52 Mindfulness Quotes For Reflection

Mindfulness is not just a practice, but a way of life that encourages us to be present and fully engaged in the moment. It's about finding serenity amidst the chaos and gaining a deeper understanding of our thoughts and feelings. To support this journey, we've gathered a collection of 52 powerful mindfulness quotes designed to inspire reflection and inner peace. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or new to the concept, these quotes offer timeless wisdom to help you cultivate awareness and embrace the beauty of the present moment. Let these insights guide you toward a more mindful existence.

1. “People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

2. “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” - Thich Nhat Hang

3. “We too should make ourselves empty, that the great soul of the universe may fill us with its breath.” - Lawrence Binyon

4. “As we encounter new experiences with a mindful and wise attention, we discover that one of three things will happen to our new experience: it will go away, it will stay the same, or it will get more intense. whatever happens does not really matter.” - Jack Kornfield

5. “Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.” - Amit Ray

6. “Although social and personal circumstances will play their part in contributing to how an individual suffers, in Buddhist thought blame is seen as a "poison" that will only lead to negative actions and will do nothing to reduce suffering.” - Desmond Biddulph

7. “We long for permanence but everything in the known universe is transient. That’s a fact but one we fight.” - Sharon Salzberg

8. “Two thoughts cannot coexist at the same time: if the clear light of mindfulness is present, there is no room for mental twilight.” - Nyanaponika Thera

9. “Seek and see all the marvels around you. You will get tired of looking at yourself alone, and that fatigue will make you deaf and blind to everything else. - Don Juan” - Carlos Castaneda

10. “Powiedz mi, co mam zrobić, żeby osiągnąć taką mądrość?" Mędrzec patrzy na niego i powiada: "Siadaj." Uczeń siada obok niego i powtarza swoje. "No, powiedz mi, rebe, to co ja mam robić?" Rabin milczy i nie rusza się z zydelka. Siedzą kilka minut w milczeniu. Wreszcie uczeń nie wytrzymuje i pyta "Rebe, czy ja coś źle robię?" Rabin patrzy na niego i odpowiada: "Kiedy ty siedzisz, to siedź. Kiedy ty idziesz, to idź. Ja, kiedy siedzę, to siedzę, a ty już wstałeś i dokądś pędzisz. Ja, kiedy idę, to idę, a ty, kiedy idziesz, to już doszedłeś.” - Krzysztof Mazurek

11. “If someone comes along and shoots an arrow into your heart, it’s fruitless to stand there and yell at the person. It would be much better to turn your attention to the fact that there’s an arrow in your heart...” - Pema Chodron

12. “Patience requires a slowing down, a spaciousness, a sense of ease.” - Allan Lokos

13. “Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.” - Catherynne M. Valente

14. “You cannot control the results, only your actions.” - Allan Lokos

15. “You must know that weather or not you are practicing mental prayer has nothing to do with keeping your lips closed. If, while I am speaking with God, I am fully conscious of doing so, and if this is more real to me than the words I am uttering, then I am combining mental and vocal prayer. I am amazed when people tell me that you are speaking with God by reciting the Paternoster even while you are thinking of worldly things. When you speak with a Lord so great, you should think of Who it is you are addressing and what you yourself are, if only that you may speak to Him with proper respect. How can you address a king with the reverence he deserves unless you are clearly conscious of his position and yours?” - Santa Teresa de Jesús

16. “One doesn't have to be religious to lead a moral life or attain wisdom.” - Allan Lokos

17. “Patience is both the tool for and the result of, our efforts.” - Allan Lokos

18. “All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how. It is out of ignorance that any of us cause suffering, for ourselves or for others” - Sharon Salzberg

19. “Metta is the ability to embrace all parts of ourselves, as well as all parts of the world. Practicing metta illuminates our inner integrity because it relieves us of the need to deny different aspects of ourselves. We can open to everything with the healing force of love. When we feel love, our mind is expansive and open enough to include the entirety of life in full awareness, both its pleasures and its pains, we feel neither betrayed by pain or overcome by it, and thus we can contact that which is undamaged within us regardless of the situation. Metta sees truly that our integrity is inviolate, no matter what our life situation may be.” - Sharon Salzberg

20. “To be mindful entails examining the path we are traveling & making choices that alleviate suffering & bring happiness to ourselves & those around us.” - Allan Lokos

21. “…In this way that he sought to control the very passage of his life, deftly and without forethought, yet precisely and with enormous care. Part of it was to allow what was enormous, what was profound, without limiting it.” - Jesse Ball

22. “If you know how to be happy with the wonders of life that are already there for you to enjoy, you don't need to stress your mind and your body by striving harder and harder, and you don't need to stress this planet by purchasing more and more stuff. The Earth belongs to our children. We have already borrowed too much from it, from them; and the way things have been going, we're not sure we'll be able to give it back to them in decent shape. And who are our children, actually? They are us, because they are our own continuation. So we've been shortchanging our own selves. Much of our modern way of life is permeated by mindless overborrowing. The more we borrow, the more we loser. That's why it's critical that we wake up and see we don't need to do that anymore. What's already available in the here and now is plenty for us to be nourished, to be happy. Only that kind of insight will get us, each one of us, to stop engaging in the compulsive, self-sabotaging behaviors of our species. We need a collective awakening. One Buddha is not enough. All of us have to become Buddhas in order for our planet to have a chance. Fortunately, we have the power to wake up, to touch enlightenment from moment to moment, in our very own ordinary and, yes, busy lives. So let's start right now. Peace is your every breath.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

23. “Meditation is essentially training our attention so that we can be more aware— not only of our own inner workings but also of what’s happening around us in the here & now.” - Sharon Salzberg

24. “Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere, anytime, unobtrusively.” - Sharon Salzberg

25. “A mind set in its ways is wasted. Don't do it.” - Eric Schmidt

26. “We yearn for there to be meaning to our lives, balanced with a sense of inner peace & joy.” - Allan Lokos

27. “Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different from the way they are.” - Allan Lokos

28. “We have a right to decide how we want our bodies to look and feel, but unfortunately we do not exercise these rights. Instead, we tend to drift along, victims of our own ignorance of the fact that we can have what we want, if we are willing to take that first step toward developing the self-discipline to govern our thoughts.” - Holly Mosier

29. “Our culture encourages us to plan every moment and fill our schedules with one activity and obligation after the next, with no time to just be. But the human body and mind require downtime to rejuvenate. I have found my greatest moments of joy and peace just sitting in silence, and then I take that joy and peace with me out into the world.” - Holly Mosier

30. “Through recognizing and realizing the empty essence, instead of being selfish and self-centered, one feels very open and free” - Tsoknyi Rinpoche

31. “Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” - Pema Chodron

32. “Let go of your mind and then be mindful.Close your ears and listen!” - Rumi

33. “Most of us take for granted that time flies, meaning that it passes too quickly. But in the mindful state, time doesn't really pass at all. There is only a single instant of time that keeps renewing itself over and over with infinite variety.” - Deepak Chopra

34. “We may be living past and future lives at the same time we are living this one.” - Doug Dillon

35. “Another thing I've been trying to do on my walks is to know what I'm looking at, when I'm looking at it. I want to be smart. When I walk down the sidewalk I see about a hundred different kinds of bugs and all I do is point at them like a caveman and say 'Ugh, look, a bug,' but I know each one of them must have a different name and a different reason why and how it came to be on the planet, and I don't know any of that stuff.” - Jack Gantos

36. “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.” - Robin Sharma

37. “I don't like phones. You can't be sure people are paying attention to you when you're talking to them.” - Tawni O'Dell

38. “Work done is of more consequence for the future than the foresight of an angel.” - George MacDonald

39. “The greatest gift you can give (yourself or anyone else) is just being present” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

40. “How you refill. Lying there. Something like happiness, just like water, pure and clear pouring in. So good you don’t even welcome it, it runs through you in a bright stream, as if it has been there all along.” - Peter Heller

41. “Peace of mind arrives the moment you come to peace with the contents of your mind.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

42. “In any given situation there will always be more dumb people than smart people. We ain't many!” - Ken Kesey

43. “The Third Precept, to refrain from sexual misconduct, reminds us not to act out of sexual desire in such a way as to cause harm to another... The spirit of this precept asks us to look at the motivation behind our actions. To pay attention in this way allows us, as laypeople, to discover how sexuality can be connected to the heart and how it can be an expression of love, caring, and genuine intimacy. We have almost all been fools at some time in our sexual lives, and we have also used sex to try to touch what is beautiful, to touch another person deeply. Conscious sexuality is an essential part of living a mindful life (86).” - Jack Kornfield

44. “I would like to ofer some exercises that can help us use the Five Precepts to cultivate and strengthen mindfulness. It is best to choose one of these exercises and work with it meticulously for a week. Then examine the results and choose another for a subsequent week. These practices can help us understand and find ways to work with each precept. 1. Refrain from killing: reverence for life. Undertake for one week to purposefully bring no harm in thought, word, or deed to any living creature. Particularly, become aware of any living beings in your world (people, animals, even plants) whom you ignore, and cultivate a sense of care and reverence for them too.2. Refraining from stealing: care with material goods. Undertake for one week to act on every single thought of generosity that arises spontaneously in your heart.3. Refraining from sexual misconduct: conscious sexuality. Undertake for one week to observe meticulously how often sexual feelings arise in your consciousness. Each time, note what particular mind states you find associated with them such as love, tension, compulsion, caring, loneliness, desire for communication, greed, pleasure, agression, and so forth.4. Refraining from false speech: speech from the heart. Undertake for one week not to gossip (positively or negatively) or speak about anyone you know who is not present with you (any third party).5. Refraining from intoxicants to the point of heedlessness. Undertake for one week or one month to refrain from all intoxicants and addictive substances (such as wine, marijuana, even cigarettes and/or caffeine if you wish). Observe the impulses to use these, and become aware of what is going on in the heart and mind at the time of those impulses (88-89).” - Jack Kornfield

45. “On the topic of exercise, "It's just as important as brushing your teeth everyday, more important than watching TV or reading online or answering email. Make time for something so crucial to a good life.” - Leo Babauta

46. “When we infuse our actions with a focus on God and on the many blessings we receive in even the most mundane moments of our lives, we create sacred rituals that bring a sense of holiness, a sense of wholeness, to what we do and who we are. Like the Eucharistic feast that nourishes our heart and soul, every meal we eat with mindfulness[,] each bite we take with gratitude, has the power to transform us inside and out, for all time.” - Mary DeTurris Poust

47. “So often, even when we stop to say a blessing before a meal, we’re mentally preparing to spoon some pasta or potatoes onto our plates. We’re not usually focused on the present moment, simply placing ourselves before our food and entering into the still, slow space where eating is done for eating’s sake and not something we do simply to get to the next thing on our list.” - Mary DeTurris Poust

48. “I do not think either virginity or old age contemptible, and some of the shrewdest minds I have met inhabited the bodies of old maids.” - C.S. Lewis

49. “In meditation we discover our inherent restlessness. Sometimes we get up and leave. Sometimes we sit there but our bodies wiggle and squirm and our minds go far away. This can be so uncomfortable that we feel’s it’s impossible to stay. Yet this feeling can teach us not just about ourselves but what it is to be human…we really don’t want to stay with the nakedness of our present experience. It goes against the grain to stay present. These are the times when only gentleness and a sense of humor can give us the strength to settle down…so whenever we wander off, we gently encourage ourselves to “stay” and settle down. Are we experiencing restlessness? Stay! Are fear and loathing out of control? Stay! Aching knees and throbbing back? Stay! What’s for lunch? Stay! I can’t stand this another minute! Stay!” - Pema Chodron

50. “Am I crazy?" she asked. "I feel like I am sometimes." "Maybe," he said, rubbing her forehead. "But don't worry about it. You need to be a little bit crazy. Crazy is the price you pay for having an imagination. It's your superpower. Tapping into the dream. It's a good thing not a bad thing.” - Ruth Ozeki

51. “We live in an incredibly dynamic universe that gives us what we wish for, like a waking dream” - Cynthia Sue Larson

52. “[Some scientific] experiments…tell us that what we consider the objective world depends in some measure on our own conscious processes. There is no fixed eternal reality……… true understanding is not to be achieved with the rational mind.” - Larry Dossey