Emptiness Quotes

“The most helpful use of karma is not as a rearview mirror but as a tool to navigate going forward.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“Buddhism is not particularly concerned with beliefs, because beliefs don’t liberate us. The Buddha was interested in having us develop understanding to lead us out of suffering.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“William James said, “When I search for my self, all I can find is a funny feeling at the back of my throat.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“Excessive self-concern is, of course, not a new phenomenon. It has always been a destructive aspect of human nature.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“things”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“Sayadaw U Pandita, one of the foremost recent masters of vipassana meditation, was a Burmese master skilled in the “noting practice” of Mahasi Sayadaw. The practitioner focuses attention on psychophysical phenomena by observing them and noting “seeing, seeing,” “hearing, hearing,” and so forth. During a silent retreat, U Pandita was meeting with a student who was complaining, in a mild way, of some of the mental and physical hardships she was experiencing. The Sayadaw responded, “What do you want, different objects to note?” The Sayadaw wanted the student to understand that mindfulness, like buddha nature, does not care what objects the sense consciousness reveals. What is important is the awareness or mindfulness itself.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“The aim of all the Buddha’s teachings is to convey a path out of suffering in all its many forms and into the greatest possible freedom, which he called nibbāna. The Buddhist path is different for each person, but there is a common trajectory for most of us, a series of steps in the seeing of emptiness and an accompanying series of releases. It is these insights and the resultant freedom that I do my best to describe in this book.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“The body was birthed and lives its own physical life according to its own physical laws.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“the sense of self is very good at appearing to be reformed while merely finding subtler places to take a new birth.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“In truth the keys that unlock the mysteries of science also unlock the mysteries of spirit.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“Mind is the indivisible unity of emptiness and cognizance.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“At any rate, let us use as a working definition of awareness “the broad field or space of consciousness within which individual objects are known.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“Awareness is the light at the heart of sentient life.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“For one who is free from views there are no ties; but those who grasp after views and philosophical opinions, they wander about in the world annoying people.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“All Buddhist teachings are simply tools for those who find them useful.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“Without the burden of self, the mind is clear and the heart is open.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“Intention, or karma, is our only reliable rudder in the vast ocean of uncontrollable events that we call life.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“Buddhism considers the law of karma to be simply another natural law of the universe, as universal as the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators

“By repeating “I” and “mine,” and describing ourselves as being a certain way, we’ve come to believe that something real is being pointed to that isn’t actually there.”
― Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators