Sakyong Mipham > Quotes

“ Many of us are slaves to our minds. Our own mind is our worst enemy. We try to focus, and our mind wanders off. We try to keep stress at bay, but anxiety keeps us awake at night. We try to be good to the people we love, but then we forget them and put ourselves first. And when we want to change our life, we dive into spiritual practice and expect quick results, only to lose focus after the honeymoon has worn off. We return to our state of bewilderment. We're left feeling helpless and discouraged. It seems we all agree that training the body through exercise, diet, and relaxation is a good idea, but why don't we think about training our minds?”
― Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

“Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don't even notice it.”
― Sakyong Mipham

“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“True happiness is always available to us, but first we have to create the environment for it to flourish.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into an Ally

“If we do not push ourselves enough, we do not grow, but if we push ourselves too much, we regress. What is enough will change, depending on where we are and what we are doing. In that sense, the present moment is always some kind of beginning.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“What is really happening in meditation is that we are developing the ability to think when we want to, and to not think when we don’t want to.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“When stress is the basic state of mind, even good things stress us out. We have to learn to let go.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“The wise are balanced, and the foolish are extreme.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“One of my favorite Tibetan sayings is “Even if you’re going to die tomorrow, you can learn something tonight.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into an Ally

“Running and meditation are very personal activities. Therefore they are lonely. This loneliness is one of their best qualities because it strengthens our incentive to motivate ourselves.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“One of my favorite sayings is “If you want to be miserable, think of yourself. If you want to be happy, think of others.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“There is a direct correlation between physical exertion and mental relief.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Throughout life it is inevitable that we will experience both pain and pleasure. Learning how to handle them leads to harmony and happiness. In meditation, if we are unable to handle pain or boredom, then that pain or boredom becomes our master. Then we spend our entire life trying to avoid being bored or feeling pain. However if we can handle our mind, then we know that we can handle boredom and pain.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“I have always found a natural relationship between running and meditation. Running can be a support for meditation, and meditation can be a support for running. Running is a natural form of exercise, for it is simply an extension of walking. When we run, we strengthen our heart, remove stagnant air, revitalize our nervous system, and increase our aerobic capacity. It helps us develop a positive attitude. It creates exertion and stamina and gives us a way to deal with pain. It helps us relax. For many of us, it offers a feeling of freedom. Likewise, meditation is a natural exercise of the mind—an opportunity to strengthen, reinvigorate, and cleanse. Through meditation we can connect with that long-forgotten goodness we all have. It is very powerful to feel that sense of goodness: having confidence and bravery in our innermost being.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“The bones and tendons of the mind are mindfulness and awareness. Mindfulness is the mind’s strength, and awareness is its flexibility. Without these abilities, we cannot function. When we drink a glass of water, drive a car, or have a conversation, we are using mindfulness and awareness.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“The difference between the mind and the body is that no one is surprised to get winded while running to catch the bus. Nobody gets mad at themselves, saying, “I can’t believe I can’t run 26.2 miles!” However, when we become overwhelmed by longer hours at work, more e-mails, or more parenting duties, we become irritable, moody, and unhappy. It doesn’t occur to us that our mind is out of shape. We put more stress on ourselves because we assume we should just be able to handle it all.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Meditate with delight and run with joy.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Beginning a conversation is an act of bravery. When you initiate a conversation, you fearlessly step into the unknown. Will the other person respond to favorably or unfavorably? Will it be a friendly or hostile exchange? There is a feeling of being on the edge. That nanosecond of space and unknowing can be intimidating. It shows your vulnerability. You don't know what is going to happen. You feel quite exposed. There's a chance you'll experience embarrassment. Yet this very feeling is what allows you to connect to the other person.”
― Sakyong Mipham, The Lost Art of Good Conversation: A Mindful Way to Connect with Others and Enrich Everyday Life

“To be gentle is to understand that life is a journey deserving constant attentiveness. Therefore it is gentleness that allows us to finish a marathon, not putting pressure on ourselves to immediately think about the next one. Gentleness is “just doing it” in such a way that we can do it again and again.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Awareness puts us in tune with the elements. This elemental connection is part of being alive. We are too often indoors, unaware of the elements. The elements are not our enemies: we ourselves are made of the elements. When we connect with them, they inspire us and make us stronger, allowing us to communicate with the world in much subtler ways.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Once I was running and there was someone on the treadmill next to me who stopped running to answer a question I asked and flew of the back of the treadmill. Being fully engaged has many benefits.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“We already have what we need—the opportunity to weave the tapestry of happiness every day with the needle and thread of our own mind.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies For Modern Life

“In Tibet, we have a traditional image, the windhorse, which represents a balanced relationship between the wind and the mind. The horse represents wind and movement. On its saddle rides a precious jewel. That jewel is our mind. A jewel is a stone that is clear and reflects light. There is a solid, earthly element to it. You can pick it up in your hand, and at the same time you can see through it. These qualities represent the mind: it is both tangible and translucent. The mind is capable of the highest wisdom. It can experience love and compassion, as well as anger. It can understand history, philosophy, and mathematics—and also remember what’s on the grocery list. The mind is truly like a wish-fulfilling jewel. With an untrained mind, the thought process is said to be like a wild and blind horse: erratic and out of control. We experience the mind as moving all the time—suddenly darting off, thinking about one thing and another, being happy, being sad. If we haven’t trained our mind, the wild horse takes us wherever it wants to go. It’s not carrying a jewel on its back—it’s carrying an impaired rider. The horse itself is crazy, so it is quite a bizarre scene. By observing our own mind in meditation, we can see this dynamic at work. Especially in the beginning stages of meditation, we find it extremely challenging to control our mind. Even if we wish to control it, we have very little power to do so, like the infirm rider. We want to focus on the breathing, but the mind keeps darting off unexpectedly. That is the wild horse. The process of meditation is taming the horse so that it is in our control, while making the mind an expert rider.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Of course, we all go through our own experiences. If we do not push ourselves enough, we do not grow, but if we push ourselves too much, we regress. What is enough will change, depending on where we are and what we are doing. In that sense, the present moment is always some kind of beginning.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“In the modern culture of speed, we seem to not do anything fully. We are half watching television and half using the computer; we are driving while talking on the phone; we have a hard time having even one conversation; when we sit down to eat, we are reading a newspaper and watching television, and even when we watch television, we are flipping through channels. This quality of speed gives life a superficial feeling: we never experience anything fully. We engage ourselves in these activities in order to live a full life, but being speedy”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“In my constant travels, from the highland meadows of Tibet to the tropical rain forest of Brazil to the busy streets of Hong Kong, I’ve learned that you have to be content wherever you are. Otherwise, traveling is exhausting, because you’re always thinking that the next place will be better.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies For Modern Life

“Being aggressive, you can accomplish some things, but with gentleness, you can accomplish all things.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies For Modern Life

“In the beginning of running and of meditation, one of the biggest obstacles is laziness. One kind of laziness is basic slothfulness, in which we are unable to extract ourselves from the television or couch. In this case, just a little bit of exercise can send a message to the body that it is time to move forward. Even putting on workout clothes and beginning to stretch helps bring us out of our sloth. By the same token, sitting down to follow the breath for even five minutes has the power to move us out of laziness. Another form of laziness is that we don’t make time in our busy, speedy life to go for a run or to sit down and practice.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“Articulating and expanding your motivation when you wake up in the morning has the power to change your whole day.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind

“when we are brave enough to be in the present, we have the power to transform the world.”
― Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind