Quote

Awareness is not the same as thought. It lies beyond thinking, although it makes no use of thinking, honoring it's value and it's power. Awareness is more like a vessel which can hold and contain our thinking, helping us to see and know our thought as thought rather than getting caught up in them as reality.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

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Jon Kabat-Zinn
Age: 80
Born: 1944
Born: June 5
Molecular Biologist
Physician
Professor
University Teacher
Writer
New York City
New York
Jon Kabat
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More quotes by Jon Kabat-Zinn

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You can bring together the body's various systems to fine tune the body and mind in order to navigate life's ups and downs in a way that minimizes stress and maximizes well-being and satisfaction.
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Mindfulness is so powerful that the fact that it comes out of Buddhism is irrelevant.
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For men and women alike, this journey is a the trajectory between birth and death, a human life lived. No one escapes the adventure. We only work with it differently.
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Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. All ethics and morality, and a sense of interconnectedness, come out of the act of paying attention.
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You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
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In any given moment we are either practicing mindfulness, or defacto, we are practicing mindlessness.
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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.
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All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.
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When experience is viewed in a certain way, it presents nothing but doorways into the soul.
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Most people think that to meditate, I should feel a particular special something, and if I don't, then I must be doing something wrong.
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Societal transformation isn't going to happen in one month, one year, or even one lifetime. But we see it happen person by person in front of us, and we don't have to worry about the future if we're taking care of the present. In some sense, that's the best insurance policy we can have.
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You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.
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Arriving someplace more desirable at some future time is an illusion. This is it.
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Too much of the education system orients students toward becoming better thinkers, but there is almost no focus on our capacity to pay attention and cultivate awareness.
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The funny thing about stopping is that as soon as you do it, here you are.
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There is just this moment. We are not trying to improve or to get anywhere else.
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I was very much a tough New York street kid. I went to a school where you had to learn how to get along with everybody or fight with everybody, and I did my fair share of both.
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So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.
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Mindful parenting is the hardest job on the planet, but it's also one that has the potential for the deepest kinds of satisfactions over the life span, and the greatest feelings of interconnectedness and community and belonging.
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There are certain ways in which I cultivate awareness, both through mindful yoga and taking care of my body and taking time to actually drop as deeply as possible into stillness, into whatever is unfolding in the present moment.
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