Tao Te Ching
Meditation
Most may think of meditation as only a spiritual practice, something tied up exclusively with religion. A better understanding requires a broader view. Universal to almost all religions, meditation also creates a foundation for the reasoning mind, for science, philosophy… for even politics and military strategy. Meditation disrupts thought-chains, the momentum of past training, prejudice, and tradition. It makes creativity possible. This ability to subtly shift the direction of our thinking may be our only real freedom. Without this, our lives become quickly controlled by the propaganda of mass media, instincts based on prehistoric human conditions, confused family and social prejudice.
Meditation without materialism becomes a potent key to unlocking appropriate. innovative and the most successful action free to go beyond the biological, cultural, and conceptual prisons we inherit.
Quotes (84)
“Knowledge is indeed better than blind practice; meditation excels knowledge; surrender of the fruits of action is more esteemed than mediation. Peace immediately follows surrender.”
“Empty your mind of all thoughts... Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.”
“This is no way to meditate... act like a normal person without losing your spiritual nature; where your mind neither settles nor moves about; and where nothing troubles you at any state”
“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.”
“Give a ceremonial bath to your mind!
Light comes from darkness, predicables from the formless, life springs into existence without a visible source, disappears into infinity.”
“The goal of meditation isn’t to control your thoughts, it’s to stop letting them control you.”
“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”
“Once Contemplative Wisdom comes into play, all the virtues may have to yield.”
“Outwardly in the world of good and evil, yet without thoughts stirring the heart—this is meditation.
Inwardly seeing one's own true nature and not being distracted from it—this is meditation.”
“I am unable to wander from place to place as you do but if you could teach me how to meditate while remaining here on my throne in my palace...”
“O fool, know yourself. It is not a matter of meditation, or concentration… the diversity of existence is but a form of thought.”
“When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace... I don't hold on to anything, don't reject anything; nowhere an obstacle or conflict.”
“I am unable to wander from place to place as you do but if you could teach me how to meditate while remaining here on my throne in my palace...”
“know that a sudden comprehension comes when the mind has been purged of all the clutter of conceptual and discriminatory thought-activity.”
“True teachings pacify violent emotions, conflicting thoughts, and still these wave-like disturbances in meditation.”
“The noblest functions of the human soul begin with reflecting on art and meditating on things of beauty. Rather than fixating on fame, fortune, pleasure, and power; it waits for the revelations of truth.”
“There is nothing to abandon or practice, no meditation or post-meditation. Just this.”
“Knowing the phenomenal world is the nature of mind,
Meditation requires no further antidote.”
“Since life is short and the time of death unknown, devote yourselves wholly to meditation. Even at the cost of your life, act wisely and courageously according to your innate insight.”
“You should meditate on death without thinking of anything else, like a mother whose only child has died.”
“This is the time and place to leap beyond the ten thousand emotional entanglements of innumerable kalpas. One contemplation of ten thousand years finally goes beyond all the transitory, and you emerge with spontaneity.”
“Meditate focusing your attention on the pure radiant light. Contemplate the deities of the vast Mandalas in which they (and you) reside. Feel the pride of being divine like them.”
“I neglect God and his angels for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.”
“Study and learn the teachings but become more and more non-sectarian. Follow and learn from teachers but leave them and combine all into one. Meditate and do spiritual practices but don’ think they improve anything.”
“As for zazen, since za (sitting) is the Buddha Mind's sitting at ease, whilst Zen (meditation) is another name for Buddha Mind, the Buddha Mind's sitting at ease is what is meant by zazen. When you are abiding in the Unborn, all the time is zazen; zazen isn't just when you are practicing formal meditation.”
“All the troubles of man come from his not knowing how to sit still.”
“The limitless sky of meditation, the clear moonlight of wisdom; the truth revealed as eternal stillness.”
“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”
“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in eternal awareness or pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”
“I meditate a great deal. If I seem equal to the occasion and ready to face it when it comes, it is because I have thought the matter over a long time before undertaking it.”
“Nothing is more necessary to the culture of the higher sciences, or of the more elevated departments of science, than meditation”
“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.”
“The man of meditation is the man who wastes no time, scatters no energy, misses no opportunity.”
“Once you have embarked on the path of liberation, it is inappropriate to behave in an ordinary way: observe your mind all the time with vigilance and lucidity.”
“A billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.”
“what you are… that is what we must realize. And to this realization Zen practice leads us step by step. This is the aim of Zen.”
“[Meditation cultivates] the state of mind that makes it possible for the dazzling ecstatic insights to become permanent and habitual illuminations… and by getting to know oneself to the point where one won’t be compelled by one’s unconscious to do all the ugly, absurd, self-stultifying things that one so often finds oneself doing.”
“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”
“Meditation isn't something you learn, a technique; you cannot possibly learn from anybody and therefore there is no authority.”
“For a seeker of reality, there is only one meditation—the rigorous refusal to harbor thoughts. To be free from thoughts is itself meditation.”
“While the Gelugpas had to qualify themselves through a long course of studies in one of the monastic universities, the highest qualificatiomn of a Kargyupa consisted in his ability to spend long periods in complete seclusion in caves, hermitages, meditation chambers”
“Chan or Zen—one of the most attractive schools of Buddhism which has drawn the attention of the world to the importance of meditation and spiritual awakening—is an amalgam of Taoism and Buddhism in China.”
“The Buddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna was probably the first to express a similar idea—reality is in itself a relative term which depend on the standpoint of an observer—and base his whole philosophy on it which led to the foundation of Mahayana, the Great Way, which became the main religion of China and was amalgamated with Taoism in the creation of Ch'an or Zen (the meditative school of Buddhism).”
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
“The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are and to let everything go as it goes.”
“Meditation practice is just medicine… sometimes it’s necessary but you should not mistake medicine for food.”
“Meditation could be said to be the Art of Simplicity: simply sitting, simply breathing and simply being.”
“The world of meditation is of extraordinary beauty… all concepts and confusion fall away.”
“Meditation has become quite popular lately, but where it involves mental concentration, I consider this a form of brainwashing that is, if anything, a dangerous road. Zen, I believe is oriented toward escape from the world of ideas. It is foolish to be tied down to things such as the soul and malevolent apparitions that don't exist at all.”
“Youth passes – so does spring. Old age comes – so do winter’s lovely snowscapes… I’m bursting with energy, so I’ll jog or climb Mount Hua. I’m too ill to move, so I’ll enjoy my warm bed and meditate”
“A life of practice is the most rewarding, the most exciting, and the most alive thing you can do. But it's no piece of cake.”
“Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what is the use of seeing?”
“Meditation is not to escape from society, but to come back to ourselves and see what is going on. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. With mindfulness we know what to do and what not to do to help.”
“To meditate means to go home to yourself. Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you, and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you.”
“If we practice meditation, we can inhale all of the elements so that our inner and outer elements are mixed inseparably and our mind pervades everywhere, dissolving into clear space.”
“Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.”
“Meditation is an invitation to notice when we reach our limit and to not get carried away by hope and fear... opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.”
“the distinctions between meditation and the postmeditation experience no longer occur.”
“Meditation in action is… awareness of how we... create our basic perceptions out of our preconceptions… and the games going on do not become big games but simply illusory games.”
“it is absolutely important to make the practice of meditation your source of strength,your source of basic intelligence.”
“All meditation is about getting to know the mind: first, our individual minds, and then the essence of mind itself.”
“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”
“The ultimate goal of meditation is to transform yourself to better transform the world.”
“You can best achieve success at meditation by not pursuing success, and achieving this success may mean caring less about success”
“True buddhist meditation - using any techniques or practices that help transform our habit of thinking that things are solid into the habit of seeing them as compounded, interdependent, and impermanent.”
“The virtue of mindfulness is that it enables people to stop and listen to the music of their lives. It allows them to be immersed in the moments of their day and be seized by them.”
“Self-reflection is the gateway to freedom, grater appreciation and enjoyment. We begin to enjoy spending time with our own mind.”
“the essence of meditation practice is to let go of all your expectations about meditation”
“Everywhere the mind goes, the opportunity for meditation exists. The idea that meditation is something that we only do sitting on a cushion in a particular way or at a particular time has created a lot of confusion… we can recognize awareness anywhere, anytime”
“For years I had lived under the impression that I was the master of my life, the CEO of my own personal brand. But a few hours of meditation were enough to show me that I had hardly any control over myself. I was not the CEO; I was barely the gatekeeper.”
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