Quotes from Jon Kabat-Zinn

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.

It is simply a practical way to be more in touch with the fullness of your being through a systematic process of self-observation, self-inquiry, and mindful action.

You can think of concentration as the capacity of the mind to sustain an unwavering attention on one object of observation.

In attending to the breath with onepointed concentration, everything else falls away—including thoughts, feelings, the outside world. Samadhi is characterized by absorption in stillness and undisturbed peacefulness.

Touching soap bubbles is another lovely metaphor.

from our point of view, as long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter what is wrong.

the highly respected macroeconomist Jeffrey Sachs has recently made an impassioned and well-argued case in his book The Price of Civilization that mindfulness needs to be at the heart of any attempt to resolve the major problems we face as a country and, by implication, as a world.

attention and the awareness that arises from it are the doorway to true education and learning — life-long gifts that keep deepening with use.

But meditation is not just about sitting, either. It is about stopping and being present, that is all.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. THOREAU, Walden

The challenge of mindfulness is to work with the very circumstances that you find yourself in - no matter how unpleasant, how discouraging, how limited, how unending and stuck they may appear to be - and to make sure that you have done everything in your power to use their energies to transform yourself before you decide to cut your losses and move on.

It means that how we relate to all our moments, all our experiences, is a choice.