Jon Kabat-Zinn · 304 pages
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“You might be tempted to avoid the messiness of daily living for the tranquility of stillness and peacefulness. This of course would be an attachment to stillness, and like any strong attachment, it leads to delusion. It arrests development and short-circuits the cultivation of wisdom.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Perhaps the most "spiritual" thing any of us can do is simply to look through our own eyes, see with eyes of wholeness, and act with integrity and kindness.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Life on earth is a whole, yet it expresses itself in unique time-bound bodies, microscopic or visible, plant or animal, extinct or living. So there can be no one place to be. There can be no one way to be, no one way to practice, no one way to learn, no one way to love, no one way to grow or to heal, no one way to live, no one way to feel, no one thing to know or be known. The particulars count.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them, in the intrinsic stickiness of wanting, of liking and disliking.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“If we hope to go anywhere or develop ourselves in any way, we can only step from where we are standing. If we don't really know where we are standing... We may only go in circles...”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them.... Without knowing it, we are coloring everything, putting our spin on it all.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Intelligence is the door to freedom and alert attention is the mother of intelligence.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Just watch this moment, without trying to change it at all. What is happening? What do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear?”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“We must be willing to encounter darkness and despair when they come up and face them, over and over again if need be, without running away or numbing ourselves in the thousands of ways we conjure up to avoid the unavoidable.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Practice sharing the fullness of your being, your best self, your enthusiasm, your vitality, your spirit, your trust, your openness, above all, your presence. Share it with yourself, with your family, with the world.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Make a list of what is really important to you. Embody it.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is, and allow yourself to be exactly as you are.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“From the perspective of meditation, every state is a special state, every moment a special moment.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“At the deepest level, there is no giver, no gift, and no recipient... only the universe rearranging itself.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“One practical way to do this is to look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Concentration is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice. Your mindfulness will only be as robust as the capacity of your mind to be calm and stable. Without calmness, the mirror of mindfulness will have an agitated and choppy surface and will not be able to reflect things with any accuracy.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“If you stop trying to make yourself more than you are, out of fear that you are less than you are, whoever you really are will be a lot lighter and happier and easier to live with, too.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them, in the intrinsic stickiness of wanting, of liking and disliking. It's akin to letting your palm open to unhand something you have been holding on to.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“To allow ourselves to be truly in touch with where we already are, no matter where that is, we have got to pause in our experience long enough to let the present moment sink in; long enough to actually feel the present moment, to see it in its fullness, to hold it in awareness and thereby come to know and understand it better.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“Guess what? When it comes right down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that’s what’s on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, how are you going to handle it? In other words, “Now what?”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“See for yourself whether letting go when a part of you really wants to hold on doesn't bring a deeper satisfaction than clinging.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
“The only way you can do anything of value is to have the effort come out of non-doing and to let go of caring whether it will be of use or not. Otherwise, self-involvement and greediness can sneak in and distort your relationship to the work, or the work itself, so that it is off in some way, biased, impure, and ultimately not completely satisfying, even if it is good.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, quote from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Born place: in The United States
Born date June 5, 1944
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“Welcome to Sanctuary, my home and the focus of the Imperials, whom I serve and direct. This is an island of force in Free Alaska, of the planet Earth, and the system of mankind.
We are those who wage eternal war against tyranny. We are those who choose death over submission. Freedom over oppression. And honor always.
Choose our values, and you will have found a friend. Choose to control a free spirit and we will control you. Decide for others and we will decide for you.
Use force against the vulnerable and our force will render you helpless. Practice coercion and we will oppress you.
Bring strife to mankind and we will bring you war!
Now is the time for your misgivings and complaints. Now is the time for you to voice your concerns and your apprehensions. Stand now and speak in freedom. Speak your mind and you will be heard. If you be injured, say now by whom. If you seek redress and your cause be just, I will stand with you. If a wrong can be righted, I will undertake that task. If it is I that have offended, show me my error and I will correct it.
This is also the time for blood, if blood is what you seek. Here you can fight, if only combat will give you satisfaction. Here you can win in trial by ordeal, but here too you can lose. If your cause be as important as life itself to you, it is here you can wager your life. Fairness is intended, but beware that here lies the intent to prevail.|
Your cause, if true, would be better served by reason, for with reason the Imperials can be moved. Force is the resort of passion, but passion may serve evil or good. Here it serves us and we will stand by its consequences even if it takes us all from the Earth.
It is said where you find those who live by the sword you will find those who die by the sword. Look no further. You have found those who make such a choice for their life.
You have found the Imperials. I am their Voice.
Speak for yourself now if you will.”
― William C. Samples, quote from Fe Fi FOE Comes
“...'To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh.'
– Ecclesiastes 12:12”
― quote from New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
“There can have been no doubt in Eleanor's mind as to what was expected of her as a wife. In her day, women were supposed to be chaste both inside and outside marriage, virginity and celibacy being highly prized states. When it came to fornication, women were usually apportioned the blame, because they were the descendants of Eve, who had tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden, with such dire consequences. Women, the Church taught, were the weaker vessel, the gateway to the Devil, and therefore the source of all lechery. St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: "To live with a woman without danger is more difficult than raising the dead to life." Noblewomen, he felt, were the most dangerous so fall. Women were therefore kept firmly in their place in order to prevent them from luring men away from the paths of righteousness.
Promiscuity--and its often inevitable consequence, illicit pregnancy--brought great shame upon a woman and her family, and was punishable by fines, social ostracism, and even, in the case of aristocratic and royal women, execution. Unmarried women who indulged in fornication devalued themselves on the marriage market. In England, women who were sexually experienced were not permitted to accuse men of rape in the King's court. Female adultery was seen as a particularly serious offence, since it jeopardized the laws of inheritance.
Men, however, often indulged in casual sex and adultery with impunity. Because the virtue of high-born women was jealously guarded, many men sought sexual adventures with lower-class women. Prostitution was common and official brothels were licensed and subject to inspection in many areas. There was no effective contraception apart from withdrawal, and the Church frowned upon that anyway: this was why so many aristocratic and royal bastards were born during this period.”
― Alison Weir, quote from Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life
“How do I look?" Amanda asked.
Jack shook his head ruefully as he glanced at her. No one could mistake the remaining flush on her cheeks, or the soft sparkle of her eyes, or her lusciously swollen mouth, for anything other than the results of physical passion. "Like you've been ravished," he said flatly.
She astonished him by smiling. "Hurry, please. I want to go inside my house and consult a looking glass. I've always wanted to know what a ravished woman looks like.”
― Lisa Kleypas, quote from Suddenly You
“You can weave your life so long—only so long,” Coren says to Sybel, “and then a thing in the world out of your control will tug at one vital thread and leave you patternless and subdued.”
― Patricia A. McKillip, quote from The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
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