Richard Payment > Quotes

“Be still. Remember my name. It is the label that is attached to me. It is the one thread that is sewn through this entire story. Your story or my story – it is only the stitching that changes. The want is the thing that drives us. Trust me: I have a story to tell.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders

“Words have not been made to describe the state of meditation. Language allows us to bite around the edges, to nibble and taste, but never to report the essence. But still we try. Like a dream, never reported while it happens. Like an uncaged song, sweet and alive, but flying high. Like the moment of artistic creation, bright and new, unsullied. Meditation is an open window. We sit at the sill. A vista is revealed. There is no judgement, no anticipation, no memory or regret. In meditation we are without judgement. We sit alone, but there is no loneliness.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders

“Sometimes you can love a thing and not even know you love it. It can be so much a part of your life that you just figure everyone loves it as much as you. Your love is nothing special. It is a love that you feel is obvious. It is nothing to hide, natural.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders

“The wind blows, but like a voice, not a storm. A whisper to my ear.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders

“I am remembering something. At first it comes to me as a feeling. It is comforting. It is a place I want to be. It is home. Is it the memory of a dream? It is indistinct, but real. I am holding only a thread. And I do not want to let go.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders

“His youth carried his words and lit the room with an optimism. “India is like our home,” he said, “our spiritual home. Even before we get here there was that feeling.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders

“Above us was a canopy, the stretching arms of cedar and spruce and Douglas fir. We knew to follow in silence, watching our steps, heads bowed. We were in a temple.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders

“I remembered Patel’s words, “Surrender is not giving up, it is worship.” “Show me how to step,” I said, “so that it pleases you. Make me one with you and also this land. Be with me.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders

“It comes back all at once: a woman on a beach, a tree, a wind that calms, a rain that cleanses, but does not wet.”
― Richard Payment, For Want of Wonders