Sylvia Boorstein Quotes

Quotes about:

• Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Buddhist, Acceptance, Mindfulness

  57 Copy quote

• I am thankful that thus far today I have not had any unkind thoughts or said any harsh words or done anything that I regret. However, now I need to get out of bed and so things may become more difficult.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Regret, Bed, Needs

  Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007). “Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart--The Buddhist Path of Kindness”, p.53, Ballantine Books

  28 Copy quote

• The mind is like tofu. It tastes like whatever you marinate it in.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Mind, Tofu, Taste

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• Mindfulness meditation doesn't change life. Life remains as fragile and unpredictable as ever. Meditation changes the heart's capacity to accept life as it is.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Life Changing, Heart, Meditation Practice

  27 Copy quote

• Surrender means wisely accommodating ourselves to what is beyond our control.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Mean, Surrender

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• It is our own pain, and our own desire to be free of it, that alerts us to the suffering of the world. It is our personal discovery that pain can be acknowledged, even held lovingly, that enables us to look at the pain around us unflinchingly and feel compassion being born in us. We need to start with ourselves.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Pain, Compassion, Discovery

  Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007). “Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart--The Buddhist Path of Kindness”, p.84, Ballantine Books

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• Imagine how our lives might be if everyone had even a bit more of the Wisdom that comes from seeing clearly. Suppose people everywhere, simultaneously, stopped what they were doing and paid attention for only as long as it took to recognize their shared humanity. Surely the heartbreak of the world's pain, visible to all, would convert everyone to kindness. What a gift that would be.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Pain, Kindness, Heart

  11 Copy quote

• Spirituality doesn't look like sitting down and meditating. Spirituality looks like folding the towels in a sweet way and talking kindly to the people in the family eve though you've had a rough day.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Spiritual, Sweet, Talking

  "What We Nurture". "On Being" with Krista Tippett, onbeing.org. May 9, 2013.

  20 Copy quote

• Life is painful, suffering is optional.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Suffering, Life Is, Painful

  18 Copy quote

• Being silent for me doesn't require being in a quiet place and it doesnt mean not saying words. It means, "receiving in a balanced, noncombative way what is happening." With or without words, the hope of my heart is that it will be able to relax and acknowledge the truth of my situation with compassion.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Heart, Mean, Compassion

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• Ultimately ... it's not the stories that determine our choices, but the stories that we continue to choose.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Choices, Stories, Determine

  Sylvia Boorstein (2010). “That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist: On Being A Faithful Jew and a Passionate”, p.18, Harper Collins

  16 Copy quote

• Suffering is the demand that experience be different from what it is.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Suffering, Different, Demand

  7 Copy quote

• May I meet each moment fully and meet it as a friend.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  May, Moments

  17 Copy quote

• If I want to free myself from endless cycles of struggling with temptation, I need to keep rediscovering that the pain of the struggle is greater than the pain of the desire. If I develop the habit of restraining myself, I'll enjoy the relief of feeling the desires pass, and I'll remember that desires are not the problem. Feeling pushed around by them is. I'll continue to have desires, of course, because I'm alive, but they'll be more modest in their demands.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Pain, Struggle, Temptation

  Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007). “Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart--The Buddhist Path of Kindness”, p.54, Ballantine Books

  4 Copy quote

• If you take a deep breath and look around, 'Look what's happening to me!' can become 'Look what's happening!' And what's happening? The incredible drama of life is happening. And we're in it!

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Drama, Looks, Life Is

  10 Copy quote

• Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of present experience. It isn't more complicated than that.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Acceptance, Mindfulness, Complicated

  Sylvia Boorstein (1995). “It's easier than you think: the Buddhist way to happiness”, HarperOne

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• We are all dangling in mid-process between what already happened (which is just a memory) and what might happen (which is just an idea). Now is the only time anything happens. When we are awake in our lives, we know what's happening. When we're asleep, we don't see what's right in front of us.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Memories, Ideas, Might

  Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007). “Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart--The Buddhist Path of Kindness”, p.87, Ballantine Books

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• The Buddha taught that suffering is the extra pain in the mind that happens when we feel an anguished imperative to have things be different from how they are. We see it most clearly when our personal situation is painful and we want very much for it to change. It's the wanting very much that hurts so badly, the feeling of "I need this desperately," that paralyzes the mind. The "I" who wants so much feels isolated. Alone.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Hurt, Pain, Feelings

  Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007). “Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart--The Buddhist Path of Kindness”, p.37, Ballantine Books

  4 Copy quote

• When the mind is clear, behavior is always impeccable.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Mind, Behavior, Clear

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• What if someone hurts you with a weapon? Wait. Think it over. You probably feel angry. That's normal. But wasn't it the stick striking your body that hurt you? Can you be angry at the stick? Of course not. Should you be angry at the wielder of the stick? Wouldn't it make more sense to be angry at the hatred in the mind of the stick wielder? If you think about it, isn't the end of hatred in the world what you want most of all? Why, then, would you add to it by giving energy to your anger? After all, it will pass on its own if left alone, especially if you respond to it with compassion.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Hurt, Thinking, Compassion

  Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007). “Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart--The Buddhist Path of Kindness”, p.96, Ballantine Books

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• Mindfulness is attentiveness, moment to moment. What's happening right now and what's coming up in me in response to what's happening right now. Importantly, this is in the service of being able to choose wisely so that I avoid complicating my own life and the lives of others.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Mindfulness, Able, Moments

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• My father . . . used to say, 'I need my anger. It obliges me to take action.' I think my father was partly right. Anger arises, naturally, to signal disturbing situations that might require action. But actions initiated in anger perpetuate suffering. The most effective actions are those conceived in the wisdom of clarity.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Father, Thinking, Suffering

  12 Copy quote

• If we can keep at least a bit of the mind clear about temporality, we can mange complicated, even difficult, times with grace.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Grace, Mind, Difficult Times

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• I know whether or not I am confused most readily by noticing--being mindful of--my capacity for feeling caring concern. ... when I feel myself in caring connection--encouraging, consoling, or appreciating--I feel the twin pleasures of clarity and goodness. It doesn't matter if the connection I feel is to myself or a person I know or people I don't know or even the whole world. The lively impulse of caring is what counts. [p. 20]

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Confused, Caring, People

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• The voice of Thich Nhat Hanh-friendly, patient, steadfast, confident, contemporary, and often witty-seems, to me, an intermediary big brother talking directly to me on every page saying, 'Look! It's right there in you,' the very wisdom that leads to compassion.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Witty, Brother, Compassion

  9 Copy quote

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