Contemplative Practice Quotes

“Zazen doesn’t give you something—it’s the complete opposite!”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“The point of the overall meditative path is to have Wakefulness (or Consciousness as Such) transcend and include all state-realms, so it ceases to “black out” or “forget” various changes of state (such as dreaming and deep sleep), and instead recognizes a “constant Consciousness” or ever-present nondual Awareness, the union (and transcendence) of individual finite self and infinite Spirit.”
― Ken Wilber, The Fourth Turning: Imagining the Evolution of an Integral Buddhism

“Samatha meditation is a theologically neutral spiritual practice. No devotion to a deity, guru, or dogma is needed to see remarkable results.”
― Kyle Parton, A Primer on Samatha Meditation

“Contemplative practices have a way of gracefully gerrymandering the borders that once rigidly defined self and other.”
― Kyle Parton

“My fear traveled alongside me as an almost constant companion. It caused me to doubt myself all the time, to hesitate, to second-guess my decisions. Every day, I waged war against my mind and the fear that plagued it. I fought to live a life of my own choosing rather than a life dictated by fear and comfort. I fought the impulse to close, to numb, or to seek some form of escape. Every day, over and over, I chose to see, to stay open, to remain open.”
― Summer Shultz, Stuck Wide Open

“The world is here to surprise us. My most lasting insights have occurred off the [meditation] cushion, not on it.”
― Stephen Batchelor, The Art of Solitude

“We are not what we are not, but when we are still, we know what we are. In the silence, we find ourselves…”
― Eric Overby, Tired Wonder: Beginnings and Endings

“To be contemplative is to be truly intelligent.
It is a lost art. Everyone jumps at their first thoughts, without considering a second thought, or their feelings, which are the short-hand scripts for the mind”
― Mark L Lockwood