Running with the Mind of Meditation Quotes

“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“If we do not push ourselves enough, we do not grow, but if we push ourselves too much, we regress. What is enough will change, depending on where we are and what we are doing. In that sense, the present moment is always some kind of beginning.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“What is really happening in meditation is that we are developing the ability to think when we want to, and to not think when we don’t want to.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“The wise are balanced, and the foolish are extreme.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“When stress is the basic state of mind, even good things stress us out. We have to learn to let go.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Running and meditation are very personal activities. Therefore they are lonely. This loneliness is one of their best qualities because it strengthens our incentive to motivate ourselves.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Throughout life it is inevitable that we will experience both pain and pleasure. Learning how to handle them leads to harmony and happiness. In meditation, if we are unable to handle pain or boredom, then that pain or boredom becomes our master. Then we spend our entire life trying to avoid being bored or feeling pain. However if we can handle our mind, then we know that we can handle boredom and pain.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“One of my favorite sayings is “If you want to be miserable, think of yourself. If you want to be happy, think of others.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“There is a direct correlation between physical exertion and mental relief.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“The bones and tendons of the mind are mindfulness and awareness. Mindfulness is the mind’s strength, and awareness is its flexibility. Without these abilities, we cannot function. When we drink a glass of water, drive a car, or have a conversation, we are using mindfulness and awareness.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“I have always found a natural relationship between running and meditation. Running can be a support for meditation, and meditation can be a support for running. Running is a natural form of exercise, for it is simply an extension of walking. When we run, we strengthen our heart, remove stagnant air, revitalize our nervous system, and increase our aerobic capacity. It helps us develop a positive attitude. It creates exertion and stamina and gives us a way to deal with pain. It helps us relax. For many of us, it offers a feeling of freedom. Likewise, meditation is a natural exercise of the mind—an opportunity to strengthen, reinvigorate, and cleanse. Through meditation we can connect with that long-forgotten goodness we all have. It is very powerful to feel that sense of goodness: having confidence and bravery in our innermost being.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Meditate with delight and run with joy.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“The difference between the mind and the body is that no one is surprised to get winded while running to catch the bus. Nobody gets mad at themselves, saying, “I can’t believe I can’t run 26.2 miles!” However, when we become overwhelmed by longer hours at work, more e-mails, or more parenting duties, we become irritable, moody, and unhappy. It doesn’t occur to us that our mind is out of shape. We put more stress on ourselves because we assume we should just be able to handle it all.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“To be gentle is to understand that life is a journey deserving constant attentiveness. Therefore it is gentleness that allows us to finish a marathon, not putting pressure on ourselves to immediately think about the next one. Gentleness is “just doing it” in such a way that we can do it again and again.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Awareness puts us in tune with the elements. This elemental connection is part of being alive. We are too often indoors, unaware of the elements. The elements are not our enemies: we ourselves are made of the elements. When we connect with them, they inspire us and make us stronger, allowing us to communicate with the world in much subtler ways.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Once I was running and there was someone on the treadmill next to me who stopped running to answer a question I asked and flew of the back of the treadmill. Being fully engaged has many benefits.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“In Tibet, we have a traditional image, the windhorse, which represents a balanced relationship between the wind and the mind. The horse represents wind and movement. On its saddle rides a precious jewel. That jewel is our mind. A jewel is a stone that is clear and reflects light. There is a solid, earthly element to it. You can pick it up in your hand, and at the same time you can see through it. These qualities represent the mind: it is both tangible and translucent. The mind is capable of the highest wisdom. It can experience love and compassion, as well as anger. It can understand history, philosophy, and mathematics—and also remember what’s on the grocery list. The mind is truly like a wish-fulfilling jewel. With an untrained mind, the thought process is said to be like a wild and blind horse: erratic and out of control. We experience the mind as moving all the time—suddenly darting off, thinking about one thing and another, being happy, being sad. If we haven’t trained our mind, the wild horse takes us wherever it wants to go. It’s not carrying a jewel on its back—it’s carrying an impaired rider. The horse itself is crazy, so it is quite a bizarre scene. By observing our own mind in meditation, we can see this dynamic at work. Especially in the beginning stages of meditation, we find it extremely challenging to control our mind. Even if we wish to control it, we have very little power to do so, like the infirm rider. We want to focus on the breathing, but the mind keeps darting off unexpectedly. That is the wild horse. The process of meditation is taming the horse so that it is in our control, while making the mind an expert rider.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Of course, we all go through our own experiences. If we do not push ourselves enough, we do not grow, but if we push ourselves too much, we regress. What is enough will change, depending on where we are and what we are doing. In that sense, the present moment is always some kind of beginning.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“In the modern culture of speed, we seem to not do anything fully. We are half watching television and half using the computer; we are driving while talking on the phone; we have a hard time having even one conversation; when we sit down to eat, we are reading a newspaper and watching television, and even when we watch television, we are flipping through channels. This quality of speed gives life a superficial feeling: we never experience anything fully. We engage ourselves in these activities in order to live a full life, but being speedy”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Articulating and expanding your motivation when you wake up in the morning has the power to change your whole day.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“when we are brave enough to be in the present, we have the power to transform the world.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“In the beginning of running and of meditation, one of the biggest obstacles is laziness. One kind of laziness is basic slothfulness, in which we are unable to extract ourselves from the television or couch. In this case, just a little bit of exercise can send a message to the body that it is time to move forward. Even putting on workout clothes and beginning to stretch helps bring us out of our sloth. By the same token, sitting down to follow the breath for even five minutes has the power to move us out of laziness. Another form of laziness is that we don’t make time in our busy, speedy life to go for a run or to sit down and practice.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“The breath is like the waves in the ocean that help circulate the water so that it does not become stagnant.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Meditation and running are essentially addressing these two kinds of pain. Of course, we cannot run all day and all night, and it is difficult to meditate all day and all night. However, when we include these two disciplines in our daily routine, we are making our body and mind more livable.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Gentleness can be developed with simple thoughts. First, appreciate who you are and make friends with yourself. Look at what you can do, and don’t allow what you cannot do to oppress you. Rather, regard it as a future adventure. The practice of meditation allows for this development to take place.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Past events are already gone, and the future is yet to happen. It is only in the present that we can be in our life. The present is the joystick, controlling the moment, and thus the direction our life takes. Being with the breath is the most effective way of being in the present. It completely connects us with reality.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“One of the great sayings in meditation is that we are perfect, but we need a slight adjustment. That slight adjustment comes down to having confidence in our basic goodness. In the windhorse contemplation, we contemplate our basic goodness. When all the plans, worrying, and speed dissolve, when we are just sitting there feeling a deep sense of space and well-being, we are resting in the indescribable feeling of basic goodness. It is “basic” in that this is fundamentally who we are. It is “good” in that we are complete, intact, and whole. An amazing thing about being human is that we can connect with that long-forgotten goodness that we have. It is very powerful to feel that sense of goodness: having confidence and bravery in our innermost being. Even a few moments of sitting and feeling it is healing. After feeling it in ourselves, we begin to see it in everyone and everything. We can see it in a small child. We can see it in an old person. We can see it in a beautiful mountain. We can feel it when we hug someone.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“when we exert ourselves toward positive endeavors, we should not grimace, but rather have the joy of an elephant jumping into a pool of cool water on a hot, dusty day.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“The tiger incorporates meditation and running as a natural part of the daily routine, for these endeavors can bring health of body and mind only if we are consistent in practicing them.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“First you must come to the conclusion that the activity is important. Then you should make it a daily occurrence, in which every day you motivate yourself in a different way.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind