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Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions QUOTES

Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions QUOTES

1 " As long as a sense of self-importance rules your being, you will never know lasting peace. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

2 " Being altruistic not only helps us to benefit others, but it is also the most satisfying way to live. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

3 " The ultimate reason for meditating is to transform ourselves in order to be better able to transform the world. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

4 " Another form of laziness is thinking: ‘That’s not for me; it’s beyond my abilities. I’d rather not get involved with it.’ In other words, you give up the race before you reach the starting line. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

5 " Demanding immediate results is an aspect of unsteadiness of mind or laziness. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

6 " The truth is that even if resentment is triggered by an external object, it is not located anywhere else but in our mind. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

7 " Some people might think that the smartest way to guarantee their own well-being is to isolate themselves from others and to work hard at their own happiness, without consideration for what other people are experiencing. They probably assume that if everybody did that, we’d all be happy. But the result would be exactly the opposite: instead of being happy, they would be torn between hope and fear, make their own lives miserable, and ruin the lives of the people around them too. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

8 " It is the only thing we can do. … Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others. And remember that every atom of hate added to this world makes it still more inhospitable. — ETTY HILLESUM29 "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

9 " The ultimate reason for meditating is to transform ourselves in order to be better able to transform the world or, to put it another way, to transform ourselves so we can become better human beings in order to serve others in a wiser and more efficient way. It gives your life the noblest possible meaning. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

10 " Understanding that the essential nature of consciousness is neutral shows us that it is possible to change our mental universe. We can transform the content of our thoughts and experiences. The neutral and luminous background of our consciousness provides us with the space we need to observe mental events rather than being at their mercy. We then also have the space we need to create the conditions necessary to transform these mental events. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

11 " We have come to take the dysfunctional aspect of ourselves for granted without realizing that it is possible to free ourselves from the vicious circle that is exhausting us. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

12 " There is indeed an element of relaxation in meditation, but it is connected with the relief that comes from letting go of hopes and fears, of attachments and the whims of the ego that never stop feeding our inner conflicts. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

13 " Understanding that the essential nature of consciousness is neutral permits us to understand that it is possible to change our mental universe. We can transform the content of our thoughts and experiences. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

14 " Thus, little by little, through training the mind, you can change your habitual way of being. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

15 " Understanding that the essential nature of consciousness is neutral permits us to understand that it is possible to change our mental universe. We can transform the content of our thoughts and experiences. The neutral and luminous background of our consciousness provides us with the space we need to observe mental events, rather than being at their mercy, and then to create the conditions necessary to transform them. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

16 " We expend a lot of effort to improve the external conditions of our lives, but in the end it is always the mind that creates our experience of the world and translates it into well-being or suffering. If we transform our way of perceiving things, we transform the quality of our lives. It is this kind of transformation that is brought about by the form of mind-training known as meditation. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

17 " If we transform our way of perceiving things, we transform the quality of our lives. It is this kind of transformation that is brought about by the form of mindtraining known as meditation. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

18 " Meditation helps us to familiarize ourselves with a clear and accurate way of seeing things and to cultivate wholesome qualities that remain dormant within us unless we make an effort to draw them out. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

19 " From a Buddhist point of view, every being has the potential for enlightenment just as surely, say the traditional texts, as every sesame seed contains oil. "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

20 " Seeking happiness selfishly is the best way there is to make yourself, or anyone else, unhappy. Some people might think that the smartest way to guarantee their own well-being is to isolate themselves from others and to work hard at their own happiness, without consideration for other people. They probably assume that if everybody does that, we’ll all be happy. But the result would be exactly the opposite: instead of being happy, they would be torn between hope and fear, make their own lives miserable and ruin the lives of the people around them as well. In the end, just ‘looking out for number one’ is a losing proposition for everybody. One of the fundamental reasons such an approach is doomed is that the world is not made up of independent entities endowed with intrinsic properties that make them by nature beautiful or ugly, friends or enemies. Things and beings are essentially interdependent and in a constant state of transformation. The very elements that "

― Matthieu Ricard , Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions