that suffering; there is an end to it, and there is a means to that end.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“The biggest noisemaker is your ego, your tendency to attach to things as me or mine.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“You may also notice the stillness of the pause between breaths.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Reading has been very different for me ever since, much lighter, with less attachment.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“I have to sound critical just to let people know there is more to life than they have realized.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Silence as I am using the term is a dimension of existence. You can live in it. It is what spiritual life is all about. It is quite literally unfathomable, limitless space permeated by a vast stillness. In a way it is inside us—that is where we seek it—though at some point in our exploration words like inside and outside, all the spatial terms I’ve been forced to use, don’t mean a thing.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“If you sit only when you want to, you will know only the mind that likes to sit.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Try to be mindful, and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool. All kinds of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will clearly see the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go, but you will be still. This is the happiness of the Buddha. —Ajahn Chah”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“You sit and are aware of the breathing, but not in a pinpoint way. Your attention is not at the nostrils or chest or abdomen but, in a much more open way, on the whole body, a panoramic view of the sitting breathing body.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“It’s nothing personal, the universe might say.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“It is unintelligent to try to hold on to things, to freeze them, when we can’t.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“You just give total attention to the movement of energy known as fear, total mindfulness, not separating yourself from it at all, also not identifying with it.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“We’ve heard the content of our mental formations so many times we’re sick of them.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“You see that in a certain sense content doesn’t matter, because whatever it is passes away.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“They might spend years tracing some mental formation back to its source.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“This process—of appropriating everything as me or mine—is constantly going on and has as its whole basis the existence of a self.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

“Actually, however, all the wisdom we need is inside us, where this epic drama is taking place.”
― Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation