The Art of Living: mindful techniques for peaceful living from one of the world’s most revered spiritual leaders

When we can stop the running, all our ancestors can also stop at the same time. With the energy of mindfulness and awakening, we can stop on behalf of all our ancestors. It is not the stopping of a separate self alone, but of a whole lineage.

When you touch impermanence deeply, you touch no self. Impermanence and no self are not two different things. In terms of time, it’s impermanence, and in terms of space, it’s no self, emptiness, interbeing.

Most of the time the problem is that too much thinking is taking place—thinking about yesterday, worrying about tomorrow—and all of this thinking takes us away from ourselves and from the here and now.

Breathing is a kind of celebration, celebrating the fact of being alive, still alive.

EVERY MOMENT IS A DIAMOND

When we know that we are doing our best on the path of relieving suffering, it is possible to be at peace every step along the way.

In your daily life all your thoughts, words, and deeds should be directed toward realizing liberation, enlightenment, and happiness. You do not need to wait until you have come to the end of your path to have these things. As soon as you take a step toward liberation, liberation is already there. Liberation, enlightenment, and happiness are possibl

We need to take time to stop and reflect deeply on our situation to identify what it is we’re craving. And then we have to identify the hook. What is the danger? What is the suffering hidden in it? We’ve got to see all the ways in which running after and craving these things has made us suffer.

Our quality of being determines our quality of doing.

This is the only moment where we can be alive, and we have it!