Mindfulness Meditation Quotes

“Two monks were once travelling together down a wet and muddy road. The rain was torrential, making it almost impossible to walk along the path. As the two men were trudging along, a beautiful girl dressed in silk appeared. She was unable to cross the path and looked distressed.

“Let me help you”, said the older monk. He picked her up and carried her over the mud. His younger male companion did not utter a word that night until they reached their lodging temple. Then after hours of restrained conversation, the younger monk exclaimed: “We monks do not touch females; it is too tempting for us and can create a bad outcome”. The older monk looked into the younger monks eyes and said, “I left the girl on the road. Are you still carrying her?”

This ancient Zen story illustrates beautifully how so many of us are trapped in the habit of constantly “re-living” the past in our minds, thus dishonouring the present moment. The young monk wasted hours distressing himself with judgment, speculation, anxiety, resentment and ultimately self-perpetuated unhappiness as a direct result of not being mindful.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“The beauty of mindful-life-breath meditation is that you are not restricted to having to sit in the lotus position to be present. Whether you are on a busy train, driving a car or walking down a crowded high-street, you can easily remind yourself to focus on your breathing. Appreciate the subtle sensation of oxygen flowing in and out of your nostrils.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“When we make a decision to honour our inner peace and allow it to blossom, we feel drawn to create peace in our external environment.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“The University Student who accessed Joy

I once asked several university students at a mindfulness workshop why they were so stressed. Below is a conversation I had with a young student:

“Why do you get yourself so stressed out?”

“Because I have so much work to do in order to pass my masters degree”, replied the student.

“Is the degree important to you?”

“Of course it’s important. If I pass, I’ll have the chance to work for a law firm and eventually become a junior partner”.

“Why do you want to become a junior partner?”

“So that I can work my way up the ladder, have more influence and earn a lot of money”.

“Why do you want to have a lot of influence and earn a lot of money?” I asked.

“If I have a lot of money and influence, I will have enough financial muscle to provide everything for my future wife and children.”

“Do you have your own family yet?”

“Not at the moment. I’m single but I want to prepare myself”, the student replied.

“So, why do you want a partner and children?” “Because, I’ll feel complete and satisfied”, the student replied.

“Do you mean that you will feel happier if you have all of these things?”

“Yeah, that’s it! I want to be happy and feel good about myself. I want happiness”.

“Why don’t you just decide to be happy right now rather than spending most of your time desperately hoping to find happiness in something that hasn’t happened yet? You can still create your own reality and meet your dream partner but you can start to feel happy now before you meet her”.

This conversation helped the student to see the futility of booking appointments in the future to be happy, when he could consciously make that choice in the present moment and also that he would have a much better chance of attracting his dream career and partner if he was vibrating joy in the present moment.

The wonderful realization of mindful living is that we do not need an excuse to be happy and serene. Being joyful comes as a result of being mindful. Nothing more is required from us apart from honouring the nowness of life. What a startling revelation!!”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“Let go of fighting your habits. Simply be present and observe their patterns. This will help you to break free until the negative patterns eventually subside.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“Unhappiness is a warped and distorted perception of reality. When a man says he is unhappy with his life and gives a written list of why he is dissatisfied, he has given a frank account of the state of his mind. If his mind is neglected and starved from stillness of thought, the nature of his thinking will reflect turbulence, anxiety and a lack of fulfilment.
However, when he is able to transcend thought, by being the observer (the witness) of his thinking and can take control of his mind, tranquility begins to flow through him. He is no longer a slave to his mental concepts, distinctions and limiting beliefs.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“The most efficient way to transcend unsettling thoughts is through the life breath. When we bring our full attention to the life breath, it becomes a gateway to access a deeper and higher level of awareness. We can see our aggressive and disturbing thoughts for what they really are: shallow, short-lived, frequently wrong and at times, comical. Therefore, pay attention to your breathing as often as possible. This is the bedrock to inner peace and tranquility.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“Mindfulness does not erase negative memories; it 'transcends' them giving us back our deepest power which resides in our hearts.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“. Inspiration originally meant “being in spirit”, indicating that when we are inspired we are connected to a higher domain of pure awareness and pure consciousness. True inspiration can only flow through us when we are anchored in the present moment.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“It will be increasingly difficult to be of maximum service to the world if we cannot or will not be open-minded and understanding towards people who might “appear” to be different from ourselves. When we can love someone who is not like us, we are living mindfully.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“When we truly forgive in our hearts, not only do we purify ourselves from the heavy burdens of negative karma but we begin to create a new space for positive energy to enter this world. When we forgive, we are no longer chained to the negative actions we have created in the past.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“Remember that if you do not put your own well-being first you cannot love yourself and thus, you cannot truly love and be compassionate towards others.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“Through mindfully practising love and compassion we are able to heal our hearts and minds from our hurt and suffering, thus bringing harmony into this world. The more we are open to love, the easier it is to share kindness with all living creatures.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“The key to accessing love, joy, peace and compassion is to be free from the dominant state of compulsive thinking. Once we are able to flow into mindfulness and still our thoughts, happiness manifests.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“The most efficient way to transcend unsettling thoughts is through the life breath. When we bring our full attention to the life breath, it becomes a gateway to access a deeper and higher level of awareness.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“Anxiety and stress-related mental dysfunction is the plague of modern-day society. Millions of people are tormented by anxious thinking and the consequent distress this brings, irrespective of whether they live in a mansion or a bed-sit or whether they earn millions or are living on the breadline. This would indicate that external circumstances cannot prevent or cause pathological anxiety or free people from negative emotions.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“One of the greatest challenges facing humanity is that of being able to live with one another in a peaceful and civilized way. We all have our individual uniqueness and perceptions of how we believe the world ought to function. This creates conflict unless there is a deeper realization in the collective consciousness and an understanding that most human desires desecrate the beauty of the nowness of life.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“The evidence of grave emotional and mental suffering is clear to see in the growing number of mental health units, “re-habs” and overflowing psychiatric wards as people try to find relief in compulsive drinking, drug abuse, gambling, over-eating, under-eating, chasing prestige, hoarding money, “retail therapy” and over-indulging in pornography and sex.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“Most human beings wish to be happy and healthy. This universal realization is painfully obvious and yet is overlooked due to its simplicity. We all naturally desire to feel free on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. We wish to feel joyful, abundant, serene and blissful. This desire is ultimately grounded in a higher human nature.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

“We are essentially pure consciousness, which perceives the material universe through our own awareness.”
― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life