quotations about meditation
A garment that is double dyed, dipped again and again, will retain the color a great while; so a truth which is the subject of meditation.
MATTHEW HENRY
The Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. Matthew Henry
For the retiring of the mind within itself is the state which is most susceptible of divine influxions; save that it is accompanied in this case with a fervency and elevation (which the ancients noted by fury), and not with a repose and quiet, as it is in the other.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
One practice I rely on all the time is basic meditation which allows me to strip away the noise. Its like the old-fashioned dial on the radio, where you were getting static and then you found that clear, sweet spot on the dial, where the music would come through. That's what meditation is for me. Dialing out the static, the noise, the anxiety, the fear, and coming into a place that's deep and quiet. It's like dropping into a well of inspiration and wisdom.
ELIZABETH LESSER
"What's Possible: An Interview With Elizabeth Lesser", Omega, May 8, 2012
If meditation be the affirmation of the existence of God--and meditation need not be lengthy, one rapid flash of thought is sufficient--to neglect it is practically to deny God.
SABINE BARING-GOULD
The Origin and Development of Religious Belief: Christianity
What harrowing is after sowing, the same is meditation after hearing--it hides the word.
MATTHEW HENRY
The Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. Matthew Henry
Real meditation is not done by us. It is done by our Inner Pilot, the Supreme, who is constantly meditating in and through us. We are just the vessel, and we are allowing Him to fill us with His whole Consciousness.
SRI CHINMOY
Meditation: Man-Perfection in God-Satisfaction
Happy the heart that keeps its twilight hour,
And, in the depths of heavenly peace reclined,
Loves to commune with thoughts of tender power,--
Thoughts that ascend, like angels beautiful,
A shining Jacob's-ladder of the mind!
PAUL H. HAYNE
"Sonnet IX"
Meditation is the life of virtue, as virtue is the life of the soul. It is the conduit by which a happy and delightful communication is maintained between God and the soul; through which the graces and blessings of God descend to the soul, and through which the ardour, the praises, and adoration of the soul, ascend to God.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Man's mind is nurtured by study and meditation.
CICERO
On Duties
Mind without agitation is meditation. Mind in the present moment is meditation. Mind that has no hesitation, no anticipation is meditation. Mind that has come back home, to the source, is meditation. Mind that becomes no mind is meditation.
SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
"What Is Meditation?"
An interval of meditation, serious and grateful, was the best corrective of everything dangerous.
JANE AUSTEN
Persuasion
Meditation is pictured as a way to lift the repression, halt the filtering, de-automate the automating or de-focalize the focalizing.
KEN WILBER
The Atman Project
The old dispute about the relative virtues of the active way and the contemplative way is a spurious one. We require both. They are phases of a single rhythm like the pulsing of the heart, the in-drawing and letting go of breath, the ebb and flow of the tides. So we go deep, deep inwards in meditation to consolidate our vital energy, and then, with greater love and wisdom, we come out into the family, the community, the world.
EKNATH EASWARAN
God Makes the Rivers Flow
Meditation has wonderful healing power. In meditation we are conscious only of the Infinite One and when our thought is wrapped up in that One, our whole being is flooded with new life and strength.
SWAMI PARAMANANDA
attributed, Human Life from Many Angles
If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.
AMIT RAY
Om Chanting & Meditation
Meditation is a silent way of looking at resistance. You're not running away from it -- you're sitting with the resistance ... basically you're trying to follow the resistance. And I think that's very interesting.
RODNEY YEE
Yoga: The Poetry of the Body
I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.
KURT VONNEGUT
Palm Sunday
Meditation develops the capacity to question your mind. Without it, you are at the mercy of every thought, every desire, every wave of emotion.
GENEEN ROTH
Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
Meditation is to the mind what exercise is to the body, it warms and invigorates.
JOHN THORNTON
Maxims and Directions for Youth
Sit still with me in the shade of these green trees, which have no weightier thought than the withering of their leaves when autumn arrives, or the stretching of their many stiff fingers into the cold sky of the passing winter. Sit still with me and meditate on how useless effort is, how alien the will, and on how our very meditation is no more useful than effort, and no more our own than the will. Meditate too on how a life that wants nothing can have no weight in the flux of things, but a life the wants everything can likewise have no weight in the flux of things, since it cannot obtain everything, and to obtain less than everything is not worthy of souls that seek the truth.
FERNANDO PESSOA
The Education of the Stoic