Meditative Quotes

“You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.”
― Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters

“We're all clichés, all following scripts that have been written and played out long before we landed the role.”
― Jonathan Tropper, One Last Thing Before I Go

“if the selflessness of phenomena is analyzed and if this analysis is cultivated, it causes the effect of attaining nirvana. through no other cause does one come to peace.”
― Siddhārtha Gautama

“When you reach a calm and quiet meditative state, that is when you can hear the sound of silence.”
― Stephen Richards, The Ultimate Cosmic Ordering Meditation

“The distant sea, lapping the sandy shore with measured sound; the nearer cries of the donkey-boys; the unusual scenes moving before her like pictures, which she cared not in her laziness to have fully explained before they passed away; the stroll down to the beach to breathe the sea-air, soft and warm on the sandy shore even at the end of November; the great long misty sea-line touching the tender-coloured sky; the white sail of a distant boat turning silver in some pale sunbeam: - it seemed as if she could dream her life away in such luxury of pensiveness, in which she made her present all in all, from not daring to think of the past, or wishing to contemplate the future.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

“Engaging in meditative self-reflection and gaining increased control of inner experiences provides a person with a sense of control over fear and trembling and the chaos of life.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Writing is mental exercise and the preeminent method to train the mind to achieve a desirable state of mental quietude. Meditative writing, a single pointed concentration of mental activity, induces an altered state of consciousness. Writing is studious rumination, a means to converse with our personal muse. Writing entails a period of forced solitude that enables us to meet and conduct a searching conversation with our authentic self. This contemplative dialogue with our true self is transformational. Writing is not a mere act but a journey of the mind into heretofore-unknown frontiers of the self.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“I remember the only time I ever saw my mother cry. I was eating apricot pie.
I remember how much I used to stutter.
I remember the first time I saw television. Lucille Ball was taking ballet lessons.
I remember Aunt Cleora who lived in Hollywood. Every year for Christmas she sent my brother and me a joint present of one book.
I remember a very poor boy who had to wear his sister's blouse to school.
I remember shower curtains with angel fish on them.
I remember very old people when I was very young. Their houses smelled funny.
I remember daydreams of being a singer all alone on a big stage with no scenery, just one spotlight on me, singing my heart out, and moving my audience to total tears of love and affection.
I remember waking up somewhere once and there was a horse staring me in the face.
I remember saying "thank you" in reply to "thank you" and then the other person doesn't know what to say.
I remember how embarrassed I was when other children cried.
I remember one very hot summer day I put ice cubes in my aquarium and all the fish died.
I remember not understanding why people on the other side of the world didn't fall off.”
― Joe Brainard, I Remember

“Aloneness provides an atmosphere of tranquil solemnity and time for meditative contemplation.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Look out from within and observe the words, actions, reactions, and feelings that evolve from you. Release the identity with what you have observed if it creates tension and stress. Surely you will dissolve into effortless being that way.”
― Franklin Gillette, Compatibility: The Code of Harmony for Love and Unity

“How do you keep your emotions so under control, Nicolas? Even when you're doing things that have to bother you?" She glanced up at him to make certain her question hadn't upset him.

"I don't do anything unless I believe it is necessary. If it's necessary then there's no reason for me to be bothered by it. The universe has a natural order. I do my best to flow with it and not try to control things outside of myself. The truth is, control is a myth. You can't control another person or even an event. You can only control yourself. So that's what I do.”
― Christine Feehan, Mind Game

“The meditative eye can look through any single object and see, as through a window, the entire cosmos.”
― Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point

“This agitation is becoming so great that the higher culture can no longer allow its fruits to ripen; it is as if the seasons were following to quickly from one another. From lack of rest, our civilization is ending in a new barbarism. Never have the active, which is to say the restless, people been prized more. Therefore, one of the necessary correctives that must be applied to the character of humanity is a massive strengthening of the contemplative element.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“We spend most of our conscious waking day with our attention on the external environment and functioning in Beta [brain wave state]. [...]

[Fast Beta-wave states are the realm of the conscious mind].
Slow brain-wave states are the realm of the subconscious. [...]

[For example, slower] Alpha waves are created in the creative, imaginative state. [...]

[When your brain is in high Beta it] isn’t in creative mode [nor meditative, nor inspiration mode, nor receptive more]; it’s fixated on survival. [...]

The brain in high Beta can’t easily shift gears into the imaginary realm of Alpha [or deeper into the subconscious]. [...]

If you’re constantly analyzing (I call this “being in analytical mind”), you are in Beta and you’re not able to enter into the subconscious mind. [...]

[Meditation slows down the brain waves and takes you out of Beta state].
Meditation Takes Us from Beta into Alpha and Theta Brain-Wave States. [...]

Meditation Takes Us Beyond Analytical Mind and into the Subconscious. [...]. [It] opens the door between the conscious and subconscious minds. We meditate to enter the operating system of the subconscious, where all of those unwanted habits and behaviors reside, and change them to more productive modes to support us in our lives.”
― Joe Dispenza, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

“Self-observation helps us to refocus within, to balance ourselves and to be in the present moment....”
― Jacqueline Ripstein

“Meditative thoughts assist people escape a vapid fantasy life and reconnect with ultimate reality.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Time stilled. The constant need to spin stilled. Yash watched the scene before him, the power of what he was witnessing overtook his body. Every bit of helplessness that had been dragging at him stilled.
He'd been obsessively practicing the pranayama India had taught him every morning and meditating through the surya namaskar. He'd become addicted to the escape of centering his mind and body as one. That's how this felt, this letting go, this being fully immersed in something out of his control.
It felt good.
Like someone had sliced the ropes tying him up with the sharpest blade. One flick, the cut clean and quick. He was unbound.”
― Sonali Dev, Incense and Sensibility

“Maybe prayer isn't just SOMEthing we can do in certain situations. Maybe it's the BEST thing.”
― Anna Moore Bradfield