Quotes about Tension, Mindbody Relaxation, Change, and Happiness
Quotes From the Book - Make Room for Happiness
When you're tense you tend to do what's familiar and wrong, instead of what's new and right.
Tension is subtle and sometimes you don’t know you’re tense, you just know that everyone around you is annoying.
We hold on to resentments as if they’re precious possessions, instead of letting them go like the poison that they are.
When you’re not in the moment, it feels like you’re surviving life instead of living it.
If dwelling on why you're unhappy was such a great idea, you’d be happy by now.
To feel comfortable in your own skin, you must be in your own skin. That's what it means to be centered.
When you breathe as if you are relaxed, you become relaxed.
When you're tense, it feels as if things are happening to you instead of happening around you.
Aging is not just the passage of time, but the accumulation of tension.
Relaxation sounds like, "That’s a resentment. Let it go." It doesn’t sound like, "I’m resentful, and this is why."
The goal of mindbody relaxation is not to empty your mind. An empty mind isn’t good for anything. The goal is to let go of your tension and enjoy your life.
In mindbody relaxation there is almost nothing new to learn, only something to let go.
A clear mind is not empty – it is open. A quiet mind is not passive – it is efficient.
If you’re not sure about the importance of relaxation, ask yourself this: will more resentments, more fears, and more tension improve your relationships?
Tension makes it hard to love and be loved.
Seize the day by living in the day, instead of reliving yesterday.
In the moment is the only place you can feel content and happy.
The underlying emotion of poor self-esteem is fear.
You don't improve your self-esteem by working harder or trying to be more perfect. That never fills the void of poor self-esteem. You improve your self-esteem by letting go of the fears that undermine your self-esteem.
You can become depressed if you feel that you're trapped in a box that you can't escape from.
Addicts use drugs or alcohol to escape, relax, or reward themselves. In other words, they use them in order to deal with tension.
You don’t recover from addiction by simply stopping using. You recover from addiction by creating a new life where it is easier to not use.
A relaxation session is a safe laboratory in which you can practice letting go of your tension and resentments.
It’s easier to think outside the box when you’re relaxed.
When you’re tense, you mistake action for motion, and do a lot of little things that don’t amount to much.
When you’re in the moment, you don’t waste your energy on what just happened or what might happen. You focus your energy on what is happening.
– Steven M. Melemis. Make Room for Happiness (Modern Therapies, 2008)
Quotes From Others
It seems that our life is all past and future, and that the present is nothing more than an infinitesimal hairline which divides them. From this comes the sensation of ‘having no time,’ of a world that hurries by so rapidly that it is gone before we can enjoy it. But through awakening to the instant, one sees that the reverse is true. It is rather the past and future which are the fleeting illusions, and the present which is eternally real.
– Alan W. Watts. The Way of Zen (Vintage, 1957), p. 199.
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
– Confucius
You will not be punished for your anger – you will be punished by your anger.
– Buddhist Wisdom
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
– The Serenity Prayer
He who knows other men is clever; he who knows himself is wise.
He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty.
– Lao-Tzu. Tao-te-ching. Bk. 1, Chapter 67.
To gain knowledge, add something every day.
To gain wisdom, let go of something every day.
– Lao Tzu. Tao-te-ching.
I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness…One begins by identifying those factors which lead to happiness and those which lead to suffering. Having done this, one then sets about gradually eliminating those factors which lead to suffering and cultivating those which lead to happiness.
– The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. The Art of Happiness (Riverhead Books, 1998), pp. 13, 15.
There is only one path, but everybody must walk it in their own way.
– Traditional wisdom.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world. …
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you. …
Your worst enemy cannot harm you
As much as your thoughts, unguarded.
But once mastered,
No one can help you as much.
– The Buddha. The Sayings of the Buddha: Dhammapada. Translated by Thomas Byron. (Shambhala, 1993).
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
– Mark Twain. Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar.
Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive.
– Bugs Bunny
The trick is what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
– Carlos Castaneda. Journey to Ixtlan (Simon and Schuster, 1972), p. 184.
Life is short and no one knows what the next moment will bring. Open your mind while you have the opportunity.
– Zen Master Dogen. In Jack Kornfield, editor. Teachings of the Buddha: Fukanzazengi. (Shambhala, 1996).
The best is the enemy of the good.
– Voltaire. Philosophical Dictionary, “Dramatic Art.” 1764.
Confucianism…preoccupies itself with conventional knowledge, and under its auspices children are brought up so that their originally wayward and whimsical natures are made to fit the Procrustean bed of the social order…Confucianism presides, then, over the socially necessary task of forcing the original spontaneity of life into the rigid rules of convention. The function of Taoism is to undo the inevitable damage of this discipline.
– Alan W. Watts. The Way of Zen (Vintage, 1957), p. 10.
The witch doctor succeeds for the same reason all the rest of us [doctors] succeed. Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.
– Albert Schweitzer. Quoted in Norman Cousins. Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient (Bantam, 1991), p. 69.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately … and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
– Henry David Thoreau. Walden Pond. “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” 1854 (1817-1862)
Know thy self.
– Over the entrance to the Oracle of Delphi.
The essence of the Buddha’s teachings can be found in two sayings. If possible, you should help others. If that is not possible, at least you should do no harm.
– The Dalai Lama. How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life. Translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins. (Pocket Books, 2002), p. 70.
My religion is kindness.
– The Dalai Lama with Galen Rowell. My Tibet (University of California Press, 1990).
In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
– The Buddha. The Sayings of the Buddha: Dhammapada. Translated by Thomas Byron. (Shambhala, 1993).
When we talk about how we should develop tolerance… we should not misunderstand this to mean that we should just meekly accept whatever is done against us. [Sometimes] the best, the wisest course, might be to simply run away – run miles away!
– The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. The Art of Happiness (Riverhead Books, 1998), p. 258.
You will not be punished for your anger – you will be punished by your anger.
– Buddhist wisdom.
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.
– Attributed to the Buddha
You’ll be amazed – amazed – at how fresh you feel, when you forget everything in your life except what you’re doing right now.
– Bill Cowher, head coach of the Super Bowl XL Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Sports Illustrated Jan. 30, 2006. p. 67.
On a long journey, take small steps.
– Chinese proverb.
Life is not a dress rehearsal.
– Rose Tremain. Sunday Correspondent (London, Dec. 24, 1989).
Men are afraid to forget their own minds, fearing to fall through the void with nothing on which to cling. – Huang-po. Quoted in Alan W. Watts. The Way of Zen (Vintage, 1957), p. 141.
The Buddha was once asked why his followers were so radiant. He replied, “They do not repent the past, nor do they brood over the future. They live in the moment. Therefore they are radiant.” – Walpola Rahula. What The Buddha Taught (Grove, 1974) p. 68.
Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has yet to come.
– The Buddha. In Jack Kornfield, editor. Teachings of the Buddha: Bhhaddekaratta Sutta. (Shambhala, 1996).
Without stirring abroad,
One can know the whole world;
Without looking out the window,
One can grasp the nature of everything.
Without going beyond one's own nature,
One can achieve ultimate wisdom.
– Lao Tzu. Tao-te-ching, bk. 2, ch. 47.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
– Attributed to Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi
When you've understood this scripture, throw it away. If you can't understand this scripture, throw it away. I insist on your freedom.
– Jack Kerouac. The Scripture of the Golden Eternity, ch. 45. (City Lights).
