Skip to main content

50 Great Meditation Quotes

“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.” ~ Voltaire

Delight in mediation and solitude. Compose yourself, be happy. You are a seeker. ~ Buddha

“Through my love for you, I want to express my love for the whole cosmos, the whole of humanity, and all beings. By living with you, I want to learn to love everyone and all species. If I succeed in loving you, I will be able to love everyone and all species on Earth… This is the real message of love.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Teachings on Love

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ~ Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

“I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” ~ T.S. Eliot

“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

“Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divinity within you.” ~ Amit Ray

Meditation brings wisdom – lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. ~ Buddha

 “The soil in which the meditative mind can begin is the soil of everyday life, the strife, the pain, and the fleeting joy. It must begin there, and bring order, and from there move endlessly. But if you are concerned only with making order, then that very order will bring about its own limitation, and the mind will be its prisoner. In all this movement you must somehow begin from the other end, from the other shore, and not always be concerned with this shore or how to cross the river. You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim. And the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

“Above all, be at ease, be as natural and spacious as possible. Slip quietly out of the noose of your habitual anxious self, release all grasping, and relax into your true nature. Think of your ordinary emotional, thought-ridden self as a block of ice or a slab of butter left out in the sun. If you are feeling hard and cold, let this aggression melt away in the sunlight of your meditation. Let peace work on you and enable you to gather your scattered mind into the mindfulness of Calm Abiding, and awaken in you the awareness and insight of Clear Seeing. And you will find all your negativity disarmed, your aggression dissolved, and your confusion evaporating slowly like mist into the vast and stainless sky of your absolute nature.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

“The act of meditation is being spacious.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

“Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living.” ~ Elizabeth Lesser, The Seeker’s Guide

“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day” ~ Deepack Chopra

“Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere, anytime, unobtrusively.”  ~ Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

 “Meditation needs no results. Meditation can have itself as an end, I meditate without words and on nothingness. What tangles my life is writing.” ~ Hélène Cixous, Coming to Writing and Other Essays

 Meditation is a tool to shake yourself awake. A way to discover what you love. A practice to return yourself to your body when the mind medleys threaten to usurp your sanity.” ~ Geneen Roth, Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything

 “When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation; we will automatically be meditating always. (151)”  ~ Swami Satchidananda, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

 Meditation, then, is bringing the mind home.”  ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

 “Meditation is an essential travel partner on your journey of personal transformation. Meditation connects you with your soul,and this connection gives you access to your intuition, your heartfelt desires, your integrity, and the inspiration to create a life you love.” ~ Sarah McLean

 “Every soul innately yearns for stillness, for a space, a garden where we can till, sow, reap, and rest, and by doing so come to a deeper sense of self and our place in the universe. Silence is not an absence but a presence. Not an emptiness but repletion A filling up.” ~ Anne Leclaire

 “The art of meditation is a way of getting into touch with reality, and the reason for it is that most civilized people are out of touch with reality because they confuse the world as it with the world as they think about it and talk about it and describe it. For on the one hand there is the real world and on the other there is a whole system of symbols about that world which we have in our minds. These are very very useful symbols, all civilization depends on them, but like all good things they have their disadvantages, and the principle disadvantage of symbols is that we confuse them with reality, just as we confuse money with actual wealth.” ~ Alan Wilson Watts

 “Because the development of inner calm & energy happens completely within & isn’t dependent on another person or a particular situation, we begin to feel a resourcefulness and independence that is quite beautiful—and a huge relief.” ~ Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

 “Meditation is a microcosm, a model, a mirror. The skills we practice when we sit are transferable to the rest of our lives.” ~ Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“The difference between magic and meditation methods is the difference between drugs and diet—medicines will do swiftly what diet can only effect slowly, and in critical cases there is no time to wait for the slow processes of dietetics, so it must be either medicines or nothing. Nevertheless, drugs are no substitute for right diet and wholesome regime, and although magic enables a speedy and potent result to be attained, is is only by means of right understanding and right ethics that the position which has been won can be held.” ~ Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“Meditation is a powerful and full study as can effectually taste and employ themselves.” ~ Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

“The seeker after stillness should be told that the stillness is always there. Indeed it is in every man. But he has to learn, first, to let it in and, second, how to do so. The first beginning of this is to remember. The second is to recognize the inward pull. For the rest, the stillness itself will guide and lead him to itself.” ~ Paul Brunton, The Notebooks of Paul Brunton

“Suffering is due to our disconnection with the inner soul. Meditation is establishing that connection.” ~ Amit Ray

“Meditation is like going to the bottom of the sea, where everything is calm and tranquil. On the surface of the sea there may be a multitude of waves but the sea is not affected below. In its deepest depths, the sea is all silence. When we start meditating, first we try to reach our own inner existence, our true existence- that is to say, the bottom of the sea. Then when the waves come from the outside world, we are not affected. Fear, doubt, worry and all the earthly turmoils just wash away, because inside us is solid peace. Thoughts cannot touch us, because our mind is all peace, all silence, all oneness. Like fish in the sea, they jump and swim but leave no mark. When we are in our highest meditation, we feel that we are the sea, and the animals in the sea cannot affect us. We feel that we are the sky, and all the birds flying past cannot affect us. Our mind is the sky and our heart is the infinite sea. This is meditation.” ~ Sri Chinmoy

“Meditation is a mysterious method of self-restoration. It involves “shutting” out the outside world, and by that means sensing the universal “presence” which is, incidentally, absolute perfect peace. It is basically an existential “time-out”—a way to “come up for a breath of air” out of the noisy clutter of the world. But don’t be afraid, there is nothing arcane or supernatural or creepy about the notion of taking a time-out. Ball players do it. Kids do it, when prompted by their parents. Heck, even your computer does it (and sometimes not when you want it to). So, why not you? A meditation can be as simple as taking a series of easy breaths, and slowly, gently counting to ten in your mind.” ~ Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“We must experience the Truth in a direct, practical and real way; this is only possible in the stillness and silence of the mind, and this is achieved by means of meditation.” ~ Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic: A Practical Guide to Gnostic Psychology and Meditation

“Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.” ~ Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine.
~ Buddha

Each human being was given two possibilities: action and contemplation. Both lead to the same place. ~ Paulo Coelho

If we want to save the world, we must have a plan. But no plan will work unless we meditate. ~ Dalai Lama

Suppose you read about a pill that you could take once a day to reduce anxiety and increase your contentment. Would you take it? Suppose further that the pill has a great variety of side effects, all of them good: increased self-esteem, empathy, and trust; it even improves memory. Suppose, finally, that the pill is all natural and costs nothing. Now would you take it? The pill exists. It is meditation. ~ Jonathan Haidt

Meditation is to be aware of what is going on in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Here is my wish for you and every other child, woman, and man on the face of the earth: Spend one week saying only kind, caring things to yourself. Say thank you at least ten times an hour, direct five toward yourself and five to the world at large. Compliment yourself (and others) each time an effort is made. Notice all the wonderful qualities and characteristics about yourself and those around you. One week. You will never go back. And your whole life will be a glorious meditation. ~ Cheri Huber

When you have the constant focus of going within and then acting, your life will unfold in magical ways.  ~ Elizabeth Joy

 Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing about who that is. It is about coming to realize that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely the path that is your life. ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

 Meditation is the action of silence. ~ Krishnamurti

 In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. ~ Lao Tzu

Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God. ~ Diana Robinson

The kind of spirituality I value is one in which you get great joy out of contributing to life, not just sitting and meditating, although meditation is certainly valuable. But from meditation, from the resulting consciousness, I would like to see people in action creating the world they want to live in. ~ Marshall Rosenberg

 If I do not go within, I go without. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

 Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. ~ Alan Watts

Hormonal Imbalance and Meditation

Meditation is a method of calming the mind and focusing the attention inwards. Instead of centering on the outside world you focus on your, feelings, sensations, thoughts, breath, mantra, images, etc., and hook up with the self on a deeper level. There are hundreds of natural ways, through which you can remove the hormonal imbalance.

Practicing meditation leads to improve immune system, fit cardiovascular system and balanced physiology. As we age, production of some hormones declines. The hormone, or endocrine, system is so intricately linked with the nervous system and our cognitive functioning and psychology that the interconnected web of chemical messaging that goes on is nothing short of mind boggling.

Meditation offers a deep absorbing capacity into human consciousness, psychology, and experience. It offers relationship between intellectual states and body physiology; emotional and cognitive processing; and the biologically linked religious experience.

Hormones-and-meditation

Meditation increases gamma wave in the brain.The gamma brain waves are known as “feeling of blessings”. Dr. Amit Ray in the book “Om Chanting and Meditation” suggested the application of Om mantra for developing gamma waves.

Breathing exercises like Ujjayi pranayama, and Khechari mudra is the easiest way of balancing the hormones in the body.

There are many things that can disrupt the harmony of the hormone system. Stress greatly affects hormone balance. Indeed, the stress reaction is an evolutionary, protective hormonal response. In our contemporary world, this still functions, but rather than running from tigers, we run from the clock. By switching into chronic stress mode, elements of our hormone system get altered resulting in many possible imbalances, including adrenal depletion, thyroid over or under function.

Easy ways of eliminating hormonal imbalance

NATURE – has been proven to reduce blood pressure when we experience it, either vicariously or actually. Blood pressure is controlled in part by hormones, and effects many elements of the hormonal system (particularly stress). To use: Open your awareness to the natural forces around you. From ants and birds, to trees and wind. Take some time to recognise the natural world around you.

YOGA – is the ancient rishi practice passed from wizened Himalayan yogi to the Western world. Yoga balances the body/or mind complex and I would question if anything better exists to help balance hormonal function! To use: Find a qualified practitioner who’s classes you enjoy. Attend two to three classes a week to learn the correct alignments and get the most from the practices. Find yourself a yoga book you love reading and drink deep!

MEDITATION – is the art of cultivating mindfulness and increasing awareness. By cultivating calm, we help to balance the mind-body complex and consequently support hormonal balance. To use: Meditation must be practiced to be effective. It is with regular practice only that the results will occur. With practice, meditation can become more fulfilling. Find a good teacher to help you.

COCONUTS – are actually from the grass family, the fruits of which are profoundly great for us. In terms of hormonal health, fresh coconut meat provides the building blocks for various sex hormones, including the anti-ageing hormone DHEA. To use: Eat young green coconuts straight from the nut, or include in smoothies.

UJJAY BREATH Inhalation and exhalation are both done through the nose. The “ocean sound” is created by moving the glottis as air passes in and out. As the throat passage is narrowed so, too, is the airway, the passage of air through which creates a “rushing” sound.

Hormonal Imbalance and Meditation

There are various types of meditation. Popular among them are mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, yoga and vipassana meditation. Meditation techniques vary from silent, guided, sound making, with music etc. However, they can be classified into two broad groups; concentration meditation and open monitoring meditation.

During concentration meditation the yogi focus their attention on a single object. In mindfulness meditation practice, every aspect of experience is welcomed and respected. Mindfulness meditation is also known as insight meditation. The purpose is to increase insight into the true nature of reality.

With concentration practice, you give the attention to a target that keeps you anchored in the present moment. The target can be a physical object, a mantra, prayer, image, or just the breath. You give the mind something steady to focus on and this becomes the object of concentration.

Whatever is used as the object for the concentration, the aim is to keep the mind focused on the selected object as much as you can.

Experiencing the divinity through meditation is the central part of spiritual life. Hormones are chemical messengers secreted by the brain cells or the glands. Endocrine glands are responsible for releasing hormones within the body.

Hormones Meditation and Science

Scientific studies conformed that, when we are in deep meditation and in divine love with God, Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphins are the key hormones generated in the body. Divine love is the most lifting of all human emotions. The main hormones associated with meditations are as follows:

Dopamine stimulates ‘reward circuit’ by triggering an intense sprint of happiness.

Oxytocin is a powerful hormone released during deep meditation. It develops feelings of attachment towards the object of attention.

Vasopressin is another vital hormone in the long-term commitment towards the object of meditation. Vasopressin is released at the later part of the meditation.

Serotonin is known as the well-being chemical. It is important for the feeling of happiness. The pleasant experiences of serotonin have a calming influence throughout the body.

Endorphins are responsible for developing high-feelings of euphoria. If there is pain in the body due to long sitting posture, endorphins are released which gives a pleasant feelings.

Meditation benefits us in many ways. It makes our body strong and healthy. It makes our mind balanced.

Kechari Mudra

When the tongue is folded back and into the cavity toward the skull touching the tip of the tongue to the uvula and eyes fix on the spot between the eyebrows, this is known as  khechari mudra.

khechari mudra
khechari mudra

Now, what means khechari mudra? Word khecari comes from the Sanskrit roots khe, “ether” or “space” and charya, “one who moves.” This “moving in the ether” has a double meaning, as the scripture quotes: the first refers to the fact that the tongue move in the hollow space inside the cavity of the pharynx, and the second refers to the fact that mind remains in a state of complete stillness and inner peace. Khecari mudra is also associated with amrita, the nectar of life can elect which is secreted by the bindu, a point on the posterior fontanel, which is consumed by the throat chakra vishudha. In khechari mudra, you don’t need to cut the  lower tendon of your tongue.

1 – There is no need to cut the “brake”  of  the tongue to perform this technique.

With the right practice and the continuing goal will be achieved without any risk;

2 – Sit in a meditative pose;

3 – Relax your body, close your eyes, directing them to the middle of the eyebrows. Leave your mouth slightly open and slowly lift your tongue back toward the hard palate and then to the empty area of the pharynx. Stay that way for as long as you can without discomfort;

4 – Breathe in slowly through your nose, resting in the sequence.

My yoga teacher said “USE THE POWER OF VISUALIZATION, THAT IS THE KEY TO  khechari mudra”.

Click here to know more about visual Kechari Mudra.

Kriya Yoga

Kriya yoga involves techniques of meditation that cause the energy or Prana to move in certain ways, to awaken the Kundalini, the coiled up energy at the base of the spine. Kriya yoga channelizes the energy forces in the Kundalini instead of merely controlling the mind. It is important that the Kundalini is activated through performance of asanas, practice of pranayama and making a conscious effort to guide this awakened energy in the spine and allowing it to immerse in the crown chakra.

You can do Kriya yoga on your own. You don’t need any teacher or Guru for that.  Only thing you should do the Kriya very slowly and in a very very relax manner. In the beginning don’t do many kriyas on the same day. Progress gradually, slowly and consistently.

The ultimate goal of Kriya yoga for begginers is to attain supreme consciousness through Navi Kriya, Yoni Mudra, Maha Mudra, Spinal breathing and 3rd Eye Meditation; it is a method to prevent fluctuations of the mind. The practice of kriya yoga cleanses and heal the mind and body. It uplifts the consciousness of the seeker. As most people live only on three levels of consciousness – material, egoistic and sensual – kriya yoga opens us to higher levels of consciousness. It teaches the seeker to locate the different centers of the spine and meditate on them, thereby transforming the consciousness.

Kriya Yoga involves concentration techniques to move energy in certain ways for the purpose of awakening dormant forces to be used along the evolutionary path. These forces are somewhat magical in their nature and should only be used by an adept for dharmic purposes, healing or helping others along the spiritual path. Other names by which this yoga is known are Kundalini yoga and Tantra. Knowledge about the energy centers known as Chakras are contained in this realm of yoga. Methods and techniques such as the kriya Yoga are used to move energy from the base of the spine to the mind to attain higher levels of consciousness.
There are five specific steps in kriya yoga.

  • Navi Kriya (or nabhi kriya) is done into Navi chakra in front – location as your navel – and Manipura chakra on your back. Note that manipura chakra is higher than navi chakra.
  • Tilt your head forward to touch your chin and repeat 25 OM just two inch below the navel.Then tilt your head back as comfortably as you can and and repeat 35 OM into manipura chakra.
  • You may perform some navel exercise before doing Kriya Yoga:

Kriya Yoga Naval Exercise

Kriya Yoga Techniques:

1st Kriya:

Nabhi Kriya:

The yogi should mentally slowly chant ‘Om’ 15 times,  concentrating just below the navel.

The yogi should mentally chant ‘Om’ 25 times, concentrating on the back of the navel.

The yogi should mentally chant ‘Om’ 35 times, concentrating at the back of the neck.

2nd Kriya :

The yogi should mentally chant ‘Om’ 15 times, along the imaginary tube of the spine, up and down.

The yogi should mentally chant ‘Om’ 35 times, concentrating on the point between the eyebrows.

3rd Kriya :

Maha Mudra:  Alternatively sit on your one foot, and try to touch your other toe.

4th Kriya:

3rd Eye Meditation: Imagine a circular light in the forehead. Very slowly do pranava japa along the circumference of the circle.  Do this for few minutes and feel the sensations on the forehead and then feel the sensations on whole body.

AH AHA AHOO Meditation in Daily Life

Hold the hands in a very prayerful mood and start a mantra ‘Ah… ah… ah’, loudly, but not very loudly. And move with that ‘Ah… ah… ah’; move with it. Do it for just five to seven minutes not more than that. Just before you go to sleep, sit in your bed and just bring the energy out.

Move very slowly, very gracefully; don’t become violent. That’s why I am saying not more than five or seven minutes, because if you do it more, you will become more and more agitated, and then the prayer will be lost.

After seven days, be in the same posture but change the sound ‘Ah’ to ‘Aha’. That will go still deeper — ‘Aha… aha… aha’. After fifteen days tell me how you are feeling. First ‘Ah’ for seven days, and the ‘Aha’ for seven days. The sound ‘Aha’ can give tremendous grace.

God happens as an ‘Aha’ experience. God is not a proposition but an exclamation. So you start. The energy is going very well. Prayer will be helpful… and this is your prayer, nothing else.

” After five minutes of saying ‘ah!’ then a further five minutes of saying ‘aha!’, add a further five minutes of ‘ahoo!’, saying …

The English language is acquainted with the two — ‘ah!’ and ‘aha!’ ‘Ahoo’ is not part of the English language, but that is the third step in the same series of sounds. It is a state of gratitude, of thanksgiving. ‘Ah’ creates silence, ‘Aha!’ creates joy, and ‘Ahoo’ starts giving thanks and expressing gratitude.

Use the same incense every night. That enters into your bio-memory and it starts triggering things. So just burn the same incense every night, and never bum that incense at other times, otherwise you will lose track. Let it be associated only with this meditation.

Source: ” Dance your way to God, Chapter 18 ” – Osho